IT is perhaps a useful coincidence that in the run-up to elections for local police and crime commissioners the Hillsborough inquest verdict has burst upon the nation. Although the main impact of the inquest falls upon Liverpool and South Yorkshire, it is obvious to me that the weaknesses becoming clear in law enforcement and the application of justice have implications throughout the UK.

I suspect that when the Crown Prosecution Service has completed its deliberations regarding what went on at the Hillsborough disaster and in its aftermath, the public confidence in the police service generally and the justice system in general will take further hard knocks.

The voting public showed very little interest in the election of the first police and crime commissioners to take office but recent events have in my opinion placed a spotlight on how vitally important it is to have in place competent and trustworthy individuals who are well able to undertake the oversight of the management and performance of their police service. The power given to the police and crime commissioners to hire and fire chief constables is one that must be exercised with integrity and competence and, given the large number of candidates standing for election, I suspect that a proportion of them will lack the qualities needed to discharge the duties proficiently.

Indeed, the first tranche of police and crime commissioners threw up some examples of this and seemed to cause a degree of panic at the Home Office when it was realised that no process for getting rid of a failing police and crime commissioner had been put in place before they took office.

Many members of the public are probably not aware that the Government is quietly and steadily moving along a policy to widen the powers and responsibilities of police and crime commissioners to include oversight of the fire and rescue service.

Given my background, readers will not be surprised that this is of particular interest to me as a former chief fire officer. I have spoken to a member of the Dorset and Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Authority that is in its infancy. He told me that he thought that the amalgamation of the fire services in Dorset and Wiltshire would keep at bay any proposal to put a police and crime commissioner in place of him and his political colleagues on the very large fire and rescue authority. It would need the police services in Dorset and Wiltshire to combine to make this possible. My view is that if the Government wants this to happen they have the ways and means to force it to happen at a time that suits both Westminster and Whitehall. Watch this space!

A study of the history of the UK fire service shows that whenever the management and/or political accountability for fire services has been made a joint responsibility with that of the police very often real problems have arisen, in some cases leading to loss of life.

This usually comes about because the provision of fire services is seen as being of lesser importance to policing and so when resources are being allocated, the fire brigades of the past got the crumbs that fell from the table of the police force. Eventually, there is a fire emergency that is not dealt with well and lives are lost. This is attributed entirely or partially to the poor management skills of the police chief relative to his fire responsibilities.

I do hope that we are not going to see mistakes of the past repeated.