Police and Government: More Freedom for Local Authorities?
| Date | 01 January 1971 |
| Published date | 01 January 1971 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X7104400116 |
| Author | Laurence Welsh |
| Subject Matter | Article |
LAURENCE
WELSH
Government Correspondent
of
The Police Journal
POLI~E
AND
GOVERNMENT:
More
Freedom
for
Loeal
Authorities?
The ancient dispute over the merits of a national
and
a local police
service will no
doubt
continue to rage unresolved, while we in Britain
retain
our
half
and
half
system.
Save in the cynical view
that
the share
of
local government in the
system is merely a sop to local sentiment
and
has no administrative
or political merit, the
part
reserved for local control ought to be .
clearly prescribed in such terms as to make it a reality.
The virtues
of
the British practice
of
shared control are
that
the
central
partner
ensures ameasure
of
consistency
and
competence in
all forces
and
provides some common services more economically or
efficiently operated on a
broad
scale.
Delegation to local forces promotes initiative
and
competition,
enlists lay interest in the administration
of
the service,
and
lessens
the risk
of
its being manipulated in the political or other interests
of a central authority.
The key to freedom of local operation lies in money: the more the
individual authorities are free to spend at their own discretion, the
more real is local control. This is a familiar generalization in all
fields
of
local finance
and
numberless commentators on central/local
relations have supported the doctrine
that
councils should be seen as
partners
and
not
as subordinates
of
the central government.
These reflections on a theme which is by no means new derive
their topicality from current proposals from the Ministry
of
Housing
and
Local Government for relaxing central control over local
authority capital expenditure
and
establishing a simplified loan
sanction procedure.
The government's
aim
is
to
control the total
of
local authority
capital expenditure, while extending the freedom
of
authorities to
decide which capital projects they will undertake.
This indeed is the
broad
objective, but, as so often happens when
central departments come to define the terms on which the powers
of
local authorities may expand, the qualifications are numerous
and
strict.
Deploying the skill
of
the civil service in devising new in-words,
the Ministry intend
that
all capital expenditure shall fall into one
of
two classes, (i) key sector, (ii) non-key sector.
It
is only in respect
of
class (ii)
that
any
significant changes are to be introduced.
Services in the key sector will be those in which the central
January
1971 77
To continue reading
Request your trial