It can be a long and difficult process to bring police officers to book for misconduct —as Alistair Lexden has found out in the case of Mike Veale, from his hideously biased investigation of allegations against Sir Edward Heath onwards. Veale’s wrongdoing and the Government’s failure to do anything about it were the subjects of a speech which Alistair Lexden made in the Lords on 31 October, introducing a short debate on the powers and functions of Police and Crime Commissioners.
I have two objectives in this short debate. The first is to draw together and reiterate a number of concerns which I have raised in speeches and questions, both oral and written, over the last four years.
My concerns relate to misconduct in three of the areas where Police and Commissioners are elected under current arrangements-- Wiltshire, Leicestershire and Cleveland.
My second objective is to take the Government to task for doing nothing—absolutely nothing—to bear down on the cases of misconduct which have given risen to my long-standing concerns.
As regards the Government, I have tried hard to make some progress by seeking a discussion with the Home Secretary. In an oral question on 18 July, I asked for a meeting to be arranged which a small group drawn from across the House could attend . I got in touch with a few Members in the opposition parties and on the cross benches to see if they would be able to take part.
Ministerial changes unsurprisingly complicated and delayed matters over the summer.
Towards the end of last month I sought to enlist the help of my noble friend Lord Sharpe of Epsom in finally fixing a date for the long-awaited meeting. On 26 September he told me he would pursue the matter, adding “I will come back to you as soon as I can.” I have heard nothing further from him.
I have, however, heard from his Private Office, which sent me the following email on 18 October: “ Thought I would provide an update now that we are post recess. I have reached out to the Home Secretary’s office again and due to her increasingly busy schedule she will be unable to commit to a meeting.”
The House will understand that my hopes of securing action by the Government have not been strengthened. Rather, it seems even clearer than ever that the Government will continue to stand idly by in the face of my serious concerns. This debate is their opportunity to prove me wrong.
Now all this is very dispiriting. So let me make it plain that in using the limited time available to me to express worries and anxieties about some specific issues, I cast no aspersions on the many Police and Crime Commissioners, connected or unconnected with a political party, who are serving their communities with devotion and success.
Indeed, since this year marks the tenth anniversary of the introduction of elected Police and Crime Commissioners ,it would be wrong not to pay tribute to what they have achieved—while at the same time expressing a little regret that they have not become better known, or brought the system of which they are part widespread popularity. Opinion polls suggest that nearly half the country has never heard of them
Here is another matter on which the Government could usefully exert themselves. If they took a sustained interest in the work of the Commissioners, and made speeches about it, the public’s knowledge would increase.
The deep concerns that I mentioned at the outset are all connected with one person, Mike Veale. I have referred to him many times in the House over the years.
Mr Veale is not a man lacking in regard for himself. In self-promoting publicity, he states with regard to his year as Chief Constable of Cleveland, a post from which he was forced to resign in 2019: “I was responsible for the development and delivery of a compelling strategic vision”.
He continues: “I am able to operate within my ethical and moral boundaries without compromising my values and integrity.”
His record tells a rather different story. I first became aware of Mr Veale when in 2015, as Chief Constable of Wiltshire in charge of Operation Conifer, he sent officers to go through all Sir Edward Heath’s voluminous papers in the Bodleian Library in the hope of finding evidence to show the deceased statesman was guilty of the child sex crimes alleged by the notorious fantasist, Carl Beech, who is now serving a long prison sentence.
Veale said he was convinced that Sir Edward was “120 per cent guilty.” One of his senior officers stood outside Sir Edward’s house and appealed for witnesses against him. Veale destroyed his mobile telephone and so concealed its contents.
Unable to substantiate any of the allegations against Sir Edward, he left seven of them open, neither proved nor disproved, in an obvious attempt to save face. Not a shred of evidence has been adduced to support any of these allegations against a public servant of immense distinction.
The then PCC for Wiltshire, Mr Angus Macpherson, said he would establish an independent inquiry into Operation Conifer, but then changed his mind and called on the Government to set it up.
The Government actually accepted that they had the power to intervene—the one exception to their normal Pontius Pilate stance—but then refused to use it. They say today that there is no need for them to do anything because Operation Conifer has now been carefully scrutinised.
That was the line they took when writing in July to Lord MacGregor, a former cabinet minister who has now retired from the House, in reply to a letter from him sent to the Home Office one year---repeat one year-- earlier.
This was no answer at all. Conifer has been scrutinised by the police themselves, not by an independent body. The Wiltshire PCC even allowed Veale to set up his own hand-picked scrutiny panel.
Thanks to the Wiltshire PCC and a supine Home Office, Veale was left to transgress elsewhere.
His brief stint as Chief Constable for Cleveland was investigated by the Independent Office for Police Conduct. After two years—things rarely move swiftly where police misconduct is concerned—the IOPC found in 2021 that Veale had “ breached standards of professional behaviour.”
On 2 August last year, the PCC for Cleveland announced that Veale would be referred “shortly” to an independent panel where he would face gross misconduct proceedings.
It is a legal requirement that such proceedings begin within 100 days. By my rather shaky calculations time ran out for Veale on 11 November last year. Very nearly twelve months later proceedings have yet to begin.
During this period Veale has been raking in an annual salary of some £100,000 as adviser to the so-called Conservative PCC for Leicestershire, one Rupert Matthews. He must have taken instruction in the Boris Johnson school of ethics.
On 7 March, the noble lord, Lord Pannick asked the then Minster, Baroness Williams of Trafford: “Does she accept that, in many areas of public and private life, persons against whom serious allegations are made are suspended from their office, employment or other contributions to public life while an investigation is conducted? Why is that not happening here?” The answer he was given bore no relation to the question.
Answers, the Government say, must be sought not from them, but from the relevant Police and Crime Commissioners.
So a public-spirited person, well-known to me, has been doing just that. He has asked Mr Matthews several times to justify employing the discredited Veale. On 9 August last year Matthews’s casework officer replied. Veale, she said, was being employed for six months.
She added: “it is important to note that he is currently not in breach of any misconduct regulations. The investigation is ongoing, and it would therefore be inappropriate to comment on anything in relation to that at this time.”
All further requests for a proper explanation were ignored until last month when the same words were sent again, preceded by the following: “This matter was discussed at the Police and Crime Panel for Leicestershire.” Why was Veale still there long after the expiry of the six-month arrangement? Silence.
Is Cleveland more open and accountable? Not exactly. The PCC was asked in July why Veale’s misconduct hearing had not started. An executive assistant in his office replied: “I have spoken to the Police & Crime Commissioner Steve Turner, and he has advised me this is currently being reviewed by our Chief Executive.”
In October she was asked if the review had been completed. The person who could supply an answer was on annual leave. “I will speak to her upon her return to the office and send you an update with regard to the review”, she said.
At this rate Veale will retire on a fat pension, and never answer for his misconduct.
What is needed is a minister at the Home Office who will challenge the well-entrenched attitude in it: that PCCs should be left entirely to their own devices as if they constituted a separate estate of the realm.
It is an attitude that makes effective accountability impossible. It is not going to come from the small number of local electors who take an interest in the work of PCCs. Who but the elected government is going to stop the offices of PCCs fobbing off inquirers with feeble and totally inadequate answers?
