Agenda item

The Police and Crime Panel considered a report of the Police and Crime Commissioner which presented his Annual Report for 2016/17. A copy of the report, marked ‘Agenda Item 6’, is filed with these minutes.

In introducing the report the PCC highlighted the following:

(i)        The report covered the period March 2016 to March 2017 and his predecessor Sir Clive Loader had set the budget for that period.

(ii)       With regard to an error in the report the PCC clarified that he came into office on 12 May 2016, he was not elected on that date.

(iii)      Decisions had been made on who would be the successful applicants for small grants from the PCC’s Prevention Fund which aimed to help voluntary and third sector groups support the public safety goals in the Police and Crime Plan and confront pressing community issues. However, those who would receive the funding had not been informed yet and the announcement would be made shortly.

(iv)      Government Ministers had visited the Braunstone Blues project and been impressed, however decisions needed to be made regarding the future funding of this project as the funding would cease at the end of the 2 year trial period.

(v)       The PCC had agreed to invest in CARA (Conditional Cautioning And Relationship Abuse), a project designed to break the cycle of domestic abuse.

Arising from discussions the following points were noted:

(i)        In response to questions the PCC agreed to produce a further report for a future meeting of the Panel regarding the Youth Commission and in particular the demographics of its members. The Chairman stated that it would be helpful for the Panel to be able to speak to some members of the Youth Commission and he invited the PCC to bring some Youth Commission members along to a future Panel meeting. 

(ii)       The PCC had not received a response from the Government to his representations regarding fairer funding for Leicestershire Police, however, he was hopeful that the new Policing Minister Nick Hurd MP appreciated the importance of resolving funding inequalities. The PCC was also aware that a lot of work was going on nationally to impress on the Home Office the perilous nature of the issue. The PCC and the Chief Constable had written to The Guardian newspaper regarding funding cuts and their letter had been published in that newspaper on 28 June 2017.  All new Members of Parliament for Leicestershire had been invited to a meeting with Leicestershire Police to discuss funding cuts however only 2 of those MPs attended. However, the PCC had met with Nicky Morgan MP two weeks previously and a meeting was arranged with Neil O’Brien, the new MP for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston, for the following week.

(iii)      In response to a question regarding whether all of the cuts to the Leicestershire Police budget were due to reduced funding from central government the PCC said that whilst there had been a need within Leicestershire Police for efficiency savings, police numbers would not have had to go down by 23% if the funding provided by the government had been reasonable.

(iv)      Clarification was given that whilst the figures in the table on page 15 of the agenda pack appeared to show that 101 call volumes had gone down compared to the previous year, this was because the table did not include April, May, June and July of 2017 and in fact the call volumes were going up. The figures for June 2017 were particularly high. The PCC stated that whilst significant reforms were underway with the 101 telephone service, positive results were not yet evident and he was not yet satisfied. It was agreed that the PCC would produce a report on the 101 and 999 telephone services for the next meeting of the Panel.

(v)       In response to a question from a Member the PCC agreed to look into the reasons behind the increase of Anti-Social Behaviour in spring and summer months. The PCC highlighted the good partnership work which was ongoing in Leicestershire to tackle Anti-Social Behaviour.

RESOLVED:

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

(b)       That the PCC be requested to produce reports on the Youth Commission, and the 101 and 999 telephone services, for the next meeting of the Panel.