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This additional evidence requested from the Richard
Commission examines the summary of the current statutory
duties and responsibilities of police authorities, contained
in Appendix
A, as to whether those duties would be consistent
with policing being a devolved function in Wales.
Please refer to Appendix
A whilst reading this submission, the functions
outlined in the appendix have been numbered in order
to reference them to the comments below.
The successful transfer of any of the outlined functions
from Whitehall to the National Assembly for Wales is
dependent on the allocation of sufficient and fair resources.
2, 3, 22 and 23 Many of the functions relate
to work under the Best Value Regime, which is seen by
PAW as largely irrelevant to the work of the police
authorities in Wales. The current system hinders working
between local authorities in Wales, which are subject
to the Wales Programme for Improvement. Therefore any
functions outlined in Appendix
A that relate to Best Value would ideally be amended
to reflect a change to the Wales Programme for Improvement.
4. Police authorities appoint Chief Constables
"subject to the approval of the Secretary of State";
this could be amended to be subject to the approval
of the National Assembly for Wales.
10. Liaison with international police bodies/forces
is currently subject to the consent of the Home Secretary.
This could be amended to include effective liaison between
the Home Secretary and the National Assembly for Wales.
11. Performance targets would be better set
by the National Assembly for Wales, in line with the
needs of Wales, taking the UK priorities into account.
12. The Codes of Practise, issued currently
by the Secretary of State, regarding the functions of
police authorities could be amended to reflect Wales
only functions, such as a change to the Wales Programme
for Improvement.
13. The duty to comply with the Secretary of
State following an adverse report by HMIC, could be
altered to comply with the National Assembly of Wales.
The Assembly could form working relations with HMIC.
14. Compliance with any directions regarding
budgeting could also be taken over by the National Assembly
for Wales.
16. Complaints should remain a Police Complaints
Authority function.
18. Complaints and discipline functions could
be retained at a central level. The other outlined functions
would not need to be altered as they refer to functions
that the police authorities carry out and would continue
to carry out if policing was devolved to the National
Assembly for Wales.
Police Authorities of Wales
August 2003
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