Section 89: Collaboration agreements
251.Section 89 amends the provisions in the Police Act 1996 concerning collaboration agreements. These provisions (and those in Schedule 12) use the term “policing bodies” to refer to police and crime commissioners, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and the police authorities for the British Transport Police and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.
252.Subsection (2) inserts new sections creating duties on chief officers to enter into collaboration agreements in certain circumstances. They require them to keep under consideration arrangements for potential collaboration agreements, to notify the prospective partners about arrangements being considered and for these parties to consider whether these would be in the interest of the efficiency or effectiveness of one or more police forces.
253.Subsection (3) inserts a further section in the Police Act 1996 creating a power for the Secretary of State to specify, by order, policing functions which must be exercised by means of one or more collaboration agreements. The intention is to require police forces to collaborate in relation to matters of regional or national importance such as counter-terrorism and combating serious organised crime.
