Proposals to scrap police authorities and replace them with directly elected police and crime commissioners (PCCs) will be highlighted again today as the police reform and social responsibility bill receives its second reading in the House of Commons. The government, however, seems confused about the changes which introducing PCCs would bring. For example, the policing minister has recently been quoted in a Guardian blog interview saying: "We do not wish to see the politicisation of policing." Yet in the same interview the minister says: "The police have to answer to someone. They will answer to a politician."
We believe the government's proposals to introduce PCCs would result in the dangerous politicisation of policing, and at significant cost to the public. This comes at a time when every penny spent from the policing budget must be justified and not spent on elections. There is no evidence that PCCs would improve the service the public receive, and every reason to reject this proposal.
Cllr Rob Garnham Chair (Conservative), Ann Barnes Deputy chair (Independent), Cllr Mark Burns-Williamson Deputy chair (Labour), Cllr Brian Greenslade APA board (Lib Dem group Leader)
Association of Police Authorities
• We are joining the chorus of voices against government proposals (contained in the police reform and social responsibility bill) to give the director of public prosecutions a power of veto over arrest warrants for war crimes suspects who are visiting the UK. These warrants are issued very rarely by extremely senior district judges in Westminster, and only in response to submissions from victims accompanied by substantial evidence against the suspect. Giving a power of veto to the DPP would risk: political interference by ministers in the arrest of war crimes suspects; delaying proceedings, allowing suspects to escape justice; and would constitute a gross interference with the rights of the victim and the responsibilities of the judiciary.
Ministers and diplomats are already protected by immunity when carrying out their public duties, but this change in the law would risk creating a culture of impunity in the minds of those politicians and military leaders who already treat international law with cavalier disregard. We call on parliamentarians in both houses and of all parties to support international law and reject these proposals.
Richard Burden MP
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Alex Cunningham MP
Mark Durkan MP
Jonathan Edwards MP
Clive Efford MP
Paul Flynn MP
Mike Hancock MP
Cathy Jamieson MP
Gerald Kaufman MP
Ian Lavery MP
Andy Love MP
Caroline Lucas MP
Kerry McCarthy MP
John Mcdonnell MP
George Mudie MP
Ian Murray MP
Sandra Osborne MP
Yasmin Qureshi MP
Joan Ruddock MP
Bob Russell MP
Baroness Jenny Tonge
Mike Wood MP
Billy Hayes, CWU
Paul Kenny, GMB
Chris Kitchen, NUM
Kevin Courtney, NUT
Hugh Lanning, PCS
Bob Crow, RMT
Betty Hunter, Palestine Solidarity Campaign
John Austin
Victoria Brittain
Caryl Churchill
Jocelyn Hurndall
Dan Judelson
Bruce Kent
Ken Loach
Kika Markham
Prof Karma Nabulsi
David Polden
Prof Hilary Rose
Prof Steven Rose
Alexei Sayle
Clare Short
Keith Sonnet
Ahdaf Soueif
Dr Benjamin Zephaniah
Revd Canon Garth Hewitt, Amos TrustAbe Hayeem, Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine
Len Aldis, Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society
Chris Doyle, CAABU
Estella Schmid, Campaign Against Criminalising Communities (CAMPACC)
Kate Hudson, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)
Ismail Patel, Friends of Al Aqsa
Brenda Heard, Friends of Lebanon, London
Liz Davies, Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Mary Nazzal-Batayneh, Human Rights Legal Aid Fund
Pat Price-Tomes, ICAHD UK
International Solidarity Movement (ISM) London
George Farebrother, Institute for Law Accountability and Peace
Diana Neslen, Jews for Justice for Palestinians
Martin Linton, Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East
John McHugo, Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine
Daud Abdullah, Middle East Monitor (Memo)
Pat Gaffney, Pax Christi
Frank Barat, Russell Tribunal UK
Dr Alan Mackinnon, chair, Scottish CND
Hugh Humphries, Scottish Friends of Palestine
Michael Marten, Scottish Palestinian Forum
Lindsey German, Stop the War, Tahrir Swift, Women Solidarity for Independent and Unified Iraq
John Hilary, War on Want
Sarah Lasenby, NOW Network of Oxford Women for Justice and Peace
Marguerite Finn, Norwich Branch Of Women's International League Of Peace And Freedom (Wilpf)
Nigel Day, Oxford Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) ,
