This blog is mainly about the governance and future of policing and crime services. (Police & Crime Commissioners feature quite a lot.) But there are also posts about the wider justice system. And because I am town councillor and political activist, local & national issues are covered a little, as well.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

PCC election purdah: Many questions to be resolved

I recently wrote and article for Policing Insight on a range of issues that Chief Constables, OPCC Chief Executives and PCCs will need to address as the elections in May next year get closer.

You can read the article (for free!) here. Here is how it starts:
The PCC elections in May 2016 will be the first with incumbents, some (or many) of whom may seek re-election. This article identifies many as-yet-unanswered questions about PCC election purdah, together representing a potential minefield for forces, OPCCs and others to navigate.
May 2016 will see the first PCC Elections with incumbents in position. In other words it will be the first time that Police services will have to operate during a period of purdah…
So what are the implications of this to Chief Officers, the CEOs of OPCCs & other staff, and police officers & staff… let alone the incumbent PCCs themselves, whether or not they are seeking re-election? I am assuming that something of a fusion of the Home Office, the APCC, the NPCC, the HMIC & the CoP will be getting together soon to sort out the detailed guidance… And maybe this process has already begun. I hope so...
The core problem is probably (as we discovered in November 2012) that the Home Office doesn't do elections... (...although if Carlsberg ran the Home Office...) That expertise tends to rest in DCLG (The Department for Communities and Local Government).

So maybe it is time that the Home Office talked a little bit more to DCLG?

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