Written evidence from the Police Authorities
of Wales is printed on Page Ev 378
Examination of Witness (Questions 297-299)
30 NOVEMBER 2004
Mr Malcolm King
Q297 Chairman: Welcome to our inquiry
into policing in Wales, North Wales specifically, although I believe
you are speaking on behalf of the Police Authorities of Wales.
If you could introduce yourself to the Committee for the record,
please.
Mr King: First of all, I am very
pleased to be here. Thank you very much for your invitation. My
name is Malcolm King and I am the chairman of the North Wales
Police Authority. I am also, I understand, answering questions
on behalf of the Police Authorities of Wales, although I would
like to say at this point that clearly my knowledge of North Wales,
as you would expect, is rather greater than it is of other police
forces and police authorities in Wales so I will obviously give
more illustrations to my answers with regard to North Wales rather
than other places.
Q298 Chairman: As an ex-member of the
police authority I know a little bit of what you do. It has probably
changed since I was a member. Perhaps you could outline the present
role of North Wales Police Authority specifically and also the
Police Authorities of Wales.
Mr King: I think you are right
in saying that the police authorities' roles have changed considerably
since you were a member. They have changed hugely since I first
became a member about eight years ago or so. It hardly seems as
though a few months go by without more duties or expectations
being placed upon police authorities. It is entirely at the wish
of police authorities to have their role widened and expanded,
but it certainly means that the changes in duties are considerable
over a period of time. The main duties really are to have an oversight
of the operation of the police force. It is done in a number of
ways. We appoint and review the performance of chief constables—and
of course, in extreme cases, that would lead in effect to dismissing
chief constables, so we hire and fire the senior officers and
that still extends to the whole ACPO team. We also set the budget,
which is a major function, and we also have oversight of the budget
during the year—so it is not just a one-off process. We
also keep an eye on the performance of police authorities. That
is another hugely expanded role of police authorities over the
last few years, particularly with a greater capability for doing
that, largely through the effort the Government have put into
making sure that the mechanisms for reviewing and monitoring performance
are consistent across the country and that the method of recording
crime is more consistent as well. You will be aware that there
is a new crime recording standard: the Police Standards Unit has
been brought into operation—that was three years ago or
so, I think—and all of that, together with a more focused
role for Her Majesty's Inspectorate, has meant a greater ability
of police forces to be able to measure their performance against
themselves and against each other and against, of course, standards
which are set down by Parliament in a much more focused way with
the National Policing Plan and so on. That whole area of police
authority business and police force business has been immensely
sharpened over the last few years. The other key role of police
authorities is to act as a bridge between the public and the police
force. One of our key roles has been to consult with communities,
to find out what sort of policing they want and try to reflect
that as much as is possible within the local policing plans, so
the North Wales Police Authority has a policing plan which responds
to local needs as well as to priorities set down by the National
Policing Plan. Those are the key functions of the North Wales
Police Authority and all police authorities.
Q299 Chairman: If we could come on to
the Police Authorities of Wales, in paragraph 2.3 of your submission
you say that one of its functions is to "maintain a broad
Welsh prospectus on policing matters." Does that mean that
you have a coherent Welsh agenda differing from that in England
as a collection of police authorities in Wales?
Mr King: Yes, I think we have.
That difference largely stems from the existence of the Welsh
Assembly Government. As you know, policing is not and cannot be
simply divorced from the context in which policing goes on. Therefore
our relationships with other deliverers of public service as well
as other factors, how the economy is doing and so on, are critical
factors in the wider picture of community safety. A lot of those
public functions obviously now are carried out by the Welsh Assembly,
and therefore we have a need to make sure that the police authority
and police force policies are dovetailed successfully with theirs.
Particularly noteworthy is the fact that we have regular meetings
with the minister responsible for community safety in Wales, Mrs
Edwina Hart, and also, to a lesser extent, with Sue Essex, now
that the finance responsibilities are with her. It is particularly
important for us to develop that relationship. I must say that
from a position which was not well-developed, it has become one
which is extremely fruitful, both in terms of creating a good
understanding of what police authorities are trying to achieve
and also in terms of attracting particular streams of funding
into community safety and into the police forces themselves, with
some noteworthy examples which I have mentioned in our evidence.
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