Section 82: Suspension and removal of senior police officers
229.Section 82 amends the Police Act 1996 with the effect that the Secretary of State’s existing power to require a police authority to use its power to suspend a chief officer or calling upon a chief officer to resign or retire is only exercisable in respect of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime. The Secretary of State does not have power to direct a police and crime commissioner to suspend or remove a chief constable. The section also amends section 50 of the Police Act 1996, which confers a general power on the Secretary of State to make regulations in relation to the administration of police forces, in order to allow regulations to be made under that section in relation to the suspension and removal of senior police officers. The separate power to make such regulations under section 42A of the Police Act 1996 is repealed – the amendment does not extend the powers of the Secretary of State but merely places them in a single section for ease of reference.