Police Reform Act 2002

40 Community safety accreditation schemes

(1) The chief officer of police of any police force may, if he considers that it is appropriate to do so for the purposes specified in subsection (3), establish and maintain a scheme (“a community safety accreditation scheme”).

(2) A community safety accreditation scheme is a scheme for the exercise in the chief officer’s police area by persons accredited by him under section 41 of the powers conferred by their accreditations under that section.

(3) Those purposes are—

(a) contributing to community safety and security; and

(b) in co-operation with the police force for the area, combatting crime and disorder, public nuisance and other forms of anti-social behaviour.

(4) Before establishing a community safety accreditation scheme for his police area, a chief officer of any police force (other than the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis) must consult with—

(a) the police authority maintaining that force, and

(b) every local authority any part of whose area lies within the police area.

(5) Before establishing a community safety accreditation scheme for the metropolitan police district, the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis must consult with—

(a) the Metropolitan Police Authority;

(b) the Mayor of London; and

(c) every local authority any part of whose area lies within the metropolitan police district.

(6) In subsections (4)(b) and (5)(c) “local authority” means—

(a) in relation to England, a district council, a London borough council, the Common Council of the City of London or the Council of the Isles of Scilly; and

(b) in relation to Wales, a county council or a county borough council.

(7) Every police plan under section 8 of the 1996 Act which is issued after the commencement of this section, and every draft of such a plan which is submitted by a chief officer of police to a police authority after the commencement of this section, must set out—

(a) whether a community safety accreditation scheme is maintained for the police area in question;

(b) if not, whether there is any proposal to establish such a scheme for that area during the period to which the plan relates;

(c) particulars of any such proposal or of any proposal to modify during that period any community safety accreditation scheme that is already maintained for that area;

(d) the extent (if any) of any arrangements for provisions specified in Schedule 4 to be applied to designated persons employed by the police authority; and

(e) the respects in which any community safety accreditation scheme that is maintained or proposed will be supplementing those arrangements during the period to which the plan relates.

(8) A community safety accreditation scheme must contain provision for the making of arrangements with employers who—

(a) are carrying on business in the police area in question, or

(b) are carrying on business in relation to the whole or any part of that area or in relation to places situated within it,

for those employers to supervise the carrying out by their employees of the community safety functions for the purposes of which powers are conferred on those employees by means of accreditations under section 41.

(9) It shall be the duty of a chief officer of police who establishes and maintains a community safety accreditation scheme to ensure that the employers of the persons on whom powers are conferred by the grant of accreditations under section 41 have established and maintain satisfactory arrangements for handling complaints relating to the carrying out by those persons of the functions for the purposes of which the powers are conferred.