The Panel does not have a legal role to consider complaints regarding the Mayor in relation to their policing, fire and crime responsibilities. These are dealt with by the Monitoring Officer of the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority. If a complaint is sent us regarding the Mayor we will offer to send this on to the Monitoring Officer for you.
The Panel does have a legal role to consider (non-criminal) complaints regarding the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, where the Mayor chooses to appoint one. Below are further details of the Panel's complaints handling process. Where the Panel publishes reports of its deliberations on a complaint matter, these can be found here.
If you wish to make a complaint regarding North Yorkshire Police or North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service then please contact the Complaints and Recognition Team which sits within the York and North Yorkshire Office for Policing, Fire, Crime and Commissioning at customerservice@northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk or by calling 01423 642700.
Making a Complaint
When to complain
If you have a concern about something the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (where applicable) has said or done, the first step is to raise it with them directly. Contact details for the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority are available here.
If you are still not satisfied, you can make a complaint to us, the Police, Fire and Crime Panel. Someone can act on your behalf (perhaps a friend or relative) if you give your written permission for them to do so.
What we can do
Complaints about the behaviour of the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (where applicable) are dealt with either by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) or by us, the Panel.
We have to record any complaints alleging criminal conduct (or which indicate criminal conduct may have occurred) by the Mayor or Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime. We then have to refer these complaints to the IOPC for investigation.
Any other complaints are handled by us, sometimes leading to a process known as informal resolution.
Informal resolution means encouraging, helping and bringing about the resolution of a complaint without going through legal or formal proceedings.
We can consider complaints about the way a decision has been made or the behaviour of the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (where applicable), if this has caused problems for you.
What we can't do
We can't just question what the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (where applicable) has done simply because you don't agree with it. There must be some alleged fault by them. For example, you may think that they have not followed the proper process for taking a decision.
There are some things we can't look into because there is a more appropriate body to deal with your complaint, or because we don't have the legal power to do so. If we can't help, we will tell you about other organisations that may be able to help.
In particular, we are not able to consider complaints about the performance of North Yorkshire Police or North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service or any of their officers. Further information regarding making a complaint about the police or fire service can be found here.
Additionally, if you have asked the York and North Yorkshire Office for Policing, Fire, Crime and Commissioning to review the outcome of a complaint that you have made against North Yorkshire Police, please note that we don't have the legal powers to examine the outcome of that review.
The Panel also cannot process reports of incidents, for example if you think you have witnessed a crime. These must be reported directly to North Yorkshire Police by calling 101 (for non-emergency reporting) or 999 in an emergency.
More Information?
You will be able to find out more information about making a complaint by clicking on the links to the documents below:
