Other Provisions Relating to Policing and Crime and Disorder
Section 77: The strategic policing requirement
219.Section 77 replaces provision in the Police Act 1996 for the Secretary of State to issue strategic priorities with provision requiring the Secretary of State to issue a Strategic Policing Requirement. That is, a document setting out national threats and the national policing capabilities required to counter them. Elected local policing bodies will have to have regard to the document when preparing their police and crime plans (sections 5 and 6). Chief constables and the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis are required to have regard to the document in discharging their functions, and they will be held to account by their local policing body for doing so (sections 1 and 3).
Section 78: General duty of Secretary of State
220.Section 78 requires the Secretary of State to use the powers conferred by this Part of the Act in a way that promotes the efficiency and effectiveness of the police.
Section 79: Policing Protocol
221.Section 79 requires the Secretary of State to issue a policing protocol.
222.Subsection (2) provides that all relevant persons must have regard to the protocol when discharging their functions – “relevant persons” are defined for these purposes in subsection (6) as the Secretary of State when exercising policing functions, elected local policing bodies, chief officers of police, and police and crime panels.
223.Subsection (3) provides that the Secretary of State may at any time vary or replace the protocol.
224.Subsection (4) sets out the duty on the Secretary of State to consult with those who represent the views of elected local policing bodies; those who represent the views of chief police officers of forces maintained by elected local policing bodies; those who represent the views of police and crime panels; and any other persons that the Secretary of state thinks fit, before varying or replacing the protocol.
225.Subsection (5) sets out that the Secretary of State may exercise her functions under subsection (1) and (3) by order.
226.Subsection (6) sets out the definition of a police and crime panel, the protocol, and relevant persons, for the purposes of this section.
Section 80: Obtaining advice from representative bodies
227.Section 80 makes provisions for the Secretary of State to seek advice on police and policing matters from a representative body (a body which the Secretary of State considers to represent the professional views of members of the police force) and within a specified period of time. If the advice is given, the Secretary of State must have regard to such advice.
Section 81: Abolition of certain powers of Secretary of State
228.Section 81 abolishes the Secretary of State’s power to set performance targets for police strategic priorities and to require police authorities to issue reports. The Secretary of State’s power to issue codes of practice to which police authorities must have regard is replaced with a power to issue codes for elected local policing bodies in relation to financial matters
Section 82: Suspension and removal of senior police officers
229.Section 82 amends the Police Act 1996 with the effect that the Secretary of State’s existing power to require a police authority to use its power to suspend a chief officer or calling upon a chief officer to resign or retire is only exercisable in respect of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime. The Secretary of State does not have power to direct a police and crime commissioner to suspend or remove a chief constable. The section also amends section 50 of the Police Act 1996, which confers a general power on the Secretary of State to make regulations in relation to the administration of police forces, in order to allow regulations to be made under that section in relation to the suspension and removal of senior police officers. The separate power to make such regulations under section 42A of the Police Act 1996 is repealed – the amendment does not extend the powers of the Secretary of State but merely places them in a single section for ease of reference.
Section 83: Functions of HMIC
230.Section 83 amends section 54 of the Police Act 1996 (appointment and functions of inspectors of constabulary).
231.Subsection (2) removes reference to the inspectors of constabulary reporting specifically to the Secretary of State.
232.Subsection (3) repeals the provision for the inspection of police authorities, without replacing it with similar provision in relation to local policing authorities.
233.Subsection (4) supplements the power of the Secretary of State to require the inspectors to inspect a particular police force by giving a local policing body the power to request an inspection of their police force. The inspectors may levy charges in respect of such an inspection.
234.Subsection (7) provides for the annual report prepared by the inspectors to include an assessment of the efficiency and effectiveness of policing in England and Wales for the year in which the report is prepared.
Section 84: HMIC reports: publication
235.Section 84 amends section 55 of the Police Act 1996 (publication of reports).
236.Subsection (2) removes the requirement on the Secretary of State to publish any report received under section 54 of the Police Act 1996 and instead requires the inspectors of constabulary to arrange publication of any report that they prepare under section 54 of the Police Act 1996.
237.Subsection (3) requires the inspectors to exclude from publication information that may be against the interest of national security or jeopardise the safety of any person, but such information must be disclosed to the Secretary of State.
238.Subsection (4) requires the inspectors of constabulary (and not the Secretary of State) to send a copy of the report to the police and crime commissioner, the chief officer and the police and crime panel established by this Act.
Section 85: Inspection programmes and frameworks
239.Section 85 amends paragraph 2 of Schedule 4A to the Police Act 1996 (inspection programmes and inspection frameworks).
