PCC pays out to settle tribunal

Leicestershire Police and Crime Commissioner Rupert Mathews has settled an employment tribunal claim after he closed an ethics committee. 

Members of the crime commissioner’s ethics committee received £56k compensation with each of them receiving £8k.

The group claimed unfair dismissal after Conservative PCC Rupert Mathews disbanded it on grounds it lacked focus.

The committee had previously written to him expressing concern he was compromising the role of scrutinising the Leicester & Leicestershire police working in areas with high populations of people of colour with some of his expressed views. It was felt he was undermining valuable work by the Leicestershire Police on racial equality and inclusion. 

Straight into the job Rupert Mathews said the first thing he was going to do was cut any funding to the Black Lives Matter movement and three days into the job banned his employers from any contact with the group. 

Leicestershire Police and Crime Commissioner Rupert Mathews denies he shut down the seven – person strong ethics committee because he was criticised but because it wasn’t focused enough. Mr Mathews said he invited each of them to put forward an application for his new ethics and transparency committee but none of them did.

Former Labour Leicestershire PCC Lord Willy Bach said the sacking of the group was ‘outrageous’, claiming Mr Matthews sacked them because “he didn’t like their questions and criticism”.

Lord Bach said his predecessor the Conservative PCC Sir Clive Loader established the ethics committee to help him and the Leicestershire chief of police understand sensitive and occasionally controversial issues around policing.

Leicester is one of the most racially diverse cities in the country with 59 per cent from ethnic minorities according to the 2021 census.

Mr Mathews said he was disappointed the matter had to be settled from the public purse.   The case was settled out of court at the end of last year with no liability admitted.