Vera Baird DBE KC

Chair Criminal Cases Review Commission. Member Women’s Justice Bd.
Ex Victims’ Commissioner, Solicitor Gen & PCC. Fellow St Hilda’s Oxford. Writer. Labour Party

Tag: vera baird

  • Northumbria Police praised as ‘Good’ in latest inspection

    A POSITIVE culture with an excellent understanding of the demand for its services and solid financial plans – those are the findings of the latest independent report into Northumbria Police.

    Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has carried out its annual assessment of how well police forces are managing finances and understanding demand.

    Forces were assessed against the overarching question ‘How efficient is the force at keeping people safe and reducing crime?’ with four possible ratings available; ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’.

    Northumbria received a ‘Good’ rating overall.

    In the three separate areas assessed at as part of the inspection, the force was rated ‘Good’ for understanding its demand, ‘Good’ for how well it uses its demand and ‘Good’ for how well the force is planning for the future.

    The inspection found:

    • Northumbria Police has an excellent understanding of the demand for its services and has well-developed processes to uncover demand that is less likely to be reported

    • The force has recognised that demand for safeguarding vulnerable people has been increasing and has put extra resources into this area of policing

    • The force works hard to evaluate current internal demand so that any inefficiencies can be quickly spotted and dealt with

    • The leaders of Northumbria Police have created a culture in which the whole workforce feels that it can contribute ideas to improve the force. The force has created a very positive culture of openness

    • The force is investing heavily in information technology. It recognises the opportunities and threats from changes in technology

    • The financial plans for the force are detailed and it has solid plans for the future that have been tested and examined independently to ensure that they are fit for purpose

    The inspection found that an area for improvement is for the Force to explore new ways to identify talent and ensure individuals reach their full potential.

    Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Dame Vera Baird QC said: “Despite all the financial challenges policing faces, I am delighted that our force has been recognised for providing an efficient and well-managed service.

    “Neighbourhood policing is a priority of mine – I have worked closely with the Chief Constable to squeeze every penny out of every pound to ensure we protect it. Police officers are now closer to the communities they serve through the investment of new technology to keep officers engaging with local residents.

    “To provide neighbourhood policing we need a fair funding settlement. The Chief Constable and I have made clear to the Home Secretary what is needed for Northumbria – she now needs to deliver.

    “Finally, special thanks to all of our staff and officers who continue to go the extra mile, without them we could not achieve what we do.”

    Temporary Chief Constable of Northumbria Police, Winton Keenen, added: “This report is welcome news and is testament to all the hard work done on a daily basis by everyone in Northumbria Police.

    “Our force has received the biggest cut in government grant out of all police forces in England and Wales since 2010, a reduction of £123m from our revenue budget.

    “It is therefore, particularly pleasing that we have not only been recognised for having robust financial plans in place, but also that we are deemed fit for purpose when it comes to meeting the increasing demands put on our service.

    “However, we certainly won’t be complacent. Providing a high standard of service to people who need our help is our priority and we will continue to do everything we can to achieve that.”

  • Vera Baird is backing Wear Red Day

    Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Vera Baird QC, and Chief Constable Steve Ashman, will be wearing something red this Friday (21, October) to support educational charity Show Racism the Red Card (SRtRC) as it marks its 20th anniversary of standing up to racism.

    They will be joined by officers and staff who will be backing the campaign by adding a touch of colour to their outfits with red items such as socks, shoe laces or scarves.

    ‘Wear Red Day’ is a national campaign that will see supporters from up and down the country dressing in red and donating a £1 to help raise funds to deliver education in schools on the impact of racism within football and society as a whole.

    PCC Vera Baird QC, who is also Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, said: “Show Racism the Red Card is a great campaign which teaches children right and wrong with regards to racism – Wear Red Day gets my 100% support. It is my hope that through initiatives like this we can wipe out racism once and for all. I’m proud that the North East is a welcoming place, we will continue to work hard to tackle racism when it occurs”

    Chief Constable, Steve Ashman, said: “Northumbria Police wholeheartedly supports any initiative to combat racism and I hope to encourage anyone who is a victim of racism, or who witnesses a racist incident, to contact us so we can take firm action. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, hate crime in any form, is not acceptable and will not be tolerated by Northumbria Police.”

