Police Appeals Tribunals Rules 2008

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Police Appeals Tribunals Rules 2008. The noble Lord said: The Police Act 1996, as amended by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, contains power for the Secretary of State to make regulations as to the government, administration and conditions of service of police forces. Today, in an effort to further improve the arrangements for dealing with issues of unsatisfactory performance or misconduct relating to police officers, we are introducing these three statutory instruments. The statutory instruments establish a new set of procedures governing police disciplinary matters, in response to the recommendations of the Taylor review. The Police (Conduct) Regulations 2008 establish procedures for taking action in respect of misconduct by police officers and special constables. The Police (Performance) Regulations 2008 establish procedures for dealing with issues of unsatisfactory performance and attendance on the part of police officers—apart from senior officers—and special constables. The Police Appeals Tribunals Rules 2008 provide for appeals to a police appeals tribunal against the findings and specific outcomes from both the conduct and performance regulations. These instruments have been prepared following the passing of primary legislation in the recent Criminal Justice and Immigration Act and enjoy the full support of the Police Advisory Board for England and Wales and the Independent Police Complaints Commission. It may be helpful to the Committee if I set out the background to the making of these instruments. The Taylor review of police disciplinary arrangements was the review conducted by William Taylor CBE QPM, a former commissioner of the City of London Police and former HM Inspector of Constabulary for Scotland, into the effectiveness of disciplinary arrangements for police officers. The programme board that guided and informed the review consisted of all the main police stakeholders and other invited organisations: the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Police Federation of England and Wales, the Police Superintendents’ Association of England and Wales, the Chief Police Officers’ Staff Association, the National Black Police Association, representatives of Special Constabulary, the Independent Police Complaints Commission, UNISON, Liberty and the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. The key recommendations of the Taylor report—there were 19 in total—include the ones that I will highlight today. They are that the police officer disciplinary arrangements are most appropriately determined by Parliament, after extensive consultation; that a new single code should be produced to be a touchstone for individual behaviour and a clear indication of organisational and peer expectations; and that, although regulated, the new procedures should be based on the ACAS code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures. The report also recommended that conduct issues should be separated into two distinct groups—misconduct and gross misconduct—in order to promote proportionate handling, to clarify the available outcomes and to provide a better public understanding of the policing environment; that the police service must manage the disciplinary arrangements dynamically in order to drive through changes to the internal culture of the organisation and to promote acceptance of responsibility at all levels of management; and, importantly, that the procedures for dealing with the unsatisfactory performance of a police officer should be reviewed. The recommendations contained in the report were accepted by the programme board and Ministers and led to the Police Advisory Board for England and Wales being asked to take forward the process of implementing the recommendations. There are five points that I should like to emphasise about the new regulations. First, the Taylor review found that the current system of dealing with police misconduct can be both slow and disproportionate and gives little or no encouragement to managers to deal swiftly and proportionately with low-level misconduct matters. Disciplinary hearings were seen as being more akin to criminal court hearings and even low-level misconduct matters were decided by a three-person panel of senior police officers. The new system ensures that police managers are given the responsibility and ability to deal with misconduct in a fair and proportionate manner at the local level. Also, timescales are built into the process to ensure timeliness in all misconduct and gross misconduct cases. An independent member, appointed by the police authority, will also sit on gross misconduct panels to bring a public perspective in holding police officers to account. Secondly, as I said, the Taylor report proposed that there should be a new single code, which should be the touchstone for individual behaviour and a clear indication of organisational and peer expectations. We, together with all stakeholders, have produced the new standards of professional behaviour for police officers, which form part of the conduct regulations. The standards set out clear expectations of the behaviour that the public and colleagues expect of all police officers. The Taylor review also proposed that the new misconduct procedures should be based on the ACAS principles, which would modernise the system and make it easier for individual officers and the police service generally to learn lessons and improve their service to the public. One of the key points to emerge was the need to shift the emphasis and culture in police misconduct and unsatisfactory performance matters from blame and punishment towards a focus on development and improvement. Fourthly, the report stressed the importance of carrying out a full assessment of the alleged conduct at an early stage with a view to implementing a proportionate response. The new procedures have incorporated the requirement for this objective assessment to take place at an early stage. Finally, the report recommended a review of the existing unsatisfactory performance procedures that deal with individual poor performance and attendance of police officers. This recommendation has been implemented through the new performance regulations, which set out the procedures for dealing with the individual poor performance or attendance of police officers. The Police Appeals Tribunals Rules provide for appeals against the findings and specific outcomes relating to cases considered under the new conduct or performance regulations. Appeals should be dealt with in a timely and proportionate manner; timescales are built into the new rules to ensure that this is the case. The police appeals tribunal chair will have the power to dismiss appeals at an early stage, where there is no real prospect of success and no other compelling reason why the appeal should proceed. The tribunal will have the power to overturn the finding of the original panel that considered the conduct or performance case and to amend the sanction imposed. In addition to our statutory duty to consult the Police Advisory Board for England and Wales, the new procedures have undergone extensive consultation with all chief constables in England and Wales, police authorities, police staff associations and non-police bodies such as the Commission for Racial Equality, which is of course now the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and the Equal Opportunities Commission. In addition, in accordance with our statutory duty, we have consulted the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council on the draft Police Appeals Tribunals Rules. The response to the consultation has been broadly supportive of both the policy behind the changes to the misconduct and performance procedures and the detail of the regulations and rules themselves. Stakeholders and other organisations are keen to move to a system that deals with misconduct and poor performance in a more timely and proportionate manner. The Home Office and the Police Advisory Board for England and Wales have considered each of the responses received and made appropriate changes to the policy and the instruments. These changes have been made with the approval of all those organisations represented on the Police Advisory Board for England and Wales. The Police Advisory Board working party has met 29 times over 33 months to take forward the implementation of the Taylor recommendations. The working party has overseen the various consultation exercises that I have set out. It has fully approved the policy underlying the new procedures. That is what these instruments seek to achieve and I therefore commend them to the Committee. I beg to move. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Police Appeals Tribunals Rules 2008. 27th Report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments.—(Lord Brett.)