NYE Review of Chief Officers ’24 Expenses (Pt.2)

NYE Review of Chief Officers ’24 Expenses (Pt.2)

by TIM HICKS

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In this article, Tim Hicks updates two on-going investigations into Senior Officers by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and the NYE’s own investigation into North Yorkshire Police (NYP) Chief Officers’ expenses.

Senior NYP Officers under investigation

Regular readers of the NYE will remember that at the beginning of the year we covered two major stories concerning allegations of misconduct by two NYP Senior Officers.

The IOPC statements are accessible below and are unchanged since the original statement was issued. Presumably indicating that both cases are still under investigation:

• 20 December 2023: Criminal investigation into Senior Officer North Yorkshire Police. This Officer has been suspended from duty since December 2023. It has not been officially confirmed if he is still receiving his salary, if he has retired – or what.

• 15 May 2024: Information provided during vetting – North Yorkshire Police

The IOPC use the term Senior Officer to refer to an officer of Superintendent rank or above.

The £130,000+ questions: Who is the Chief? Where is Mabs?

In this January 2024 article Who is the Chief? Where is Mabs? I raised the issue of why North Yorkshire Taxpayers were paying for two Chief Constables and two Deputy Chief Constables.

This bizarre situation arose when Chief Constable Lisa Winward suddenly stopped work sometime in October – December 2023 and Assistant Chief Constable (ACC) Elliot Foskett was appointed as Acting Chief Constable. This sudden and unexpected change is even more perplexing given that she was due to retire and hand over to the current Chief Constable Tim Forber on 31st March 2024. Normally, if the Chief Constable was unavailable for duty, the Deputy Chief Constable (DCC) would step in and take over. However, DCC Mabs Hussain was replaced by ACC Scott Bissett, acting as Temporary DCC at the same time.

This meant that:

• North Yorkshire taxpayers were paying for two Chief Constables and two DCCs at the same time.
• NYP was the only force in the country, possibly in the history of British Policing, that did not have a permanently appointed Chief Constable and DCC for about four months.
• Two inexperienced Officers had to be upgraded to cover the ACC vacancies formed by the temporary promotions of ACC Foskett and ACC (now DCC) Bissett. Further weakening the NYP Command Team.

I estimate the combined salary cost of paying Chief Constable Winward and DCC Hussain to do nothing between October-December 2023 and March 2024 was well over £130,000. However, it is impossible to obtain any explanation or justification for this expenditure from those who are paid to provide it.

Interestingly, no announcement was made about their retirement or why they both stopped performing duties prematurely. Incredibly, Chief Constable Winward is not mentioned in the force history page here. Both Officers appear to have been air-brushed out of NYP history. This is unprecedented for Officers of their seniority and length of service.

I wrote to Commissioner Metcalfe and subsequently to Deputy Mayor Jo Coles asking for confirmation of the two Officers’ status and why North Yorkshire taxpayers were paying for two Chief Constables and two Deputy Chief Constables. I have had no response. A perfect example of NYP’s determination not to be held accountable for spending by/on Chief Officers, which – even worse – has been supported by both the officials – one Conservative (Commissioner Metcalfe) and one Labour (Deputy Mayor Jo Coles) – who were/are paid to hold NYP to account.

NYP Chief Officers refuse to repay Expenses

In the article NYP Chief Officers Expenses 2024 Part 1 I raised concerns about expenses claimed by Chief Constable Forber, DCC Bisset, ACC Clarke and Assistant Chief Officer Stitt, which in my view are improper and should be repaid. I wrote to each of these Officers and to the official tasked with holding NYP to account (Deputy Mayor Jo Coles – pictured above, right – with NYC/CoY Combined Authority Mayor David Skaith, left) asking for a justification of the expenditure or that it should be repaid.

At this point, I wish to be clear that (currently) there is no allegation of fraud made in the NYE against any of these Officers. I recognize that there could be a reasonable explanation for the controversial items they have claimed and, in my view, this could all be resolved if they would respond openly to my concerns. However, at the time this article went for publication:

• None of these Officers – or Deputy Mayor Jo Coles – have responded to my correspondence.

• The Chief Officers’ Expenses published on the NYP website showed that the Expenses that the NYE has challenged remain.

