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Responsibility for administration

As of 11 May 2020, we (Leicester City Council) became responsible for the administration of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Police and Crime Panel.
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Public question time procedure

The panel accepts questions from members of the public which can be put to the Police and Crime Commissioner at its meetings.

  1. Questions are to be submitted to the Secretariat to the Police and Crime Panel (anita.james2@leicester.gov.uk). Questions submitted 15 working days (or more) prior to a PCP meeting will be taken at that PCP meeting subject to the procedure set out below. Any questions which are received less than 15 working days prior to a PCP meeting will not be submitted to the meeting, unless in the opinion of the Secretariat the question relates to an item on the agenda of the PCP meeting following the submission of the question or is otherwise of such urgency that it should be taken at the meeting.
  2. For a question to be accepted, it must:
    • Relate to the strategic functions of the PCC (including his Police and Crime Plan) and not relate to the operational management of Leicestershire Police*.
    • Not be substantially like a question put at a meeting within the preceding six months unless circumstances have changed such as to justify the question being put.
    • Not require the disclosure of exempt or confidential information.
    • Not be vexatious or defamatory. (*Any questions relating to the operational management of Leicestershire Police will automatically be directed to the Office for the Chief Constable, who will endeavour to respond in accordance with normal practice – the questioner will be notified that it has been forwarded. These questions will therefore not be taken in public at PCP meetings.)
  3. If the Secretariat, acting as appropriate in consultation with the Chairman of the PCP, considers that a question does not comply with paragraph 2, it shall advise the questioner accordingly and, if appropriate, direct the question to the appropriate public body. If the Secretariat considers that the question does comply with paragraph 2, the question will be referred to the PCC and will be treated as having been adopted by the PCP and be subject to the procedure below.
  4. Questions adopted by the PCP in accordance with paragraph 3 above become questions to be put by the PCP to the PCC and responsibility for asking the question will be allocated to a member of the PCP, at the discretion of the Chairman, having regard to the relevance of the question to particular area(s) within the jurisdiction of the PCP.
  5. The PCC will issue a response to the question submitted to it under paragraph 3 which will be made available to the person who raised the question (“the questioner”) and PCP members by noon on the day prior to the PCP meeting at which the question is to be submitted.
  6. The question and answer will be “taken as read” at the beginning of the meeting.
  7. The member of the PCP asking the question may ask a supplementary question which must relate to the initial question and be for the purpose of clarification and not raise new issues. Only one supplementary question will be permitted for each initial question. Supplementary questions and responses will be included in the formal minute of the meeting.
  8. There will be instances where the PCC (of his/her officers) are unable to respond to a supplementary question put at the meeting. In instances such as these, a written response will be issued to the questioner by the PCC within five working days of the meeting and a copy of the response provided to the Secretariat.
  9. A question and answer will not be the subject of further discussion or resolution at the meeting. The subject matter of the question may be the subject of a further report and debate at a later meeting of the PCP.
  10. It will be accepted that the PCP will allow up to 10 minutes for public questions, though it may wish to lengthen this in the appropriate circumstances.

Meetings of the PCP are webcast live to the public and this footage will be owned by, and archived in perpetuity on the website of, the Leicester City Council.

The public are reminded that the PCC has his own channels of communication through which the public are encouraged to engage, including a 'Have Your Say' area of the PCC’s website: https://www.leics.pcc.police.uk/Have-Your-Say/and his direct email address: police.commissioner@leics.pcc.pnn.gov.uk.