The minutes from the meeting held on 5 July
2016 were agreed by the Panel as a true record of the meeting.
47/16
DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
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All Members present are required to declare, at this point in
the meeting or as soon as possible thereafter
(i)Any disclosable
pecuniary interests and / or
(ii)Other interests arising under the Code of Conduct in
respect of any item(s) of business being considered at this
meeting
NOTES:
Members are reminded that they must not participate
in any item where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest
As well as an interest of the Member, this includes
any interest, of which the Member is aware, that relates to the
Member’s spouse or civil partner (or any person with whom the
Member is living as a spouse or civil partner)
Members with a significant personal interest may
participate in the discussion and vote on that matter unless that
interest could be reasonably regarded as prejudicial.
Written questions from
the public can be submitted no later than seven days prior to the
published date of the annual or any ordinary public meeting, for
which the Commissioner will be invited to provide a written
response by noon on the day before the meeting, which will be
circulated to Panel Members and the questioner.
To consider progress made against the agreed Police
and Crime Plan. The PCC has published a Police and Crime Plan for
2016 to 2020 based on the 6 manifesto pledges he made during his
campaign to become PCC. The PCC’s plan also contains actions
to show how the 6 priorities within the plan will be
met.
The PCC
introduced the item and informed Members that the Police and Crime
Plan had recently been published. It was confirmed that scrutiny of
the plan would be conducted with the Chief Constable through
monthly meetings which would be held in public and private. The PCC
went on to highlight the six main priorities of the plan and
invited Panel Members to ask questions on its content.
The
Chairman highlighted a comment made by the PCC regarding the
importance of dealing with domestic abuse cases quickly and
suggested that efforts should also be concentrated on cases where a
person is falsely accused.
A Member of
the Panel expressed their concern over the improvement needed to
CCTV in certain parts of Surrey and the role it played in
preventing terrorism. The PCC responded by informing the Panel he
was aware of its importance and that a review on CCTV usage was
being conducted as a matter of urgency with the Police. When asked
for a timescale on this the Panel were informed it would be
soon.
A Member of
the Panel informed the PCC of stories he had heard of Police
Community Support Officers (PCSOs) with long years of service
leaving because they felt they were not given the support they
needed. This was because Police Officers were also leaving the
force and were not being replaced. The PCC noted this and explained
that this was very concerning as they would not want to lose
experienced Officers.
Members of
the Panel were pleased that the Policing in your Neighbourhood
scheme was under review and asked for timescales of when the review
would be over and when the report would be made available. Members
were informed that the review would be over in November 2016 and
that more information would be made available then.
Panel
Members raised concerns over speeding on Surrey roads and asked how
the Police were going to tackle this, The PCC understood their
concerns and informed the Panel that the police took speeding very
seriously. It was said that the Police would do what they can but
would have to take a proportionate approach to the problem as it
was not viable for the police to be stationed on every road
monitoring speed. The PCC explained that he would be meeting with
the Leader of Surrey County Council to consider what can be done to
reduce speeding in the county.
A Member of
the Panel asked for information on how police were cutting crime
and statistics on how successful they were. The members stated that
they could not find this information and asked if this could be
included in future reports. The PCC confirmed that the information
was available online but was not included in the report as it was
lengthy. He agreed that this information would be included in
future reports. A member of the Panel queried when the rural crime
strategy would be published. The PCC explained the strategy was
...
view the full minutes text for item 49/16
The purpose of this report is
to inform the Police & Crime Panel of the Surrey Police Group
financial position for the 2016/17 financial year and the OPCC
month 4 2016/17 financial position.
The Chief
Finance Officer of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office
(OPCC) introduced the item to the Panel and confirmed that for 2015
between the Police Group and OPCC there had been a total under
spend of £154,000.
A Member of
the Panel asked for further information on carrying forward the
capital budget and if a time limit was put in place. The Officer
confirmed that there was no time limit and that the police had a
history of not spending the full budget allocation because of the
way capital projects had been managed. It was noted that the PCC
agreed to be more flexible with the capital carry over.
A
discussion was undertaken around IT overspend and whether this
overspend was due to the implementation of a data centre. The Chief
Finance Officer explained that work in relation to the data centre
was charged to revenue and IT overspend was mainly due to staff
turnover and agency staff costs.
The Panel
queried issues with staff retention and queried if there was any
possibility to increase staff incentives. The Chief Executive of
the OPCC confirmed that the police were reviewing the package of
benefits to officers, with a view to making sure officers stayed
with the force. She further explained that the Chief Constable
could pay a south east allowance but there were not enough funds to
do this without making cuts elsewhere.
Panel
Members questioned why a significant amount of money was being put
into pay a pension deficit when it could be used to retain staff.
The Chief Finance Officer informed the Panel that payment into the
pension deficit was made from under spend against the budget and
would ultimately reduce the amount that would need to be paid
against the deficit in the longer term.
The PCC
confirmed that it would seem that Surrey Police would be within
budget for this year and that additional savings would be achieved
through recruitment.
RESOLVED:
The Police and Crime Panel
noted the financial performance of the Surrey Police Group and the
Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey.
