Police and Crime Commissioner Election

Election - Police and Crime Commissioner - 2 May 2024

If you are a member of the public and want information about the candidates in your area, please follow this link:-

Choose My Police and Crime Commissioner - Information from the UK Government (choosemypcc.org.uk)

This page has been designed to help prospective candidates of the Police and Crime Commissioner's election to find information they may need to make an informed decision.

If you require information that is not published here please contact Mr Stephen Hughes, Chief Executive of the Office of Police and Crime Commissioner by emailing OPCC@northwales.police.uk.  Mr Hughes has been appointed the ‘Single Point of Contact’ (SPOC) who will respond to all correspondence and enquiries relating to this election.

All requests for information from prospective candidates sent to North Wales Police will be redirected to the SPOC. The SPOC will liaise with the Force’s Head of Information Assurance on all matters relating to operational policing and information held by North Wales Police. An explanation will be given if information cannot be provided.

Enquiries relating to the electoral process should be directed to the Police Area Returning Officer (PARO). In North Wales for this election the PARO is Mr Ian Bancroft, Chief Executive, Wrexham County Borough Council. Any enquiries received by the SPOC relating to the electoral process will be redirected to the PARO. The key dates for you to note are detailed below.

To ensure complete fairness and transparency, information requested by any candidate will be published on this webpage. A register of all requests received is published below.

Key Dates

The role of the Police and Crime Commissioner

The duties of the Police and Crime Commissioner ("the Commissioner") are set out in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 ("the Act").

The key functions are:-

You can find more information on the role of the Police and Crime Commissioner within the Policing-Protocol-Order-2011.

The role of the Chief Constable

The Chief Constable is responsible for maintaining the King‘s Peace and has direction and control over the Force‘s officers and staff. The Chief Constable holds office under the Crown, but is appointed by the Commissioner.

The Chief Constable is accountable to the law for the exercise of police powers, and to the Commissioner for the delivery of efficient and effective policing, management of resources and expenditure by the police force. At all times the Chief Constable, their constables, and staff, remain operationally independent in the service of the communities that they serve. The Commissioner must respect the operational independence of the Chief Constable and all officers and staff under their direction and control.

Amanda Blakeman was appointed Chief Constable for North Wales Police from 31 October 2022. The other chief officers are Deputy Chief Constable Nigel Harrison, Assistant Chief Constable Chris Allsop and Director of Finance and Resources Mr Seb Phillips. For more information about the chief officers, click here.

You can find more information on the role of the Chief Constable within the Policing-Protocol-Order-2011

The role of the Police and Crime Panel

The Police and Crime Panel ("the Panel") provide checks and balances in relation to the performance of the Commissioner. The Panel does not scrutinise the Chief Constable but scrutinises and supports the effective exercise of the Commissioner's functions. Full details of the Panel’s responsibilities can be found in the Policing-Protocol-Order-2011.

The Chief Constable retains responsibility for operational matters. If the Panel seek to scrutinise the Commissioner on an operational matter, the Chief Constable may be invited to attend a Panel meeting alongside the Commissioner to offer factual accounts and clarity (if needed) of the Chief Constable‘s actions and decisions. The accountability of the Chief Constable remains firmly to the Commissioner and not to the Panel.

In summary the Panel’s main duties are to:-

The Role of the Home Secretary

The Home Secretary is ultimately accountable to Parliament and charged with ensuring the maintenance of the King‘s Peace within all force areas, safeguarding the public and protecting our national borders and security. The Home Secretary has reserved powers and legislative tools that enable intervention and direction to all parties, if it is determined by the Home Secretary that such action is necessary in order to prevent or mitigate risk to the public or national security. Such powers and tools will be used only as a last resort, and will not be used to interfere with the democratic will of the electorate within a force area, nor seek to interfere with the office of constable, unless the Home Secretary is satisfied on the advice of His Majesty‘s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire &Rescue Services (HMICFRS) that not to do so would result in a police force failing or national security being compromised.

The Home Secretary retains the legal accountability for national security and the role that the police service plays within the delivery of any national response. The Home Secretary has a duty to issue a Strategic Policing Requirement that sets out what are, in their view, the national threats at the time and the appropriate national policing capabilities that are required to counter them.

The role of the Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner

Legislation enables the Commissioner to appoint a Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner (“Deputy”) and to delegate certain functions and responsibilities to that person.

The role of the Deputy, whilst working with the Commissioner’s other staff, is to deputise and support the Commissioner in carrying out his functions including:-

a.               Acting as a local link between communities and the police
b.               Assisting in setting the force budget and the precept and deciding how other crime reduction budgets are spent
c.               Assisting in the development of the Police and Crime Plan
d.               Entering into collaboration agreements as necessary
e.               Holding the chief constable to account
f.               Working co-operatively with community safety and criminal justice partners

The Deputy may not:-

a.               Issue a Police and Crime Plan
b.               Determine police objectives
c.               Attend Police and Crime Panel meetings on behalf of the Commissioner
d.               Prepare the Annual Report
e.               Appoint or suspend the Chief Constable or call upon the Chief Constable to retire or resign
f.               Set the precept

The Deputy’s post profile can be found here.

Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner

The Commissioner’s office in North Wales is made up of a small team, led by the Chief Executive. Under the Act the Commissioner is required to appoint a Chief Executive (who also acts as Monitoring Officer) and Chief Finance Officer (who is also the Section 151 officer).

The team includes experts in commissioning, handling complaints, policy, scrutiny, consultation, correspondence and office support. The staffing structure can be found here.

All staff employed by the Commissioner (apart from the Deputy) are politically restricted in accordance with Local Government and Housing Act 1989 therefore the staff will not support a candidate or incumbent Commissioner.

The role of the Chief Executive

The post of Chief Executive (CEO) is a statutory role.

The responsibilities of the CEO are set out in paragraph 6(a) of Schedule 1 to the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011

The CEO leads the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC), focusing on delivering the full range of the Commissioner’s plans and objectives, managing the team of paid staff and acting as the Commissioner’s senior advisor.  The CEO is also the Monitoring Officer and the SPOC for the Police and Crime Commissioner election.

The CEO’s duties are detailed in the post profile.

The role of the Chief Finance Officer (CFO)

The post of Chief Finance Officer is a statutory role.

The statutory responsibilities of the CFO are set out in paragraph 6(b) of Schedule 1 to the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 and section 114 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988.

The qualifications for the CFO are set out in section 113 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 and, in Wales only, the Accounts and Audit (Wales) Regulations 2005.

Taking account of all legislation relating to this role, the CFO’s duties are detailed in the post profile.

Partnership Working

In order to create a better, safer North Wales, and to maintain an effective and efficient police service in the area, the Commissioner will have to work closely with partners to secure longer term solutions to crime and disorder issues.

Building effective partnerships is a cornerstone of the work undertaken by the Commissioner as the police service is not alone in its work to prevent crime, reduce harm (and the risk of harm) and deliver an effective response to the public. Working effectively in partnership enables better, more sustainable services to be delivered by all partners involved.  Furthermore it can lead to improved services being delivered more cost effectively.

The Commissioner will work alongside many different types of organisations in order to strategically focus efforts to ensure better, more organised partnership working delivers improved services to the people of North Wales.

For more information on current arrangements of partnership working and collaborations, please click here.

Governance

An Annual Governance Statement is provided each year in the Statement of Accounts, the Governance Statement provides information on the previous year of business.

Regular checks on governance arrangements for the Commissioner and North Wales Police are carried out at regular intervals and scrutinised at the Joint Governance Board. This Board consists of key officers from both organisations and findings reports to the Joint Audit Committee.

The organisation has also established a Joint Audit Committee to provide independent assurance to the Commissioner and the Chief Constable on the adequacy of the risk management framework, the internal control environment and the integrity of the financial reporting and annual governance processes.

Financial position

The Force’s Director of Finance and Resources and CFO will provide the latest information on the organisations’ financial position at the Briefing Day on 27 March 2024. The net budget for 2024/25 will be £200.281m, compared to £189.959m in 2023/24.  The difference of £10.211m is made up of £16.270m inflation; £2.166m growth for identified needs; £0.776m to protect PCSO numbers and the schools’ liaison programme less £3.171m savings identified; and £4.179m additional income in the form of specific grants.

At the time of writing this report, the financial position for subsequent years is not known.  It is expected that a spending review will take place during 2024/25, and this may be followed by a review of the Police Funding Formula.  The spending review will determine how much money the Home Office has to spend on policing; the Police Funding Formula determines what proportion of the grant is allocated to each Police and Crime Commissioner.

Detailed information about the finances of the Commissioner and North Wales Police can be found on the Commissioner’s website here.

Commissioning

Legislation charges the Commissioner to keep the police fund, set and manage the budget for policing, award grants and enter into agreements for the supply of goods and services. Further to that the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 empowers Police and Crime Commissioners to commission local services that are intended to help victims, or witnesses of, or other persons affected by, criminal offences and anti-social behaviour and also help deliver the policing priorities.

In North Wales the grants have been used to establish several services including the Victim Help Centre, Checkpoint Cymru and the Sexual and Rape Assault Centre.

Full details of all services commissioned can be found here.

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The following cyber security advice has been curated to provide awareness, advice, and recommendations to nominated Police Crime Commissioners participating in elections across the UK in May 2024.

Key documents and webpages

Police and Crime Plan
Annual reports
Finance reports, including Statement of Accounts and Medium Term Financial Strategy
Commissioning of services
Joint Audit Committee reports
Scrutiny documents
Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC) reports
Collaboration and Partnership working
Freedom of Information Disclosure Log
Key Decisions
Independent Custody Visitors Scheme

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Useful links to other organisations

North Wales Police
Police and Crime Panel
Home Office
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS)
Association of Police and Crime Commissioners
National Police Chiefs' Council (NPPC)
College of Policing (CoP)
Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC)
Police Federation
Police Superintendents Association
Electoral Commissioner
Police and Community Trust North Wales

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Additional information provided to candidates

Register of requests for information