Governance

Joy Allen was elected as Police and Crime Commissioner for Durham in May 2021. Joy represents the Labour Group and is the APCC Joint Lead for Environment & Sustainability, the APCC Lead for Addictions and Substance Misuse, the Deputy APCC Lead for Road Safety and Emergency Service Collaboration. In October 2024 Joy became the Chair of BlueLight Commercial Board. She has lived and worked in County Durham and Tees Valley for most of her life and spent most of her career working in the public sector for Durham Constabulary, Sedgefield Borough Council, Middlesbrough Council and County Durham and Darlington Fire and Rescue Service as Head of Service and Area Manager for Community Safety. She was elected to Durham County Council in 2013 and was appointed to the Cabinet in 2015 where she held the Safer Communities Portfolio. In 2017 Joy was appointed to lead Durham County Council’s Transformation Programme. She was elected Mayor of Bishop Auckland in 2019 and was a cabinet member for Transformation, Culture and Tourism. Joy holds a BA Hons in Management and Administration, MSc in Security and Crime Risk Management and an MBA from Durham University Business School.

Lianne is an engineer by background with more than 30 years’ experience in the steel industry with British Steel, Corus and Tata Steel Europe in operational, technical and commercial roles. The senior leadership roles Lianne held whilst working in steel involved large transformational change, cultural management and customer focus programmes across Europe, involving many different sites and legal entities. Whilst Chief Procurement Officer she developed a category and regional management approach enabled by a “Journey to Procurement Excellence”. More recently Lianne set her own company providing a business and technical consulting service; focussing on additive manufacturing, decarbonisation and setting up of new organisations. As Chief Executive Officer of BlueLight Commercial Lianne looks to develop a commercially focussed, “Go To”, agile organisation that is aligned to the Policing 2025 vision, driving Commercial excellence for the function, developing a full Commercial Lifecycle Model approach and provide innovative solutions to key issues such as supply chain risk. Lianne is an honorary visiting professor at Cardiff University, a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, where she engages in chairing panels, developing future leaders, and the development of supply chain resilience and decarbonisation policies.

Heather Benjamin is proud to have served on several board roles since she left Centrica plc, where she was the Chief Procurement Officer until 2012. She was recently appointed Chair of ShareSoc which is the member organisation for individual private investors. She is also a Non-Executive Director and Chair of Remuneration at Supply Chain Coordination Ltd (SCCL) - the organisation which manages the sourcing, delivery and supply of healthcare products and services and food for NHS Trusts and healthcare organisations across England and Wales. Previously, Heather was Senior Independent Director on the boards in Portsmouth Water and Cheque and Credit Clearing Company, where she experienced collaborating with several bank members, when she was Chair of Risk committee. Her charity roles include Chair of Trustees for Air Ambulances UK and Chair at Walsingham Support, where she has since been appointed Honorary President. She has previously been a Trustee in Volunteering England and for The Academy of St Martins in the Fields international orchestra. She is also Vice President for The Leaders Club.

Matthew Scott was elected the Police and Crime Commissioner for Kent in May 2016. His role is to set policing priorities for the county by consulting with the public and putting together a Police and Crime Plan. He then holds the Chief Constable of Kent Police to account for the delivery of that plan. PCCs also set the council tax precept for policing, are responsible for the overall policing budget, and fund projects which support victims of crime and promote community safety. Matthew served as Chair of the BlueLight Commercial Board from June 2020 to October 2024 and is also the national Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) portfolio lead for Mental Health. He lives with his wife and two young children in Swanley, Kent.

Matthew was elected as Police and Crime Commissioner on 10th May 2021 for Thames Valley, covering Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes and Oxfordshire. He served as Deputy PCC from 2017 to 2021, during which time he took on the chairmanship of the Local Criminal Justice Board. The PCC’s role is to hold the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police to account for the performance of the Force, effectively making the police answerable to the communities they serve. The PCC also has a wider role in promoting community safety and working with criminal justice partners to improve support for victims of crime. Matthew served on the Vale of White Horse District Council since 2003 and was Leader of the Council from 2011 to 2018. He has been a director of the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership as well as Chairman of Vale4Business and a Board Member of Science Vale and is involved in various charitable organisations. Matthew Barber was raised and schooled in Oxfordshire before graduating from Brunel University. He still lives in Oxfordshire, is married to Katie and has two children and a labrador.

