Wiltshire Police Commissioner slams government after scrapping PCCs
Philip Wilkinson said PCCs were given just an hour’s notice before the government announcement was made
Wiltshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner has slammed the government for “gross incompetence” following the announcement that police commissioners would be scrapped.
In a no holds barred letter to MPs and councillors, Philip Wilkinson said PCCs were given just an hour’s notice before the government announcement was made last Thursday (November 13).
Mr Wilkinson said: “PCCs were only briefed on a Teams call by the police minister one hour before the announcement in the House of Commons that we and our offices were being dis-established and disbanded.
“There was therefore no time to prepare and brief my staff. And as someone who cares passionately about those who work with, and for me, I consider such insensitive behaviour and lack of care appalling and beyond contempt.”
“a blatant top-down abuse of power"
The commissioner described the decision “a blatant top-down abuse of power, and claimed there was “no consultation prior to the announcement.
“Clearly the government did not want to hear or care for what the Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner, police or our residents felt was best for our county,” he said.
The government said scrapping police commissioners from 2028 would save £100 million a year – which the commissioner described as “deeply insulting”.
“Sadly, as we have already seen, since this government has been in power this centralist behaviour, its micromanagement tendencies and the continual renaming of the same money for political effect offers no real public benefit,” said Mr Wilkinson.
He said that in the past three years the OPCC had drawn down more funding to support policing in the county than the office had cost taxpayers.
He said he feared funding for victim support and making communities safer would be lost, rather than transferred to whatever replaces PCCs – expected to be regional mayors as county councils are steered towards forming combined local authorities.
“The shift of policing to super mayor authorities is based entirely on socialist political dogma, more akin to the Soviet Union than a democratic country such as ours,” he said.
Mr Wilkinson said that when he was elected four yeas ago he had vowed to be politically impartial, but said he felt “justified in describing the situation from my personal perspective and offering political comment” following the announcement.
“My solemn oath to you is that I and the dedicated team of professionals in the OPCC will continue to serve you to the best of our abilities as we attempt to manage a smooth transfer of our functions to whatever authority replaces us as part of whatever incoherent plan this incompetent government tries to impose upon us,” he said.
“unnecessary bureaucracy”
The government called PCCs “unnecessary bureaucracy” and said the £100 million saved would be ploughed into frontline policing.
They said turnout at the polls for elected PCCs had been “incredibly low” and that two in five people are not even aware that police commissioners exist.
Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said “The introduction of police and crime commissioners by the last government was a failed experiment.”