240.Subsection (2) removes the power of the Secretary of State to direct by order the time when the inspectors of constabulary should prepare an inspection programme.
241.Subsection (4) provides for the chief inspector of constabulary (rather than the Secretary of State) to lay before Parliament, publish and distribute the inspection framework and programme. It also provides for the chief inspector to obtain the Secretary of State’s approval of the inspection framework and programme.
242.Subsection (7) gives the Secretary of State the power to specify by order matters to which the chief inspector must have regard in preparing the inspection framework and programme, including the need to ensure that inspections do not impose an undue burden on police forces, and that inspections address policing issues of national importance.
Section 86: Powers in connection with HMIC inspections
243.Section 86 further amends Schedule 4A to the Police Act 1996 by creating new rights of access to police information and premises for the inspectors of constabulary and their staff. The rights of access are based on those of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Section 87: HMIC and freedom of information
244.Section 87 makes the chief inspector of constabulary (and thus the inspectors) subject to the duties under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to confirm that requested information is held, and to provide it.
Section 88: Crime and disorder strategies
245.Section 88 introduces Schedule 11.
Schedule 11: Crime and disorder strategies
246.Schedule 11 amends the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.
247.Paragraph 2 amends section 5(1) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (responsible authorities for strategies) which lists the authorities responsible, together, for formulating and implementing strategies in relation to reducing crime and disorder etc. When exercising these functions together, the responsible authorities are known collectively as a Community Safety Partnership. The paragraph removes the references to police authorities from section 5, without replacing them with references to police and crime commissioners. Police and Crime commissioners will not be members of Community Safety Partnerships.
248.Paragraphs 2 and 3 amend those provisions in section 5 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 dealing with mergers of Community Safety Partnerships in England. These provisions apply only in relation to local government areas in England and currently the power to merge rests with the Secretary of State. These paragraphs provide instead for the mergers to take place by agreement between the responsible authorities and police and crime commissioner. The Secretary of State will retain a role in agreeing to mergers which involve more than one police area (see the new section 5A(5) inserted by paragraph 3).
249.Paragraph 4 amends section 6 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (formulation and implementation of strategies). The amendments allow regulations to confer functions on a police and crime commissioner in England in relation to strategies for any local government area that lies in their force area. This includes provision for the commissioner to arrange meetings to assist development and implementation of strategies; being chair of any such meetings; and being able to specify attendees which may include representatives of the responsible authorities comprising a Community Safety Partnership in their force area.
250.Paragraph 5 amends section 7 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (supplemental). Section 7 makes provisions for the Secretary of State to require the responsible authorities comprising a Community and Safety Partnership to submit a report on any matter relating to the exercise of their functions, apart from devolved Welsh functions. This power is transferred to the relevant policing body (which will be the police and crime commissioner for police areas outside of London). The power must be exercised in a reasonable and proportionate manner, and only where the relevant policing body is not satisfied the responsible authorities within a Community and Safety Partnership are performing their functions adequately.
Section 89: Collaboration agreements
251.Section 89 amends the provisions in the Police Act 1996 concerning collaboration agreements. These provisions (and those in Schedule 12) use the term “policing bodies” to refer to police and crime commissioners, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and the police authorities for the British Transport Police and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.
252.Subsection (2) inserts new sections creating duties on chief officers to enter into collaboration agreements in certain circumstances. They require them to keep under consideration arrangements for potential collaboration agreements, to notify the prospective partners about arrangements being considered and for these parties to consider whether these would be in the interest of the efficiency or effectiveness of one or more police forces.
253.Subsection (3) inserts a further section in the Police Act 1996 creating a power for the Secretary of State to specify, by order, policing functions which must be exercised by means of one or more collaboration agreements. The intention is to require police forces to collaborate in relation to matters of regional or national importance such as counter-terrorism and combating serious organised crime.
Schedule 12: Collaboration agreements
254.Schedule 12 makes additional provision in relation to collaboration agreements, by amending the existing provisions in the Police Act 1996.
255.The Schedule amends sections 23 to 23I of the Police Act 1996 in order to replace the separate arrangements for “police force collaboration agreements” and “police authority collaboration agreements” with general provisions for collaboration agreements which may be made by chief officers and policing bodies either separately or together, and may include other bodies. It also inserts provision requiring chief officers and policing bodies considering making collaboration agreements to consider their existing collaboration agreements, the need to take a consistent approach in making those arrangements, and the other opportunities to collaborate that may be available.
