Police (Collaboration: Specified Function) Order 2012

Baroness Doocey Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd May 2012 Grand Committee

[The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Henley)]

My Lords, the order concerns the arrangements for providing air support to the police forces of England and Wales. It specifies the provision of police air support as a function that must be carried out through a collaboration agreement applying to all police areas in England and Wales.

Sections 22A to 23I of the Police Act 1996 make provision for police collaboration in England and Wales. Section 22A provides for the making of collaboration agreements involving policing bodies and chief officers of police. Section 23FA enables the Secretary of State to specify police functions that must be the subject of collaboration. The order is to be made under Section 23FA. Orders made under this section must be approved by both Houses beforehand; this procedural requirement is imposed by Section 23FA(4). This is the first order made under Section 23FA.

The scope of the collaboration agreement to be made under the order will include the operation of aircraft, staffing, equipment, airbases, ground control facilities, and maintenance arrangements, facilities and other resources necessary for such air operations. The order establishes the required outcome—a national collaborative agreement for the provision of air support—but the detailed terms are a matter for policing bodies and forces to agree.

The background to the order is a review of police air support completed in 2009. The service-led review identified scope to save £15 million per year by reducing the number of police aircraft and bases while providing a more consistent service. Since 2010, proposals for a collaboratively organised national police air service— the NPAS—have been developed under the leadership of the chief constable of Hampshire. The principle of a national service has been endorsed by all chief constables.

Discussions between the NPAS project team, police forces and authorities have continued, but full agreement has not been achieved. In January 2012 my right honourable friend the Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice announced the Government’s intention to make the order. The Government consulted the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Association of Police Authorities, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary on the proposed order. Responses were also received from other police authorities and police organisations.

No responses directly opposed the order. Some suggested that it was premature and some expressed concerns about financial and operational aspects of the business case for the national police air service. The concerns expressed by respondents about the governance and management of the proposed NPAS and about precise costs and savings were important. The Government’s view is that the best way to resolve the concerns is through the detailed negotiation of a collaboration agreement by all forces and policing bodies. Therefore, it is timely and not at all premature to make the order. It will ensure that all forces and policing bodies will focus on reaching an agreed set of terms, conditions and governance arrangements for collaboration.

A feature of the proposals for collaborative delivery of a national police air service is that a single police force should take the lead. Several respondents to the consultation noted that any force, and its policing body, taking lead responsibility would require reassurance regarding the continuing commitment to collaboration by other forces and policing bodies. The order will provide that reassurance by ensuring that there is a collaboration agreement in place to which all forces and policing bodies must be party.

The order provides a basis for a more efficient, effective and economical provision of police air support that noble Lords will want, and I commend it to the Committee.

[Baroness Doocey]

I hope that noble Lords will forgive me; I am losing my voice. I have no problem in principle with the order. As a former chair of finance of the Metropolitan Police Authority, I am very much in favour of anything that can be done to make economies of scale and efficiencies. However, I have a number of concerns. Wearing the hat of somebody who sat for eight years on the Metropolitan Police Authority, I emphasise that my knowledge and experience is of the Met rather than of police forces nationwide. Therefore, with that caveat, I know that there are various concerns in the Met, and I wonder if the Minister can help to allay some of those concerns, particularly about the issues of governance and structure as set out in the draft agreement.

The strategy board has got quite a lot of power: it can approve annual capital budgets and determine the direction of the service. However, there is no representation on the board for PCCs—and in the case of London, for the MOPC—other than from the lead force. Can the Minister tell us how these people will be consulted, as the introduction of PCCs is clearly one of the key parts of the government legislation, and what proposals and process will there be for considering any concerns that emerge?

I appreciate that the Minister talked in his introduction about issues being resolved locally. However, I have a slight concern that if there is not quite a good steer from the Government on how these issues can be resolved, that might be a major problem down the line. I think that it would be helpful to address those issues now.

I have another concern. Although having an integrated strategy for the air service is clearly sensible, how will this affect the local accountability of local police forces? I wonder if the Minister could address that point as well.

[Baroness Smith of Basildon]

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his explanation. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Doocey, I welcome the principle of what the Government are seeking to do here—I do not think that there can be any disagreement on it. However, like her, I have some concerns. I am sure that the Minister can help allay those concerns when he addresses the questions.

I was interested when the Minister spoke about the consultation that took place. He quoted the parts that were in the impact assessment, which was very helpful. As I mentioned to the noble Lord previously, I tried to access the Home Office website to get more information on the consultation responses. I hope that my complaints about the website do not become a familiar theme in these Committee sittings or when I discuss Home Office matters. However, I find it the most difficult website to access that I have ever used. It has crashed on me something like six times in the past week, which is as long as I have been in this post. I therefore felt at a disadvantage on this order by not being able to read the consultation responses. I take on board entirely, and accept the Minister’s explanation, that none of the responses was directly opposed.

However, the situation with the website makes this slightly more difficult. I would have liked to know the difficulties that have prevented voluntary implementation from taking place. The noble Baroness, Lady Doocey, has been very helpful in using her experience with the Metropolitan Police to outline some of the issues.

The Minister says that there have been discussions for some time, that no one is directly opposed to it and that everybody seems to think that it is a good idea—and yet it does not happen. So, what is the precise nature of the difficulties? One wonders whether those difficulties, depending on how practical they are, can be removed simply by implementing legislation. If they are practical difficulties which the police are trying to resolve, putting legislation in place will not make them go away. One question—if we can legislate to change things—is whether he thinks that the police are simply being difficult by not reaching a voluntary agreement on the issues of concern which have prevented voluntary collaboration to the degree that the Minister would like. As the police, presumably, will still have to agree the details of the arrangements being put in place, it would be helpful to have a little more information about the difficulties and how they will be overcome by legislation.

I appreciate that savings have to be made—I am not querying that. I would never deny the need to make savings. Indeed, I am one of those who look for genuine efficiencies to save money. However, when police forces are fully under the budgetary cosh in many ways, collaboration can become more difficult for them—understandably, it makes it that little bit harder to co-operate. If the Minister can say something more about the agreements that need to be put in place, and the discussions taking place to make that happen, that would be welcome.

Perhaps I may also say something briefly about savings versus efficiency. Where crime prevention and crime detection are concerned, efficiency savings are one thing, but cuts in service, or reduction in the quality of service, is another.

I am seeking assurances from the Minister, because the impact assessment is perhaps slightly woolly on this. It says that in some areas it is expected that the collaboration will be resolved by some increases in response times for air support. It goes on to state the positives, including that a 24-hour service will be available to all forces. Will the Minister quantify what those increases in response times will be? Will they be significant? Which areas will be affected the greatest? Assurances from the Minister on that would be most welcome. In principle, the direction of greater co-operation and collaboration between police forces is welcome. I should be grateful if the Minister will address the issues that I have raised.