Bob Jones and Yvonne Mosquito
The Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands has been told she should work full time in return for a £65,000 salary.
Yvonne Mosquito, a Birmingham city councillor, will be appointed deputy by Police Commissioner Bob Jones who initially said she would work only a 32-hour week.
But the West Midlands Police and Crime Panel is demanding several changes to Ms Mosquito’s proposed working arrangements.
At the top of a list of demands from the scrutiny body is a recommendation that the post should be full time and that Ms Mosquito must have “no additional office competing for time commitments”.
Other recommendations from the panel include:
- Publication of a job description for the post of Deputy Police and Crime (DPCC) Commissioner clarifying specific responsibilities and the relationship with the PCC.
- The DPCC’s relationship with the Chief Constable to be clarified and that a performance management framework for the DPCC is put in place.
- Ms Mosquito should undergo a detailed induction including “matters such as community engagement, commission, community safety, crime and disorder reduction partnerships and health and well-being boards.
- The PCC should report back on his deputy’s performance after 12 months.
The recommendations are set out in a letter from the panel’s chairman, Darren Cooper, the leader of Sandwell Council. It was written after the panel quizzed Ms Mosquito during a formal Confirmatory Hearing.
Coun Cooper wrote: “As the panel members appreciated that this is as much of a learning curve for you as for them, they recommended that you take some steps to clarify key relationships and strengthen the support afforded to you by this post.”
There were also concerns about Mr Jones’s plan to create seven local policing boards
responsible for local engagement and feeding priorities into the Police and Crime Plan.
Panel Members sought assurances that the boards would not create “another layer of costly bureaucracy”.
The panel’s recommendation that Ms Mosquito should be inducted into community engagement could be seen as something of an insult among Birmingham’s African-Caribbean community where she has been regarded for many years as a doughty fighter for the local community.
Coun Cooper said the panel was happy for Ms Mosquito to remain a Birmingham city councillor, where she will be entitled to a £16,000 backbench allowance on top of her £65,000 DPCC salary. However, she should not hold additional council office or draw a special responsibility allowance from the council, the panel recommended.
Under legislation setting up police commissioners, Mr Jones can choose to ignore the panel’s recommendations. But if he does so he must publish his reasons.
He explained at the Confirmatory Hearing that Ms Mosquito’s salary was to have been £75,000 for a 32-hour week. However, she agreed to take a £10,000 cut to reflect the fact that she would continue to draw a basic allowance as a city councillor.
