Police and Crime Commissioners

(asked on 1st December 2014) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that police and crime commissioners are accountable to the public.


Answered by
Mike Penning Portrait
Mike Penning
This question was answered on 5th December 2014

Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) are held accountable by the most effective check on any politician: the ballot box. This democratic power did not exist before 2012, when we replaced invisible, unaccountable police
authorities with directly elected PCCs. Under the old system, the public had no say in who served as a police authority chairman or member and more than 5.8 million votes have been cast for PCCs since their introduction.

The rules on the dismissal of a PCC are stronger than those for similar directly elected roles, such as MPs. Police and Crime Panels hold the power to suspend a PCC charged with an offence which carries a maximum sentence above
two years imprisonment. Any PCC found guilty of an imprisonable offence (whether or not a custodial sentence is handed down) is immediately disqualified from holding office.

The Home Secretary has said that there is a debate to be had on the issue of PCC recall, and the Government will listen carefully to the views of the Home Affairs Select Committee, of Parliament, and of the public more generally, and
will reflect upon these views.

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