    For more information about the awareness day and ways to donate, visit http://www.srtrc.org/get-involved/WearRedDay

  • William Wilberforce and UK commitment to combat modern slavery.

    On Wednesday, a wreath laying service at Westminster Abbey to commemorate the work of William Wilberforce and to mark the United Kingdom\’s commitment to combat modern slavery will take place, sadly, I can\’t be present. Below is a letter of support I sent to Commissioner Kevin Hyland, Anti-Slavery Commissioner.

    10th October 2016

    Dear Commissioner,

    I am sorry that I cannot be at the wreath laying service at Westminster Abbey to commemorate the work of William Wilberforce and to mark the United Kingdom’s commitment to combat modern slavery, this is due to commitments as Chair of the Association of Police & Crime Commissioners.

    It is right and proper that we mark the work of William Wilberforce who used his position as a Member of Parliament to head the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for twenty years, until the passage of the Slave Trade Act in 1807.

    Wilberforce was committed to humanitarian reform, he read widely on the subject, learnt from those who were affected and worked with people such as Thomas Clarkson, a fellow graduate of St John’s, Cambridge, who supported Wilberforce in the need to end the slave trade. Wilberforce’s campaign took time – for 18 years he regularly introduced anti-slavery motions in Parliament. His determination and commitment paid off and in 1807, the slave trade was finally abolished.

    Wilberforce ensured that Parliament took action, his determination, passion and success is rightly commemorated today by the laying of a wreath.

    Despite moving on nearly 200 years, the grim reality today is that slavery still exists in towns and cities across the world, including here in the United Kingdom. It’s frightening that young girls are raped, beaten and passed from abuser to abuser and sexually exploited for profit. The fact that vulnerable men are tricked into working long hours, being locked away in sheds is disgraceful. The scale of this hidden crime in the United Kingdom is significant – in 2013 the Home Office estimated there were around 12,000 potential victims in the United Kingdom.

    Politicians, Police & Crime Commissioners and government are determined to do all they can to stamp out modern slavery, we have seen the introduction of the Modern Slavery Bill – there is more to do and I am convinced that the beliefs and passion of Wilberforce are shared by people today. Modern day slavery is something that we must continue to tackle and services such as today highlight the work that is taking place across the country to put in place protections and support for victims and to ensure tough penalties for those who exploit people.

    Together, we will make a difference.

    Yours sincerely

    Vera

    Vera Baird QC

    Police & Crime Commissioner – Northumbria

    Chair of the Association of Police & Crime Commissioners.

  • Emily Wilding Davison’s Birthday

    Emily Wilding Davison

    Emily Wilding Davison

    Emily Wilding Davison was born on 11th Oct 1872, she was one of the most famous suffragettes – she defied the odds many times, she stood up for what she believed in, even when women could not gain a degree from Oxford University, her result exam result was a first class honours.

    Emily believed in the rights of women, Victorian society wasn’t the best place for articulate, clever women – in fact any women – to progress. The fact that all woman were denied the right to vote drove her on. Emily had a battle on her hands to convince those in power – especially when the monarch (Queen Victoria) did not believe that women should involve themselves in politics, which was ironic when you think she had regular audiences with the Prime Minister, was informed about crucial and critical matters of state and she oversaw Britain’s great empire.

    Emily was angered by discrimination and the fact that women were not treated equal to men. She has rightly taken her place in history. She spoke up for women, she wanted to bring about change and she paid the ultimate price following injuries she sustained at the 1913 derby.

    Moving on just over hundred years since her death, women still have many challenges – which I am sure Emily would be at the forefront of championing. She would be a strong campaigner for women’s rights, she would want us all – men and women to unite to tackle violence against women and girls. I hope that she would be proud that it was our region that established the first regional violence against women and girls strategy, in partnership with my PCC colleagues, Barry Coppinger and Ron Hogg.

