The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has announced that she will take the Home Secretary to court over plans to abolish her role and transfer powers to the region’s mayors.
Simon Foster, who took up the West Midlands PCC job in 2021, said he had applied for a judicial review to challenge what he called a “hostile takeover of PCC powers by the Mayor”.
Labor PCC said in a statement on Friday: “We have repeatedly advised against wasting taxpayers’ money by proceeding with a cynical, divisive and undemocratic power grab that benefits no one but the Mayor.” “Unfortunately, the Mayor did not listen. He left me with no other option but to proceed with the application for judicial review.”
Last week, West Midlands Conservative Mayor Andy Street confirmed that the government had agreed to transfer the PCC’s powers to the mayor after the May mayoral election.
This means the mayor will have powers such as appointing chief constables and setting police targets and police budgets, as already happens in London, Manchester and West Yorkshire.
Mr Foster said the Mayor had previously sought to take control of police powers in 2019 and 2021, but had failed to secure the support of all local authorities in the West Midlands, so the move had a “democratic He said he had no authority.
The government amended the law through the Equalization and Rehabilitation Act introduced in October, making it unnecessary to obtain the consent of local governments.
“They didn’t have local democratic authority, so they changed the law to eliminate the need for that and essentially gave the mayor sole decision-making power,” Foster said. “If you believe in local democracy, if you believe in devolution, what is happening in Manchester or West Yorkshire is not necessarily happening in the West Midlands. .”
Mr Foster previously launched a legal challenge over the failure to hold a public consultation on the issue before a decision was made.
The government then launched a six-week consultation in December, collecting 7,103 responses, of which 50% said they opposed devolution, but more than 900 responses were found to be duplicates.
Mr Foster said it was “nonsense and a complete travesty” to hold a “panicked 11th hour” public consultation after a decision on the issue had already been taken.
“I think it’s important to protect democracy and the rule of law and, in fact, the rights of the people I represent,” Foster said. “Given the public interest and the importance of policing, crime, community safety and criminal justice, it is critical that people have the right to vote and decide for themselves who represents them.”
In November, West Midlands Police was placed in special measures, with the force’s watchdog declaring the force was losing victims and needed widespread improvements.
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A Street spokesperson said: “Perhaps if the PCC had put as much energy into his work over the past three years, we would not have found ourselves in a situation where crime doubled due to his special measures powers.” he said.
“It’s scary to think how much tax money the PCC is wasting on London lawyers in an attempt to save London lawyers’ jobs. That money goes into the West Midlands Police budget and goes to the frontline. It should be spent on police officers.”
They added that the Mayor is not subject to judicial review and “will not back down from taking the tough measures necessary to tackle the scourge of crime across the West Midlands”.
Mr Foster denied that crime levels in the region were rising and said the Conservatives had overseen £175m worth of cuts to West Midlands Police between 2010 and 2019. It was criticized for including the loss of more than 2,000 police officers.
“When it comes to police and crime in the West Midlands region, I am not going to take any lectures from him given the devastating and devastating damage his own government has done to the police force,” Mr Foster said. Ta.
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
