Tim Forber,  the current deputy chief constable of South Yorkshire Police, has been named as the preferred candidate to become the next chief constable of North Yorkshire Police.

Zoë Metcalfe, the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for York and North Yorkshire, today announced she had identified Mr Forber to succeed Lisa Winward, who is retiring from the £154,000-a-year role at the end of March next year.

The appointment has been mired in controversy because Ms Metcalfe’s role will be abolished shortly after the candidate she hired is appointed.

The commissioner’s role will be taken over by whoever is elected Mayor of York and North Yorkshire in May 2024.

It means the new mayor will inherit a chief constable they didn’t appoint.

Lisa Winward will retire on March 31.

Ms Metcalfe rejected advice to delay the appointment by North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel, which scrutinises her performance.

The Conservative commissioner has also complained about Tory mayoral candidate Keane Duncan, who she claimed used “inappropriate language” to influence her chief constable recruitment. An investigation found no wrongdoing.

Today Ms Metcalfe’s office issued a statement which said Mr Forber had been selected “following a robust recruitment process” that ended yesterday.

The two-day process on December 11 and 12 involved a presentation to local internal and external stakeholders, a media exercise and a panel interview. It also included candidates having to design a presentation based on the results of an online survey conducted by Ms Metcalfe.

‘The right qualities’

Mr Forber joined South Yorkshire Police as assistant chief constable in December 2016 and was promoted to deputy chief constable in June 2021.

Ms Metcalfe will now put Mr Forber to the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel on January 11.

Ms Metcalfe said:

“His depth of experience and commitment to collaboration and local neighbourhood policing across  rural and urban areas was clear from the interview process.

“I have every confidence he has the right qualities to drive forward North Yorkshire Police to be an outstanding service and to keep people safe and feeling safe.”

Mr Forber said:

“I am hugely honoured to be selected as the preferred candidate to be the next chief constable of North Yorkshire Police. I am looking forward to working tirelessly on behalf of the communities of York and North Yorkshire to ensure they have an outstanding police service. “

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More than half of recorded violent crimes in North Yorkshire and York are against women and girls, it was revealed today.

North Yorkshire Police chief constable Lisa Winward told a meeting the under-reporting of such offences meant the known incidents were “just the tip of the iceberg”.

Ms Winward told the area’s police, fire and crime panel watchdog the force was aiming to expose what has been a hidden crime by talking with victims even if they do not wish to report an offence.

Chief constable Winward, who has led the force since 2018, was speaking following a report by police, fire and crime commissioner Zoe Metcalfe about the force’s progress against its strategy for addressing violence against women and girls, particularly in the wake of the murder of York woman Sarah Everard.

Last October, a year on from her predecessor Philip Allott being forced to resign after saying women needed to be more streetwise, the commissioner outlined various initiatives launched to improve women’s safety and ensure that they are listened to.

Ms Metcalfe told the panel a new victims’ centre was being developed on the outskirts of York to house North Yorkshire’s sexual assault referral centre and child sexual assault assessment services alongside a video-recorded interview suite for victims.

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However, members of the panel said without details about the scale of the violence against females it was impossible to assess the actions of the commissioner in holding the force to account.

Speaking on behalf of the commissioner, her office’s chief executive Simon Dennis said in York 2021/22 there had been 5,615 violent crimes, of which 52 per cent were linked to a female victim and 34 per cent were marked as domestic abuse.

He said the statistics for North Yorkshire were almost exactly the same.

Mr Dennis said a full picture of the scale of violence against women and girls was difficult to outline due to under-reporting, which was a known issue being addressed by public sector organisations across North Yorkshire and York.

Chief constable Lisa Winward

Chief constable Winward added:

“This is a hidden crime across society, nationally and in North Yorkshire, predominantly in domestic settings we find a significant amount of under-reporting because of the fear of police involvement, the fear of reprisals on the victims and this is why we are very closely linked to the national agenda violence against women and girls agenda.

“I think it is the tip of the iceberg, the figures that we have talked about. I think it is about engaging with the victims, sometimes privately, even though they might not want to publicly report or speak about it, so we can get to the root cause of the problem.”

After the meeting, the panel’s chairman, Cllr Carl Les, said despite evidence of improvements in the police response to violence against women and girls the panel would continue monitoring the force’s progress in “ensuring that they are doing what is right for the female members of our community in particular”. He added:

“Clearly this is still a matter of interest and of great concern.

“I think Commissioner Metcalfe has made some good advances on this, but as the chief constable said it’s almost like the tip of an iceberg. Police are now starting to understand more about the problem and therefore they’re putting some mitigating actions into place.”

Under-fire North Yorkshire police commissioner Philip Allott will face a vote of no confidence in his leadership at a crunch meeting today.

The vote will take place at a meeting of the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel.

The panel maintains a regular check and balance on the performance of the county’s police, fire and crime commissioner.

The motion will be proposed by Liberal Democrat councillor Darryl Smalley and seconded by another member of the panel before going to a vote, the Local Democracy Reporting Service understands.

Mr Allott, who lives in Knaresborough, sparked outrage with comments he made about the murder of Sarah Everard.

He said in an interview that Ms Everard should not have submitted to her false arrest by serving Met police officer Wayne Couzens, who used his warrant card to falsely arrest her before kidnapping, raping and murdering her.

Mr Allott has come under increased pressure over recent days, with Skipton and Ripon Conservative MP Julian Smith the latest person to call for him to resign.

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Hundreds of complaints have been sent to his office while more than 10,000 people have signed a petition calling for his resignation.

The panel will hear just four questions from the public.

Not prepared to resign

Mr Allott has issued a number of apologies for his remarks, but has said he is not prepared to resign from his £74,400-a-year job after being elected this year.

Mr Allott will face questions about his comments and his plans to address violence against women and girls across the region.

Cllr Smalley, a member of the panel, has also called for ‘recall’ legislation – the law that allows errant MPs to be held to account by voters – to be extended to crime commissioners.

Cllr Smalley said: 

“Mr Allott’s comments and the hurt and anger he has caused is simply unacceptable. With a more than 10,000-strong petition and countless others who have called for his resignation, this scandal cannot be simply swept away.

“There is a need for a cultural as well as legislative change through the system to protect women and girls and make our streets safer – this change must start with the commissioner.

“If passed, the no confidence vote could not directly remove Mr Allott from his post, but it would clearly send a message of condemnation over his appalling comments.

“It’s frankly outrageous that police commissioners are so unaccountable to the residents they are elected to serve. The recall laws which apply to MPs should urgently be extended to include police commissioners, who have direct power in deciding how to spend taxpayer’s money.”