    The strategy sets out how we will provide support to those who suffer domestic and sexual abuse, we have better trained officers and superb after care and we will do everything we can to bring perpetrators before the courts. As we mark Emily’s birthday, I am confident that she would be on our side, she would be a strong advocate of ending violence against women and girls.

    As we say thank you to Emily for her commitment to getting women the vote, lets join together to end violence against women and girls now, so future generations don’t have to fight a battle that should be consigned to history.

  • The Tories are letting domestic abuse victims down. Read more here –

    The Attorney General shouldn\’t preen himself in the press for his recent success in lengthening too short jail sentences for robbers and burglars (Times & Telegraph both 24.8.16) Instead he should tackle the unduly lenient sentences handed out for domestic abuse – as the Tories’ election manifesto pretended they would.

    In a typical case at Teesside Court, a long term abuser got one year’s suspended prison sentence, for violently attacking his partner to stop her leaving him. He bit her on the face, put a knife to her neck, squeezed her throat until she choked, threatened to scald her and use a pellet gun to ‘shoot you through your eye and into your brain’ and fired a pellet into her foot. He threatened to ‘torch’ her house if she called the police. The victim’s personal statement described this treatment as ‘life changing’. She was so scared when he was freed that she was forced into hiding, in effect being imprisoned instead of him. The defendant said on Facebook ‘The c— didn\’t win, I’m free’

    In eight other cases, the same judge gave suspended sentences to similar culprits, whilst another court, in a single month, freed seven convicted abusers. They included a man who pushed his victim so hard that she hit her head on the ground and another who went to his ex-partner’s home and squeezed her throat until she blacked out.

    The Director of a domestic abuse charity describes colleagues nationwide as “constantly frustrated by the sentences given to men who beat women up” Domestic abuse is at epidemic levels in England and Wales. Two women are killed by their partner or ex-partner every week; on average the police receive an emergency call relating to domestic abuse every 30 seconds; domestic abuse-related crime is 8% of total crime and domestic cases are 14.1% of all court prosecutions. 92.4% of defendants are male, 84% of victims are female and 16% are male. Notwithstanding these startling figures, Women\’s Aid still estimates that only one in five abuse victims complain to the police, so that the actual prevalence of domestic abuse is hugely higher than these numbers suggest. Of those that do complain to the police, the majority won’t support a prosecution. Many give as their reason, unsurprisingly, a lack of faith in the courts.

    The Conservative manifesto undertook to ‘prioritise tackling violence against women and girls’ and, seemingly to confront this issue, promised that;-

    ‘ To tackle those cases where judges get it wrong, we will extend the scope of the Unduly Lenient Scheme, so a wider range of sentences can be challenged’

    Yet nothing has happened. The right for someone affected by an unduly lenient sentence to ask the Attorney General to challenge it in the Court of Appeal applies only to a small list of criminal offences. Typical domestic abuse crimes are not on the list. So whilst people can ask for a review of low sentences for burglary and robbery neither victims, domestic abuse charities, the police, nor the Crown Prosecution Service can – thanks to the Tories failure to act – do anything about sentences which don’t reflect the harm caused to the victim, the perpetrator’s culpability or the wider damage caused to society from the prevalence of domestic abuse.

    If the government kept its word, there would be plenty of ammunition to bring change. These cases fly in the face of Guidelines made for the judges by the Sentencing Council. The Council’s role is to consult the public and produce Guidelines so that there is a consistent approach to sentencing for the same offences in different courts. In 2006, the then Labour Home secretary Charles Clarke asked for a definitive guideline on domestic abuse and the one produced shows an impressive grasp of the issues that judges should, long ago, have learnt from. For instance, the Guideline recognises that ill treatment of a domestic partner involves a breach of trust so that it generally deserves a heavier sentence than the same offence against an unconnected person. It also acknowledges that having a good character, -which would usually mitigate a sentence – shouldn’t do so in domestic abuse cases because:

    ‘One of the factors that can allow domestic violence to go unnoticed for lengthy periods is the ability of the perpetrator to have two personae, a violent one and another so…an offender’s good character in relation to good conduct outside the home should generally be of no relevance’

    The Teesside case neatly demonstrates how that level of understanding is missing from the courts – the judge’s reason for suspending the prison sentence and freeing the defendant was, precisely contrary to this guideline, that he had a good character.

