Brief for the Premier
Responsibility for the Police
The Constitution provides that the Governor may, with the approval of the Secretary of State, delegate some of his special responsibilities to a Minister. Towards the end of 1975 the U.K. offere to approve the delegation of certain matters relating to the Police. Th offer was never taken up, but is believed to stand.
2.
The Governor, the Commissioner and I share your view that action' on the lines then contemplated could have several advantages. In particula it would ·
(a)
(b)
identify Government more closely with the Police;
and
provide them with a known spokesman in the House of Assembly.
:
This should help their successful campalyn to improve community relation
3.
There would be a need to present the change in such a way that it seemed significant. A possible means of doing so might be to highlight in the Speech from The Throne at the opening of Parliament. If this possibility is to be pursued Mr Rowlands' agreement in principle must be sought at your October 5 meeting with him. The details can if necessary settled later: past experience suggests they may take some time to settli
4.
As to them, the Attorney General drafted an Instrument of Delegation almost three years ago. It has now been updated and covers all the matt agreed by the U.K. in 1975, as set out in the extract from Sir Duncan Watson's letter to Sir Edward Richards which I copied to you on 14 September. They may need to be defined more precisely. Moreover it sho
be possible to add to them things mentioned in the F.C.O. paper on Constitutional Development which I copied to you at the same time - nota some aspects of recruitment and public (or community) relations.
5. The draft (copy attached) does not rehearse all the understandings spelt out in the F.C.O. paper, although you have said that they are read acceptable. This is because it might be unfortunate to mention some of in a document intended for publication: doing so could give the impressi that Ministers were mistrusted, and could lend colour to criticisms that any change was far more apparent than real. Moreover it might also encourage questions about when the Governor might exercise his right to resume the authority he had delegated, and these would be difficult to answer satisfactorily because precise circumstances could not be detaile
Peter Lund
G P Lloyd
Deputy Governor
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