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Bringing a post – and a policy – into disrepute

Shaun Wright's behavior has partly discredited PCCs.

The last thing the advocates of Police and Crime Commissioners needed was the unedifying prospect of Shaun Wright grimly hanging on to his position as PCC for South Yorkshire in the wake of the Rotherham scandal, being disowned by his own party and denounced by the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister.

In sport, players can be charged with bringing the game into disrepute – biting an opponent (football), getting drunk the day before a match (men’s cricket), swearing too audibly at opponents (tennis). In political life, there is no equivalent authority to bring players who are shaming the office they hold into line and disciplining them – which is why MPs such as Zac Goldsmith have been campaigning for a right to recall for MPs who step too far out of line. When they created Police and Crime Commissioners, the Home Office set the malfeasance bar very high – only an offence which could bring a prison sentence of 2 years would be sufficient grounds for requiring a PCC to step down. (The Government’s own proposed recall bill would allow constituents to “sack” their MP if they faced a 12 month prison sentence.) Presiding over a regime of neglect and failed policies is not a criminal offence. If Shaun Wright wants to tough it out and wait until he faces his electors in2016 and continue to draw his salary, no one can stop him. Shaun Wright may well become a poster boy for the failure of police and crime commissioners. But the problems with the policy have gone wider. Borne out the need to find some way of devolving accountability where citizen choice and markets could not work, PCCs have proven not only to be the answer to a question no one quite understands, but also to be a policy which even the government itself seems reluctant to support. The first PCC elections were in November, a dark, cold month when the UK hardly ever holds elections. The Home Office would not fund sending manifestos to households – so most were only available online. The boundaries accorded with no normal political organisation. In most cases, the posts became an out-placement scheme for politicians, or a new option, and better paid, for formerly obscure members of police authorities. It was hardly any surprise that in these circumstances turnout barely edged over 15%. Newly elected PCCs have found it hard to prove benefit – but easy to garner a bad press even before this week’s events. Dud appointments of seeming cronies or ‘undervetted’ people; fallings out with chief constables all made for a rocky start. And, not surprisingly, the first PCC by-election attracted attention only for the cost per vote as turnout went down to just over 10%. At least Shaun Wright could argue that by hanging on he is saving the taxpayer a few millions for the cost of electing his successor. Next year will see whether PCCs continue or are consigned to the giant dustbin of decentralisation gone wrong. An independent review for Labour suggested scrapping them, as have some former home secretaries – though the party has yet to decide. The Conservatives will have to decide whether to invest in measures that might increase interest and therefore legitimacy, as suggested last week by the Electoral Reform Society, or whether to retreat quietly and repeal. For all parties, the PCC experience is a salutary reminder that decentralisation needs popular support to make it work in practice – and that when people say they don’t like additional layers of well-paid politicians they may actually mean it. And it shows that there is a big difference between decentralising power and doing so in a way that brings results and lasts. Evidence shows that when mayors have been established, people tend to vote to keep them. Given the choice it’s hard to see many people voting to retain PCCs even with the benefit of status quo bias – and Shaun Wright’s behaviour this week has tipped the balance against this even further.
English Regions
North West
Publisher
Institute for Government

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