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FOI 246 – Meetings with PCC electoral candidates

The OPCC is asked to provide information about meetings between the PCC and PCC electoral candidates.

FOI Request

Dear Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner,

Please can you supply details of all meetings (in person or remote) between the PCC and self declared candidates for the upcoming PCC election. This information should include the name of the self- declared candidate and date of meeting .

FOI Response

All prospective candidates for the 2020 PCC Election were invited to contact Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer Simon Dennis, via contact details published on the Election section of our website.

Through the Chief Executive candidates can make requests for information about the roles and responsibilities of the PCC. Should the candidate request, visits to meet the Police and Crime Commissioner, staff within the OPCC or any of the OPCC’s commissioned services can be arranged.

At the time the PCC election was postponed on 13 March 2020, the formal declaration process for candidates – as set out in electoral legislation – had not yet taken place. Therefore I will take your request to mean ‘self-announced’ candidates, who declared publicly that they intended to stand in the election.

To this end, the OPCC was aware of two self-announced candidates who had publicly declared their intention to stand in the PCC election, Dr Paul Williams (LAB) and Steve Turner (CON).

Through analysis of the PCC’s diary, there were two occasions in which he met with self-announced candidates:

  • Thursday 23 January 2020 – The Commissioner and members of the OPCC met with Dr Paul Williams at Cleveland Community Safety Hub, to provide more detail about the PCC role and key areas of business. This was in line with the process outlined on the website to allow any potential candidates to find out more about the PCC role.
  • Wednesday 4 March 2020 – The Commissioner briefly attended an information session for prospective PCC candidates hosted by the OPCC at Cleveland Community Safety Hub. This session was attended by several prospective candidates, including self-announced candidates Dr Paul Williams and Steve Turner. 

Date responded: 28 May 2020