Section 90: Police powers for civilian employees under collaboration agreements
256.Section 90 introduces Schedule 13.
Schedule 13: Police powers for civilian employees under collaboration agreements
257.Schedule 13 amends various enactments in order to allow civilian staff designated by one police force as having police powers to exercise those powers in the area of another police force, where this is in furtherance of a collaboration agreement.
258.Paragraph 1 inserts a new section in the Police Act 1996 requiring a collaboration agreement which contains provision about the discharge of functions by designated civilian employees of one police force in the area of another police force to specify the functions that they are permitted to discharge and any restrictions or conditions that may apply.
259.Paragraphs 2 to 5 amend the Police Reform Act 2002 to provide for a procedure by which a chief officer may make a collaboration designation, by which a civilian employee designated by the chief officer of another force as having police powers may exercise those powers in the police area of the chief officer making the collaboration designation. The collaboration designation must be consistent with the provision in the collaboration agreement specifying the functions that may be discharged and imposing any limitations or conditions.
Section 91: Power to give directions
260.Section 91 ensures that the powers of the Secretary of State to give directions to failing police forces or police authorities continue to apply in relation to police forces and police and crime commissioners.
Section 92: Provision of information by chief officers of police
261.Section 92 ensures that the Secretary of State can continue to collect and publish, or have published, information relating to the policing of an area directly from a chief officer of police. This may include statistical or other information relating to policing, crime and disorder.
Section 93: Regulations about provision of equipment
262.Section 93 amends section 53 of the Police Act 1996 by extending the power of the Secretary of State to make regulations as to police equipment so that regulations can make provision for arrangements by which equipment must or may be procured.
Section 94: National and international functions
263.Section 94 amends section 96A of the Police Act 1996 so as to extend the provisions regarding the Home Secretary’s powers with respect to national and international functions of police forces. These powers previously apply only to the Metropolitan Police Service, but are amended so as to apply to all local policing bodies. Paragraph 7 repeals section 96B of the Police Act 1996.
Section 95: Police: Complaints
264.Section 95 introduces Schedule 14.
Schedule 14: Police: Complaints
265.Schedule 14 amends Part 2 and Schedule 3 to the Police Reform Act 2002. Part 2 sets out the role and functions of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and the handling of complaints and other matters which are dealt with in accordance with the Act. Schedule 3 makes provision about the handling and investigation of: (a) complaints about the conduct of a person serving with the police (“a complaint”), (b) matters which are not subject of a complaint but where there is an indication that a person serving with the police may have committed a criminal offence or behaved in a manner which would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings (“a conduct matter”), and (c) cases which are not the subject of a complaint and which are not a conduct matter but where a person who was, broadly, in the care of the police has died or sustained serious injury (“a DSI matter”). The full definitions of these terms appear in section 12 of the Police Reform Act 2002.
266.Paragraph 2 of Schedule 14 amends section 9(2) (b) of Part 2 of the Police Reform Act to reduce the minimum number of Commissioners required in the IPCC from 10 Commissioners to 5.
267.Paragraph 3 amends paragraph 10 of Schedule 2 to the Police Reform Act 2002 to remove the requirement for the IPCC to gain the consent of the Secretary of State for the delegation of Commission functions.
268.Paragraph 4 removes section 14 of Part 2, which excluded complaints relating to the direction and control of a police force by or on behalf of the chief officer from the operation of Schedule 3 of the Police Reform Act. There is now a single regime for all complaints about the quality of service provided by the police, regardless of the whether they concern direction and control.
269.Paragraph 5 amends section 29(1) of Part 2 to provide that the definition of “conduct” in relation to the making of complaints includes “decisions” made by a person serving with the police. The paragraph also amends paragraph 4 of Schedule 7 to the Police Reform Act with the effect that the appropriate authority (the body responsible for handling a complaint) requires the IPCC’s permission to refer a complaint concerning direction and control to the IPCC, where it is not otherwise required to refer it.
270.Paragraph 6 amends section 10 of Part 2 to remove the exclusion of the IPCC having any function in relation to complaints relating to the direction and control of a police force.
271.Paragraph 7 amends section 15 of Part 2 providing a new power for the local policing body to direct a chief officer to take such steps as the local poling body thinks appropriate if the chief officer of police has not complied with an obligation in the handling of a complaint.
272.Paragraph 8 amends paragraph 2 of Schedule 3 to the Police Reform Act 2002 to provide for complaints made directly to the IPCC to be notified to the appropriate authority unless the IPCC considers it inappropriate to do so. The new paragraph 2(8) permits complaints not to be recorded if the complaint falls within a description of complaints (such as vexatious complaints) specified in Regulations.
