Oral Answers to Questions

Daniel Kawczynski Excerpts

Monday 12th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I welcome my hon. Friend’s comments on Northamptonshire police, who have indeed been very innovative. They have been at the forefront of work to join together the police force and the fire authority to ensure savings and a better service for the people of the county of Northamptonshire. We are trying to adopt a funding formula that is simpler than the previous one, that is fair across the board and that people can look at and understand; a funding formula where people can appreciate why the elements are in there. That cannot be said of the current funding formula.

[Daniel Kawczynski (Shrewsbury and Atcham) (Con)]

2. What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of police and crime commissioners.

[Sir Simon Burns (Chelmsford) (Con)]

5. What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of police and crime commissioners.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Minister for Policing, Crime and Criminal Justice (Mike Penning)]

Elected police and crime commissioners provide accountable and visible leadership, which I hear the whole House now supports. PCCs are an excellent body taking the lead role, as we have just heard, in driving collaboration between forces and other emergency services to deliver more effective services and better value for money.

[Daniel Kawczynski]

I thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. In West Mercia, the main advantages of having commissioners are accountability and transparency, which local people very much appreciate. We have just selected our new Conservative candidate, Mr Campion, who, if elected, will do an excellent job. Will my right hon. Friend assure me that he will continue to look at ways to devolve power and responsibility to police and crime commissioners, as this experiment is working?

[Mike Penning]

My hon. Friend raises a very important point and I wish Mr Campion well in his bid to represent his community as a PCC. We will soon be introducing legislation that will allow more collaboration and more help to be brought to the police, fire and ambulance services—that is the sort of thing we would expect.