Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomes everyone to the meeting, giving a particular welcome to the Police and Crime Commissioner, the Acting Chief Constable and the Chief Executive of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

The Chairman drew the Panel's attention to the Acting Chief Constable being in full uniform, this was required by law in his capacity as Acting Chief Constable and there was no suggestion that any confirmation for this position had yet taken place.

The Chairman welcomes Councillor Geoffrey Denaro from Bromsgove District Council to his first Police and Crime Panel meeting and congratulated him on his election as Leader of Bromsgrove Council.

The Chairman confirmed to the Panel that no named substitutes were in attendance.

Apologies had been received from Colonel Tony Ward, Councillor Phil Grove and Councillor Keith Roberts.

Members of the public wishing to take part (asking a question or making a statement) should notify the Head of Legal and Democratic Services in writing or by email indicating both the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case Monday, 20 July 2015).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number / email address listed below.

The Chairman confirmed that no members of the public had requested public participation for this meeting.

The Chairman explained to the Panel that the purpose of this item was to enable members of the Police and Crime Panel (PCP) to consider the Police and Crime Commissioner’s (PCC) proposed appointment of a Chief Constable. The Chairman referred Panel Members to the agenda papers which provided an overview of the appointment process that was undertaken to select the preferred candidate, and of the reasons for his nomination as the proposed Chief Constable.

The Chairman explained to the Panel that he intended to invite the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) to speak and present his preferred candidate for Chief Constable to the Panel, allowing the Panel to put questions to the PCC. Then he intended to invite the Vice Chairman of the Panel, Councillor Tony Miller, to speak about his role as the PCPs representative in the recruitment process. The Chairman would then invite the preferred candidate, Mr Anthony Bangham, to speak before allowing the Panel to put questions to him.

The Chairman explained that the Panel would likely go into closed session after questioning in order to discuss the confirmation hearing before reporting any decision taken back to open session of the Panel.

The Chairman invited John Campion, Police and Crime Commissioner, to address the Panel.

The PCC thanked the Panel for convening a special meeting in August. The PCC drew the Panels attention to the report which detailed the recruitment process, he highlighted how the recruitment process was advertised widely including sending advert to all eligible Deputy Chief Constables in the UK and how he wanted to use as wide a selection of people and partners as possible to help him make the right selection.

The PCC drew attention to the 'independent' report in the agenda pack which illustrated that a valid recruitment process had taken place; he then commended Anthony Bangham as his preferred candidate for Chief Constable of West Mercia Police to the Panel. The PCC drew to the Panel the key reasons why he was confident in this proposal, which was his long and varied service and his values and ethics which came across strongly in the recruitment process.

The PCC explained his confidence in the preferred candidate in improving the service provided by West Mercia Police and in the candidate's partnership approach. The PCC explained that he felt the preferred candidate understood the need to work in partnership to help fix some of the problems in our society.

The Chairman invited questions from the Panel to the PCC, during which the following points were discussed:

·         Consistency of information at Confirmation Hearings was required as some Panel Members felt that the level of information that had been provided was a minimal level. The PCC was happy for the Panel to agree what level of information it would like in future and he would happily comply with that level requested.

·         There were no BME applicants for the post.

The Chairman invited Councillor Tony Miller, Vice Chairman of the Panel, to explain his role in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 175.

The Chair explained that the purpose of this item was to provide members of the Panel with an update on the development of the Safer West Mercia Plan, which will be the new Police and Crime Plan for West Mercia. The Chair invited the Police and Crime Commissioner to present the report to the Panel.

The Police and Crime Commissioner referred the Panel to the report before them and explained to the Panel how he had chosen to seek the views of West Mercia’s residents and personnel within West Mercia Police, prior to developing his policing and crime objectives.  This initial consultation took place over a two week time period in June via an on-line survey.  (For anyone unable to complete the survey online other options were available.)

Details of the consultation were published on the PCC’s website along with the online survey to coincide with media releases to the press and notification to contacts on the PCC’s email list.  Recipients of this email included a wide range of organisations, charities, community groups, town and parish councils, councillors of top tier local authorities and to over 1100 victims of crime who had previously agreed to take part in any PCC consultation when they completed the police victim satisfaction survey.  The consultation was also circulated via the neighbourhood watch message system to over 2000 recipients. 

The Chair invited Panel Members to put questions to the Police and Crime Commissioner during which the following points were raised:

·         In total 1,946 people took part in the public survey. Of these 1,211 fully completed the survey and 735 partially completed it. 

·         The priority areas identified by the Public for police resources to be spent in their local area were increased police visibility, anti-social behaviour, domestic burglary and drugs

·         In total 404 people took part in the internal survey. Of these 295 fully completed the survey and 109 partially completed it.

·         The priority areas identified by the internal survey for police resources to be spent were increased domestic burglary, drugs and increased police visibility.

·         The vision and objectives in the draft Plan had been developed from the PCC’s pre-election principles and commitments as well as issues and concerns identified through the consultation discussed in the report and an analysis of inspections, audits and the performance of the police.

·         There will be an Assurance Programme to sit alongside the Safer West Mercia Plan. The purpose of the assurance programme will to ensure there is a structured framework of scrutiny in place that provides sufficient governance, oversight and challenge to enable the PCC to satisfy his duties in holding the chief constable to account.  The programme will also assist the PCP’s oversight of the PCC’s duties.

·         Important that the Plan provided strategic direction whilst the Police delivered services operationally.

The Chair thanked the Police and Crime Commissioner for presenting his draft report and stated that the Panel looked forward to viewing the final draft.