§
5 After Clause 10, insert the following clause:
§ Appointment of officers
§ 'After section 10 of the 1964 Act there shall be inserted—
§ "Appointment of clerk.
§ 10A. A police authority established under section 3 of this Act shall appoint a person to be the clerk to the authority.
§ Appointment of persons not employed by police authorities.
§ 10B. Where a police authority established under section 3 of this Act is required or authorised by any Act—
- (a) to appoint a person to a specified office under the authority, or
- (b) to designate a person as having specified duties or responsibilities,
- then, notwithstanding any provision of that Act to the contrary, the authority may appoint or designate either a person employed by the authority under section 10 of this Act, or a person not holding any office or employment under the authority." .'.
Earl FerrersMy Lords, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 5. With the leave of the House perhaps I may also speak to Amendment No. 76.
The new clause would have two main effects. First, it would require each police authority to appoint a clerk. That would be in place of the obligation which the Bill previously placed on a police authority to designate one of its officers as the "head of their paid service" under Section 4 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989.
In the light of discussions with police authorities and in view of the concerns raised by your Lordships at an earlier stage, we looked again at the relevance of Section 4 of the 1989 Act. The duties of the head of paid service under that Act, although relevant to the future role of the police authority, are more a reflection of the responsibilities of the chief executive in a multi-service local authority. Some of the duties under Section 4 of that Act are not entirely appropriate in the police authority context where the number of staff will be very small and most management responsibilities will rest with the chief constable.
Instead, we propose that each police authority should be required to appoint a person to be its clerk. That will ensure that there is a clearly identifiable person who is responsible for the administration of the authority.
The new clause will also allow police authorities to appoint people other than their own employees as their statutory officers. Those statutory officers will be their clerk, their chief finance officer and the monitoring officer under Section 5 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. Those are unlikely to be full-time posts and police authorities may well want to use the services of outsiders on a part-time basis by either buying in the services of local authority chief officers, as most police authorities do now, or contracting with the private sector to provide such services. Without the amendment, police authorities would be required to appoint their own employees to those posts. The new clause will allow police authorities to choose whatever arrangements are best suited to their purposes.
Amendment No. 76 makes technical changes to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 which are consequential upon the new clause.
§ Moved, That the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 5.—(Earl Ferrers.)
§ Lord Harris of GreenwichMy Lords, the noble Earl is quite right. The matter was raised in this House. This amendment provides an improvement to the Bill as originally drafted and I welcome it.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.