West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner to be replaced by Mayor

Andy Street will take control of police and fire services in 2020



The West Midlands mayor will take responsibility for fire and police services by 2020, the Home Office says.

It means the mayor Andy Street , elected by voters in Coventry, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Solihull, Walsall, Sandwell and Dudley, will replace the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, who is also directly-elected.

But the plan was criticised by Birmingham MP Steve McCabe (Lab Selly Oak), who said the Government previously claimed it was essential to have a Commissioner to hold police forces to account.

Walsall North MP Eddie Hughes raised the future of police and fire services in the House of Commons, as he asked what talks the Government had held with West Midlands mayor Andy Street about a “devolution deal” designed to transfer more power to the region.

Home office Minister Nick Hurd said: “I speak regularly to Andy Street. The Government are determined to honour the second devolution deal, including with proposals to help to bring police and fire services under the Mayor, as we have done in London and Manchester.

“We are absolutely committed to working with both Andy Street and the police and crime commissioner to make sure that that happens by 2020.”

But Mr McCabe responded on Twitter, saying: “I thought we elected the Police & Crime Commissioner. Seem to recall current PM arguing elected Police and Crime Commissioners were crucial for police accountability.

“Now they’re going to tack it onto a Mayoral job created for an entirely different purpose.”

The next mayoral elections are also due to take place in 2020, which means there is no guarantee the mayor taking over police and fire services will be Mr Street.

Why is there no mention of David Jamieson in the article?

Does this mean we make a saving on the full cost of the police commissioners office, or will the mayoral office get extra funding?

Interesting that Jamieson's job is scrapped just two days after he asked the Home Secretary for more funding?

Plans to combine PCC with mayoralty dealt huge blow by Coventry councillors

Plans to combine the role of Police and Crime Commissioner with the mayoralty by 2020 were dealt a killer blow.

The Labour-controlled cabinet at Coventry City Council met to discuss a range of issues, with the combined authority's second devolution deal one of the items on the agenda.



Coventry council leader George Duggins had suggested that two separate public consultations should take place on the proposals before a decision was made, whereas the timeline only allowed for one.

This resulted in a stalemate and promises to discuss the issue in more depth over the summer, with a view to reaching an agreement at the upcoming meeting on September 14.

However, as one Home Office official made clear at the board meeting in July, there simply is not enough time to hold two separate consultations.

At the meeting, the Home Office revealed that they were already working on a tight deadline to allow the legislation to be ready for 2020, with a comparable move in Manchester being given five times as long to be completed.

The developments mean that Coventry will not vote in favour of any process which does not allow for two consultations to take place.

Coventry could be overruled at the board meeting on September 14, with a majority all that is needed to take the process onto the next stage.

But, ultimately, every constituent member of the Combined Authority must agree on the proposals before they can be passed. This means that, after Tuesday's cabinet discussions, Coventry would almost certainly veto any proposals it did not agree with, making it impossible for the measures to be passed.

It'll go ahead regardless of how Coventry City Council votes