Police and Crime Commissioner elections

The North East has four new Police and Crime Commissioners. They will be responsibile for overseeing their police force. Their duties will include budgets, police priorities and the hiring and firing of chief constables.

Results:

Northumbria: Vera Baird, Labour

Durham: Ron Hogg, Labour

Cleveland: Barry Coppinger, Labour

NorthYorkshire: Julia Mulligan, Conservative

The turnout at the Police and Crime Commissioner elections has been low, with fewer than one in five people voting.

Turnout in the Cleveland area was 15.12 per cent.

Barry Coppinger won with a total of 31 340 votes compared with the Conservative candidate, Ken Lupton, coming second with 20 171 votes. 63 431 valid votes were cast.

Returning Officer, David Bond, says he is disappointed by the turnout and believes it may prompt the government to look at how it plans for similar elections in the future.

He said: "I wish it would have been much more obviously. It is clearly much lower than other elections we have dealt with over the years and clearly it means that a lot of people have chosen not to vote in this election."

He added: "I think in terms of the future, clearly people in governmentand so on will want to look at how this has worked out as an election overalland one will look to look to the future in terms of how they plan for similarelections for Police and Crime Commissioners going forward."

The Conservative candidate Julia Mulligan has been elected as North Yorkshire's Police and Crime Commissioner. She says her plan for the county focuses on cutting crime

The turnout at the Police and Crime Commissioner elections has been particularly low, with fewer than one in five people voting.

Politics lecturer, Dr Alistair Clark from Newcastle University, says the new commissioners have not been given a substantial mandate.

The new Police and Crime Commissioners will not be running our police forces - they will be holding them to account, according to the Government.

They will be responsible for managing budgets, setting priorities and will also have the power to hire and fire Chief Constables.

The Chief Constable of Northumbria Police has welcomed the announcement of the new Police and Crime Commissioner for the force area.

Vera Baird is the first Police and Crime Commissioner to be elected for the Northumbria area.

Labour candidate Barry Coppinger has been elected as the new Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland.