Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of occasions on which a councillor has been removed from his or her position on a Police or Crime Panel in a way other than that provided for under the Police and Crime Panels (Nominations, Appointments and Notifications) Regulations 2012; and if she will issue revised guidance to local authorities on their legal duties under those regulations.

The Department is not aware of any occasions where local authorities have failed to nominate and appoint local authority members to the relevant Police and Crime Panel since the commencement of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011.

In November 2012 the Home Office published guidance on the process for nominating and appointing members to a panel, as an accompaniment to the Police and Crime Panels (Nominations, Appointments and Notifications) Regulations 2012. It can be found on GOV.UK at the following link: Police_and_Crime_Panel_Regulations.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk).

The local authorities within a given force area are required by legislation to make panel arrangements, which must include provisions about resignation, and removal, of appointed members and co-opted members of the panel. Any decision to remove a local authority member from a panel would therefore be determined locally. There are no plans to issue any new guidance to panels on their legal duties, which are set out in both Regulations and existing guidance.