Agenda and draft minutes

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 2^nd December 2025.

The minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 2^nd December 2025 were confirmed as a correct record and signed.

To disclose any pecuniary, other registrable or non-registrable interests as set out in the adopted Code of Conduct. In making their disclosure councillors are asked to state the agenda item, the nature of the interest and any action they propose to take as part of their declaration.

If required, further advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

No declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests were made at the meeting.

Representatives of town or parish councils and members of the public who live, work, or represent an organisation within the Dorset Council area are welcome to submit either one question or one statement for each meeting.  You are welcome to attend the meeting in person or via MS Teams to read out your question and to receive the response.   If you submit a statement for the committee this will be circulated to all members of the committee in advance of the meeting as a supplement to the agenda and appended to the minutes for the formal record but will not be read out at the meeting.

The first eight questions and the first eight statements received from members of the public or organisations for each meeting will be accepted on a first come first served basis in accordance with the deadline set out below.  For further information please see Public Participation - Dorset Council  

All submissions must be emailed in full to [email protected]

by 8.30am on Wednesday 4^th February 2026.

When submitting your question or statement please note that:  

- You can submit one question or one statement.

- A question may include a short pre-amble to set the context.  

- It must be a single question and any sub-divided questions will not be permitted. 

- Each question will consist of no more than 450 words, and you will be given up to three minutes to present your question.  

- When submitting a question please indicate who the question is for (e.g. the name of the committee or Portfolio Holder)  

- Include your name, address, and contact details.  Only your name will be published but we may need your other details to contact you about your question or statement in advance of the meeting.  

- Questions and statements received in line with the council’s rules for public participation will be published as a supplement to the agenda.

- All questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting.  

Dorset Council Constitution - Procedure Rule 9

Councillor Questions

Councillors can submit up to two valid questions at each meeting and sub divided questions count towards this total. Questions and statements received will be published as a supplement to the agenda and all questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting.

The submissions must be emailed in full to [email protected]

by 8.30am on Wednesday 4^th February 2026.

Dorset Council Constitution – Procedure Rule 13

A question had been received from Mr Mark Ellis. The Manager for Assurance read out the question on behalf of Mr Ellis.  The question and response are appended to these minutes.  The Chairman thanked Mr Ellis for submitting his question.

No further questions had been received.  

To set out the Police and Crime Commissioner’s proposals for the 2026/27 budget and precept.

Following the late receipt of a full set of financial figures to the Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner (OPCC) the Chairman commended the Chief Finance Officer, Julie Strange, for preparing the budget report in such challenging circumstances.  The Chairman reminded members of the panel of the statutory rules regarding the decision to be taken; the panel could either support the precept proposal, support the precept and request further information for the July panel meeting precept, support the precept proposal with the additional option to veto the proposal (which would require 8 members to vote against the proposed precept and the panel would meet again on 19^th February 2026). 

The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) introduced the budget which was seeking an increase in the precept of £15 per annum, it had been a difficult budget setting period and there was a need to balance the need to keep people in Dorset safe against not wanting to ask for additional funding. The PCC paid tribute to his staff for all of the hard work that had gone into producing the budget.  To provide the panel with all of the salient information required to make a decision on the budget the PCC asked Amanda Pearson, Chief Constable, Julie Strange, Chief Finance Officer and Adam Harrold, Director of Operations to make presentations to the panel.

(00:22:12 on recording)

The Chief Constable, Amanda Pearson, provided a comprehensive oversight in respect of the operation aspect of policing, the achievements of the previous year, the reductions in budget already achieved and the ongoing commitment to continuous improvement and seeking further opportunities through the use of technology, income generation, reductions in staff posts, utility costs, vehicle running costs and software. However, it had got to the point where the workforce could not be asked to do more, their resilience had been stretched to the limit and there was a need to stabilise workforce and maintain the level of policing; the service to the public could not be maintained without the increase of £15 to the precept.  

(00:58:56 on recording)

The Chief Finance Officer, (CFO) Julie Strange, provided an overview of the budget provided to the Panel and confirmed that since the publication of the report no further information had been received so the report remained accurate and was up to date. The CFO confirmed that the budget being put forward to the panel was a balanced budget and provided assurance that the budget was robust and that the overall level of reserves was adequate.

(01:02:28 on recording)

The Director of Operations, Adam Harrold, providing a presentation to the panel on the public consultation exercise that had been undertaken between 27^th November 2025 and 26^th January 2026, details of which were set out in the budget paper.

At that point the PCC invited questions from members of the panel; the questions and responses are attached at Appendix 2 to these minutes.

The Chairman closed the question and answer session at 11.45am. Cllr Rampton asked  ...  view the full minutes text for item 82.

To receive the Q3 monitoring report.

The panel was provided with an update of progress against the Police and Crime Plan to enable members of the panel to scrutinise activity and assess the achievement of outcomes.  The PCC made a statement in respect of each of the priorities and took questions at the end. The questions and responses are appended to these minutes.

Following the response to the final question from Cllr Canavan on the risks associated with the White Paper the Chairman invited the PCC to give his views on the White Paper reforms.  The PCC agreed that some aspects of policing such as IT, commercial and forensics could benefit from economies of scale.  In respect of mergers, creating large forces, the PCC did not believe that bigger was better, some of the safest and cost effective forces were the smallest forces.  Issues such as ASB, rural, shoplifting and drugs could be deprioritised and a focus on the cities instead of a focus of everybody.  The PCC was also concerned about the centralisation of power, if dictated from the centre then there would be a move to the politicisation of the Police. Most important going forward was to have robust local governance, if there was a South West police force it wouldn’t be overseen by a Dorset committee.          

To receive a verbal update from the Service Manager for Assurance.

The Service Manager for Assurance advised the panel that 1 complaint had been received an investigated and had been appealed.  A meeting of the Complaints Sub-committee was being held following the budget meeting to consider the appeal.  

To discuss the Forward Workplan.

It was noted that hate crimes and hate incidents, RISE/out of court disposals had been put forward as items for the July meeting.  The Chairman suggested that an additional item be added to the July agenda on the Evolve project to get a deeper understanding of the transformation programme. The Chairman also suggested that a further review of the budget be undertaken in July or September, depending on when the PCC had the additional information from Government.      

To consider any items of business which the Chairman has had prior notification and considers to be urgent pursuant to section 100B (4) b) of the Local Government Act 1972. The reason for the urgency shall be recorded in the minutes.

There were no urgent items of business.

To move the exclusion of the press and the public for the following item in view of the likely disclosure of exempt information within the meaning of paragraph 3 of schedule 12 A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended). The public and the press will be asked to leave the meeting whilst the item of business is considered.  

There are no exempt items scheduled for this meeting.  

There was no exempt business.