Ymx wrote: ↑Mon Jul 10, 2023 8:26 am
C69 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 10, 2023 8:00 am
The Government has lost control of every sector of society.
Destroying public services and impoverishment of swathes of people with austerity has its consequences.
The Labour councils have failed to manage their police in so many areas, despite the funding offered.
I'm struggling to understand this accusation. My understanding is that the local councils provide only a third of the funding a police force receives, with the vast majority coming from the government instead (see here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... user-guide ). It is not at all clear to me how much power a council has over the police force.
Take Surbiton (from the above stabbing), for example. That's part of Surrey, and the Surrey Police Force has just replaced their former Chief Constable Gavin Stephens with a new guy, Tim de Mayer. Both are experienced police officers. The appointment was agreed by the Surrey Police and Crime Panel, who are described as such:
The role of the Panel will be to examine the actions and decisions of Surrey's Police and Crime Commissioner and to make sure information is available for the public so that they can hold their Commissioner to account.
The Panel is a committee of Surrey County Council, and consists of one elected councillor from each of Surrey's twelve local authorities and two co-opted independent members.
Further to that, Surrey has a Police and Crime Commissioner:
The Commissioner is responsible for setting the strategic objectives for policing in the county.
This includes setting and updating a police and crime plan, setting the force budget and precept, and appointing, and where necessary dismissing, the Chief Constable. The Police and Crime Panel will play a key role in scrutinising decisions made by the Commissioner in connection to these responsibilities.
These new arrangements are designed to increase transparency of the delivery of policing services, and to give the public the ability to ensure their police are accountable. As such, the Chief Constable of Surrey Police is accountable to the Commissioner, and the Commissioner is accountable to the electorate.
That to me suggests that unlike with the Met - who are ultimately governed by the Home Office - there's quite a bit of power in local government. But I don't know the reality of this. Surrey's current Police and Crime Commissioner is a Tory who's been in place for two years. She replaced David Munro, another Tory. It would be very easy for me to point fingers at the Tories in charge of Surbiton's policing but how much power can you actually wield if you don't control the purse strings? How much does the government of the day control local police forces, beyond funding? I just don't know the answer to those questions - if you can explain it to a layman, I'd be really grateful. It's slightly embarrassing that I don't know how this stuff works in places outside of London.