Section 10: Co-operative working
82.Section 10 places duties in relation to co-operation on a police and crime commissioner or (in the metropolitan police district) the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and various other bodies with functions in the areas of criminal justice and the reduction of crime and disorder in relation to co-operation.
83.Subsection (1) requires a police and crime commissioner or the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime to have regard, in carrying out their functions, to the relevant priorities of each of the bodies in the police area that are members of community safety partnerships formed under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.These bodies are the police, the probation services, local authorities, fire and rescue authorities and NHS Primary Care Trusts.
84.Subsection (2) requires the police and crime commissioner or the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (as the case may be) and bodies that are members of community safety partnerships to co-operate with each other in the exercise of their respective functions, except devolved Welsh functions.
85.Subsection (3) requires the police and crime commissioner or the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (as the case may be) and certain criminal justice bodies to make arrangements so that their respective functions are exercised so as to provide an efficient and effective criminal justice system for the police area. It is anticipated that these arrangements will involve the agreement of a protocol or memorandum of understanding between the various bodies setting out the matters in respect of which they will co-operate and the means by which they will do so.
86.Subsection (5) lists the various criminal justice bodies to which the duty to make arrangements applies. Some of the references are to Ministers, because legislation confers the relevant functions on Ministers and they are then delegated to officials and public bodies. In practice the criminal justice bodies will be the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, Her Majesty’s Court Service, the National Offender Management Service, or other providers in relation to prisons or probation, and Youth Offending Teams.