    Victims who have been coerced and undermined by an abusive partner often fear that they will not be taken seriously or even believed and, historically, that is what has happened. Nowadays, Police and charities work hard to overcome that fear and to instil the confidence to support a prosecution but their efforts are undermined by sentences that, indeed, appear not to take domestic abuse seriously. What is urgent is that the courts condemn domestic abuse and reject any residual cultural acceptance there may be for it by dealing with it, on behalf of society, unequivocally as a serious wrong.

    On an Attorney General’s application, the Court of Appeal would certainly reinforce the Guidelines, compelling the Sentencing Council’s insight into the dynamics of domestic abuse onto those judges who lack it and expressing that condemnation themselves. But, they can\’t, because that great egalitarian Theresa May has neglected to change the law as she promised. Not for the first time in the domestic abuse arena, the Tories have let victims down.

  • Assessing the General Election result.

    Congratulations to all our MPs who were elected to Parliament last month, I look forward to working with them all to promote Northumbria Police and to lobby further for an open, transparent funding package for Northumbria Police.

    A hung Parliament will make the next few years interesting, especially for anyone who thrives on the engine room of politics. I hope a hung parliament will ensure that Theresa May and her government are scrutinised to ensure the best deal possible for policing.

    On June 21st we had the Queen’s Speech – with very little in it. It was a threadbare document and didn’t deliver the extra funding we so need to ensure we can put extra police officers on the street. Throughout the speech all we heard were promises of more austerity and cuts to vital public services. Local residents can be assured that I will continue to lobby government hard to ensure the very best deal possible for our region.

    Over the last few days, there has been comments made by government ministers stating that police funding has been protected. Let me be absolutely clear, as Police & Crime Commissioner for Northumbria I can categorically state that police funding has not been protected. Since 2010 to today, Northumbria Police force has needed to make savings and cuts of £136 million to manage reductions in funding, this is a real terms reduction in excess of 23%. For 2017/18 national direct funding for all forces was cut by 1.4%, £3.0m in Northumbria’s case, with local tax payers expected to cover the shortfall via an increase in precept on council tax.

    I have raised this issue time and time again with the Home Office, but it continues to fall on deaf ears. This Government has cut the funding for police forces across England and Wales. Local Policing is a priority here in Northumbria, it’s our eyes and ears of local communities, despite all the challenges put in our way by central government, top slicing of funds from our budget for government projects we have managed to protect local policing – for how long I can continue to do this I do not know. I have called upon the Home Secretary to sort the funding problem, it is imperative that counter terrorism policing is properly funded, and that funding is not diverted from mainstream policing as a result. The Home Office state that counter-terrorism funding would increase by 30% by 2022, that dates needs to be brought forward to NOW.

    I will continue to work with partners in the region to ensure that Northumbria Police continues to deliver the excellent policing service that you and your family deserve

  • Election

    Postal votes have started to drop on doors across Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, I hope you will take a few moments to complete your ballot paper and give me your first preference vote.  If you aren\’t voting by post you can vote at the Polling Station on May 5th.

    You can find out more about my plans by clicking on to my Facebook page www.facebook.com/verabairdqc

    Vote Baird – Vote Labour.

  • PCC Vera Baird steps into the ring to praise the work of local sports group

    Special guest Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Vera Baird, was welcomed to Dunston Teams Amateur Boxing Club to see first-hand the excellent work being undertaken by the voluntary sporting group.

