Flawed cost of commissioners

Yet the Government’s insistence that directly-elected commissioners will be cheaper – and more efficient – than the now defunct police authorities they replaced is not clearcut. There are also significant policy inconsistencies which cannot be ignored.

First the cost. While the new policing model in North Yorkshire is 50 per cent cheaper than previously, a Parliamentary report claims that costs in South Yorkshire actually rose by 36 per cent from £2.3m to £3.1m – a conclusion robustly disputed by officials locally.

Although these fluctuations in the Home Affairs Select Committee’s findings appear to be at the far end of the scale nationally, the credibility of the figures became further tarnished when the Humberside force refuted suggestions that its costs have risen by two per cent while West Yorkshire’s overheads have dropped by 14 per cent.

Inevitably there will be variations – the very concept of localism, the policy underpinning the election of commissioners, means that neighbouring forces will have differing priorities that will have a knock-on effect on overheads.

That said, it would be helpful, from a scrutiny point of view, if all commissioners followed the same accounting rules – the current confusion must not be allowed to exempt from full accountability.

Like Home Secretary Theresa May who drove through this change, they are responsible for significant sums of public money, and that means being scrutinised for their expenditure decisions.

Furthermore, it is clear that there needs to be clarity on the extent of commissioner powers to hire and fire police chiefs – another shortcoming exposed by MPs in their report.

It is all very well for the Home Secretary to say that taxpayers have the power to vote out under-performing commissioners – but it is very long time between now and the next elections in May 2017. An awful lot of money could go to waste in the intervening period unless robust safeguards are put 
in place.