A significant part of the Authority's work involves monitoring the Constabulary. The Authority sets targets for the Constabulary as part of the Policing Plan and it monitors the Constabulary's work against those targets throughout the course of the year. Ultimately the Constabulary's peformance is reported in the Annual Report.
Different aspects of the Constabulary's activity are monitored by different Committees of the Authority. For example the Crime & Performance Committee monitors performance with regard to day to day policing such as arrests made, the Constabulary's financial performance (including reports from the Authority's auditors on financial systems) , while the People and Performance Committee monitors things like the number of staff recruited from ethnic minorities and staff sickness. Disciplinary matters and complaints made by the public are also monitored by the People and Performance Committee and any complaints made about a member of the Authority would be considered by the Standards Committee.
Copies of the reports considered by these Committees can be found in the Meetings & Papers section of the website
The work of the Authority itself is in turn monitored by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Audit Commission while some specific areas of the Authority's business are also monitored by other agencies, for example the Authority's Publication Scheme has been approved by the Information Commissioner.
In addition all the Authority's Agenda papers are sent to the news media in Cumbria and our meetings are open to both the press and public. For details of the dates, times and venues of meetings please see the Meetings and Papers section of our website.