Police and Justice Bill

As I explained earlier, this is not something novel, it is designed to deal with things at the margins where there is an element of dysfunctionality and where it is important that there rests with the Home Secretary an opportunity to help to sort things out, when that is what is required to enable the organisation better to perform its duties. If you like, it is a benign reserve power. I really do not think that the Committee should get hung up on the notion of there being a desire for creeping centralisation. That is not the purpose. It is a reserve power designed to sort things out and be helpful.