David started service as a Police Constable in Carlisle in 1986 and served throughout Cumbria at various ranks until 2000 when seconded to what eventually became the National Crime Agency. He worked nationally and internationally (from Head of Anti Corruption Command to International Liaison Officer based abroad) and headed up the UK’s Interpol, Europol, Sirene, CEOP referral and Fugitives Bureau. David is responsible for integrating the UK into the SIS2 database. David retired from Policing in 2016 and worked as Deputy Head of HR at a busy Acute Hospital Trust until election in May 2024 to PFCC for Cumbria.

Gavin Stephens was elected to the Chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) in 2022, having served in Surrey Police from Constable to Chief Constable. As Chair of NPCC, Gavin is responsible for ensuring strong co-ordination and collaboration across UK Policing and contributing to a shared vision of achieving the most trusted and engaged policing service in the world, by making communities safer and stronger. Gavin is the Senior Responsible Officer for the national Police Race Action Plan. He is also a Director of Police Digital Services. He chairs the Boards of the Criminal Records Office, and Police Crime Prevention Initiatives. He is a trustee of the charity Police Care UK, and chairs the Board of Trustees for Police Arboretum Memorial Trust. He is a patron of the Police Mutual Assurance Society. In his former role as Chief Constable of Surrey, Gavin was chair of the NPCC Finance Coordination Committee and NPCC Communications Advisory Group. Prior to that he was NPCC lead for Neighbourhood Policing and chaired the committee to produce the College of Policing Guidelines on Modernising Neighbourhood Policing. Born and bred in Hartlepool on the North East coast, Gavin studied engineering and management studies at the University of Cambridge. Upon graduation he joined Cambridgeshire Constabulary, then transferred to Surrey Police in 1996. He worked across a wide variety of roles including Head of Serious & Organised Crime, Professional Standards, and often returned to his passion of Neighbourhood Policing. In June 2021, he was awarded a QPM.

Paul Sanford has served in Norfolk Constabulary throughout his policing career joining in 1999. He started as a response office in Norwich and then held a variety of uniform and detective roles in all ranks from Constable to Superintendent and was promoted to Superintendent in 2008. Paul has held a number of posts including District Commander for South Norfolk, District Commander in Norwich and Head of CID. He is an experienced firearms and public order commander and has also been the Senior Investigating Officer on a number of significant criminal investigations. More recently, Paul spent three years coordinating the activity of the National Police Chief's Council Violence and Public Protection Portfolio. During this period, Paul was the Police lead for the implementation and rollout of the national Child Abuse Image Database (CAID). In April 2017, Paul was appointed as Assistant Chief Constable for Local Policing in Norfolk Police and in 2019 was appointed Deputy Chief Constable. Paul became Temporary Chief Constable in May 2021 and was promoted in December 2021. Paul is the Chair of the NPCC Finance Coordination Committee. Having lived in Norfolk for all but a few years of his life, Paul has a passion for the County and policing.

Stephen became Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police in May 2021. In June 2015, Stephen was appointed as Deputy Chief Constable for Durham Constabulary, and in July 2016 Stephen took up his appointment as Chief Constable for South Yorkshire Police (SYP). During his tenure, SYP became one of the most improved forces in the country for 3 consecutive years and is today amongst the very top tier of high performing forces. Stephen is amongst the most experienced senior officers in the country, having joined Lancashire Constabulary in 1988. He was appointed to Merseyside Police in 2006 on promotion to Chief Superintendent, where he initially headed up the force's Strategic Development Department. He subsequently served for 3 years as Area Commander for Liverpool North, one of the largest and most challenging Basic Command Units in the country. In 2011, he was appointed to the Metropolitan Police as Commander for the East Area, with responsibility for all aspects of operational policing across nine London boroughs. This dynamic and diverse area is home to over 2.3 million Londoners, and he held command of 6,250 police officers and staff with a total operating budget of £325 million. As a qualified Firearms and Public Order Commander, he regularly performed Gold Command roles in several high-profile policing operations and critical incidents, including a fatal helicopter crash in central London and in working with partner agencies across East London to restore public confidence in the aftermath of the 2011 riots.