“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
Transparency is under the microscope again, as CoPaCC embarks on this year’s look at this critical area of every Police and Crime Commissioner’s work.
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.
We have also recognised good and excellent transparency by the award of our Transparency Quality Marks. Our benchmark has been to test the extend 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 will be writing to every PCC within the next week to invite them to set out how their OPCC meets the statutory requirements on transparency. We will publish our findings later this year, and will at the same time award a number of OPCC 2016 Transparency Quality Marks.
Should any PCC or OPCC wish to understand more about this analysis in advance of our official invitation, do please contact us.