NYE Chief Reporter Nigel Ward said:

“As a North Yorkshire pensioner and elector, I am appalled by the response – or lack of it – by our Chief Police Officers and Deputy Mayor Cole to the issues raised by Tim Hicks in the NYE.

With Expenses, the issue is not about the amount of money involved, it is integrity, accountability and openness. I remember when the NYE identified that Councillor Carl Les had overclaimed expenses; he admitted he had made a mistake, apologized and repaid them. That was the end of it.

However, NYP Chief Officers will not adopt this open approach and seem to believe that they are entitled to be paid whatever they want and do not have to account for their spending to the taxpayer.”

NYP Chief Officers address an issue raised by the NYE.

In the article NYP Chief Officers Expenses 2024 Part 1, I raised the issue of why four NYP Chief Officers had charged accommodation costs for staying at Harrogate together. One of them is Assistant Chief Officer (ACO) Lisa Stitt. I commented:

“There is no Police rank of ‘Assistant Chief Officer’, so Assistant Chief Officer Lisa Stitt is, I believe, a civilian. I say “I believe”, because there is no information about her on the NYP website – in itself a failure to be open and disclose information to the public that they are entitled to know. Her duties are presumably confined to Force Headquarters at Northallerton. The question must then arise why she is charging accommodation for staying at the PTC Harrogate (50 mins drive from Northallerton).”

I can confirm that within two days of publication, the Force website was updated to include ACO Stitt’s biographical details. They can be read here. Clear evidence that the NYE was right to raise this issue and that the NYE coverage has led to an improvement in disclosure of information by NYP.

However, this extra disclosure has led to an additional set of issues.

ACO Stitt’s Conflict of Interest

ACO Stitt’s newly published biography reveals:

“Lisa was appointed Assistant Chief Officer in June 2023 and is responsible for the support services (ICT, Finance, Payroll and Procurement, People Services, Estates and Transport & Logistics)….”

[My underlining in bold type]

So it is now revealed that as well as being responsible for IT, HR, NYP’s considerable property portfolio and its transport fleet, ACO Stitt (not the Chief Finance Officer) is also responsible for Finance, Procurement and paying Salaries, which includes paying Expenses.

In the context of this article, and the concerns about overpayment of Chief Officers expenses, this also means that ACO Stitt has a major and irreconcilable conflict of interest. This arises because ACO Stitt is the official ultimately responsible for:

• Originally authorising the payment of Expenses for hotels to the Chief Constable and Deputy Chief Constable, that were in excess of the NYP expenses limits.
• Originally authorising payments for Expenses that are not allowable e.g. the cost of washing Chief Constable Forber’s car.
• Originally authorising payments for Expenses that are questionable e.g. the cost of hotel accommodation within North Yorkshire.
• Reviewing and resolving the concerns I have raised about inappropriate Expenses claims and determining if the Expenses should be re-paid, while she is one of the Chief Officers that is the subject of these concerns.
• Recommending if misconduct or criminal charges should be preferred against the Officers concerned, including herself.

So no impartial assessment of the controversies over the Chief Officers’ expenses can take place. Hence, I suspect, the reason that everyone is refusing to comment.

NYE and taxpayers defeated

In summary therefore – absent any comment from NYP or Deputy Mayor Coles – it would appear that it is a clear-cut case of game set and match to NYP:

• ACO Stitt has exonerated herself and her colleagues from any accountability for the above issues.
• Accordingly, there has been no independent or impartial review of the issues the NYE has raised.
• North Yorkshire taxpayers are again being denied an open explanation of how their money has been spent.
• NYP Chief Officers have again succeeded in paying themselves Expenses to which it would appear they are not entitled.
• Thanks to the inaction of deputy Mayor Coles, NYP Chief Officers will be able to continue charging as much as they want, for whatever they want with impunity for the foreseeable future.

Coming next

The NYE Review of Chief Officers’ ’24 Expenses (Pt.3).

More revelations.

Right of Reply

Chief Constable Forber, DCC Bisset, ACC Clark, ACO Stitt and Deputy Mayor Coles have been provided with a draft copy of this article and been asked for a media comment. None had been received by the time the article went for publication.

If you are mentioned in this article and do not agree with the views expressed in it, or wish to correct any factual inaccuracy, please let me know using the letters@nyenquirer.uk email address and your views and/or a correction will be published if appropriate.