A document from the public consultation over the transfer of the Police and Crime Commissioner's powers to the mayor's office had to be altered before it was sent out as it risked 'unduly influencing' the public, it has emerged.
Launched over a week ago (November 16), the eight-week long public consultation is designed to gather the views of the public over proposals to transfer the powers in time for the 2020 elections.
It is the first of two public consultations scheduled over the PCC proposals, with a second set to follow directly afterwards in mid-January.
The first consultation covers the principle behind the merger, with questions asking whether or not people agree with the idea, as well as whether or not they believe it would help improve police efficiency.
This week, a meeting of the West Midlands Combined Authority's (WMCA) Overview and Scrutiny Committee was convened to give both mayor Andy Street and PCC David Jamieson an opportunity to explain how they felt about the proposals.
And, speaking at the meeting, Cllr Peter Hughes revealed that the original consultation document had to be edited as it was unduly biased toward combining the two positions.
Though he did not reveal exactly what information had been removed from the document, he said that the wording outlined 'massive benefits' of combining the positions, with a large chunk of text needing to be taken out.
"We had agreements with the Combined Authority for amendments to the wording that had been submitted," he said.
"On page three you’ll see that there’s a lot of empty space there. And the reason for that is that there’s a lot of wording that’s been taken out.
"The wording that was in there was unduly influencing the actual consultation, outlining massive benefits from the PCC coming over and unfairly skewing the argument, so we asked for that to be taken out.
"Question seven also contained a prior version with a preamble which again, bearing in mind this is the last question on the document, seemed to outline the benefits rather than the dis-benefits of it. And that was taken out.
"So what I’m going to say on it is that we’ve had influence there already, based on a one to one conversation, that has led to a more balanced document here."
The consultation document can be viewed here: https://www.wmca.org.uk/policeconsultation
