Agenda item

To receive feedback from the last meeting of the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel.  

59.1           Members received an update from Councillor R E Garnham, the Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel, on matters discussed at the last meeting of the Panel held on 5 November 2015.

59.2           Councillor Garnham advised that the meeting had opened with a tribute being paid to Graham Robinson, a former Independent Member of the Panel, who had recently passed away.  The main Agenda items had been an extended Chief Executive’s report and the Police and Crime Plan Highlight Report which the Panel had requested be provided by the Police and Crime Commissioner.

59.3           The Chief Executive’s report had focused on two recent Constabulary Inspections that had been undertaken by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC) and Her Majesty’s Inspection of Prisons (HMIP).  The first report had covered efficiency and had given the Constabulary an overall rating of ‘good’ and stated that the force was “very well prepared to face its future financial challenges”.  The Constabulary had also been commended for producing a balanced budget and for having a “good understanding of the likely financial position through to 2018/19”.  The second inspection was a joint inspection of the new Custody Centre at Waterwells by HMIC and HMIP.  The main item reported was that the Police and Crime Commissioner, and the Police Chief Officer Group, should work with Gloucestershire County Council and youth services to ensure that young people were not unnecessarily detained in Police cells.  One Member had noted that there were 74 instances of Police cells being used as a ‘place of safety’ for people detained under the Mental Health Act.  Additional work had followed on this matter since the Police and Crime Panel meeting and both Councillor Garnham and Councillor Ian Dobie, Chairman of Health Scrutiny at Gloucestershire County Council, had visited the Custody Suite on 26 November which had prompted further work.  The Chief Executive’s report had continued to discuss consultation on greater co-operation between ‘blue light’ services and also the arrangements for the Police and Crime Commissioner elections in May 2016.  The Chief Executive had highlighted that the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office must conduct its business in relation to the election with complete fairness and transparency, whilst still continuing to support the Commissioner in his normal role.

59.4           The Panel had welcomed the Police and Crime Plan Priorities Quarterly Highlight Report which was 31 pages long but gave scope for many questions to be asked regarding current performance.  There were two questions of particular interest, the first of which related to how the Commissioner satisfied himself with regards to outcomes from the projects and details had subsequently been provided about the arrangements in place, for instance, a funding panel that looked at the bids and evaluated them against criteria that included relevance to the plan, value for money and sustainability etc.  The second question had related to the increase in the abandoned call rate in relation to 101 calls.  The Panel had been informed that there had been some technical issues with the ICT system which had led to some calls being lost but there would be ongoing work to improve the service.

59.5           The Panel had also received a more comprehensive financial report, compared to previous Panel meetings, which showed that revenue account was forecasting an underspend of £0.092M; reserves were forecast to be at £22.794M at 31 March 2016; and the capital programme had a forecast spend of £7.237M in the current financial year.  At present there remained £8M of uncommitted reserves in the revenue support reserve fund and £6.187M in the general reserve.  The Panel had noted that the Police and Crime Commissioner had been consulting on a possible 2% precept increase for the 2016/17 budget on the basis of cuts of between 25% and 45%.

59.6           A presentation had been received from Phil Sullivan, the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Lead on the ‘Older but not Overlooked’ priority.  The report had covered rural isolation, fear of crime, Police Community Support Officers, and the use of Village Agents, amongst other matters.  He had also highlighted how funding from the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office could often be match funded under this particular priority.  It was noted that the next meeting of the Police and Crime Panel would be held on 18 January 2016 and would be an additional meeting to consider any early papers regarding budget setting in February.

59.7           A Member understood that the Police and Crime Commissioner had committed to protect funding for the Police.  In response, Councillor Garnham explained that, whilst funding was being protected, the Police and Crime Commissioner had indicated that it would be necessary to increase the precept by 2% in order to guarantee a standstill position.  Another Member had heard a radio report regarding the precept during which the interviewer had stated that a 2% increase would be enough to employ an additional 20 Police Officers; he queried whether that was where the money was intended to be spent.  Although he did not know for sure, Councillor Garnham advised that it was unlikely to be that straightforward as there were a number of other demands.

59.8           A Member questioned what advice should be given to people who called the 101 number but were subsequently ‘lost in the system’ and Councillor Garnham advised that, if it was an emergency, they should ring 999.  He tended to test out the 101 system if he needed to contact a Police Officer and encouraged other Members to do the same.  A Member indicated that she had used the 101 service recently and had found it to be very efficient.  The Chief Executive took the opportunity to remind Members that an email had recently been circulated to Members via Democratic Services providing an operational telephone number for the Police; he stressed that this was not for use by members of the public but Members could use it during office hours if they needed to contact the Police.

59.9           A Member stated that there were community safety related schemes in Tewkesbury Borough that had received funding from the Police and Crime Commissioner’s fund which had been granted over a three year period running until 2017.  As such, he questioned what would happen to the funding that had already been pledged should the Police and Crime Commissioner change as a result of the May elections.  The Council’s representative understood that the intention was that those items would continue to be funded but he undertook to seek a response from the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office. 

59.10         The Chairman thanked the Council’s representative for his presentation and indicated that the update would be circulated to Members via email following the meeting.  It was

RESOLVED          That the feedback from the last meeting of the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel be NOTED.