Schedule 1 - Powers of the Secretary of State in relation to NCIS and NCS
Police Reform Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Mr John Denham (Minister of State (Police, Courts and Drugs), Home Office; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
It would not be fair to pretend that we could go back to the time of a previous Administration. Given the rudimentary system of performance measurement that existed in the past—which we are currently working to overhaul—it would be inappropriate to say that, in a particular circumstance, the power should have been used against a named force or part of a named force.
Clearly, there are wide variations in the performance of the police service from one part of the country to another even when allowance is made for the different social demographic nature of an area—as has been confirmed by the Audit Commission. Those differences are difficult to explain in any other way than suggesting variations in police performance. Against that background, because we have a more determined drive to bring the standard of forces up to the best and want a
sharper focus on poor performance wherever it exists, ultimately, we need the power to take action if all else fails. That is what the measure proposes.
In the past, it may have been thought that Governments should not concern themselves with the overall performance of police forces or variations in performances. We definitely believe that the Government should be concerned, because, at the end of the day, the public look to the Government—as well as the police service itself and the police authorities—to deal with problems of poor performance.
The power to direct chief officers will give the Home Secretary the power to require the chief officer to prepare and submit an action plan setting out the remedial action to be taken to correct under-performance. Directions under the new clause and plans produced by chief officers can cover only those matters for which the chief officer is properly responsible. I reiterate that the power to direct chief officers is intended as a power of last resort. The amendments that we first introduced in another place, and which have been incorporated in the Government amendments, make that clear. They contain significant safeguards against the inappropriate use of such powers—safeguards that were implicitly rejected by the other place. A clearly defined procedure has been set out that includes the chief officer and the police authority, at each stage of the process, specifically addressing the concerns expressed at Committee stage in the other place.