Shaun Wright | |
---|---|
South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner | |
In office 22 November 2012 –16 September 2014 | |
Preceded by | Office created |
Succeeded by | Alan Billings |
Personal details | |
Born | January 1968 Rotherham,South Yorkshire |
Political party | Independent (2014-present) Labour (before 2014) |
Shaun Wright (born January 1968) [1] is a British politician. He was the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner from 2012 to 2014. He was the first person to hold the post,to which he was elected as a Labour Party candidate on 15 November 2012. As he held a senior position in child services during the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal,he faced continual calls to resign. This resulted in his resignation from the Labour Party on 28 August and from his post on 16 September 2014.
Before becoming the PCC,Wright was a councillor on Rotherham Council. He was in charge of children's services for five years from 2005; [2] [3] he also sat on the Police Authority of South Yorkshire Police.
Wright was elected to the newly created post of Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) as the Labour Party candidate on 15 November 2012. [4] This replaced the police authority of which he had been a member. Wright's responsibilities included holding the force to account and setting spending plans,while his powers included the ability to hire and fire chief constables. [4] In November 2013,Wright announced that the police would offer lie detector tests to sex offenders who are on bail or on probation to determine their risk to the public,though the data would not be made available to courts. [5]
In August 2014 he faced calls to resign from the post of PCC after an inquiry into a massive case (1,400 children [6] and counting) of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham,including from the Labour Party, [7] the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary,Theresa May. [8] [9] After being given an ultimatum by Labour to either resign from his post or face suspension from the party, [10] Wright resigned from the Labour Party on 28 August 2014,retaining his post as South Yorkshire's PCC as an Independent. Under current legislation,there is no power of recall for PCCs and the only way they can be removed is if they commit misconduct in public office,or are convicted of an offence with a custodial sentence of two or more years. [11]
Following Wright's refusal to stand down,his deputy,Tracey Cheetham,stated that she could not support him,nor could she continue as his deputy,despite having herself no connection to the Rotherham abuse scandal. [12] [13] On 28 August,she resigned,publicly calling on Wright to do the same. [14] [15] On 3 September 2014,Sheffield City Council unanimously passed a symbolic motion of no confidence in Wright,also calling for his resignation. [16] On 16 September 2014,Wright announced his resignation as Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire. [17] [18]
South Yorkshire Police (SYP) is the territorial police force responsible for policing South Yorkshire in England. The force is led by Chief Constable Lauren Poultney. Oversight is conducted by Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Billings.
Alan Roy Billings is an Anglican priest and Labour politician who is currently the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner.
Meredydd John Hughes is a retired British police officer. He served as Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police from 1 September 2004 to 2011.
Rotherham is a minster town in South Yorkshire,England. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham. Rotherham is named after the River Rother,one of two major rivers to flow through the town.
The 2012 police and crime commissioner elections were polls held in most police areas in England and Wales on Thursday 15 November. The direct election of police and crime commissioners (PCCs) was originally scheduled for May 2012 but was postponed in order to secure the passage of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 through the House of Lords. The government considers the elected commissioners to have a stronger mandate than the "unelected and invisible police authorities that they replace". The elections took place alongside by-elections for the House of Commons in Cardiff South and Penarth,Corby and Manchester Central,and a mayoral election in Bristol.
A police and crime commissioner is an elected official in England and Wales responsible for generally overseeing police forces. A police,fire and crime commissioner (PFCC) is an elected official in England responsible for generally overseeing both police forces and fire services. Commissioners replaced now-abolished police authorities. The first incumbents were elected on 15 November 2012.
The Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal consists of the organised child sexual abuse that occurred in the town of Rotherham,South Yorkshire,Northern England from the late 1980s until present and the failure of local authorities to act on reports of the abuse throughout most of that period. Researcher Angie Heal,who was hired by local officials and warned them about child exploitation occurring between 2002 and 2007,has since described it as the "biggest child protection scandal in UK history". Evidence of the abuse was first noted in the early 1990s,when care home managers investigated reports that children in their care were being picked up by taxi drivers. From at least 2001,multiple reports passed names of alleged perpetrators,several from one family,to the police and Rotherham Council. The first group conviction took place in 2010,when five British-Pakistani men were convicted of sexual offences against girls aged 12–16. From January 2011 Andrew Norfolk of The Times pressed the issue,reporting in 2012 that the abuse in the town was widespread and that the police and council had known about it for over ten years.
Jane Maria Collins is a British politician and horse show-jumper who served as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber from 2014 to 2019. She was elected in May 2014 as a member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP),but defected to the Brexit Party in 2019 in the last months of her membership of the European Parliament.
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire,England. It is a metropolitan district council,one of four in South Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England. The council was created by the Local Government Act 1972.
The South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner is the police and crime commissioner of the South Yorkshire Police in South Yorkshire. The post was created on 22 November 2012,following an election held on 15 November 2012,and replaced the South Yorkshire Police Authority. The current South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner is Alan Billings of the Labour Party,who was elected in 2014 and again in 2016. The role was created in 2012 and the initial office holder was Shaun Wright,who resigned on 16 September 2014. The police and crime commissioner is required to produce a strategic South Yorkshire Police and Crime Plan,setting out the priorities for the South Yorkshire Police,and their work is scrutinised by the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Panel.
The South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner by-election was a 2014 by-election on 30 October 2014 for the position of Police and Crime Commissioner in the South Yorkshire Police region of the United Kingdom. It was triggered by the resignation of Shaun Wright,the inaugural South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner,who stepped down from the position on 16 September 2014 following the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal. Wright had been head of children's services in Rotherham between 2005 and 2010,while events surrounding the scandal were taking place. The Labour candidate,Alan Billings,was elected.
Roger Stone is a former leader of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council.
Elections of police and crime commissioners in England and Wales were held on 5 May 2016.
The North Yorkshire police,fire and crime commissioner is the police and crime commissioner,an elected official responsible for overseeing how crime and community safety are tackled,and for providing services for victims of crime,holding North Yorkshire Police to account in the English County of North Yorkshire.
Jayne Senior,MBE,is a British youth worker and manager of the Swinton Lock Activity Centre near Mexborough in South Yorkshire,England.
Sammy Woodhouse is an English activist against child sexual abuse. She was a victim of the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal,which she helped expose by giving an anonymous interview to Andrew Norfolk of The Times. Woodhouse has actively supported pardoning child sexual abuse victims for crimes they were coerced into committing.
Elections of police and crime commissioners in England and Wales were held on 6 May 2021,on the same day as the Senedd election in Wales and the local elections in England. This was the third time police and crime commissioner elections have been held. The elections were originally due to take place in May 2020 but were postponed by 12 months in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Turnout was an average of 34.1% across the elections,with Wales having much higher turnout.
Philip David Allott is a British politician who served as the Police,Fire and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire,England. He was elected in May 2021,taking over the job from fellow Conservative Julia Mulligan on 13 May. He resigned on 15 October 2021 and left office on the following day.
Emily Elizabeth Spurrell is a British Labour Party politician who was elected as the Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) in May 2021. She was previously a Liverpool City councillor for Mossley Hill and the deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside.
A by-election was held on 25 November 2021 for the North Yorkshire Police,Fire and Crime Commissioner post after the resignation of Philip Allott following his remarks on the murder of Sarah Everard. The election was won by the Conservative Party candidate ZoëMetcalfe.