Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill 2010-11

The Bill was announced in the Queen's Speech on 25 May 2010, and will apply to England and Wales only.

It aims to make the police service more accountable to local people and tackle alcohol-related violence and anti-social behaviour.

The Bill allows for:

• the establishment of new directly elected police and crime commissioners
• an overhaul of the Licensing Act 2003, handing police and local authorities new powers to remove licences, charge businesses for extra policing and impose higher fines for underage sales
• a system of temporary bans for psychoactive substances
• changes to the rules governing the right to protest around Parliament
• arrest warrants for universal jurisdiction offences to only be issued when there is a reasonable prospect of successful prosecution

Plans for the Bill's main measures were included in the Coalition agreement, although their support of elected police commissioners represents a u-turn for the Liberal Democrats.Labour has been very critical of this police governance change in particular.

The Association of Police Authorities and the Association of Chief Police Officers both oppose the Bill, and the Police Federation has said that more detail is required about how the new police commissioners will work with chief constables. The Bill is also opposed by the Association of Convenience Stores, the British Retail Consortium and Amnesty.

During the Committee Stage debate on the Bill in the House of Lords, controversial plans for publicly-elected police and crime commissioners (PCNs) were removed from the Bill. Thirteen Lib Dem peers defied their party leadership to support opposition amendment 1, which stipulated that PCNs should be selected by a local police and crime panel.