273.Paragraph 9 replaces paragraph 6 of Schedule 3. This paragraph deals with the local handling of complaints which have been recorded by the appropriate authority and are not required to be referred to the IPCC or which have been referred to the IPCC and have been referred back to the appropriate authority to deal with. The appropriate authority is required to determine if the complaint is suitable to be dealt with locally, and if so, is required to make arrangements for the complaint to be formally investigated. A complaint may not be locally resolved if the conduct complained of (if proven) would justify the bringing of criminal or disciplinary proceedings or would involve the infringement of a person’s rights under Article 2 or 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to life and the prohibition on torture).
274.Paragraph 10 amends paragraph 7 of Schedule 3 to allow the appropriate authority to disapply the provisions of the Schedule in relation to a complaint without the requirement to apply to the IPCC, unless the complaint is one which has previously been referred to the IPCC irrespective of whether the complaint was referred back. In such cases the permission of the IPCC is required to dispense with the complaint. The appropriate authority is obliged to inform the complainant if it decides to disapply the provisions of Schedule 3, or to ask the IPCC for permission to do so.
275.Paragraph 11 amends paragraph 10 of Schedule 3 to require the appropriate authority to record any conduct matter arising in civil proceedings if it is one that must be referred to the IPCC, or it is not of a description specified in regulations. If the complaint does not have to be referred to the IPCC, and is of a description specified in regulations, the appropriate authority may still record it at its discretion.
276.Paragraph 12 amends paragraph 11 of Schedule 3 to similar effect to the amendments to paragraph 10 of that Schedule described above.
277.Paragraph 13 amends paragraph 21 of Schedule 3 to provide for the IPCC to require the discontinuance of an investigation if it appears that the complaint or matter is of a description specified in regulations. An appropriate authority may discontinue an investigation providing the complaint or matter was not one which was required to be referred to the IPCC. Where a complaint or matter is discontinued, the appropriate authority is required to notify the complainant and any person entitled to be kept properly informed about the handling of the complaint.
278.Paragraph 14 amends paragraphs 23, 24, 25 and 27 of Schedule 3 to include consideration of whether the performance of a person whose conduct was subject of a complaint was satisfactory or not. The amendment to paragraph 27 provides for the IPCC to be able to recommend and ultimately direct that proceedings for unsatisfactory performance are brought against a person serving with the police.
279.Paragraphs 15 and 16 add new paragraphs 3A, 3B and 3C to Schedule 3 to provide that there is no right of appeal against the non recording of a complaint if the appropriate authority is not required to record it, or the matter relates to the direction and control of a force and the appeal relates to a failure by the local policing body.
280.Paragraph 17 amends paragraph 7 of Schedule 3 by adding a new sub-paragraph (8) to provide that an appeal against the decision to disapply the provisions of the Schedule will be made to ‘the relevant appeal body’ which will be either the Chief Officer or the IPCC. The amendment also secures that there is no right of appeal in a case where the IPCC gave the appropriate authority permission to disapply the provisions of Schedule 3, or where the complaint relates to direction and control.
281.Paragraph 18 amends paragraph 9 of Schedule 3 to provide that an appeal against the outcome of a complaint that is subject of local resolution or handled otherwise than in accordance with the procedures in Schedule 3 will be made to ‘the relevant appeal body’. There is no right of appeal if the complaint relates to the direction and control of the force.
282.Paragraph 19 amends paragraph 21 of Schedule 3 to provide that an appeal against the decision to discontinue an investigation of the complaint will be made to ‘the relevant appeal body’. There is no right of appeal if the complaint relates to the direction and control of the force.
283.Paragraph 20 amends paragraph 25 of Schedule 3 to provide that an appeal with respect to an investigation will be made to ‘the relevant appeal body’. There is no right of appeal if the complaint relates to the direction and control of the force.
284.Paragraph 21 adds a definition of ‘direction and control’ to paragraph 29 of Schedule 3.
285.Paragraph 22 inserts new paragraph 30 into Schedule 3 to define who the ‘relevant appeal body’ is in respect of appeals dealt with under Schedule 3 of the Police Reform Act. The IPCC is the ‘relevant appeal body’ for complaints of a description specified in regulations – in any other case; the chief officer is the relevant appeal body. Paragraphs 31 and 32 provide that where an appeal is submitted to the wrong ‘relevant appeal body’ then the appeal will be forwarded to the ‘relevant appeal body’ and the person making the appeal will be notified that the appeal has been forwarded to the ‘relevant appeal body’.
