The appearance of support...

A while ago (as mentioned below) I noted that Cllr Anthony Stansfeld has yet to resign from the Police Authority. Now I understand that he is not required to by law but for me it would be a fair and indeed courteous thing to do - to create a level playing field between him and other (non PA member) candidates.

And so I asked the police authority (after they had confirmed he had not resigned from the body) a series of follow up questions:

In the six weeks or so since Cllr Stansfeld was publicly declared as the Conservative Party candidate for the Police and Crime Commissioner (Reading Chronicle 15 July) for example) has he
a) Received an allowance for that period?
b) Claimed any expenses during this period?
c) Had access to information that would not be available to an ordinary member of the public? 
d) Had access to police officers and staff (especially Chief and senior officers) that would not be available to an ordinary member of the public? 
e) Had any meetings where the Chief Constable was present (excluding full Police Authority meetings)?

And furthermore, are there any national (APA / Home Office??) guidelines on whether police authority members, once declared as candidates, should resign from the that Police Authority?

I received this reply this morning:

Whilst Mr Stansfeld is a member of the Police Authority, and for the purposes of fulfilling the role and responsibilities of a member, he is entitled to be treated in the same way as any other Police Authority member in relation to allowances, expenses, receipt of papers for meetings and access to police officers and staff including the Chief Constable and other senior officers. This may involve the provision of information which is not publicly available.

The Home Office has confirmed that nominations for candidates to stand for election will open on 8 October 2012 and close on 19 October 2012.  Resignation as a member of a Police Authority is necessary before signing the official declaration of candidacy form;  there is no requirement to resign before then.

And it would appear that even though Cllr Stansfeld has been declared as the Tory PCC candidate and has begun his campaigning, he remains in a position of having privileged access to people and papers that other declared candidates do not. These are facts.

Contrast this to the response I received from the Police Authority on 27 June when I suggested that they might like to organise some 'shell' hustings to support the democratic process and the transition from them to the new governance structure. I was careful in saying that these hustings should invite all candidates and therefore be entirely neutral. Their reply included (and I quote):

"However, there has also been clear guidance from the Home Office that authorities should ensure that they remain neutral in the elections process and don't inadvertently appear to give support to individual candidates or parties"

Let me repeat part of this in big bold letters:

"and don't inadvertently appear to give support to individual candidates"

It seems to me that having a situation where a declared candidate remains a member of the authority does appear to give support to an individual candidate. Or am I being picky here? But (as others have pointed out in response to an earlier version of this post) the PA has no real power to remove him... unless the guidance on being neutral cited by them gives them that power?

And so my question to the TVPA is how do you square deciding against setting up all candidate hustings because it might be seen to be favouring a candidate while noting that there is nothing that be done before the legal deadline bit kicks in - or is there?

And my question for Cllr Anthony Stansfeld (one day he may answer my questions...) is do you not think it is about time you focused all your energies upon campaigning and less upon having privileged access to police business by dint of your membership of the PA?