Corporate Governance and Oversight Committee

Andy joined Merseyside Police in 1985, after graduating with honours in Politics at Nottingham University. He was promoted through the ranks across a number of disciplines, including Robbery Squad, Target Operations and Major Crime, Senior Investigating Officer, Force Crime Reduction Co-ordinator and Operations Manager. On promotion to Detective Chief Superintendent in 2005 he became the first commander of the 'Matrix' team, responsible for tackling gun and gang-enabled crime. In 2006 he was appointed Area Commander for South Liverpool.

In 2008 Andy left Merseyside to take up the role of Assistant Chief Constable at Lancashire Constabulary with responsibility for Specialist Operations. This was followed by appointment as Assistant Chief Constable for Territorial Operations, Criminal Justice and Contact Management. He returned to Merseyside in 2012 as Assistant Chief Constable for the Operations portfolio. He was appointed Deputy Chief Constable in September 2013 and became Chief Constable in July 2016.

In 2017 he took over as National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) Head of Serious & Organised Crime and in 2019 he became the national lead for Crime Operations. He stood down as Chief Constable in April 2021 to take up the dual roles of Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary and Inspector of Fire and Rescue Authorities in England, overseeing inspections primarily in the North of England.

Andy joined the Committee of Management (now Oversight Committee) as a Vice President in 2018.

Charlie Hall is Chief Constable for Hertfordshire Constabulary and was appointed to the role in October 2016.

Nationally, Charlie leads for the National Police Chiefs’ Council on Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), is chair of the Operations Co-ordination Committee. He is also the senior responsible officer for the JESIP programme which aims to improve interoperability across the police, fire and ambulance services.

Charlie previously served with Norfolk Constabulary.

In 2017 he was awarded a Queen’s Police Medal in the New Year’s Honours List.

Charlie was appointed to the Committee of Management (now Oversight Committee) as a Vice President in May 2017.

John Robins joined West Yorkshire Police in 1990, working in a variety of roles and ranks. As well as uniformed policing, John specialised in community policing, crime reduction, intelligence development and operational planning and was for many years a nationally trained Hostage Negotiator, dealing with numerous suicide interventions, as well as kidnaps and criminal sieges.

In 2003 John was posted to Bradford as the Superintendent in charge of Operational Policing.  During his three years in Bradford he dealt with many high profile local events, commanded numerous policing operations and assisted the community to recovery after many periods of heightened tension.

In 2006 John was promoted to Chief Superintendent at the Force Headquarters, overseeing Criminal Justice.  In 2008 John became the District Commander of Kirklees, once again dealing with sensitive policing operations that attracted both local and national media coverage.

In 2012 John became an Assistant Chief Constable, taking the lead on Workforce, Development and Standards.  He subsequently took on the role of the Assistant Chief Constable in charge of Local Policing across the Western side of West Yorkshire.

In 2014 John became the Temporary Deputy Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, leading on Professional Standards, Ethics and Equality. In 2017 John was appointed as Deputy Chief Constable.

In December 2018 John became the temporary Chief Constable for West Yorkshire Police officially becoming Chief Constable in July 2019.

John Robins joined the Oversight Committee as a Vice President in April 2021.

In 1994 Rachel started her policing career with Leicestershire Police serving in a number of roles and ranks.  As a Superintendent she undertook a number of positions including the leadership of a force restructure, BCU Command, SIO and latterly Head of the Specialist Operations Department. In this role she led early collaboration work and performed key command roles for both the Team GB Olympic Training Camp at Loughborough University and the Queens Jubilee Visit to Leicester. As Chief Superintendent, Rachel led the Force Change Programme delivering the transformation of services at significantly reduced costs, and working with external support from the private sector.

Rachel attended the Strategic Command Course in 2015 and later that year joined the Northamptonshire Police Chief Officer Team as Assistant Chief Constable. In a single ACC structure Rachel oversaw all operational policing aspects including crime, public protection, intelligence and local policing.

In May 2017 Rachel became Deputy Chief Constable for Northamptonshire Police leading significant change within the force including major IT programmes. She was SRO for the development and successful implementation of the Home Office Biometrics Mobile ID Programme to provide an effective mobile solution for officers to identify people, the first programme of its kind to use a disaggregated technical solution through a national gateway.

