North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel

 

16 January 2025

 

Panel’s review of the draft Police and Crime Plan and Fire and Rescue Plan

1 Purpose of Report 1.1 To outline the legal framework and guidance around reviewing the Mayor’s draft Police and Crime Plan and Fire and Rescue Plan for 2025/29.

 

2          The Mayor is required under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 (as modified through the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority Order 2023) to issue a Police and Crime Plan “as soon as is practicable” after taking office and, in any case, before the end of the financial year in which the Mayoral election took place; hence by the end of March 2025 at the latest.

 

3          The Plan will determine and explain the Mayor’s priorities for their term of office and is a critical means of securing efficient and effective police, criminal justice and community safety services, holding the Chief Constable to account and setting the budget and strategic direction of police and other services under the Mayor’s remit.

 

4          Following the transfer of the fire and rescue functions to the Combined Authority, there isn’t the same legal requirement upon the Mayor to specifically produce a ‘Fire and Rescue Plan’ although a draft Plan has been developed in order to provide a strategic plan for the Mayor’s vision and priorities for the service.  The Panel is asked to review and make recommendations on this in the same way as is done for policing and crime. 

 

5          These Plans will act as planning tools for the Mayor’s office and are also an important mechanism for communicating the Mayor’s intentions to the public, police, fire and rescue service, partner agencies, Panel and other stakeholders.  As such, consultation with the public and key partners is a key part of the development process for the Plans.  A consultation with the public was held last year and ended on 18th November 2024.  Panel members were provided with details for the online survey and encouraged to also share this more widely with residents.   

 

6          In terms of the core legal role around preparing and agreeing the Plans, the Mayor’s role is to:

 

·         Prepare a draft of the Plans or variation

·         Consult the Chief Constable and Chief Fire Officer in preparing the draft Plans or variations

·         Send the draft Plans or variations to the Police, Fire and Crime Panel

·         Have regard to any report or recommendations made by the Panel in relation to the draft Plans or variations

·         Provide a response to any such report or recommendations from the Panel; and

·         Publish any such response given.

 

7          In terms of the role of the Panel in this process, the legislation guides that the Panel must review the draft Plans and make a report or recommendations on them to the Mayor.  This report must be published.  In the national guidance for Panels published in 2019 by the LGA, CfPS and Frontline Consulting, it is highlighted that “Panels are…able to make recommendations for priorities in the plan[s], on performance measures to be used around delivery of the plan[s] and for improvements in services to meet the…[Mayor’s] objectives.”  Panel members are now invited to review the mature drafts of the Plans and consider aspects such as overall presentation of information/accessibility of information in addition to any aspects around the proposed content of the Plans. 

 

8          A critical component for the Panel will be to understand how the Mayor and Deputy Mayor will measure progress against the Plans going forward.  The Panel may therefore also wish to separately consider how it will seek to review progress and the performance of the Mayor/Deputy Mayor, along with the kind of information that would assist in this.

           

9          It should be noted that while the Deputy Mayor may put forward the Mayor’s draft Plans for consideration by the panel, it is only the Mayor who can legally respond to the Panel’s formal statutory report and recommendations and only the Mayor who can issue the final Plans.

 

10.0    Financial Implications

 

10.1    There are no significant financial implications arising from this report for the Panel although clearly the Mayor’s direction as given to the police and fire services under the Plans will carry financial planning implications for those services.

 

11.0    Legal Implications

 

11.1    The legal implications for the Panel are that it has a statutory role to review the Mayor’s draft Police and Crime and Fire and Rescue Plans and make a report and recommendations on these, as outlined above.

 

12.0    Equalities Implications

 

12.1    There are no significant equalities implications arising for the Panel from this report.  However, the Mayor has had to give consideration to ensuring a representative view has been captured from the public in formulating the draft Plans and consideration will also need to have been given to the accessibility of those drafts.

 

13.0    Climate Change Implications

 

14 Recommendations 14.1 That the Panel notes the guidance note provided. 13.1    There are no significant climate change implications arising from this report.

 

Background Documents:

 

None.

 

Barry Khan

Assistant Chief Executive Legal and Democratic Services

County Hall

Northallerton

7 January 2025

 

Report Author:   Diane Parsons, Principal Scrutiny Officer.