The PCC is set to join of Essex, who became
the country’s first police, fire and crime commissioner
in October 2017, alongside other PCCs who have had
their proposals to take on responsibility for their
local fire and rescue services approved. These include
, PCC for
Northamptonshire, John Campion, PCC for West Mercia,
, PCC for
Staffordshire, and , PCC for Cambridgeshire.
Through the Policing and Crime Act 2017, the government
has introduced a range of measures to drive greater
collaboration between emergency services, enabling
services to share best practice and become more
efficient and effective. This includes enabling PCCs to
take on governance of fire and rescue services where a
local case is made.
Before submitting her proposal, PCC was required to
undertake local consultation, considering the views of
the public and relevant local stakeholders. As the
relevant local authorities in the area did not support
the transfer of governance, the Home Secretary
commissioned an independent assessment of the PCC’s
proposal in November 2017.
The Home Secretary carefully considered the contents of
the proposals, consultation materials, the views and
representations made by statutory consultees and the
PCC responses to them, together with the conclusions of
the independent assessment.
The Home Secretary was satisfied the proposals
demonstrated that a transfer of governance would be in
the interests of economy, efficiency and effectiveness,
without having an adverse effect upon public safety. In
the interests of transparency, and in line with the
provisions of the Policing and Crime Act 2017,
the independent
assessment has today been published.
