Kathryn Holloway (police commissioner)

Kathryn Holloway became Bedfordshire’s first female Police and Crime Commissioner in May 2016, also leading governance for the seven police forces of Eastern England across all Counter Terrorism and Serious Organised Crime operations, until stepping down voluntarily in 2021 having stayed for a further year beyond her term to represent the interests of policing nationally in response to the Covid pandemic, including in a national exercise as a panel specialist in communications. She is a former journalist and broadcaster who reported and presented for national news services including Sky News, ITN, LBC and The Daily and Sunday Express before launching her own successful Crisis Communications consultancy. Drawing on her media experience and crisis management background, Holloway set about addressing the performance and reputation of Bedfordshire Police which had been assessed as the worst in Britain - uniquely “inadequate” among the 43 forces of England and Wales - by the police watchdog. Within three years, Holloway was publicly credited along with her two chief constables of the period with a transformation of the force to one that was now “well run” and “well led” (HMI Matt Parr, 7 February 2020) who declared Bedfordshire Police to now be “good’ in all areas inspected. Notably, Holloway had succeeded in persuading the Home Office, after decades of resistance, of the special policing challenges on her patch, from terrorism and gang violence to organised crime, persuading it to change the qualifications for its Special Police Grants to ease funding and staffing shortfalls to address these, winning four in succession to pay for increased officers and specific operations targeting gun crime and organised crime groups worth £16m. 

Holloway’s work to address serious youth violence and knife crime, including winning funding for a Violence and Exploitation Reduction Unit, for which she personally recruited the local head of emergency medicine and families of knife victims to work directly with young people, was credited with bringing about a reduction in hospital admissions: with 200 young people said to be alive or living without life changing injuries at March 2020, based on data from the previous year.

Holloway refused to be a mouthpiece for national party politics during her time as a PCC, citing her oath of impartiality and role as a spokesperson for the public locally in relation to policing and was an outspoken critic of Bedfordshire’s underfunding via policing’s national funding formula. Her achievements included personally designing every aspect of a new Sexual Assaults Referral Centre for the county, siting it away from a clinical hospital setting, creating dedicated areas for child, teenage and adult victims and co-locating specialist police officers to facilitate interviews in a supportive setting to provide enhanced criminal justice outcomes for survivors of sexual abuse and assault. Holloway drove through transformations in approaches to victims of crime and offenders alike: creating a victim support service known as Signpost with both online and call centre services contacting victims within 24 hours of a crime being logged by police and an online and counselling support service for offenders, constructed with former prisoners of HMP Bedford themselves, known as Direction. Her office negotiated an arrangement with the Department of Work and Pensions to allow prisoners on release to access same day advice in person in relation to benefits and employment to help them to avoid re-offending. A priority for Holloway was increasing diversity in her force so that it was properly representative of the public it serves in one of the most diverse counties in Britain, supporting recruitment from minority communities until Bedfordshire Police was second only to the far larger Metropolitan Police in terms of visible diversity, realising a stated ambition of her Police and Crime Plan. She provided evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on this success and that in driving down hate crime (ref PFF0002 - Evidence on Policing for the Future). At the final meeting of the Police and Crime Panel who held her to account, Holloway was congratulated by opposition politicians for her record as PCC, particularly with regard to her support for victims of domestic violence.

She now offers Crisis Communications and Strategic Leadership advice on a consultancy basis and has left politics entirely.

1. Luton Today 7 Feb 2020 “Bedfordshire Police rated ‘Good’ by police watchdog.

2. Oakley Village quotes Matt Parr re "well run and well led” April 2020 OPCC Newsletter, included in Oakley village publication

3. Tributes paid to outgoing PCC including from chief constable and opposition politicians Bedford Independent 2021

4. Bedfordshire Independent 7 Feb 2020 From ‘inadequate’ to ‘good’: Bedfordshire Police welcomes watchdog’s grading

5. October 2019 fighting for gang crime funds BBC News Bedfordshire Police wants 'emergency' gang crime funds

6. Bedfordshire Police awarded further £1m to tackle knife crime Bedfordshire independent 17 April 2019 on multiple grants

7. Signpost - Luton Today 9 July 2020 PCC takes the lead on Signpost to enhance services for victims in Bedfordshire

8. Direction for Bedfordshire, new service designed with ex-offenders to support prisoners on release. ITVX Oct 2018

9. Achievements and fighting for £16m funding - Bedfordshire Independent 23 March 2021 also praise from Labour opposition Tributes paid to outgoing PCC, Kathryn Holloway

10. On Diversity, evidence to Home Affairs Select Committee. PFF0002 - Evidence on Policing for the future Supplementary written evidence submitted by Kathryn Holloway, Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire (PFF0002) Re Hate Crime and Black, Minority, Ethnic (BME) Diversity in Recruitment at Bedfordshire Police 2016-2017.

11. Leaving voluntarily - BBC News 28 February 2020 “Bedfordshire PCC to stand down after four years in the job

12. New government funding for violence reduction unit won. Bedford Today 2020

13 Launch of new gold standard Sexual Assault Referral Centre 2021. Wordpress Feb 2021

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