Schedule 19
Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill
8:30 pm
Vernon Coaker (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Gedling, Labour)
Schedule 19 makes several amendments to the Police Act 1996 to enable changes to be made to the procedures for dealing with police conduct, efficiency and performance. The schedule also makes equivalent changes to the Ministry of Defence Police Act 1987 for the purposes of the Ministry of Defence police, and to the Railways and Transport Safety Act 2003 for the purposes of the British Transport police. The changes arise out of the recommendations of the Taylor review into disciplinary arrangements, which was published in January 2005. The recommendations are aimed at improving and modernising police disciplinary and performance procedures, and they have received the full support of the Police Advisory Board for England and Wales. Current procedures for dealing with police officer discipline and poor performance issues are set out in the Police (Conduct) Regulations 2004 and the Police (Efficiency) (Amendment) Regulations 1999. New proposed conduct and performance regulations, which are being prepared and are available for viewing, set out the proposed procedures for dealing with discipline and performance issues. The proposed regulations will implement the recommendations of the Taylor review, and they have been prepared with and approved by the Police Advisory Board for England and Wales.
The amendments to the Police Act 1996 in the schedule will permit the Secretary of State to make regulations setting out new procedures. Time limits—this has just arrived in my brain—are covered in draft regulations made under the Bill. They have been consulted on and we will share them with the Committee in due course.