Use of vehicles and drivers by the Police and Crime Commissioner and Senior Officers
Reference: 19002
Date Added: Thursday, July 11, 2019
Category:
Disclosure Details
Question
1. How many senior police officers of your force have allocated drivers and vehicles for their use?
2. What ranks are entitled to the use of a car and driver? How many officers is that?
3. What was the total annual cost (2018/19) of providing cars and drivers for use by senior police officers?
4. Do you, as PCC, have the use of a vehicle and driver? If so, at what cost?
5. Senior managers of other public sector organisations of comparable cost, size and complexity manage to fulfil their roles without having drivers and cars, what therefore is the justification and perceived public benefit which accrues as a result of your senior officers having this facility?
6. Why cannot your senior police officers (and yourself) drive themselves, (as do other public officials) in your own cars and claim a mileage allowance?
7. Do any of the cars used by the PCC or senior police officers have “retained” number plates? If YES, how many, at what cost and what is the claimed public benefit of having them?
Answer
Thank you for your recent request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
Two duties are placed on public authorities under Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Notwithstanding applicable exemptions, the first duty at, Section 1(1) (a), is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at, Section1 (1) (b), is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.
Under the provisions of those sections of the FOIA, we can confirm that the information you seek is partly held by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent (OPCC). Please find responses below.
Please note: the OPCC is only responsible for the terms and conditions of appointment for the Chief Constable and as such does not hold some of the information on police officers of the rank of Deputy Chief Constable or below in relation to your query, however, the information we do hold has been provided to you. For a more detailed response, you may wish to contact Gwent Police on foi@gwent.pnn.police.uk.
1. How many senior police officers of your force have allocated drivers and vehicles for their use?
No senior police officers of Gwent Police have allocated drivers.
During 2018/19 the Chief Constable had an allocated car for use as part of the Chief Officer Car Scheme which is offered as part of the terms and conditions of employment. This car is a police vehicle and if needed will be used as such. All police officers, no matter what rank, also have access to pool cars for use in relation to work. From 1st April 2019 the Chief Constable used his own vehicle and claimed essential users mileage.
Both the Deputy Chief Constable and the Assistant Chief Constable are also able to participate in the Chief Officer Car Scheme. Page 79 of the Draft Statement of Accounts for 2018/19 highlights that the Assistant Chief Constable has chosen not to participate in the Chief Officer car scheme during 2018/19 and has instead chosen to receive monthly payments. No information is provided for the Deputy Chief Constable – please contact Gwent Police for further information.
For 2019/20, the OPCC do not hold any information on the DCC/ACC – you will need to contact Gwent Police for further information.
2. What ranks are entitled to the use of a car and driver? How many officers is that?
No ranks are entitled to the use of a driver.
The Chief Constable, Deputy Chief Constable, and Assistant Chief Constable have the option to participate in the Chief Officer Car Scheme - this equates to three (3) police officers. As mentioned in response to question one, all ranks are entitled to use pool cars for business use only.
3. What was the total annual cost (2018/19) of providing cars and drivers for use by senior police officers?
There was no cost of providing drivers for the Chief Constable of Gwent during 2018/19.
We do not hold the total cost for the provision of a car for the Chief Constable for 2018/19. This will be included in the final statement of accounts which will be available at the end of July 2019 on the link provided below.
We do not hold any information for the Deputy Chief Constable. This will be included in the final statement of accounts which will be available at the end of July 2019 on the link provided below.
Page 79 of the draft Statement of Accounts for 2018/19 highlights that the Assistant Chief Constable did not have a car provided during 2018/19 and instead opted for monthly car payments amounting to £3,928.20 for the tax year. The draft document can be found on the link below:
Once the final document is available, this will provide details in relation to the benefits in kind (which covers the Chief Officer Car Scheme) received by all Chief Officers during 2018/19.
http://www.gwent.pcc.police.uk/en/transparency/publications/statement-of-accounts/
4. Do you, as PCC, have the use of a vehicle and driver? If so, at what cost?
The PCC does not have use of a driver.
The PCC does not have sole use of a vehicle, the OPCC as a whole has use of one car between all staff as well as pool car vehicles. This car is one that is no longer in use as part of the Chief Officer Car Scheme and can also be booked for use by Gwent Police officers and staff. The only costs associated with this car during 2018/19 have been in relation to fuel and maintenance. This information is held be Gwent Police; you will need to submit a request to them for this information. The PCC will use his own vehicle and claim mileage which is published on the following link:
5. Senior managers of other public sector organisations of comparable cost, size and complexity manage to fulfil their roles without having drivers and cars, what therefore is the justification and perceived public benefit which accrues as a result of your senior officers having this facility?
As mentioned above no one is entitled to use drivers so we do not hold any information relating to this question.
6. Why cannot your senior police officers (and yourself) drive themselves, (as do other public officials) in your own cars and claim a mileage allowance?
The PCC and the senior officers mentioned in this response do not have allocated drivers and are able to claim mileage or an essential car users allowance if their own cars are used. This information can be found on the OPCC website for the PCC and on the Gwent Police website for the senior police officers
PCC - www.gwent.pcc.police.uk/en/about-us/your-police-and-crime-commissioner/expenses-and-expenditure/
Senior officers - https://www.gwent.police.uk/en/about-us/your-right-to-information/chief-officers-expenses/
7. Do any of the cars used by the PCC or senior police officers have “retained” number plates? If YES, how many, at what cost and what is the claimed public benefit of having them?
1 car has a retained number plate. We are not aware of the cost of this number plate as it has been used in force for decades.
In relation to the last section of your question “and what is the claimed public benefit of having them”, we do not hold any recorded information.