Ministers plan to end local police accountability role

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Councils will have no formal role in holding police forces to account, the Home Office has told local government.

With a police green paper due to be published in June, Home Office civil servants have told Local Government Association officials there is "no enthusiasm… for municipalisation of police accountability". The news places a question mark over the viability of council-led police authorities.

Mark Norris, LGA policy officer, confirmed that local authorities would not have a formal role in plans to develop police accountability.

Changing the way local community safety activity is funded is also understood to be under consideration.

"The ideas being floated on accountability have involved various forms of directly elected people or groups of people," Mr Norris told LGC. "I'm not sure how local authorities would continue to fit into the picture."

Police forces are currently held to account by police authorities funded by a precept on council tax bills in their area. Although police authorities are responsible for appointing chief constables, a spokesman for the Association of Police Authorities admitted the organisation did not know the last time an authority had used its powers of dismissal.

Mr Norris said rumours were circulating that funds could be diverted away from police authorities. 

"One thrust [Home Office civil servants] seem to be exploring is taking a chunk out of police authority precepts and keeping it at basic command unit level," he said, adding that "exploratory" talks had taken place between civil servants and LGA finance officials.

The introduction of directly elected representatives to boost police accountability was flagged up in the draft Queen's Speech this month (LGC, 22 May).

Amelia Cookson, head of the Local Government Information Unit centre for service transformation, said direct election need not spell the end for police authorities.

But she said diverting funding to a more local level could signal direct election for crime and disorder reduction partnerships (CDRPs), operating at borough level.

"If funding goes to the local level then the CDRP is where the accountability would come in," she said.

The Home Office declined to comment.