    Since starting in 2012, the club now has 50 members and has become a hub for the local community – providing a place for young people to exercise, learn new skills and socialise.

    Especially for Vera Baird’s visit, members held an exhibition where they showcased a range of training activities, sparring and pad work.

    Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Vera Baird, said: “I was delighted to be invited along to Dunston Teams Amateur Boxing Club to see first-hand the valuable work undertaken by the team. Forming this club was a great idea and it is clearly having a positive effect on the local community. I met a fantastic bunch of young people who spoke very highly of the club, its leaders and the positive opportunities it brings. It really is making a difference and I look forward to seeing this success continue in the future.”

    Head Coach at the club, Ernie Blenkiron, said: “We’re very proud of everything the club and its members have achieved and it was a pleasure having Ms Baird along to see our facilities – we’re very grateful of her support for the work we’re doing. Boxing is based on discipline and respect – an ethos we aim to promote through our club. We are working hard to promote our boxing and fitness classes ensuring they are accessible to people of all abilities so that everyone in the community can enjoy them. Whatever your background and whether you’re young, old, male, female – everyone is welcome along.”

    Constable Neighbourhood Beat Manager, Ryan Mark, said: “For me, this club ticks all the boxes – it provides youngsters with a sense of belonging and promotes a healthy lifestyle and respectful values. This club demonstrates such great community spirit and is a place where youngsters can come together and take part in sport in a safe environment, off the streets and reducing anti-social behaviour. As an officer, it\’s the perfect place for me to come down and engage with youngsters. We can chat in an informal setting and I believe it really helps build a sense of trust and to break barriers. It is always fantastic to come along and see what a fantastic job the volunteers are doing.”

  • The Crack – North East Magazine, April 2016

    Delighted to feature in the April edition of “The Crack” magazine, in the article I talk about my achievements as Police & Crime Commissioner, my priorities and even what my favourite police tv programme is – get your copy today!

  • VERA BAIRD WELCOMES SUPPORT FOR THOSE AFFECTED BY ASB IN SOUTH TYNESIDE

    A support team to help those affected by anti-social behaviour has been established in South Tyneside.

    South Tyneside Council in partnership with South Tyneside Homes have recruited a group of five volunteers to provide support to victims across the Borough.

    The Mayor of South Tyneside, Councillor Richard Porthouse, presented the volunteers with certificates to celebrate the completion of their initial training. The training equipped the volunteers with the essential skills needed to support victims affected by anti-social behaviour.

    South Tyneside’s ASB victim support volunteering project is being supported by funding from Northumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Vera Baird. The project is part of her regional initiative which aims to offer advice and guidance to those affected by this type of offence.

    Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Vera Baird, said: \”Anti-social behaviour can affect anyone at any time and I am very grateful to all the volunteers and everyone involved in helping me tackle this issue head on and making a difference to the lives of victims. Protecting people from harm and helping victims are top priorities for me so I wish this project in South Tyneside every success.\”

    The Mayor said: “It was a pleasure to meet the Borough’s new volunteers and to help celebrate their first steps to becoming fully trained.

    “The volunteers who have joined the project will provide a vital service to people affected by anti-social behaviour. They will provide ongoing emotional support and practical help and will be a point of contact for victims.

    “On behalf of the Borough I would like to thank all of the volunteers for agreeing to give up their time to support those affected by anti-social behaviour in South Tyneside.”

    The volunteers will help victims to cope and recover following an incident or sustained attacks as well as improve community confidence.

    Councillor Tracey Dixon, Lead Member for Area Management and Community Safety said: “Anti-social behaviour not only has a detrimental impact on communities, it can be extremely distressing for the individuals affected, impacting on their health and wellbeing. It is something we are determined to tackle.

    “We hope the emotional and practical support that our volunteers will provide to victims and witnesses of anti-social behaviour will empower residents to report this type of activity so action can be taken to prevent further incidents in their area.

    “We are committed to working with our partners including Victim Support and South Tyneside Homes to make sure this scheme has a positive impact across the Borough.”