States Assembly | Submission - Comptroller and Auditor General - Review of Draft SoJ Police Force (Amendment No.3) Law

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Deputy Rob Ward

Chair, Children, Education and Home Affairs Panel FAO Andy Harris

States Greffe

Morier House

St Helier

JE1 1DD

By email to: a.harris5@gov.je 12 March 2021

Dear Deputy Ward

Police Governance Law Review

Thank you for your letter dated 26 February 2021 regarding the review of police governance law by the Children, Education and Home Affairs Panel.

You have asked for comments on your terms of reference together with a number of specific points.

Terms of reference

On point 4 of your terms of reference I would note that it is difficult to comment on how future changes will impact on the operation of the various stakeholders and inter-relationships at this stage. Whilst the Panel can make a judgment on principles, it could be too premature to comment on impact.

LYNN PAMMENT

Comptroller and Auditor General

Jersey Audit Office, de Carteret House, 7 Castle Street, St Helier, Jersey JE2 3BT

T: +44 1534 716800 E: enquiries@jerseyauditoffice.je W: www.jerseyauditoffice.je

Specific matters

The Scrutiny Panel has requested my views on the following specific matters:

• The changes that this would have in relation to the operation of the Jersey Police Authority, it's relationship with the States of Jersey Police Force, Minister for Home Affairs and Directorate of Justice and Home Affairs

• The changes that this would have in relation to the Minister for Home Affairs and their responsibility in relation to the States of Jersey Police Force and its operation

• The changes that this would have in relation to the relationship between the Justice and Home Affairs Directorate and the Chief Officer of the States of Jersey Police Force

• Whether the recommendations made in your report have been adequately incorporated, and, where other changes outside of the report have been made, whether these are proportionate and in keeping with the spirit of your recommendations

• Whether the changes being suggested outside of your recommendations are in keeping with best practice arrangements for governance and accountability.

My observations are as follows:

The recommendations from the C&AG report of March 2018 were accepted in full at the time by the Government of Jersey. The recommendations focused on enhancing the accountability and operational independence of the States of Jersey Police by a number of changes in the governance and responsibilities of the Jersey Police Authority.

The proposed changes outlined in the Draft States of Jersey Police Force (Amendment No.3) Law address the C&AG recommendations made in respect of:

• amending the principal duties to oversight and promoting continuous improvement, rather than ensuring delivery

• establishing an independent inspection regime

• independent membership through removal of two members elected by the States Assembly; and

• certain human resources responsibilities to be allocated to the Chief Officer rather than the Minister.

Most of the changes proposed flow from the earlier recommendations and are, in my view, in keeping with the overall emphasis of the previous report. The changes are designed to enhance independence and revise the role of the Police Authority as recommended. I do have a number of specific observations on the proposals:

• Whilst the covering paper refers to the earlier recommendation for the Police Authority to routinely advise on the budget, an explicit reference to this is not seen in the draft legislation

• The frequency of the inspection regime is not indicated in the draft legislation. There may be merit in specifying a maximum interval that is proportionate

• At this stage, the opportunity to include other services within the role of the Police Authority is not reflected in the proposal. It is noted that this was to be considered as part of the development of the Target Operating Model.

It is difficult to make a judgement on the impact of the proposed changes at this stage. Delivering improvement will be dependent on the successful implementation of necessary revisions to the operational framework of the Police Authority once the legislation is enacted. Key issues will include:

• ensuring an appropriate level of resources for the Police Authority

• how will the Police Authority deliver its objectives in respect of oversight and continuous improvement

• achieving the right balance of skills and experience on the Police Authority, supporting this with training, and agreeing how effectiveness will be evaluated

• establishing an effective routine process for advising the Minister on the budget; and

• establishing an effective inspection regime that provides scrutiny, challenge and monitoring of recommendations.

The following table summarises my observations on the specific C&AG recommendations in the 2018 report:

Ref	Recommendation	Coverage in legislation	Observations
R1	Enhance the resources	Article 3 of the draft Law	No duty on the Minister
	available to the Police	inserts new Article 4 that	or States to provide
	Authority to discharge its	includes a duty on the	adequate resources for
	functions, including by	Authority to seek from	the Authority to perform
	establishing and	the Minister additional	its functions.
	implementing a routine frequency for independent inspections of the States of Jersey Police.	resources to enable it to perform its duties. Article 10 of the draft Law inserts Article 28AA	No specification of the minimum frequency or requirement for the provision of sufficient
		that obliges	resources to undertake
		independent inspection	an inspection.
		that must be undertaken at regular intervals
		subject to availability of
		resources to the Police
		Authority.
R2	Enhance the training and	Not directly addressed.	No duty on the Minister
	support available to members of the Police Authority to enhance their ability to discharge their responsibilities.	Article 3 of the draft Law inserts new Article 4 that includes a duty on the Authority to seek from	or States to provide adequate resources for the Authority to perform its functions.
		the Minister additional
		resources to enable it to
		perform its duties.
R3	Review whether it	Article 4 of the draft Law	Addressed.
	remains appropriate for	amends Article 3 to
	the States Assembly to	replace States Assembly
	elect two members of the	members with
	Police Authority.	independent members.
R4	Develop proposals to	Article 3 of the draft Law	Addressed.
	amend the statutory	amends Article 4 to
	duties of the Police	promote and support
	Authority to ensure that	continuous improvement
	they are focussed on	and oversee
	oversight and	performance of policing
	improvement.	services.

