---

Policing and Crime Bill

We all have views on how police authorities should be and they are all different. My main concern is the practicality of what is being proposed. Local authority members are not chosen because of their expertise in any particular matter—not yet. That may come in due course, and we will be fluffing around trying to find somebody with financial experience to lead the council on finance matters. But we are not there yet. I am worried that some people who would be very good police authority members would be precluded because they do not happen to have the ability or expertise that the police authority is looking for. Such expertise may not be available on the council at all. A police authority needs people with a robust connection with their local community, who have a lot of common sense and who understand policing. That does not seem to require any expertise other than being able to live in your local community and understand it. Although I understand the sentiments behind the amendment, I would not want to support it, because it might put local authorities in a very awkward position. If they were trying to appoint the sort of people that a police authority said it wanted, they might preclude somebody who was very good indeed and who might have been appointed if such restrictions had not been in place.