To hear any announcements the Commissioner may have for the Panel.
Minutes:
The Chair invited announcements from the Commissioner, who highlighted the following to the Panel:
· Jason Kenny, the new Chief Executive, had been in post for several weeks and the new Head of Estates, Mike Ottaway, had also recently started in post.
· Public scrutiny sessions with Chief Constable, formally known as COMPASS, had been renamed to COPS (Commissioners Oversight of Policing Services). Members heard that COMPASS had previously cost £12-£15k per annum to produce, however COPS was being hosted using Facebook Live at no additional cost and also allowed the sessions to be more open and transparent. Recordings of COPS sessions were accessible on both the Commissioner’s and Constabulary’s social media pages, YouTube and were also shared via email.
· The Commissioner had assumed the Chair of the Local Criminal Justice Board. Through this role the Commissioner had identified concerns regarding the Criminal Justice Service (CJS) both across Wessex and locally in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, which would require her to dedicate a significant amount of time and focus upon the CJS provision.
· Of particular concern was the closure of remand courts on a Saturday in Newport and Portsmouth with short notice, due to legal adviser availability, with Basingstoke also to stop Saturday sittings later in the month. Members heard this would result in all cases in the Hampshire Policing Area being heard in Southampton. This would have a significant draw on police resource to transport those accused to Southampton. As a further impact, prisoners on remand were unable to be transported to prisons as reception desks would be closed by the time a case was heard, and instead would be brought back to police custody. Members heard that it was not legal to hold prisoners on remand in police custody and therefore Hampshire Constabulary had self-referred themselves to the IOPC. The Commissioner had written to HM Courts & Tribunal Service (HMCTS) to advise that this situation was wholly unacceptable. The Commissioner made Members aware that the Attorney General had recently visited the Eastern Police Investigation Centre (PIC), to look at how to improve and expedite the number of cases being heard.
· £5.4m in grants had been issued by the OPCC during the current financial year. The Commissioner highlighted that her team had successfully secured two to three times the level of grant funds allocated in the base budget through applications to central government grant rounds. This had included funding for the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) and £78k to support male victims of rape. Members heard the latest grants round, which had just opened for applications, would focus upon youth crime, ASB and preventing criminalisation.
· The Commissioner held the national portfolios for both Victims and Serious and Organised Crime. There was a significant national focus upon violence against women and girls (VAWG) and Members heard that the Commissioner had been working with the national VAWG lead, Maggie Blyth, who was a former Assistant Chief Constable at Hampshire Constabulary. The Commissioner had introduced a VAWG working group, which would run for a period of a year and bring together lead organisations from across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to focus on delivering tangible outcomes.
· As of end of September, Hampshire Constabulary had recruited 621 additional officers, of which 385 were funded through the central government uplift programme. This had brought the officer FTE establishment of the Constabulary to 3029. Members heard that a further 192 officers were due to start between October and March 2022. Having commenced the recruitment programme in April 2020, it was expected that the true operational benefits would start to be realised from March 2022, as the new officers complete their training period
· In addition to officer recruitment the Constabulary had recruited 103 new PCSO’s during the financial year, bringing the PCSO FTE to 248.
· The first formal meeting of the ASB task force was scheduled to be held in December and the PCC would be happy to provide an update to the Panel on the work of this group at a future meeting.
Councillor Ian Stephens joined the meeting.