The police forces covering Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire could be merged in future as part of arrangements for a new political authority in the East Midlands. Options for the future of policing in both counties could also see directly-elected Police and Crime Commissioners being scrapped.
Any changes would not come into force for some years, but initial discussions are now taking place ahead of a new East Midlands Combined Authority (EMCA) being set up. The authority would hold powers currently held by national government in areas such as transport and housing.
It would receive input from members of lower-level councils across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire and would be headed up by a publicly-elected East Midlands Mayor. To carry out its work, including the development of large-scale projects, the authority will be given £38 million every year for 30 years.
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If legislation is passed in time, the new authority will be up and running next May and the first ever election for an East Midlands Mayor will be held in the same month. Political parties are currently in the process of choosing who their candidate should be for the role.
One of the four leaders who signed the original deal last year to bring about the EMCA has now addressed how it could have powers to govern police forces in future. This governance role is currently carried out by directly-elected Police and Crime Commissioners, with Nottinghamshire's first one being elected in 2012.
Ben Bradley, the Leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, says merging Nottinghamshire Police and Derbyshire Police could be one way to allow the EMCA to govern policing. Councillor Bradley, who is running to be the Conservative Party's candidate for East Midlands Mayor, was speaking at an Institute for Government (IfG) event in Nottingham.
The event, held on Thursday (July 6) at the Park Plaza Hotel, saw the launch of the IfG's report on how to make devolution work, which it has prepared in partnership with the University of Nottingham. When asked about policing, Councillor Bradley said he had been told by Government: "If you want to bring policing into this, you need to consider merging police forces."
Councillor Bradley said: "That was a much more complicated operational question than we four leaders could answer in a four-week timeframe in doing the deal. What we've effectively said is that we want to look at that.
"I think there's every strategic reason to draw in policing around community safety, around youth services, into that bigger picture. That's a piece of work we're going to have to do over a longer period because there's thousands of police officers, structures and operational matters that we'll have to consider in all of that."
Councillor Bradley said he hopes the discussion around the future of governing policing would take place in the first term of the EMCA's Mayor. But Caroline Henry, the current Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner for Nottinghamshire, said merging police forces was not the only option.
Mrs Henry said: "To be honest, I don't think there's any appetite to merge the two forces. We're very different forces.
"All this is up for discussion in the future, we genuinely don't know what's going to happen with it." Mrs Henry outlined that other options could include Police and Crime Commissioners being replaced by two deputy mayors, one for Nottinghamshire and one for Derbyshire, though these would not be elected.
Mrs Henry added: "You need someone who can concentrate on looking after policing, whether that's a PCC or a deputy mayor or whatever, the job of governance of policing needs to happen. I'm not precious about it, to me what's important is delivering."
Nottinghamshire Police was approached for comment on the idea of merging with Derbyshire, but did not respond in time for publication. A Derbyshire Police spokesperson said: "Any merger of this type would be a matter for the Government. Should there be any consultation on the matter then the force would make comment at that time."
The IfG's new report contains several recommendations, including for the Mayor to "lead by consensus" rather than trying to "force through pet projects." The report also calls for the Government to consider the electoral system used to select Mayors.
It says: "It is plausible that future mayors could take office with the support of only a third of voters, comprising votes from their core support base. It is our view that mayors taking election in such circumstances would be less able to deliver effective leadership, given that the... devolution model requires consensus and coalition building.
"For these reasons, we recommend that this or a future government revisit the question of the electoral system for mayoral elections and consider a return to the supplementary vote, or even the alternative vote, which allows voters to express multiple preferences." Although only covering Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire currently, Councillor Bradley also said during the event that Leicestershire could join the new authority in future.
He added: "Logically, economically, Leicestershire should be part of it. Politically, it didn't work. By the time Leicestershire came to the table and said 'we want to be in this', we'd already done the deal.
"If you ask leaders around our region 'should Leicestershire be in this in the future', I think we'd all agree probably that they should. It's stuck in the process and it's too late now."
