Agenda and minutes

The Chairman invited the members of the panel to introduce themselves and thanked those outgoing members – Cllrs Dove, Taylor, Haines, Johnson, Rigby and Howell.

He also thanked independent member Mr Iain McVie for his 11 years of service to the panel.

Proposed by Cllr Jespersen, seconded by Cllr Barrow.

Decision: that Cllr Les Fry be elected as Vice-Chair for the duration of the current municipal year.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 2 February 2023

The minutes of the meeting held on 2^nd February 2023 were confirmed and signed.

Panel update on the actions noted from the last meeting:  (06:25 on recording)

The Force’s Gold Group findings on 101 and emergency response. (06:25 on recording and appendix 1)

Local implementation of the “From harm to hope drug strategy” (10:47 on recording)

Operation Soteria Bluestone (15:40 on recording and appendix 1)  In response to a member question regarding Dorset Force’s performance against others in the Soteria project and any learning from the outcomes.  The PCC would look into this and respond.

Additions for the workplan – Serious violence, Duty Legislation and Domestic Abuse.

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 1 question or 1 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 8 questions and the first 8 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.  Further information read Public Participation - Dorset Council  

All submissions must be emailed in full to elaine.tibble@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk by 8.30am on Thursday 6 July 2023.

When submitting your question or statement please note that:  

·       You can submit 1 question or 1 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 3 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 elaine.tibble@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk by 8.30am on Thursday 6 July 2023.

Dorset Council Constitution – Procedure Rule 13

There were no statements or questions from Town and Parish Councils at the meeting.

To receive the Q4 Monitoring Report.

Prior to the PCC introducing the Q4 Monitoring Report the panel had the opportunity to put forward questions following a number of issues raised both nationally and locally. (27:20 on recording together with follow up questions) (and appendix 1).

Action: A follow up report to be presented to the panel in 6-9 months’ time to ensure changes from the Police Race Action Plan were embedded and programme a deep dive on the Race Plan as part of the panel’s ongoing business.

Following panel questions and answers, the PCC presented his Monitoring Report. (01:20:24 on recording).

Cut crime and Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB).

The PCC highlighted areas of the report, including his Operation Relentless Community Fund which was available for community groups to apply for to help combat ASB. The work of the Force Cyber Crime Officer and road safety for young people

The PCC responded to questions relating to shop lifting which needed a multi partner approach.  The Safer Dorset Partnership met on a quarterly basis with the three main threads of, trying to improve reporting, better engagement with businesses, prevention and cyber crime which would hopefully extend to organised crime and licenced premises.

Make Policing more visible and connected.

The PCC updated panel members on recruitment and community contact points.

Panel questions and responses are attached at appendix 1

Supplementary panel questions and responses (01:46:49 on recording), with regard to uplift numbers and visibility including in rural areas, communication between police and community and 101 response times.

Fight violent crime and high harm (02:15:05 on recording)

The PCC picked out some of the highlights, combating Drugs Rartnership, recruitment of CDB Business Manager. The Call it Out Campaign and Operation Encompass the school safeguarding programme.

Fight Rural Crime (02:19:17 on recording)

Rural resources were in place, the Dorset Partnership against Rural Crime allowed partnership working at a national level.  Dorset Police had hosted the first South West conference rural crime.

Panel questions and responses (appendix 1)

Put Victims and Communities First (02:30:28 on recording)

The PCC drew panel members attention to the increase in PCC funding for offender tags, the importance of sobriety tags, support for victims of hate crimes.

There were no panel questions.

Make Every Penny Count (02:33:19 on recording)

A new Chief Constable had been recruited with a range of experiences.  Confirmation had been received from the Ministry of Justice that the Core Victims Fund associated funds would be renewed totalling £1.35m.

Panel questions and responses are at appendix 1.

In accordance with procedural rule 8.1 a vote was taken to extend the duration of the meeting.

This paper provides an update on the policing and community safety challenges relating to the night-time economy in Dorset and the activities undertaken by agencies, in particular the Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and Dorset Police to address these challenges. This paper also seeks to address five Key Lines of Enquiry as provided by the Dorset Police and Crime Panel.

The Chairman thanked the officers of the OPCC for the report which had responded to all the key lines of enquiry.  An introduction was not considered necessary as members had read the report and therefore commenced with questions to the PCC.

The questions and responses are attached at appendix 1 of these minutes.

In response to a question from the Chairman the PCC explained how he was monitoring the Combating Drugs Partnership and driving down drug related crime.  The CDPs were still in infancy, however further guidance had been produced.  He highlighted the effects of Operation Scorpion which was hostile to drug use.  There were a number of themes as part of this operation, the current theme was combating cannabis farms and since being in operation there had been good advances.

The PCC was asked what action he had taken in order to gauge public perception on the “assurance of the additional officers” visibility in Bournemouth and Weymouth?. 

The PCC would be taking a deeper dive into this for the next meeting but the work so far included a number of extra patrols in both areas, Weymouth were having 100 days of summer which was going well.  Bournemouth had a number of new officers start in May.  The PCC had spent time out with officers and both areas had seen a big increase in visibility.  He spoke to stake holders and businesses on a regular basis to get feedback and corresponded with thousands of residents each year. 

Quarterly satisfaction surveys and summer consultations were also carried out.

The Chairman advised that Cllr Keddie would be working on some key lines of enquiry for the next meeting to see what action was being undertaken to reach out to the public to see how they felt about policing.

To update members on the Police and Crime Commissioner's Annual Report 2022/23.

The PCC thanked everybody for their input to the report which was now available to the public and advised that a small synopsis of the report called a 2 year on leaflet would be distributed across the county.

To receive a verbal update from the Chair of the Sub-Committee, following a Sub-Committee meeting on 21 June 2023 to consider an appeal to a complaint.

And to:

Appoint five panel members to sit on the Complaints Sub-Committee.

Appoint a Chair and Vice Chair for the Complaints Sub-Committee.

Ratify the proposed amendments to the Complaints Protocol.

The Sub-Committee Chairman updated the panel with the result of an appeal to a complaint.  The Sub-Committee had been satisfied that legislation and policy procedures had been followed.  Some administration changes had been identified which were to be made to come in line with the host authority’s procedures.  These were attached as an appendix to the report.

Proposed by Cllr Jespersen, seconded by Cllr Trent.

Decision: That the proposed amendments to the Complaints Protocol, as set out in Appendix A. was approved.

The following recommendations would be dealt with at the next meeting:-

a) Appoint five panel members to sit on the Complaints Sub-Committee

b) Appoint a Chair and Vice Chair for the Complaints Sub-Committee

To receive and review the PCP Forward Plan.

Members noted the Forward Workplan.

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.

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 was no exempt business.