Agenda and minutes

Resolved:- That Councillor Alex Sangster (Rotherham MBC) be appointed Vice-Chairman of the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Panel for the remainder of the 2014/15 Municipal Year.

(In the absence of the Chairman, Councillor Sangster assumed the Chair)

Members were informed of the resignation, with immediate effect, of Mr. Kash Walayat, an Independent Co-optee on the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Panel.

A member of the public asked the following question and confirmed that he had previously asked a very similar question at the meeting of this Panel held on 17th June, 2013:-

“Please confirm where Road Safety appears in these revised Policing priorities (and in the Police and Crime Plan), particularly Enforcement of 20mph speed limits in residential areas, which are being installed by local authorities, eg. Sheffield City Council, in response to public demand.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) revised its national guidelines to include exceeding a 20mph speed limit as an endorsable offence.  But there's a perception that little is being done to enforce this locally, and that drivers can ignore this with impunity”.

In reply, the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner stated that the Police and Crime Plan deals with high level priorities. The South Yorkshire Police is required to take road safety very seriously and does fulfil that requirement. There are 20 mph speed limits now appearing in many side streets in the Sheffield area. The Commissioner also stated that the final version of the refreshed Police and Crime Plan has not yet been published and the Commissioner’s Office will look again at the inclusion of road safety issues within the Plan.  Additionally, the Commissioner undertook to speak with the Chief Constable of the South Yorkshire Police about the practical policing approach to 20 mph speed limits. On 19th January 2015, the Commissioner had met with a group representing the interests of cyclists and they too had referred to the issue of 20 mph speed limits.

As a supplementary question, the member of the public asked about the way in which the public could be kept informed of progress with this matter.

The South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner replied that members of the public may contact his office and ask questions about Police issues. Another means would be to raise issues via the Neighbourhood Watch organisation, which holds meetings from time to time around the County.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the previous meeting of the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Panel held on 19^th November, 2014.

Reference was made to the use of the phrase “to forget the past” within the text of Minute No. 24 (Introduction of the newly-elected Police and Crime Commissioner) of the previous meeting and it was agreed that these words be deleted from the minutes.

Resolved:- That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 19^th November, 2014 be approved as a correct record, for signature by the Chairman, with the inclusion of a clerical correction by the deletion of the phrase shown above.

Consideration was given to a report, submitted by the Chief Finance Officer to the Office of the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, containing information about the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner’s proposed Council Tax precept for the 2015/16 financial year.

Attached to the report was a draft of the Police and Crime Plan setting out the strategic direction for policing in South Yorkshire and providing the information necessary for the determination of the revenue budget and Council Tax precept. 

In presenting the report and the proposed Police budget for 2015/16, the Police and Crime Commissioner made historical references to ‘interesting times’ and ‘challenging times’, as well as to the current harsh financial climate for public authorities.  The submitted report referred to the building blocks of the financial plan which lies behind the Police and Crime Plan. The funding for the Police Service has been reduced year-on-year by the coalition Government, during its tenure, placing a squeeze on local authority and Police funding. The Police Grant has also been reduced. The coalition Government has held money back at the centre of Government (often referred to as ‘top slicing’) for national priorities and schemes/projects.

Therefore, uncertainty has been created in the process of budget-making for Police services and an assumption has had to be made of approximately 3% budget cuts for the 2015/16 financial year. The provisional funding settlement was received just a few days before Christmas 2014, when the coalition Government announced a reduction of 5.1% in the spending available for public authority budgets. Consequently, there has been only a short time in which to respond and the task has been to find an additional reduction of £3 millions to the proposed budget for 2015/16. The total Police budget is approximately £240 millions per year.  It is anticipated that a similar bleak position will continue after the General Election of 7th May, 2015.

There may be a need to draw on the financial reserves within the Police budget. The combined effect of the funding reduction and pressures mean that almost £17.5 millions will need to be found to balance the 2015/16 budget, ie: the original amount, plus the additional sum as a consequence of the coalition Government’s announcement before Christmas 2014. The budget pressures (eg: wages and price increases) will have to be paid for and the funding gap has to be bridged by making cuts, achieving savings or by generating additional income. Another option is to accept the coalition Government’s offer of the Council Tax freeze grant, which would net an extra £547,000 of Government funding. There is also the alternative option of increasing the precept amount; such increase has to be below 2% otherwise a referendum would be triggered.

The argument for increasing the amount of the precept, instead of accepting the offer of the Council Tax freeze grant, is that this specific grant funding is for one single financial year and is not guaranteed in future years. The acceptance of the freeze grant  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

Consideration was given to a report of the Legal Adviser/Monitoring Officer, which provided an update on the handling of complaints received against the Police and Crime Commissioner, specifically both the former Commissioner and his Deputy.

It was clarified that there were no complaints about the current Commissioner and that all of the issues within the report referred either to the former Commissioner or to the former Deputy Commissioner.

In accordance with Regulation 6(1) of the Elected Local Policing Bodies (Complaints and Misconduct) Regulations 2012 the Panel had a duty to ensure it was kept informed of the handling of such complaints.

Since the previous meeting the following matters have been considered:-

1.         A complaint that the former Deputy Commissioner had failed to deal properly with e mail messages from a complainant.

          The response has been given that no further action would be taken; however, the complainant is in correspondence with the Legal Adviser.

2.         A complaint about the former Commissioner, in respect of which the Legal Adviser had met with the complainants in May 2014.

The complainants had been invited to submit further details of the complaint, but have not done so. The complainants have been informed that the complaint will not be proceeded with.

3.         A complaint about the former Commissioner, which is related to the complaint number 2 above.

Because the former Commissioner has resigned, this complaint will not be proceeded with.

The report stated that, after the publication of the Jay report on 26^th August 2014, seventeen complaints have been lodged complaints about the actions of the former South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner. Three of those complaints have been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), because the allegations related to the potential criminal offence of misconduct in public office.  No determination has yet been made by the IPCC regarding these referrals. All of the complaints have been acknowledged and, other than those complaints referred to the IPCC,  no further action will be taken because the former Police and Crime Commissioner has resigned from office. In addition a significant number of comments were received by the Legal Adviser, which did not constitute formal complaints and all of the comments have been acknowledged. It was clarified that, to date, there has been no referral of any issue to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Resolved:-  That the report be received and the contents noted.

Resolved:- That the next meeting of the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Panel shall take place on a date to be arranged, during late March, 2015.