Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their announcement on 14 January that they will introduce legislation to give the Home Secretary powers to force the retirement, resignation, or suspension of chief constables on performance grounds, what measures they will implement to prevent the abuse of such powers.

As the Home Secretary said to the House on 14 January and published in the white paper “From Local to National: A New Model for Policing” published on 26 January, when a Chief Constable is responsible for a damaging failure of leadership, the public rightly expect the Home Secretary to act. This Government intends to restore their ability to do so and will soon reintroduce the Home Secretary’s power to dismiss Chief Constables.

There is no statutory entitlement to any settlement beyond the normal pay and pension entitlement that an individual has accrued. Any further settlement would be a matter for the Local Policing Body to determine.

The detail of the measures to give effect to the White paper commitments will be contained in legislation which we intend to bring forward when Parliamentary time allows.