Dan Jarvis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2014-04-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the budgets for criminal justice and emergency services will be devolved to Police and Crime Commissioners; and what the total budget is that Police and Crime Commissioners will inherit.

Damian Green

There are no current plans to transfer responsibility, and the budgets, for the criminal justice system or the emergency services to Police and Crime Commissioners.

The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act contains a duty to cooperate for Police and Crime Commissioners and criminal justice partners which – although broad – sets the framework for Commissioners to play a substantial local leadership role. Commissioners are taking a prominent role in local justice matters and are, for example, taking seats (sometimes even as Chair) at their local criminal justice boards.

The Government is further extending the remit of PCCs who will assume responsibility for commissioning local victims’ services in October 2014 – complementing their other responsibilities to respond to local views and needs when drawing up plans to cut crime.

The Government is also driving collaboration between local emergency services to deliver more effective services and better value for money for the public. We are providing funding through the Home Office Police Innovation Fund and DCLG’s Transformation Challenge Award and Fire Transformation Fund to support emergency services collaboration projects.