Police, Fire and Crime Panel

The Police, Fire and Crime Panel (PFCP) holds the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner to account.

The Police, Fire and Crime Panel is a body made up of local elected councillors and independent members with the responsibility to scrutinise and support the work of the Police and Crime Commissioner.

The PFCP is not a local government committee, however it is obliged to meet in public, to publish agendas and minutes, and to fulfill the following responsibilities:

To consider the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner’s Police and Crime Plan, and Fire & Rescue Plan – documents setting out the PFCC’s priorities for a three year period, and how those priorities will be delivered.
To consider the draft policing and fire & rescue budgets and draft policing and fire & rescue precepts. The precepts are the amounts of money that the PFCC proposes to levy on council taxpayers for Northamptonshire Police and Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue. The budget will set out how both the money raised from the precept will be spent, and also how other funds will be spent for which the PFCC has overall responsibility.
To consider the PFCC’s annual report, setting out their activities in the previous year.
To carry out hearings when the PFCC proposes to appoint a new chief constable, a deputy PFCC, a chief of staff, chief executive or a chief finance officer.
To work to resolve (but not investigate) non-criminal complaints made about the PFCC.

Members

The panel is made up of councillors drawn from each of the local authorities in Northamptonshire according to a set allocation of places, and two independent co-opted members drawn from the local community. The current membership is as follows:

North Northamptonshire Council

Councillor Gill Mercer
Russell Roberts
Dorothy Maxwell
Jon-Paul Carr
Zoe McGhee

West Northamptonshire Council

Councillor Andre Gonzalez de Savage
Councillor Anna King
Councillor Ken Pritchard
Councillor David Smith
Councillor Winston Strachan

Independent Co-opted Members

Mr Robert Mehaffy
Mrs Anita Shields
Miss Pauline Woodhouse

Meetings

Meetings take place at 1pm and the dates currently scheduled to take place are as follows:

17 June 2021
9 September 2021
16 December 2021
3 February 2022
17 February 2022 (Reserve meeting)
14 April 2022

Agenda items

The agenda papers for meetings are published five working days in advance. You can get them from our Police, Fire and Crime Panel Reports page. Alternatively, you can obtain copies from County Hall or download them from the West Northamptonshire Unitary Council’s website.

The panel meetings are normally held in public and you can attend. You can also address the Police, Fire and Crime Panel or ask a question on any item on the agenda for a particular meeting.

If you would like to speak at a Police, Fire and Crime Panel meeting, or have any questions about the PFCP, please contact James Edmunds at West Northamptonshire Council two working days before the date of the meeting.