To receive an update from the Council’s representative on matters considered at the last meeting (4 February 2022). 

81.1          Attention was drawn to the report from the Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel, circulated separately, which gave an update on matters discussed at the last meeting of the Panel held on 4 February 2022.

81.2          The Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel advised that the Police and Crime Commissioner had presented the budget – his first since he had come into office in May 2021.  The meeting had been quite fractious as some Members had felt the proposals were not consistent with his manifesto. The Police and Crime Commissioner had indicated this was largely due to the need to address the outcomes of the recent review as a priority.   The results – which had not been known at the time the Police and Crime Commissioner was campaigning – highlighted issues in terms of timescales and consistency in recording public reports of crime, as he had reported to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in November.  The conclusion for Gloucestershire was investment in additional resources for the recording of crime in order to meet the appropriate standards and achieve the 95% target within a certain period.  The Police and Crime Commissioner remained committed to recruiting an additional 300 officers over the course of his tenure and the budget allowed for 58 officers, 76 staff and 87 special constables as well as 15 volunteer police community support officers who would be visible in the community and act as a deterrent.  The Panel had the ability to reject the budget with a two thirds majority; however, following much debate, the Panel had unanimously approved the budget recognising the additional funds being put into the force based on the maximum precept uplift allowed without a referendum.  It was noted that the money coming into the Police force would be a 50/50 split between central government funding and the £10 uplift in the precept.  Gloucestershire had been slightly disadvantaged in terms of the allocation of certain funds, something which the Police and Crime Commissioner continued to lobby on.

81.3          At the last meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, a Member had queried whether the Police and Crime Commissioner was happy that lessons had been learnt from the performance of the force over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to be better prepared for future emergencies.  The Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel had followed this up with the Police and Crime Commissioner and his staff and was advised that the Police had undertaken a review and prepared a 120 page document - based on extensive interviews and surveys with staff, partners and the public - which had captured the positives and negatives from how they had worked during the pandemic.  A Consequences Management Group had been established to embed that learning.  The work had been shared with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary which had praised the document and response.

81.4          A Member noted there had recently been a drive to encourage members of the public to report anti-social behaviour to the police; however, feedback he had received from residents was that the incidents did not warrant a call to 999 but it was taking too long to get through to 111 and the online form was too complicated with too much personal information and detail required.  He asked for these comments to be passed on to the Police and Crime Commissioner so that adequate resources could be put in place when appropriate.  In response, the Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel indicated that he had completed the online form and agreed it was quite complicated so he would be happy to have a conversation with the Police and Crime Commissioner to find out whether it was something which was established centrally or if it could be amended.  In terms of the speed of response, the Police and Crime Commissioner was aware that people were spending too long on the telephone and operational targets had been set for both 999 and 111 as current levels of performance were not acceptable.  The Member went on to indicate that he had not seen any qualitative or quantitative targets so he asked how the Police and Crime Panel would be able to assess performance of the Police and Crime Commissioner if the targets were simply to ‘reduce’.  The Council’s representative explained that the overarching goal was to make Gloucestershire a safer, more law-abiding county.  There was a plethora of data available and the reporting pack produced by the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office captured all sources of information which was difficult to pin down to actual numbers.  There would always be a qualitative nature to the targets as statistics could be misleading, for example, COVID-19 had distorted the figures as a lot of crime had reduced but there had been some particular crimes which had increased dramatically, for instance, bicycle theft.  Notwithstanding this, the Council’s representative was happy to report back to the Panel the need to continue to focus on reporting metrics in terms of performance.  He pointed out that national data was available showing the performance of Gloucestershire compared to other forces and he stressed that it continued to be a safe and law-abiding county overall, albeit with particular issues such as rural crime.

81.5          The Chair thanked the Council’s representative for his update and it was subsequently

RESOLVED           That the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel update be NOTED.