Agenda item

To receive a quarterly update from the Police and Crime Commissioner detailing delivery against his Police and Crime Plan.

Members received some advance slides and a presentation from the Commissioner and representatives of his Office setting out an update on delivery against the Police and Crime Plan 2016-2021 (see Item 11 in the Minute Book).

Councillor Warwick provided an overview of the most recent Police and Crime Plan Working Group, where a number of topics were considered and highlights requested on the Heartstone schools project, firearm licensing review, and Elders Strategy, which the presentation in the papers had covered.

The Panel heard that the Commissioner and his Office had set out to be ambitious from day one in relation to considering projects which would add value in delivering the Police and Crime Plan. Currently, the number of projects in place exceeded the resource of the Office, so choices were being made in terms of the priorities to focus on.

On the three topics that the Plan working group had requested updates on:

·         Schools in the Southampton area had been difficult to engage in relation to the Heartstone project, and the assistance of the local Member would be helpful in trying to improve this.

·         The firearms licencing review had been successful in reducing significantly the average time to process grants, licences and certificates, which had moved the project into the ‘green’ status. The Commissioner noted that the Plan working group had suggested that this improvement be added to the Commissioner’s website. Previously, the project had been ‘amber’ as the Officer had not received timely reports from the firearms team, in order to record the impact of the measures taken. The Commissioner was delighted to note the significant improvement in this area, and that the Plan working group had recognised this.

·         The Commissioner felt that in engagement exercises it was often younger voices that tended to be prioritised, and the purpose of the Elders Strategy was to ensure that the Commissioner had access to these voices, who can offer a lifetime of contribution. This would also be picked up through the community strategy, which would be considered by the Panel in April.

The Commissioner noted that the slides provided as part of the pack gave a list of the decisions he had taken, and a detailed overview of the projects ongoing.

Moving to the additional slides presented, the Commissioner noted his success in publishing the latest volume of the ‘Little Book of Big Scams’, which he had provided copies of to the Panel for passing on to those who they felt would benefit. Under the topic of youth engagement, the Commissioner had recently visited Itchen College as part of ‘Parliament Week’ in order to speak to them on his role, and to take questions. From this, applications had been received to the Youth Commission and two students had been successful in gaining places.

On the Victim Care service, which was a service commissioned by the Office of the Police and  Crime Commissioner, the Commissioner was pleased to share the significant number of victims of crime that had been offered support, received enhanced support and had gone on to receive one to one services to help them cope and recover. With the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulations, it may be that in future the Commissioner would not be able to share the number of individuals assisted by the victim care service, so it was important to highlight this to the Panel whilst able to.

The Commissioner noted his pleasure in helping with the ground breaking for the Eastern Police Investigation Centre in Portsmouth, and played a short video to the Panel on the progress of his Plan.

The Chairman thanked the Commissioner and the Programme Office Lead for their update.

RESOLVED:

That the update on the delivery of the Police and Crime Plan is noted.

Councillors Adrian Collett and Lisa Griffith left at this point in the meeting.