Committee details

Please note the agenda for each meeting will be published at least 6 working days before the date of each meeting.

Purpose of Panel

The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 introduced significant changes in police governance and accountability, in particular replacing the Police Authorities with directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners (Commissioners).

The public accountability for the delivery and performance of the police service within each force area will be placed into the hands of the commissioner on behalf of their electorate. The commissioner will draw on their mandate to set and shape the strategic objectives of their force area in consultation with the chief constable. The commissioner will be accountable to their electorate; the chief constable will be accountable to the commissioner.

The Act also requires the local authorities in each police force area to establish a police and crime panel (panel), as a joint committee, primarily to scrutinise the commissioner. The Act also prescribes many of the arrangements with regard to the panel and the way in which it conducts its business.

According to the Home Office, “Panels are not a replacement for the police authority. They will fulfil an important role in scrutinising the commissioner but we need to be clear that this reform is about reconnecting the police and the people. This will be achieved through a directly elected police and crime commissioner not through the police and crime panel. The panel will have an important scrutiny role in relation to the commissioner, however it is the commissioner who is taking on the role of the police authority and who the public will hold to account for the performance of their force.”

Peterborough City Council is the host Authority for the Cambridgeshire Panel.  Please send any queries for the Panel to democratic.services@peterborough.gov.uk in the first instance.

For any queries for the Police and Crime Commissioner or his deputy, please see the website http://www.cambridgeshire-pcc.gov.uk/ which contains the following contact details for his office:

Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Commissioner

PO Box 688

Huntingdon

Cambridgeshire

PE29 9LA

By email: cambs-pcc@cambs.pnn.police.uk

By dialing: 0300 333 3456

By fax: 01480 425748

To view the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Annual reports, please visit the Commissioner’s website: https://www.cambridgeshire-pcc.gov.uk/about-us/annual-reports/

Terms of Reference

Rules of Procedure

Panel Arrangements

Legislation

Complaints Procedure This Policy was updated at the Panel’s November 2022 meeting.

Media Protocol