Britain: An official handbook > 1956

GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION
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the Metropolitan police district the chief officer of police and his immediate sub¬
ordinates are appointed by the Crown on the recommendation of the Home
Secretary.
Central Authority
Co-ordination and a certain measure of central control are exercised through
detailed police regulations which are issued for their respective countries by the
Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for Scotland, who are required by
the Police Act, 1919, ‘ to act in consultation one with another ’ in this connection. The
police regulations cover the ‘government, mutual aid, pay, allowances, pensions,
clothing, expenses and conditions of service ’ of the members of all police forces to
which the Act applies.
The Secretaries of State are advised on questions relating to the conditions of
service of the police by the Police Council for Great Britain, a negotiating body
established on Whitley Council lines in September 1953. In their supervisory
responsibilities they are assisted by Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Constabulary, who
inspect each force, except the Metropolitan Police Force, at least once a year. There
are at present four inspectors in England and Wales and one in Scotland.
Central control also derives from the fact that all police authorities receive a
Government grant equal to half their net expenditure reckoned in accordance with
the provisions of Orders made under the Miscellaneous Financial Provisions Act,
I950 (as regards England and Wales), and the Police (Scotland) Act, 1946 (as
regards Scotland). These Orders empower the Home Secretary and the Secretary
of State for Scotland to withhold the grant in whole or in part, permanently or for
such time as they may determine, if they are not satisfied that a police area is effi¬
ciently policed, that a force is properly maintained and administered, or that the
rates of pay or allowances are as prescribed or approved by them.
Centrally Run Services
During recent years the Home Office has established a number of common
services to supplement those provided by the police authorities for their own use.
In England and Wales such services include a training service, which provides a
number of residential district training centres and a central police college; an
installation and maintenance service of wireless equipment for the police; and a
forensic science service, which provides laboratories for the use of regional groups
of forces. In Scotland there is a central police college, which provides training
courses for recruits and courses of higher training; but the installation and main¬
tenance of wireless equipment is a direct charge upon the police authorities con¬
cerned and there is no centrally run forensic service. The Glasgow police force,
however, operates an extensive laboratory, the service of which is available to the
whole of the Scottish police, and the universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow
and St. Andrews render assistance when required.
In addition to the common services, a number of national services are provided
by the Metropolitan Police Force, whose functions in this respect include: (a) the
maintenance of the Criminal Record Office, which is a national registry of crimes
and their perpetrators containing a Central Fingerprint Bureau, available to all
police forces of the United Kingdom and certain foreign forces; (b) the publication
of the Police Gazette^ which contains particulars of people wanted for crime and
details of stolen property, and is supplied without charge to the police forces of the
United Kingdom and to certain Commonwealth and foreign forces; (c) the organiza¬
tion and control of the Special Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department at
1 A Scottish Police Gazette is published by the City of Glasgow Police Force.