Clause 3 - Police authorities as best value authorities
Police and Justice Bill
12:45 pm
Hazel Blears (Minister of State (Policing, Security and Community Safety), Home Office; Salford, Labour)
I hope I can enlighten the hon. Gentleman on why the Bill is so drafted. I am impressed by the amendments’ simplicity; we are trying to achieve the same end result but there is a caveat: we need to keep some of the framework of best value even though we are disapplying some of its specific requirements.
The amendments would disapply all the best value provisions and reapply an overarching duty to secure continuous improvement, which is what we want, but it would mean that the Audit Commission had no role in inspecting police authorities. It is important to keep the Audit Commission’s expertise in carrying out joint inspections with the new commission for justice and safety which the Bill introduces. The Audit Commission has extensive experience of how local authorities should perform. Under the Bill, as drafted, we can still involve the Audit Commission in some joint inspections. If it were amended along the lines of the hon. Gentleman’s proposal, it would shut out the Audit Commission from being able to play what I regard as a constructive role, especially given some of the work that I have seen it carry out. I would not want to lose the benefit of its expertise. I reassure the hon. Gentleman that we want to achieve the same as he and not bind police authorities with the bureaucracy of best value inspections.
We could save about £0.5 million throughout the service if we did not have such a system, but it is important that there is an overarching duty to secure continuous improvement and value for money from our investment in policing. Members of the Committee will know that, in the past five or six years, we have increased investment in policing by about 50 per cent. That is significant, and it is incumbent on all of us to make sure that we get best value. Even though my drafting is perhaps not as elegant as his, I hope that the hon. Gentleman understands why I want the provision to remain as drafted. I ask him to withdraw his amendment.