Central Government

Abstract

It will be remembered that the Royal Commission recommended, among other things, that the Secretaries of State should be given a statutory responsibility for the efficiency of the police, but that they should not be given powers of direction over operational matters on the grounds that this would be inappropriate and that it was desirable that the police should be seen to be responsible for the enforcement of law.¹ Despite this recommendation, the government did not see fit to introduce that statutory responsibility in either the Police Act 1964 or the Police (Scotland) Act 1967; most of the other recommendations in this area were accepted and introduced, with the major exception that a Chief Inspector of Constabulary for Great Britain was not appointed but a Chief Inspector for England and Wales and another for Scotland were introduced.