Ref	Recommendation	Coverage in legislation	Observations
R5	In light of experience of	Article 7 of the draft Law	Partially addressed.
	the operation of the States of Jersey Police Force Law 2012 and the practice in other jurisdictions, develop proposals to amend legislation relating to the allocation of powers and duties to reinforce further the operational	amends Article 17 to: - Impose duty of efficiency and effectiveness on Chief Officer; - remove power of the Minister to determine establishment.	Requirement for Ministerial approval for service with another police force still required.
	independence of the
	States of Jersey Police.
R6	Establish and document	Article 3 substitutes	Role of Police Authority
	revised non-statutory	Article 4 redefining the	strengthened. However,
	arrangements relating to	role of the Authority.	recommendation relates
	the governance of the States of Jersey Police, including: - ending the current arrangement of the Chief Executive serving as line manager for the Chief of Police; and	Article 10 of the draft Law inserts Article 28AA that obliges independent inspection that must be undertaken at regular intervals subject to availability of resources to the Police	to non-statutory arrangements and would not envisage coverage of this in legislation. I
	- enhancing the role of	Authority.
	the Police Authority.
R7	Evaluate whether the role	Not addressed.	I understand that this
	of the Police Authority		remains under active
	could be extended to		consideration for the
	cover other services		future.
	where operational
	independence is
	important.
R8	Ensure that internal	Not addressed.	I would not expect this
	operating procedures		recommendation to be
	clearly document the		addressed in legislation.
	respective roles of
	different parties for
	police human resources
	issues.

Ref	Recommendation	Coverage in legislation	Observations
R9	Routinely review and	Not addressed.	I would not expect this
	update the Police Terms		recommendation to be
	and Conditions of Service		addressed in legislation.
	in response to changes in
	legislation.
R10	Where another	Not addressed.	I would not expect this
	department advises a		recommendation to be
	Minister, involve the lead		addressed in legislation.
	department for a
	ministerial portfolio to
	ensure that:
	- where Ministers are
	asked to exercise
	statutory powers, civil
	servants prepare
	written advice
	weighing the
	advantages and
	disadvantages of
	different options; and
	- all Ministerial
	Decisions are
	properly recorded
	using the standard
	template and are
	centrally held.
R11	To reinforce the	Article 12 of the draft	Partially addressed.
	operational	Law amends the States
	independence of the	of Jersey Police Force
	States of Jersey Police,	(General Provisions)
	bring forward proposals	(Jersey) Order 2016 to
	to amend legislation to	transfer various powers
	reassign human	in respect of promotion
	resources responsibilities	and probation to the
	from the Minister for	Chief Officer.
	Home Affairs to the Chief of Police and Police Authority.	Article 11 of the draft Law amends the States of Jersey Police Force
		(Chief Officer and
		Deputy Chief Officer)
		(Jersey) Regulations
		2017 requires the
		Minister to consult where

Ref	Recommendation	Coverage in legislation	Observations
		practicable with the Chief Officer before appointment of a Deputy Chief Officer.
R12	Separately identify the resources allocated to the States of Jersey Police in the Medium - Term Financial Plan.	Not addressed.	The Government Plan now shows this separately but the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 2019 does not require such identification.
R13	Give the Police Authority a routine role in advising Ministers in respect of the budget for the States of Jersey Police.	Article 3 of the draft Law amends Article 4 to require the Police Authority to seek from the Minister such additional resources as required for the States of Jersey Police to perform its functions.	Partially addressed. This does not provide for the routine, active role for the Authority envisaged in the recommendation.
R14	Align service and financial planning for the States of Jersey Police by moving to a multi-year Policing Plan.	Article 8 of the draft Law amends Article 19 to algin the Policing Plan with the Government Plan (one plus three years).	Fully addressed.

My 2021 audit plan includes a specific follow up review of the implementations of the 2018 C&AG report. I anticipate that I will commence work on this review later in 2021.

I trust that you will find my response to be of some assistance to you. Yours sincerely

Lynn Pamment

Comptroller and Auditor General