04 Aug 2022
Association of Police and Crime Commissioner (APCC) Environment and Sustainability Leads say Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) are ‘at the heart of the decarbonisation agenda’ in the latest In Focus report published on Tuesday 2 August.
Climate change is an important issue for the British public and this gives PCCs a strong mandate as the public’s voice to ensure that policing is striving to meet its challenges and taking the steps to mitigate the risks that it poses.
Joint National Leads and Police and Crime Commissioners Joy Allen and Tim Passmore pledge their commitment to ensuring all commissioners play their full part in achieving the Net Zero ambition in the latest In Focus report on Environment and Sustainability.
The report highlights the work that PCCs are doing across England and Wales, including here in Dyfed-Powys, to reduce the carbon footprint in their force area and ensure a sustainable future. In particular, the In Focus report highlights;
- PCC Dafydd Llywelyn’s commitment to invest in 11 electric cars for the force’s Neighbourhood Policing Teams, with the aim of cutting carbon emissions and working towards a more sustainable future.
- The fund of £880,000 PCC Llywelyn secured from the Government’s Salix Finance, to further develop Dyfed-Powys Police into an environmentally friendly organisation and support the action to reduce the impact of climate change.
- The Dyfed-Powys Community Payback Scheme which is currently averaging around 1,000 hours per week working in the community where suitable individuals on probation are placed in charity shops, and the National Trust to
carry out their unpaid work requirement. This has built strong working relationships with charity shops and other third sector organisations throughout the Dyfed-Powys area.
Dyfed-Powys PCC Dafydd Llywelyn said: “Here in Dyfed-Powys, our aim is to develop and embed an innovative culture in terms of sustainability, by reducing our carbon footprint and ensuring our estate, vehicle fleet, supplies, services processes and procedures are environmentally responsible.
“I am pleased to see that some of the developments that we have made in Dyfed-Powys recently and are putting in place, are being acknowledged by the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners as examples of good practices, but there is so much more that we all can do.
“My vision is to develop and embed an innovative culture within the Force in terms of sustainability, by reducing our carbon footprint and ensuring our estate, vehicle fleet, supplies, services processes and procedures are environmentally responsible, so that we have the collective capability and capacity to deal with the impact of Climate Change, such as flooding and other severe weather episodes.
“I am committed to balancing short-term needs with safeguarding our future.”
APCC Joint Leads on Environment and Sustainability, Joy Allen and Tim Passmore, said: “PCCs have a critical role to play in ensuring that their forces, commissioned services, and offices are employing environmentally friendly and sustainable practices.
“If we do not act now, the implications for policing could include growing protest movements, more civil emergencies (such as flooding), a rise in Organised Crime Groups taking advantage of demand for resources and demand on the police to enforce new legislative restrictions against those causing environmental harm.”
With the UK Government committed to achieving Net Zero carbon emissions by 2050, and the College of Policing identifying climate change as one of the ten most significant challenges for policing over the next ten years, the APCC has joined forces with its policing partners at the National Police Chiefs Council and Bluelight Commercial, to deliver a policing decarbonisation programme, first launched in November 2021.
Both Joy and Tim sit on the strategic Board that is overseeing this vital programme of work. The Board builds on the great work already happening across policing and helps to drive collaboration and accelerate progress across all forces, delivering a decarbonisation roadmap, setting standards and highlighting some of the best practices that are already happening within individual forces.
BlueLight Commercial CEO, Lianne Deeming, said: “The last few years has really bought into focus the impact that human activity has had on our climate and the threat posed by climate change.
“It is great to see that Police and Crime Commissioners are very much at the forefront of driving and embracing the significant changes that will be needed across policing to achieve a sustainable future, balancing economic, environmental, and social activity.
“The sustainability programme will help to provide guidance and leadership to forces, develop partnerships and share best practise, measure collective improvements and act as an enabler and accelerator of change.”
You can find out more about the programme here - https://bluelightcommercial.police.uk/news/sustainability-decarbonisation-programme-launch/
You can download a copy of the In Focus report, here: https://www.apccs.police.uk/media/7867/apcc-environmental-and-sustainability-in-focus.pdf
ENDS
More Information:
Gruff Ifan
Head of Communication and Engagement
Gruffudd.ifan@dyfed-powys.police.uk
