Guidance

Police and crime panels

Police and crime panels provide support and scrutiny to locally elected police and crime commissioners, ensuring this information is available to the public.

Applies to England and Wales

Documents

Details

Police and crime panels are non-executive scrutiny bodies that provide both challenge and support to police and crime commissioners (PCCs) as they fulfil their duties.

Where PCCs are responsible for fire and rescue services in their force areas, panels in those areas are known as police, fire and crime panels.

As a result of the recommendations arising from part 1 of the PCC Review, the Home Office is delivering a new guidance and training package for panels, to make them more consistent and effective in overseeing PCCs.

The new resources are aimed at three different audiences within the panel structure – chairs, members and supporting officers – and provide practical learning to reinforce the panels’ roles and responsibilities, and to show what effective scrutiny of PCCs looks like.

In addition, a collection of bitesize videos on key scrutiny areas are available on YouTube:

The guidance and training resources were produced by the Home Office in conjunction with Dods Group Ltd.

Updates to this page

Published 19 May 2022
Last updated 16 June 2023 + show all updates
  1. Updated information about age in the Police, fire and crime panels: independent member recruitment guidance.

  2. Added Police, fire and crime panels: independent member recruitment guidance.

  3. First published.

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