As the NPCC lead for Fingerprints Rachel has key responsibilities within the Transforming Forensics Programme. She is SRO for the Fingerprints - Forensic Capability Network which is the first element of this new national network platform which will transform the delivery of forensic work and evidence.

In February 2019, Rachel moved to Derbyshire Constabulary as Deputy Chief Constable, where she led an innovative change programme, seeking to maximise the benefits of technology, analytics and data science to enhance policing services to the public.

In July 2019, she became SRO for the Frontline Digital Mobility programme as part of the National Digital Policing Portfolio. This was a natural choice for her, given her background in innovation, change and technology and her desire for people to be at the front of the digital world in their interactions with the public and in their daily business. Through this she created legacy products to enable police forces, especially frontline colleagues, to be at their best in a digital world regardless of their location. This saw the delivery of several products including a maturity matrix to assist with benchmarking and improvement, supported by product assessments and guidelines for best practice when engaging with suppliers.

Rachel has a strong ethos in promoting equality and inclusion for all, and in March 2021 became the NPCC lead for Gender to further that aim.

On 1st August 2019, she was responsible for commanding the safe evacuation of 1,600 people and the prevention of the complete destruction of 600 properties in the Derbyshire town of Whaley Bridge, as well as the inundation of major road and railway infrastructure by 1.3 million tonnes of water after the dam at Toddbrook Reservoir began to collapse.

As chair of the Local Resilience Forum, she ensured a coordinated response over the following five days of a multi-agency rescue effort involving in excess of two thousand personnel from the Fire and Rescue Service, Derbyshire County Council Emergency Planning, Mountain Rescue, the RAF and Army, Environment Agency, Canal and River Trust, EMAS and RNLI Flood Rescue team, as well as other volunteers and agencies.

She was responsible for chairing the Strategic Coordinating Group (SCG), which provided overall command of the incident, briefing the Prime Minister and his Cabinet at daily COBR meetings, and providing updates in person at community meetings involving those who were evacuated from the town and surrounding areas.

Under the scrutiny of worldwide media, Rachel went on to facilitate the largest peace-time evacuation of civilians in the United Kingdom, averting a disaster almost beyond imagination.

From March 2020 until the January 2021, she chaired Derbyshire SCG’s response to the Coronavirus crisis, ensuring that the lessons learned from Whaley Bridge regarding the benefits of close partnership working during an emergency were quickly disseminated and adopted where appropriate.

In August 2020, after 26 years’ service to Policing, Rachel was successful in becoming Derbyshire Constabulary’s first female Chief Constable, with a stated intent of focusing upon delivering a consistently good service to the public – fighting crime, proactively bringing offenders to justice, looking after victims and protecting the vulnerable from harm.

Rachel Swann joined the Oversight Committee as a Vice President in March 2021.

As Deputy Chief Constable Designate, Fiona Taylor has executive responsibility for Professionalism, Digital and Transformation, which includes the following areas of business:

• Professionalism & Assurance
• Equality, Diversity, Inclusion & Human Rights
• Officer & Staff Safety
• Leadership
• Change Management
• Digital
• Legal
• Corporate Communications

Fiona began her career as an officer with Lincolnshire Police and has also served in Lothian and Borders Police, Strathclyde Police and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).

Prior to leaving the MPS, Fiona was Temporary Assistant Commissioner for Professionalism with strategic oversight and leadership of the Directorate of Professional Standards, Met Training, the Serious Crime Review Group and Operational Support Services. Fiona also carried out the role as MPS lead on the Public Inquiry into Undercover Policing (UCPI).

Fiona joined Police Scotland in 2018 and was initially appointed Deputy Chief Constable – Local Policing before taking on her current portfolio and was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in June 2021.

She was co-opted to the Committee of Management (now Oversight Committee) as a Vice President in March 2019.

With over 20 years’ service in North Wales Police, Simon is Superintendent in Operational Support Service which includes responsibility for roads policing, operational planning and resource management units . Simon’s previous roles include; Chief Inspector with responsibility for Roads Policing and Operational Planning Units,  County Chief Inspector for Anglesey, District Inspector for Gwynedd and Force Incident Manager.

