Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 10
10
Deferred
Fund PCCs adequately to implement Models 2 or 3 for complaint-handling roles
Recommendation
We urge the Government to fund PCCs adequately to take on Models 2 or 3 as a minimum requirement in their complaint-handling roles. This will provide PCCs the opportunity to work more closely with their forces, for example, to record and systematically monitor the root causes of complaints and recurrent issues that affect their communities disproportionately and how their forces resolve those issues. This depth and consistency of monitoring is required to achieve a national understanding of where fault lines exist in the complaints systems of the 43 police forces of England and Wales so that long-standing issues may be tackled. (Paragraph 64) Police forces and the discipline system
Government response summary AI-generated
The government did not commit to funding PCCs for specific complaint-handling models or systematic monitoring. Instead, it committed to updating the police super-complaints website to clarify collaboration between designated and non-designated bodies.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
The Government has demonstrated its commitment to supporting the police and policing bodies, including PCCs, and providing them with the resources they need to fight crime and keep the public safe. That is why for 2022/23, the Government has published a total police funding settlement of up to £16.9 billion; an increase of up to £1.1 billion when compared to 2021/22. Assuming full take up of precept flexibility, overall police funding available to PCCs will increase by up to £796 million (5.8% in cash terms) next year. This includes an additional £550 million, including funding to deliver the final 8,000 additional officers and up to an additional £246 million from the proposed council tax precept flexibility. PCCs and Mayors with PCC functions have a vital role in ensuring public confidence in local policing in their areas. Ensuring a robust complaints system is clearly key to ensuring public confidence. Whilst the funding settlement is decided centrally, it is for these directly elected local policing bodies in conjunction with their Chief Constables to make the operational decisions on how to allocate their resources based on local knowledge, local priorities and experience. We do not intend to prescribe how specific funding allocations should be spent or how local decisions should be taken. Anecdotal evidence suggests that, in deciding which model to originally adopt, factors such as supportive communications, election timings and resources will have influenced PCCs’ thinking. The APCC have facilitated events with PCCs since the May 2021 PCC elections to explore whether there are further areas where PCCs might wish to expand on their complaint functions. The APCC further notes that these events have included input from the IOPC and the College of Policing to review the recurring and developing themes which are arising, and both the College of Policing and IOPC have committed to looking in detail at the systemic issues. The fact that several PCCs have already adopted models 2 and 3 since the reforms were implemented in February 2020 would indicate that PCC’s do have the capacity within their existing budgets to exercise these choices.
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