“The public need independent, consistent and clear information on the performance and activities of their PCC. Transparency is essential to promote confidence in the elected PCC. A consistent minimum amount of evidence will also allow the public to compare the performance of their PCC with PCCs elsewhere.” – Home Office
This year’s “PCC Transparency” Quality Mark presentations will take place from 11am on Monday, 28th November, 2016, in central London. This will be CoPaCC’s third successive year examining PCC transparency and recognising excellence in this area.
I am very pleased to announce that the Committee on Standards in Public Life will again be supporting presentation of these Transparency Quality Marks, with Committee members Monisha Shah and Richard Thomas in attendance. This is the second consecutive year with a CSPL presence at these awards: in 2015, the Committee’s Chair Lord Bew spoke at the award event, referencing the Committee’s recent policing-focused publication ‘Tone from the Top’ [Policing Insight subscribers – see analysis].
I am also very pleased to announce that leading police auditor Grant Thornton are again sponsoring these Awards. This is the third successive year of Grant Thornton’s association.
CoPaCC first examined OPCCs’ transparency in November 2013. As Chief Executive, I gave oral evidence on this and other PCC matters to the Home Affairs Select Committee early the following year. Since that time, CoPaCC has undertaken an annual review of OPCCs’ transparency, accompanied by thematic reports.
Our Transparency Quality Marks recognise good and excellent OPCC work in this area. Our benchmark has been to test the extent to which OPCCs comply with statute – in essence, “Do OPCCs comply with, or break, the law?”
When we examined OPCCs’ transparency last year, 24 out of 41 OPCCs were awarded the CoPaCC Transparency Quality Mark 2015, as follows:
- Avon & Somerset
- Cambridgeshire
- Cleveland
- Cumbria
- Derbyshire
- Devon & Cornwall
- Dorset
- Durham
- Greater Manchester
- Gwent
- Hampshire
- Hertfordshire
- Humberside
- Kent
- Lincolnshire
- Norfolk
- North Yorkshire
- Nottinghamshire
- Staffordshire
- Suffolk
- Surrey
- Warwickshire
- West Mercia
- West Midlands
CoPaCC wrote to OPCC Chief Executives three weeks ago to invite them to set out how their OPCC currently meets the statutory requirements on transparency.
We will publish our detailed findings on Monday, 28th November – the day of these “PCC Transparency” Quality Mark presentations.
