Agenda item

The Police and Crime Panel considered a report of the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) which provided an update on the recent HMIC Inspection of Leicestershire Police. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 5’, is filed with these minutes.

The Chairman welcomed Chief Constable Simon Cole to the meeting for this and other items.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)        An Action Plan had been put in place to address the issues raised by HMIC in their report. The actions of the Force in response to the HMIC report would be held to account by the PCC at the Strategic Assurance Board. The PCC was of the view that some of the criticism of Leicestershire Police in the HMIC report was unjustified and that HMIC had not given sufficient credit for the good work that Leicestershire Police carried out particularly with Neighbourhood Policing. Leicestershire Police were in discussions with HMIC to gain further understanding of some of the areas for improvement identified in their report and in particular regarding the service to victims.

(ii)       HMIC would be carrying out a further inspection of Police effectiveness in 2017 which may not give enough time for the results of the Action Plan to become evident. It was the view of the Chief Constable that HMIC inspections should take place in alternate years to give time for areas for improvement to be addressed and he had written to the Chief HMI expressing this view.

(iii)      Whilst HMIC were of the view that effective risk assessments were carried out whilst the Police were at the scene of an incident, they had concerns that at other times risk was not assessed appropriately, for example when reports of domestic abuse were graded as not requiring an immediate response. The Panel were reassured that the risk assessment process had now changed so that all assessments had to be signed off by an officer at Inspector level.

(iv)      Clarification was given that the figures for England and Wales given on page 5 of the HMIC report (page 21 of the agenda pack) were an average per 1,000 population.

(v)       With regard to issues identified by HMIC around the control room response and advice given to callers, the Panel were informed that this was partly due to the pressure of the workload in the control room and partly due to training issues. New staff were paired together with more experienced staff on a workstation which, although it meant they could share experience with the new staff member, also meant they were not available to answer separate calls.

(vi)      With regard to the statement of the PCC in a media release of 3 March in which the PCC stated that he intended to lobby for a fairer funding deal for Leicestershire Police, discussion took place on the best way for the Panel to support and scrutinise the PCC on this topic. The Panel felt it would be of benefit to receive a report at a future meeting on progress towards resolving the issues identified in the HMIC report and explaining how any additional funding would be spent. In the meantime it was offered to circulate to Panel Members a report that had been written for a meeting with the Policing Minister on the topic of fairer funding. It was proposed that a letter should then be sent to the PCC from the Panel setting out that the Panel supported, in principle, his campaign for fairer funding for Leicestershire Police.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the contents of the report be noted;

(b)       That the PCC be requested to submit a report to the meeting of the Police and Crime Panel on 26 July 2017 on the progress of Leicestershire Police towards addressing the areas for improvement identified by HMIC.

(c)       That a letter from the Police and Crime Panel be sent to the PCC in support of his campaign for fairer funding for Leicestershire Police.