Agenda item

The Chair to be heard.

Members received a verbal update of the Chair.

The Chair and Assistant Commissioner held a session on Economic Crime with the All Party Parliamentary Committee which had been useful albeit a small group.

A successful private dinner at Mansion House was held with the Lord Mayor, senior Members and the Security Minister. Attendees included representatives from law enforcement and the business community. The Authority Team had received positive feedback from senior Members, which would be picked up as part of engagement programme going forward.

The Force had hosted a visit from Mark Shelford, the lead for PCCs on Fraud.

Externally, the Force and Authority continue to engage with crime correspondents, particularly on the area of the Online Safety Bill. There was due to be an ‘on the record’ interview with the Press Association.

On Sector Policing and Local Policing, good monthly updates for Members had been established. Thought had been given as to how that information was used for residential, business and other stakeholders. It was confirmed that a subset of information included in those updates were shared with the various communities and Independent Advisory and Scrutiny Group (IASG).

A key report on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) was featured on the agenda. EDI continued to feature heavily in a lot of national policing conversations, with a demand for clear objectives and KPIs to be established in order to manage ambitions across forces. This was an area focussed on heavily by the Professional Standards & Integrity Committee (PSIC).  The Chair called on the Force to ensure there is good information published on its website on this issue.

There had been good engagement from IASG around recruitment into senior positions. Representatives had sat on the interview panel for senior ranks including Chief Inspectors, Inspectors and Sergeants promotion processes. A report had been received by the Force from IASG with some recommendations for improvement and invited the Force to update them and the Board through its normal reporting cycles. Officers were working on KPIs that had to be agreed internally but would in due course be presented to Members for consideration; the Force felt that the IASG recommendations had been helpful and contained some easy wins which should be achieved quickly. The Commissioner agreed to keep IASG updated as to progress against these recommendations.

Members were keen to get the planned sector ‘cluster’ panels in the City up and running. These panels were on schedule for commencement in January 2022, locations had been sourced within communities. No other delays anticipated at this time.

The Chair requested that Members of Board participate in their respective clusters and invited them to act as leaders in that space. Members felt this was a very good initiative but felt that some of the initial communications had been confusing. Work was underway to streamline the communications to wider Membership, as well as to map the clusters with Members of the Board to ensure there was clear leadership at each meeting. A further update to be provided at the Board meeting in December 2021 (30/2021/P).

Following an anecdote from a Member, it was requested that at the very minimum, a holding response be issued to cluster panel applicants (31/2021/P).

A specific issue submitted to the allocated Sector Policing Officers by a business through a Member had not been responded to for two weeks. This was too long a period to wait for a reply and the Assistant Commissioner agreed to follow this up with the Member and concerned officers outside of the Board meeting.

RESOLVED, that the update be noted.