The West Midlands police and crime commissioner (PCC) has announced he is taking the home secretary to court over plans to scrap his role and transfer his powers to the region’s mayor.
Simon Foster, who took over as PCC in the West Midlands in 2021, said he had applied for a judicial review to challenge what he described as a “hostile takeover of PCC powers by the mayor”.
“I have repeatedly advised him not to waste taxpayers’ money, proceeding with his cynical, divisive and undemocratic power grab that is in no one’s interests, save that of the mayor,” the Labour PCC said in a statement on Friday. “Sadly, the mayor has refused to listen. He has left me with no alternative but to proceed with an application for judicial review.”
Last week, the Conservative mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, confirmed the government had agreed to transfer PCC powers to the mayor after the mayoral election in May.
This means the mayor will take on powers including appointing the chief constable and setting police objectives and the police force’s budget, as is already the case in London, Manchester and West Yorkshire.
Foster said there was no “democratic mandate” for the move, as the mayor had previously tried to take on policing powers in 2019 and 2021 but had been unable to secure the support of all West Midlands’ local authorities.
The government has changed the law through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act, introduced in October, to remove the need for consent from local authorities.
“They didn’t have a local democratic mandate for it, so they changed the law to remove the need for that, and effectively vested sole decision-making power with the mayor,” said Foster. “If you believe in local democracy, if you believe in devolution, then what happens in Manchester or West Yorkshire is not necessarily what happens in the West Midlands.”
Foster previously launched a legal challenge over the failure to hold a public consultation on the issue before the decision was made.
A six-week consultation was subsequently launched by the government in December, attracting 7,103 responses, of which 50% said they disagreed with the transferral of powers, although more than 900 were identified as duplicate responses.
Foster said holding a “panic-driven 11th hour” public consultation after the decision on the issue had already been made was “a nonsense and completely farcical”.
“I think it’s important to defend democracy and the rule of law and, indeed, the rights of the people that I represent,” Foster said. “Given the level of public interest, and the importance of policing, crime, community safety and criminal justice, it’s really important that people have the right to vote and decide for themselves who represents them.”
In November West Midlands police were placed into special measures with the official watchdog declaring the force was failing victims and needed extensive improvement.
A spokesperson for Street said: “Perhaps if the PCC had put this much energy into his job over the last three years then we wouldn’t be in a situation where crime has doubled with his force in special measures.
“We dread to think how much taxpayer money is being wasted on London lawyers by the PCC in trying to save his job, money that should be in the West Midlands police budget to be spent on frontline officers.”
They added that the mayor was not subject to the judicial review, and had “no intention of backing away from taking the tough steps required to tackle the scourge of crime across the West Midlands”.
Foster has denied that crime levels in the region have gone up, and criticised the Conservatives for overseeing £175m worth of cuts for West Midlands police between 2010 and 2019, including the loss of more than 2,000 police officers.
“I’m not going to be taking any lectures from him when it comes to policing and crime in the West Midlands, given the catastrophic and devastating damage that his own government has inflicted on policing,” Foster said.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The government’s plan to level up the country includes the ambition for more mayors to be accountable for policing and crime locally, as is already the case in London, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire.
“Following public consultation, the home secretary has made the decision to transfer the police and crime commissioner functions to the mayor of the West Midlands. This will come into effect in May following the mayoral elections.”
