8 The National Police Chiefs' Council
82. In April this year, the Association of Chief
Police Officers (ACPO) is to be scrapped, and a new co-ordinating
body representing senior officers called the National Police Chiefs'
Council will be created. Its functions will be:
· Co-ordination
of national operations including defining, monitoring and testing
force contributions to the Strategic Policing Requirement.
· Command
of counter terrorism operations and delivery of counter terrorist
policing through the national network as set out in the S22A agreement.
· Co-ordination
of the national police response to national emergencies and the
mobilisation of resources across force borders and internationally.
· National
operational implementation of standards and policy as set by the
College of Policing and Government.
· Working
with the College, development of joint national approaches on
criminal justice, value for money, service transformation, information
management, performance management and technology.
· Working
with the College (where appropriate), development of joint national
approaches to staff and human resource issues (including misconduct
and discipline) in line with Chief Constables' responsibilities
as employers.
It is intended that the new National Police Chiefs'
Council will "help police cut crime and keep the public safe,
by joining up the operational response to the most serious and
strategic threats". It will be hosted by—but be independent
of—the Metropolitan Police.[103]
On 1 December, ACPO announced that Chief Constable Sara Thornton
of Thames Valley Police had been appointed as Chair of the Council.
83. As one of the final jigsaw pieces that make up
the New Landscape of Policing, we asked our witnesses what they
thought the NPCC would offer. Sir Hugh highlighted that the NPCC
would differ from ACPO in that it would not be a private company
limited by guarantee, but would be hosted within the Met. Otherwise,
he said it would be delivering exactly the same operational requirement
to maintain national co-operation and the delivery of critical
national services, co-ordinating policing across the 44 forces
at times of crisis and in pre-planned, large operations.[104]
The Police Federation thought the Council seemed "pretty
much like ACPO under a new name". The Federation were looking
forward to continuing on their constructive relationship with
ACPO under the National Police Chiefs' Council.[105]
84. In addition, both Sir Hugh and the Police Federation
highlighted that a number of ACPO's functions have already moved
to the College. Sir Hugh Orde thought that the current professional
relationship between the College and ACPO would be reproduced.
He said that the strength of the landscape was that no coverage
had been lost by reorganising ACPO into the NPCC. Anything relating
to policy will be delivered through the Professional Committee
of the College of Policing; anything that is operational will
go to Council.[106]
85. We welcome the creation of the National Police
Chiefs' Council, and in particular the clear distinction between
their function, which is to co-ordinate operational policing,
and that of the College, which is responsible for policy-making
and best practice. This should help to aspects of confusion in
recent years when both the College of Policing and ACPO have issued
guidance on the same topic.
103 http://news.acpo.police.uk/releases/update-on-acpo-future Back
104
Qq 35-37 Back
105
Qq 17-18 Back
106
Qq 117-123 Back
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