A decision on whether it was unlawful for a police commissioner to suspend a chief constable from his job will not be known for weeks.
Dr Alan Billings suspended David Crompton after he appeared to justify police questioning of fans’ behaviour after the Hillsborough disaster.
His comments came after a jury concluded force conduct contributed to or caused the deaths of 96 fans.
The High Court reserved a decision on whether the suspension was lawful.
Judges are expected to take between two and eight weeks to deliver a ruling.
Read on… http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-39438154
See also: Neil Wilby https://neilwilby.com/2017/01/23/bad-on-their-merits/
and now: Much ado about nothing? https://neilwilby.com/2017/03/29/much-ado-about-nothing/
If Alan Billings loses, politically his position would be unsustainable.
Don’t be silly.
Theresa May lost similar proceedings a few weeks ago about Brexit. Did anyone suggest her position would be unsustainable?
The more that it is being revealed about Crompton’s performance – read the Peer Reviews and the recent HMIP report (now they appear to have finally caught up) – the only regret should be that he hadn’t gone earlier.
I don’t like May she is a remainer and don’t trust her to do hard Brexit As for losing, the House of Lords is an unelected body and was over turned by a elected body.
May didn’t lose to the House of Lords.
She and the government lost in the High Court and in the Supreme Court.
I expect and hope that Crompton will not be successful. It would be extraordinary (or it will say something about the weakness of the legislation, compared to the claims that Theresa May made about it at the time) if a PCC isn’t able to determine that a Chief Constable is failing and has lost trust and needs to resign.
After the Ministers lost in the Supreme Court, Attorney General Jeremy Wright said the Government was “disappointed” by the final decision. He added: “The Government will comply with the judgement of the court and do all that is necessary to implement it.”
If by mischance, Crompton is successful, that’s what we should expect the PCC to do: comply with the judgement, do what is necessary to implement it, and move on.