Simon was appointed as Force Authorised Officer in August 2015 and joined the Oversight Committee in March 2021.

Claire Batt MBE joined the Ministry of Defence Police in October 1992 and remains a serving officer.  Throughout her career she has worked at various government establishments across the UK as an authorised firearms officer, Financial Investigator and more laterally as the Force Welfare Officer.

Claire is passionate about assisting officers and their families with specific regard to Mental Health Wellbeing and Disabilities and ensures such life events are recognised and supported within the Policing Role.

In the 2018 New Year's Honours list Claire was awarded an MBE for her work within this field and she continues to work collaboratively with other Policing organisations ensuring MOD Police Officers have access to the best support and guidance available.

Claire became the Force Authorised Officer in 2014 and joined the Oversight Committee in March 2021.

Claire joined Cambridgeshire Constabulary in June 1983 and worked in several roles during her career including Roads Policing, Operational Firearms, Learning & Development and Staff Officer to the Chief Officer Group and retired as a Sergeant in 2014. Following her retirement she has remained with Cambridgeshire Constabulary working as an Internal Quality Assurer & Workplace Assessor in the collaborated, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Operational Learning Department. Claire is also a Special Inspector supporting the training and development of Special Constables and is also operationally active.

She has been an Authorised Officer since 2002 and became Force Authorised Officer in 2004. Claire was elected to the Committee of Management (now Oversight Committee) in 2010.

Marie Gresswell joined Bedfordshire Police in 2004 from the private sector having been a Insurance Claims Underwriter for many years. Marie whilst still a student officer quickly moved to become a Detective Constable within the Criminal Investigation Department due to her proficiency to solve crimes. Having been promoted across the ranks, Marie has remained a career Detective and upon promotion to a Detective Chief Inspector in 2019 leads the Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Team and the Protecting Vulnerable Persons Team which encompass a high amount of risk. In January 2021 Marie was asked to take on the strategic lead around Victim Care for the force, which is sees as having a correlation with her work as Force Authorised Officer for Police Mutual.

Marie is a committee member for the Disability Police Association. Her portfolio centres around Mental Health and Wellbeing, where changes are being made to the lives of staff, officers and the community in which she serves with this work.

Marie has a Master of Studies in Criminology and Police Management from the University of Cambridge from 2019, which she described as being humbled to be selected by Bedfordshire Police for the opportunity to which she will be eternally grateful (not bad for someone who left school with no qualifications).

Marie became the Force Authorised Officer for Bedfordshire Police in 2018 and was successful in becoming a member of the Oversight Committee in March 2021.

Mike joined policing in 1992 with Essex Police before moving to the City of London Police in 1995 where he has remained. He is the current Chair of the City of London Police Federation and has been for over eight years, making him one of the longest serving federation chairs. Before the Federation Mike had a varied career both in Uniform and out. He successfully ran Crime Squads and Intelligence cells for proactive and covert policing. As a uniformed officer Mike specialised in Firearms and Public Order where he has been involved in most of the large scale disorder in London over the past 25 years.

He is a respected knowledge in both Discipline and Post Incident procedures nationally, with him leading on the two of the post incident investigations, for the three significant London Terror attacks in recent years. Mike is involved with Police Charities, being the Chair of the ‘Rupert Fund’ that looks after the 600 Widows of fallen officers from Northern Ireland and also sits on the Board of Management for the Met and City Orphans Fund which is Policing oldest charity. He has a strong interest in Health, Safety and Welfare which is way he is passionate about the services and support that Police Mutual can offer and being part of the Oversight Committee to shape the direction of the Mutual and products it offers which he joined in April 2022, having become a Force Authorised Officer in 2017.

Nick joined Dorset Police in March 1979. Much of his service saw him in 24/7 Uniform Response roles and on retirement in 2009 he took up his present role as the Force Drug Related Death Coordinator. He is also a UNISON Steward and Vice Chair of the Dorset Police Branch as well as Committee Member of the Dorset NARPO Branch and Reserve Southwest Regional Seat to the National Executive.

Nick was appointed as an Authorised Officer in 2000 and Force Authorised Officer in August 2003, receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 and Special Recognition Awards in 2015 & 2019. He joined the Oversight Committee in April 2022, having previously served on the Committee of Management between 2005 and 2012.