'Duplicate responses' fuel police merger row

Home Secretary James Cleverly moved plans forward to merge the roles of West Midlands mayor and police and crime commissioner

Apparent "duplicate responses" to a public consultation have fuelled an ongoing row over scrapping the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) role.

The official Home Office consultation into plans to merge the role with that of the West Midlands mayor showed 50% of replies to a survey of about 7,000 people disagreed with the move while 46% agreed.

The picture was further confused after it emerged a total of 927 responses were identified as "duplicates" – all of which disagreed with the move to merge the roles.

The decision was ultimately taken to include the responses but, if they were removed, the result would have been 53% in agreement and 42% against.

'Deliberate interference'

The government’s assessment of the duplicate responses concluded: “The duplication of responses could be down to either a campaign orchestrated by an external group or individual or be the result of deliberate interference through the use of automated software.”

Despite the public opinion appearing to be unclear, Home Secretary James Cleverly took the decision to lay the proposed merger before Parliament for MPs to have the final say.

Conservative West Midlands Mayor Andy Street had already given his formal consent to the move.

But there was strong opposition to the move from current Labour West Midlands PCC Simon Foster, who was considering whether to pursue a judicial review into the merger.

Reacting to the survey’s findings, Mr Foster said the mayor had “lost” the public consultation.

“Yet the mayor is persisting with his hostile takeover in defiance of the region’s councils and against the will of the people," he added.

Labour's West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster said the mayor had “lost” the public consultation.

In his response, Mr Street said: “Some local people have had their say via this consultation - albeit with 900 duplicate responses appearing to skew the outcome - and even more local people will have their say via the ballot box in May.”

No changes will take place until after the winner of the West Midlands Mayoral Election is confirmed in May.

Labour’s candidate in that election will be Richard Parker after Mr Foster failed in his bid to become the party’s candidate.

Politicians face a race against time to formalise the merger, with separate mayoral and police and crime commissioner elections both scheduled to take place on 2 May..

If the merger goes ahead, the next West Midlands mayor would have the power to set West Midlands Police's budget, appoint chief constables and issue a policing plan.

Mayors already have police oversight powers in London, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire.

Since their creation, the role of West Midlands PCC has been held by Labour politicians while the mayor has always been a Conservative.