Merging four Welsh police forces would take away 'localised approach', committee hears

A single Welsh police force wouldn’t necessarily benefit Wales, according to the four Police and Crime Commissioners for the country.

Commissioners are directly elected for each force in England and Wales. Here there are four: Gwent, South Wales, Dyfed-Powys and North Wales. 

MPs on the Commons Welsh Affairs Committee have been quizzing them in a one-off session on the role and duties of the commissioners. 

They were asked by Plaid Cymru MP Ben Lake what they thought about merging the four forces, something that was proposed and rejected under the last Labour UK Government. 

The Commissioner for North Wales, Andy Dunbobbin, told the committee that the four forces work well together without being merged. 

He said that “it would take away that localised policing approach. And I think the more locally you can make decisions we know, and evidence would suggest, that you're going to get a better outcome.”

The Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent Police Eleri Thomas agreed saying that “having the four forces ensures that local connectivity, and the focus is very much on delivering that for the community, but absolutely maximising the opportunity of collaboration and partnership, wherever possible.”

Dyfed Powys’ commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn warned that “there's a danger with thinking about the single force, certainly from a perspective of police commissioner that serves a very rural community, that we could see resources being pulled to the more urban areas.”

And Alun Michael, the commissioner for South Wales, who had been a minister in that Labour government said that there was “nothing that can be achieved by merger that cannot be achieved by collaboration” and that “we've demonstrated a talent for collaboration in Wales, not just between the forces but with others, including local government, and it would be very difficult to do that collaboration on an all-Wales basis rather than based on the reality: the more urban, the valleys communities, and so on.”

He also said the different views of different commissioners was positive: “We have a very lively discussion now with Welsh Government ministers and ministers in the UK Government because there are four voices and we can represent different the different needs of different areas. Why would you throw that away?”

Alun Michael also said that he thinks the Metropolitan Police - Britain’s largest force and the focus of controversy and scrutiny - is too big. 

Mr Michael, who is a former Policing Minister, said that when he had that rôle “I was the police authority for the Metropolitan Police and came to the conclusion of the Metropolitan Police is much too big for people to be able to see from the top of the top to the bottom of the organisation.”

Asked by the Committee’s chair, Stephen Crabb is he still thought that, Mr Michael said “Yes” but he stopped short of saying the force should be broken up.

“I think there's a very big challenge about how you would deal with the with the Met.

“The larger the force, the longer the line of responsibility from the Chief Officer to the people who are doing things on the ground. And I think where we benefit even in South Wales police, which is the largest of the four polices is very good connectivity between the Chief Constable  and the chief officer team, and the officers are doing things whether they're doing them in Swansea or Cardiff or or Merthyr."

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