To consider issues raised during monthly discussions
between the PCC and the Chief Constable. The PCC holds monthly
Performance Meetings where the Chief Constable reports on progress
against the Police & Crime Plan and other strategic
issues. This is supplemented by
workshops and one to one discussions between PCC and Chief
Constable.
A Member of
the Panel queried if consideration was being given for a new
headquarters for Surrey Police. The PCC confirmed that this was
still undecided but believed the Headquarters should be based in
Surrey. The main strand of the estates strategy would be to
increase co-location with other Police Forces and to use buildings
more efficiently.
A member of
the Panel asked for confirmation if there would be possibility to
be involved with the scrutiny of the estate strategy in which it
was confirmed the Panel could have involvement. Formal oversight of
the strategy would be undertaken by the PCC in spring
2017.
A Member of
the Panel queried whether work on an estates strategy had started
four years ago and if so why a new estate strategy was being
created. The PCC explained that he and the Chief Constable had
agreed that more detailed work around a better strategy was
possible and hence the need to continue with this work.
RESOLVED:
The Police and Crime Panel
noted the update on performance meetings.
ACTIONS/FURTHER INFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED:
None.
52/16
UPDATE ON FUNDING FOR CCTV
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To receive a verbal
update on funding towards CCTV.
Members of
the Panel agreed that CCTV had been discussed at length during item
5 and therefore no further discussions were required. It was noted
that a formal report on CCTV would be considered at the 1 December
panel meeting.
A Member of
the Panel stated that more clarification was needed around
timescales of when information around the changes being made to
CCTV would be available. The PCC confirmed this was being viewed
with great urgency.
The Senior Policy
Officer introduced the item and informed the Panel that they had
£1,372,554 to spend on victim support services which was more
than last year. The Officer went on to explain how the budget was
divided between the services listed in the report. It was noted
that the OPCC were not the only commissioners in Surrey and that
joint commissioning was looked at where possible. The Officer went
on to confirm that a commissioning strategy for the next four years
would be published shortly online and that an online funding hub
was live.
The Chairman of the
Panel spoke about the need to use public money responsibly and the
importance of preventing duplication of services. The Officer
explained that there were some organisations in the report with
similar roles but were very different in their offerings, although
many worked very closely together.
A member queried a
budget deficit outlined in the report. The Senior Policy officer
explained that this was not a deficit but contribution towards a
shortfall in an organisation’s travel costs from the
OPCC.
A Member of the Panel
highlighted the mention of a Surrey Police DVD on child sexual
exploitation and asked how the service was aiming for it to be
circulated and communicated. The Officer confirmed that it was
their aim to circulate to schools but unfortunately there was no
guarantee as to if it would be taken up by schools. A Member went
on to ask how closely the service works with schools. The PCC
confirmed more could be done to work with schools although work was
being undertaken with schools currently through Eagle radio. A
member of the Panel commended the work of Eagle radio.
A member of the board
questioned the budget for administration costs and queried why it
was so high. The Senior Policy Officer confirmed that this budget
contained staff salaries and costs for events. It was further
explained that this funding comes from the Ministry of
Justice.
A discussion was had
around potentially giving fixed levels of money from the Community
Safety Fund to Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) to allow them
to continue the work they have done in the past. The PCCstated that he did not want to give large pots
of money to CSPs directly without efficient business cases in
place.
A member queried how
the performance of commissioned services were monitored. The Senior
Policy Officer explained that all services are monitored through
monthly and quarterly reporting. The contract with Victim Support
is monitored through six month updates and an annual report.
Victims accessing the service are monitored at the point of
referral and throughout the process to ensure progress is being
made.
Officers explained
that the Assistant Commissioner for Victims led the strategy for
the team and was a key point of contact for the courts, service
managers and victims of crimes. The PCC stated that he was very
happy with the work undertaken by the Assistant Commissioner for
...
view the full minutes text for item 53/16
To note complaints against the Police and
Crime Commissioner and the Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner
received since the last meeting of the Police and Crime Panel.
A Member of
the Panel asked for confirmation if body worn cameras for Police
Officers had been implemented across Surrey. The PCC responded by
saying that there had been delays but there was a keenness to get
this implemented soon.
The actions
and recommendations tracker was agreed.
1.It was explained that a full update report on CCTV
would be considered at the December panel meeting. The Panel
discussed the necessity of keeping the ‘Verbal Update on
Ongoing Investigations’ item on future agendas as a standing
item. There was concern that the information given in this item was
private and could interfere with current ongoing investigations.
The Chairman and PCC stated that it would be beneficial to keep
this item on future agendas as a general verbal update from the
PCC. It was agreed to rename this item on future agendas as
‘Verbal Update from the PCC.
RESOLVED:
The Panel noted the draft
forward work programme.
ACTIONS/FURTHER INFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED:
For the standing agenda item
‘Verbal update on ongoing investigations’ to be changed
to ‘Verbal Update from the PCC’.
57/16
VERBAL UPDATE ON ONGOING INVESTIGATIONS
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To receive a verbal update on
any ongoing investigations.