§ 14. Maria Eagle (Liverpool, Garston)What plans he has to make police authority members more accountable. [61103]
§ The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Jack Straw)I have no plans at present to change the arrangements for police authorities. The majority of members on each authority are councillors who are democratically accountable to local people. Any member of a police authority may also be required to attend council meetings to answer questions about the conduct of police authority business.
§ Maria EagleMy right hon. Friend is aware of a recent controversy involving Merseyside police authority, which has managed to appoint a new chief constable without its 533 selection panel apparently carrying out the most basic of duties, such as reading the papers in front of it and raising important questions with the candidate. Some of those members have resigned, but many have not. What advice can he give my constituents who are writing to me regularly asking what they can do to hold to account those members who are not elected councillors and who have yet to resign in view of the mess that they have made?
§ Mr. StrawOf course I am aware of the controversy which has surrounded the appointment of the chief constable of Merseyside, but I want to make it clear in the House, as I have done already outside the House, that Mr. Norman Bettison was appointed in accordance with the standard procedures. His nomination was approved by the then Minister of State—my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales—and by me; he got the job fair and square; and he has my full confidence.