Clause 80 - President of ACPO
Police Reform Bill [Lords]
11:15 am
Mr John Denham (Minister of State (Police, Courts and Drugs), Home Office; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
The underlying policy is to enable the creation of a full-time presidency of ACPO, because it is becoming increasingly demanding for someone to
act as chief constable of a force and as the professional leader of the whole police service. We were first persuaded of the need to create a full-time presidency of ACPO. Then the organisation persuaded us that the person who acts, in effect, as the leader all chief constables would need to have the same professional status. There are some additional functions that go with the presidency, such as activities related to the work of the police national co-ordinating centre, which come into play to deal with floods and similar events. ACPO argued that in those situations where there is something of an operational crossover, it would be necessary for the person in office to be a chief constable, and because otherwise they would have to forego that office when they left the force to become full-time president.