COLIN PIPE
Dorset’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Martyn Underhill, has announced his intention to appoint Colin Pipe as his Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner. The final decision will be made following feedback from the Police and Crime Panel which meets on 10 September. He has announced this publicly before the meeting of the Police and Crime Panel as he considers this is a matter of ‘significant public interest’.
Martyn Underhill said: “I have always stated clearly that I would not place an additional salary cost on the office by appointing a deputy during my first term. However, in recent months both the Chief Constable and the Police and Crime Panel have urged me to consider such an appointment. I stated then that I would consider standing for election in May 2016 with a deputy, and ask the electorate for a mandate to spend public money on a deputy in the next term if I am elected. That is what I am now intending to do. I’ve made this difficult decision because the role of Police and Crime Commissioner has grown considerably during the current term of office and the plans unveiled by the Government recently will increase the workload further. The appointment will provide invaluable support to my role without imposing cost on the public as Mr Pipe has agreed to undertake this role in a voluntary capacity until May 2016.”
He continues: “It is my intention that I will stand for election with Mr Pipe as my deputy for the next term should I succeed in being re-elected.”
In February 2015, Colin Pipe was appointed as Special Adviser in a voluntary capacity to the Police and Crime Commissioner. Mr Pipe supports the PCC in his work on reducing re-offending, improving victim care and public satisfaction, restorative justice and rehabilitation of offenders and in the use of volunteers in policing.
Mr Pipe, who is 52 and lives in Bournemouth, has a 30 year background in the Civil Service. He became Private Secretary to the Attorney General in September 1989. He was also Parliamentary Clerk to the Lord Chancellor from September 1992 to July 1994. He later represented the UK as delegate to both the European Union and the Hague Conference on Private International Law where he negotiated international treaties concerning children and families. Mr Pipe retired from the Civil Service in 2011. Mr Pipe’s career has also seen him serve as a Magistrate in Ealing, Acton, Camberwell and London Bridge from 1995 to 2010, including 12 years as a bench chairman.
Until recently he was a Governor of the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
