“I was shocked to see that the panel is not representative of the society it serves. There is only one older white woman on the panel and the rest are older white men. Could a system be put in place to ensure that the panel is more representative of our society? This system should ensure that there are younger women on the panel, particularly mothers with childcare responsibilities, a panel member from BME, a panel member who is disabled and a panel member from the LGBT community. Why was it decided that the panel should be made up of County councillors, because these are overwhelmingly retired, white straight older males. We still have a very patriarchal society where structural and institutionalised sexism and racism exist and this panel does nothing to try and address this. Where the majority of Panel members represent mostly one group of our diverse society means they are likely to exhibit unconscious bias against certain groups and this can contribute to poor decision making and discrimination against those groups of people.”
Minutes:
“I was shocked to see that the panel is not representative of the society it serves. There is only one older white woman on the panel and the rest are older white men. Could a system be put in place to ensure that the panel is more representative of our society? This system should ensure that there are younger women on the panel, particularly mothers with childcare responsibilities, a panel member from BME, a panel member who is disabled and a panel member from the LGBT community. Why was it decided that the panel should be made up of County councillors, because these are overwhelmingly retired, white straight older males. We still have a very patriarchal society where structural and institutionalised sexism and racism exist and this panel does nothing to try and address this. Where the majority of Panel members represent mostly one group of our diverse society means they are likely to exhibit unconscious bias against certain groups and this can contribute to poor decision making and discrimination against those groups of people.”
Response by the Chair
“The composition of Police and Crime Panels is dictated by Schedule 6 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011. In respect of Welsh Panels, the schedule provides that it is the Secretary of State who will prescribe the number of councillors from each of the relevant local authorities who sit on a Panel. The Secretary of State must also agree the number of co-opted members that the Panel may appoint.
In the case of the Dyfed-Powys Panel the Secretary of State decided that the 4 Councils in the force area would each be able to nominate 3 of their councillors as members of the Panel. In addition the Panel would be able to appoint 2 co-opted members.
Following the local authority elections in 2017 the lead officer to the Panel wrote to the Heads of Democratic Services for the 4 Councils reminding them of the statutory requirement to reflect the geographical and political balance of their respective authorities and expressing the hope that any nominations would also reflect the gender, age and racial balance of their communities.
Whilst it is acknowledged that the current membership of the panel is not an accurate reflection of the overall age, gender and racial balance of society in the force area, this is largely due to the balance of the membership of the 4 Councils. The Panel itself has no power to change this.
It is only in respect of the co-opted members that the Panel has any say in who is appointed. During the last public recruitment exercise for co-opted members in 2016 eight applications were received of which 2 were from women. One of those female applicants was appointed.
In the circumstances I therefore propose that the following steps be taken;
1. That following the next local authority elections, the Lead Officer to the Panel again write to the 4 local authorities stressing the importance in ensuring that their nominations are as accurate a reflection of the balance of their communities as they can be and,
2. That the Panel immediately approaches the Home Office to seek their views on increasing the number of co-opted members in order to improve the balance of the Panel.”
Additional comments were raised emphasising that Panel Members have diverse experience in engaging with people from all backgrounds and demonstrate no evidence of unconscious bias, poor decision-making or discrimination to the disadvantage of certain groups. Members also suggested that A. T. could make representations to the Home Office to increase Independent Membership and encourage people to apply for these positions.
UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the Chair’s response, subject to additional comments raised during the discussion, be endorsed and sent to A.T.