Police (Committee of Inquiry) (Hansard, 15 December 1977)

§ Mr. Merlyn Rees

My right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Scotland and for Northern Ireland and I have356W appointed four members to join the body reviewing police negotiating machinery under the Chairmanship of Lord Edmund-Davies to constitute a committee of inquiry.

The new members are Lord Plowden, who will be deputy chairman, the Rt. Hon. David Bleakley, Sir Alec Cairn-cross and Miss Audrey Prime.

The full membership of the reconstituted committee is as follows:

The Rt. Hon. Lord Edmund-Davies (Chairman)
The Lord Plowden, K.C.B., K.B.E., President Tube Investments List., and Chairman of Equity Capital for Industry (Deputy Chairman)
The Rt. Hon. David W. Bleakley, Head of the Department of Social Studies, Methodist Colleage, Belfast.
Sir Alec Cairncross, K.C.M.G., Master of St. Peter's College, Oxford.
Dr. Ethel M. Gray, former Principal of the Craigie College of Education, Ayr.
Mr. Robert Leigh-Pemberton, Chairman of the National Westminster Bank Ltd.
Mr. Cyril Plant, C.B.E., former General Secretary of the Inland Revenue Staff Federation.
Miss Audrey M. Prime, O.B.E., former official of the National Association of Local Government Officers.
Professor John C. Wood, C.B.E., Professor of Law at Sheffield University and Chairman of the Central Arbitration Committee.

The Committee's terms of reference comprise three aspects. The committee will start right away on its study of the proper basis of police pay; at the same time it will complete the study of negotiating machinery already in progress; and finally it will examine the constitution and role of the Police Federations and the other police representative associations. The full terms of reference, which embrace only the police forces maintained under the Police Act 1964 and the equivalent Acts in Scotland and Northern Ireland are as follows: Having regard to the responsibilties of the police for the enforcement of the law and the maintenance of public order:

(1) to review the work of the police, bearing in mind:

(a) developments in the responsibilities and workload of the police and changes in policing arrangements;
(b) the stresses and dangers to which the police are exposed, arising from changes in society and from the growth of crime and threats to public order;
(c) the restrictions placed on police officers (individually and collectively) and their families by virtue of their duties and responsibilities as members of the police;

(2) in the light of the conclusions reached on (1) and of the need to attract and retain an adequate number of suitable police officers, to consider the basis for determining police pay and the appropriate levels of remuneration;
(3)to review the machinery for negotiating those matters relating to pay and conditions of the police service in the United Kingdom now dealt with by the Police Council; having regard to:—

(i) the interests and responsibilities of all the recognised representative bodies for the police service;
(ii) the interests and responsibilities of the Secretaries of State and police authorities for the efficiency, good management and financing of the police service;
(iii) the special position of the police service as a disciplined service responsible for the maintenance of law and order;

(4) to examine the existing constitution, rights and duties of the Police Federations and the other representative associations of the police and the legislation which governs their activities or affects their responsibility for representing the interests of their members, and to consider in what respects these should be revised to take account of developments in the field of industrial relations.

And to make recommendations.