Agenda and minutes

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any disclosable pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest which they have in any item of business on the agenda no later than when the item is reached.

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive questions from members of the public in accordance with governance procedure rule 14.  A total period of 15 minutes will be allocated for members of the public to speak at Panel meetings.  Each member of the public shall be limited to a period of up to 5 minutes speaking.

Members of the public may speak on any matter relating to the work of the Panel. During public speaking time, members of the public may ask questions of the Panel and the Chairman, in responding to the question, may answer the question, may decline to do so, may agree to reply at a later date or may refer the question to an appropriate person or body.

Questions will be asked and answered without discussion.  In order for officers to undertake any background research, members of the public who wish to ask a question at a Panel meeting should submit the question at least a day before the meeting.

Members of the public are able to put questions direct to Cheshire’s Police and Crime Panel via social media platform Twitter.

The Cheshire Police and Crime Panels’ Twitter account @CheshirePCP

There were no members of the public present, wishing to use the public speaking facility.

The Chairman reported that there had been two questions submitted by members of the public. It was not appropriate for the Panel to respond to one of the questions and the other related to the complaints process. The Chairman stated that he would take questions of clarification from Panel members in respect of this issue, but would not take questions regarding the details of the complaints.

Suzanne Antrobus, Deputy Monitoring Officer (DMO) for Cheshire East Council, who was dealing with the complaints, was present at the meeting and provided an update in respect of the complaints received. There had been six in total and four of these covered broadly into the same matter. She had been liaising with an outside organisation, to see if the Panel could proceed with them and the position had now been reached where they could be progressed. The other two were at the start of the process, the reason for this being that clarification was being sought from the complainant, to assist them and the Panel. Her role was to compare the complaint with the code of conduct and to get further information. With regard to the last complaint, she had been trying to bring together information for the Chairman, as it had a long history and she had needed to ascertain what was relevant. It would now be necessary to bring all the complaints together into a report for the Chairman, Monitoring Officer and Head of Governance and Democratic Services to consider and there was certain criteria to go through. She thanked Panel members for their patience.  It was noted that the complaints could be considered by the Chairman or by a Sub-committee, however, there was not any guidance in the Panel’s procedures as to where the complaints should be dealt with. She reported that she had been keeping the complainants as well informed as possible.

Following the update, the Chairman stated that he was happy to act as a filter for the complaints, along with the DMO and Head of Governance and Democratic Services, but for transparency he would like a Sub-committee to be formed to consider anything further than this.

The DMO reported that procedures stated that the Sub- committee should be made up of the Chairman, Deputy Chairman and an independent co-opted person. The Chairman proposed that another member should also be included and it was agreed that this should be a Labour member, excluding Warrington Members.

RESOLVED

That a sub-committee be established to consider the submitted complaints, to comprise the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of the Panel and an independent co-opted member of the Panel, with representation from one of the Labour Members of the Panel, excluding Warrington Members, subject to availability.

To receive a report providing feedback from the sixth national conference for Police and Crime Panels.

Mr Bob Fousert had attended the sixth national Conference for Police & Crime Panels on 6 November 2017, at the Warwick Conference Centre, on behalf of the Panel and provided an update to the Panel.

His initial observations had been that some panels had sent as many as eight delegates and, as such, were able to attend many of the workshops, when he had only been able to attend one of three.

From networking throughout the day, he had felt that it was clear that Cheshire PCP was well ahead of many other Panels in terms of the use of webcasting, social media, number and types of meetings held and the recent move to rotating meeting locations around the county.

RESOLVED

That the report be noted. 

In considering the options, the Panel did not consider it necessary to place limitations on the time taken by the Commissioner to answer questions, or to change its Procedure Rules, as the Chairman already had powers to use his discretion, and it was considered sensible to continue with the current approach of relying on the Chairman’s discretion.

RESOLVED

That the report be received and no further action be taken.

The Commissioner was welcomed to the meeting.

1.     Councillor Paul Findlow asked the Commissioner for an update on the most significant and material issues that had arisen since the last time the Commissioner had met with the Panel. He particularly requested an update on the suspension of the Chief Constable and the interim arrangements that had been put in place in response to the suspension. The Commissioner indicated that having received legal advice he was unable to comment in any way on the suspension of the Chief Constable. Following a discussion with the Chairman, the Commissioner agreed, that upon receipt of a request in writing, he would he would seek further legal advice on this issue and respond to the Panel in writing.

2.    Having received an assurance that the situation in relation to the Chief Constable would be clarified in writing, the Chairman asked the Commissioner to focus on the other key issues that had arisen over the previous few months The Commissioner responded by indicating that much of his time had been taken with budgetary matters. He had been concerned that the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s budget in November had made no reference to Policing. However, he did indicate that he had met with Nick Hurd MP, Minister of State for Policing and the Fire Service and applauded the Minister for the consultation that he was undertaking with Police and Crime Commissioners. Information about the central Government funding available for 2018/19 was likely to be announced in the Autumn Statement, expected before Christmas.

3.     The Vice Chairman asked the Commissioner if he thought his membership of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, at an annual cost of £23,700, provided good value for money.  The Commissioner responded by saying that he though it did, but offered to go into the issue in more detail at a future informal meeting with Panel members.

4.     Returning to the subject of the key issues, the Commissioner had addressed over the proceeding few months, Councillor Robert Bisset asked the Commissioner to briefly update the Panel. Noting that crime was on the increase, but that funding was reducing, the Commissioner particularly highlighted concerns over organised crime, modern slavery and cyber crime. He noted that some of his fellow Police and Crime Commissioners elsewhere in the country had indicated that they would cease to fund PCSOs, but that he was committed to what he saw as an important role continuing in Cheshire.

5.     The Chairman followed up the issue of PCSOs by asking the Commissioner for the outcome of the comprehensive consultation exercise which had been ongoing for some time and sought clarity over the cost to partner organisations of funding PCSOs. The Commissioner responded by saying that the overall cost of funding a individual PCSO had not increased and that he was committed to equality of provision across Cheshire, with each community having a PCSO at no cost to a town or parish council. The Chairman sought clarity over how PCSOs would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 100.

To consider the Work Programme.

Consideration was given to the Work Programme.

It had been agreed at the reconvened meeting of the Panel, which had taken place earlier in the morning, that an additional formal meeting of the Panel should take place on 10 January 2018, the date scheduled for the next informal meeting of the Panel

It was agreed that an item relating to crime data should be included for consideration at the 10 January meeting.  It was suggested that the Acting Chief Constable should be invited to attend the meeting, or the following meeting, subject to her availability.

On the issue of data, it was noted that Cheshire Police had published the Community Safety Strategic Needs Assessment, which gave a total analysis of crime and priorities and how this was used to shape the Police Commissioner’s delivery plan. It was suggested that this should be looked at more closely and it was agreed that it should form the basis of a report for consideration at the next meeting, to enable a comparison with the statistics in the Crime Plan and budget for 2018/19.

It was noted that a meeting of the Scrutiny Board had taken place in August. The minutes of the meeting would be included on the agenda for next formal meeting of the Panel on 10 January 2018.

RESOLVED

1.     That the Community Safety Strategic Needs Assessment form the basis of a report for submission to the next meeting of the Panel, to enable a comparison with the statistics in the Crime Plan and budget for 2018/19.

2.     That the Acting Chief Constable be invited to attend one of the next two formal meetings of the Panel, subject to her availability.

To note that the next meeting will take place on Friday 2 February 2018, at 10am, at Wyvern House, the Drumber, Winsford.

The next meeting would take place on Wednesday 10 January 2017, at 10am. (Note – Subsequently changed to 2pm).