West Mercia Police and Crime Panel

West Mercia Police and Crime Panel

The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 created a directly elected Police and Crime Commissioner within each force area in England and Wales outside London.

The Commissioners' main responsibilities are:

  • setting the strategic direction and accountability for policing
  • holding the Chief Constable to account
  • working with partners to prevent and tackle crime and re-offending
  • contributing to resourcing of policing response to regional and national threats
  • ensuring value for money

 More information about Police and Crime Commissioner can be found on West Mercia PCC website

West Mercia Police and Crime Panel

The West Mercia Police and Crime Panel is part of the governance arrangements for policing in the West Mercia area (which covers the geographical areas of Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and Worcestershire).  

The Panel (PCP) scrutinises the actions and decisions of the West Mercia PCC and makes sure information is available for the public. Worcestershire County Council has been appointed as the host authority for the West Mercia PCP.

The Panel is made up of representatives from each local authority in the West Mercia area. Details of membership, Agendas and Minutes of the West Mercia PCP meetings are available online: West Mercia Police and Crime Panel

Members of the public may participate by asking a question or making a statement to the Panel (up to three minutes each person) for a maximum of 30 minutes in total, having given appropriate notice (no later than 9:00 a.m. on the morning of the working day before the Panel meeting) to the contact officer below. Responses will normally be provided in writing after the meeting.

The Panel makes reports to the PCC about a range of matters and recent reports are available here:

Home Office Grant expenditure

The Home Office offers a grant each year to meet the costs of the Police and Crime Panel. Expenditure against the grant is shown below.

Expenditure against the grant is shown below.
Financial Year Total grant offered Member Expenses Staff costs Administration costs Total grant claimed
2016 to 2017 £68,940 £5,057 £56,449 £2,976 £64,482
2017 to 2018 £68,940 £1,074 £64,691 £3,030 £68,796
2018 to 2019 £68,940 £1,316 £63,281 £2,029 £66,627
2019 to 2020 £68,940 £1,505 £63,264 £1,638 £66,407
2020 to 2021 £68,940 £770 £57,559 £1,493 £59,822
2021 to 2022 £68,940 £1,427 £58,636 £2,721 £62,784
2022 to 2023 £68,940 £644 £58,437 £1,925 £61,006

Complaints about the Police and Crime Commissioner

The West Mercia Police and Crime Panel is responsible for handling complaints about the conduct of the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and the Deputy PCC. The Panel has delegated the implementation of the complaints process to the Monitoring Officer of Worcestershire County Council as the host authority for the Panel.

The Panel cannot deal with the following:

  • complaints about the PCC's intervention or lack of involvement in complaints about West Mercia Police, or his failure to act as an advocate or to investigate a personal case - the PCC cannot direct how the Chief Constable deals with a specific complaint
  • appeals about the outcome of a complaint against West Mercia Police or the Chief Constable
  • policy decisions made by the PCC – the Panel is only able to look at whether a decision has been made properly. The Panel may scrutinise policy decisions, but this is a separate function

The Panel is not able to investigate complaints. It may ask the PCC or Deputy PCC to provide information or to attend a meeting to answer questions in order to try and resolve a complaint.

If a complaint alleges that the PCC or Deputy PCC may have committed a criminal offence, the complaint must be passed to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). It is open to the IOPC to refer the complaint back to the Panel.

How to make a complaint

All complaints about the conduct of the PCC or Deputy PCC can be made online.

Online complaint form

Your complaint must relate to the conduct of the Police and Crime Commissioner. If you have an ongoing complaint, we would normally require that complaint process to be completed before it would be considered under the Panel's procedure.

There are separate procedures for the following complaints:

  • complaints about operational policing matters, the performance of West Mercia Police or any of its officers are dealt with by the West Mercia Police Standards Department
  • complaints about the Chief Constable or the office which supports the PCC are dealt with by the PCC
  • complaints about individual members of the Police and Crime Panel should be sent to the relevant Council

View a list of Panel members and the meeting information

Useful links

Useful downloads

Letter to Police Criminal Panel about the 2022-23 Annual Report (PDF)

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