Clause 13 - Direction and control matters
Police Reform Bill [Lords]
4:45 pm
Mr Norman Baker (Lewes, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move amendment No. 9, in page 13, line 9, at end insert—
'(4) All police authorities, in carrying out their duties with respect to the maintenance of an efficient and effective police force, and all inspectors of constabulary, in carrying out their duties with respect to the efficiency and effectiveness of police forces, shall keep themselves informed as to the working of this section.'.
As we have heard, the clause is about handling complaints relating to direction and control matters, which are of course outside the scope of the IPCC. Section 77 of the Police Act 1996 requires police authorities as part of their duty to maintain
''an efficient and effective police force'',
and says that they should
''keep themselves informed as to the working''
of complaints procedures. That, of course, will be repealed along with the rest of the 1996 Act's complaints provisions, and will be replaced with part 2.
Although the clause contains a similar provision to section 77 of the 1996 Act, it does not go far enough in tying police authority oversight of complaints to efficiency and effectiveness, and it therefore gives
those authorities insufficient scope to act if things go wrong. The purpose of the amendment is to try to get the Government to recognise that. Issues relating to complaints and direction and control go to the heart of the efficiency and effectiveness of the force. Police authorities have responsibilities in those regards.
The Under-Secretary will be aware that the issue was raised in the House of Lords. I have looked at the Hansard of that debate; my colleagues in the other place were not happy with the response that was given, and we are therefore having a second bite of the cherry by raising the matter again this afternoon. I hope that the Under-Secretary will be able to accept the spirit of the amendment. He may well feel that there is an alternative way of dealing with the matter, but the point about tying in police authorities to that aspect is important, and needs greater clarification than that provided in the Bill.