Schedule 2 - The Independent Police Complaints Commission
Police Reform Bill [Lords]
11:15 am
Mr Bob Ainsworth (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Coventry North East, Labour)
I agree that the IPCC must be independent. Nevertheless, let me try to persuade hon. Members why the amendments are unhelpful.
It is essential that the Secretary of State is able to appoint the first chief executive of the commission. I hope that the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire accepts that that is common practice for newly-established non-departmental public bodies. The chief executive will need to be in post well before the commission is formally established to take forward the work of appointing staff, finding accommodation, establishing management and operating procedures and managing the transition from the current Police Complaints Authority. The alternative would be for the Home Office to undertake that work and then hand responsibility over to the chief executive when he or she is appointed, but that approach would be less satisfactory. The first chief executive should be heavily
involved in setting up the body, along with the chairman, who should be in post before the commission comes into existence.