Governance

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. As well as serving as Chair of the BlueLight Commercial Board, Matthew 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.

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 eight years ago, where she was the Chief Procurement Officer. She was recently appointed chair of Air Ambulances UK following the successful merger of the membership-based Association of Air Ambulances and the national charity Air Ambulances UK 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 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.

Philip Seccombe was elected as the Police and Crime Commissioner for Warwickshire in May 2016 and his term of office extends to May 2021. Born in Birmingham and educated at Rugby School, Philip went on to study Estate Management at the Royal Agricultural College and is a chartered surveyor by trade. He has a strong grounding in public life, having been a Conservative councillor on Stratford-on-Avon District Council between 2002 and 2017. Philip also served with the Territorial Army (now Army Reserve) for 25 years, receiving the Territorial Decoration (TD) for his long service. He commanded his Regiment, reaching the rank of Colonel. Philip still maintains his military connections as chairman of the West Midlands Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Association (until June 2020) and as chairman of the Warwickshire Army Benevolent Fund. As Police and Crime Commissioner, Philip’s priorities are to ensure that police are properly equipped, trained and motivated to protect the public and bring offenders to justice, while maintaining high visibility among local communities and strong support for victims of crime. He has spearheaded the recruitment of an additional 150 officers for Warwickshire Police over the past two years. Nationally, Philip has previously served as the chair of the Emergency Services Collaboration Working Group and the lead of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners’ portfolio group on emergency services collaboration.

Alison represents the Labour Group and is the APCC Portfolio Lead for Equality, Diversity and Human Rights, the Joint Lead for Race Disparity and the Deputy Lead for Transparency and Accountability. Whilst at university, Alison was elected to Leeds City Council to represent Armley ward in 1990, thus becoming first black woman councillor to serve on the council. After 29 years' continuous service as a councillor, she retired from the council in 2019 and was made an honorary alderwoman of Leeds. She held multiple positions during her time in office, including Deputy Lord Mayor, Shadow Executive member of the Council and chair of the West Yorkshire Police and Crime Panel. Alison has worked with voluntary organisations for nearly 30 years and was formerly Chief Executive at Touchstone, a mental health and wellbeing charity based in West and South Yorkshire, where she specialised in working with diverse communities. Alison won the 2014 Forward Business Woman of the Year award, Stonewall Senior Champion of the Year in 2015, and was awarded an OBE for services to mental health and wellbeing during COVID-19 in 2022.

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. 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.

Katy is the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner for Sussex, having been first elected in 2012. Katy's work to support victims of crime has won her praise from successive Home Secretaries and Prime Ministers and she founded the award-wining Sussex Youth Commission in 2103 and the Sussex Elders' Commision in 2015. Katy is a former Director of the Board of the College of Policing and former advisor to the editorial board of the Guardian Public Leaders Network. She is currently Chair of the Sussex Criminal Justice Board; Chair and National Spokesperson of the Association of Police & Crime Commissioners Digital Policing & Technology Portfolio. Katy lives in mid-Sussex and has a BA degree in history. In June 2019, Katy was awarded an OBE for public and political service.

Roger Hirst was elected as Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex in May 2016. Previously he was a cabinet member for Essex County Council and Deputy Leader of Brentwood Borough Council. He has over thirty years experience as a leading financial analyst, having run European research divisions for major UK, European and US international financial institutions. He is the joint lead for police funding on behalf of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners nationally and was elected to the board of the APCC in 2018. Roger is the PCC Lead for Funding Formula, Comprehensive Spending Review and Grants.

Chris Haward joined Lincolnshire Police as Chief Constable in December 2020. His previous role was head of the East Midlands Special Operations Unit (EMSOU) and he has led on major crime investigations, tackling serious and organised crime, covert policing and counter terrorism. In his time at EMSOU, the largest police collaboration in the UK, the unit saw an increase in operations completed, arrests made, and convictions secured. Chris has a degree and a Masters from Leicester University and joined Leicestershire Police in 1991 where he worked his way up from Constable to Detective Inspector through to Chief Superintendent. He was the Gold Commander for Leicester City Football Club for several years, including the Premiership winning season, and spent three years with Interpol tackling drug trafficking across the globe. In 2016 Chris moved to Derbyshire Constabulary as Assistant Chief Constable and took over EMSOU in early 2018 in the rank of Deputy Chief Constable.

Gavin Stephens became Chief Constable of Surrey Police in April 2019, having been Deputy Chief Constable since 2016. He brings a wealth of experience from over 20 years within Surrey Police, serving in every rank and now has overall responsibility for strategic and operational delivery of Surrey Police. Gavin is also Chair of the NPCC’s Communications Advisory Group and in 2021 became the Chair of the NPCC Finance Coordination Committee. He has previously been the NPCC lead for Neighbourhood Policing, which included PCSOs and Troubled Families, and lead for Social Media and Digital Engagement. He is committed to delivering a modern policing service that prevents crime, protects people and offers help to those in need. He leads on Finance for the National Police Chiefs’ Council and was the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for the Apollo Programme within National Counter Terrorism Policing until 2019. Gavin studied engineering at the University of Cambridge and worked for GEC Marconi Research as a sponsored student. After joining Cambridgeshire Constabulary, he moved to Surrey Police in 1996, initially based in East Surrey on Neighbourhood Policing, then in Serious & Organised Crime, Professional Standards and in the Neighbourhood Policing Command. 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.