The Commissioner is committed to, where appropriate, working in collaboration with other Commissioners, police forces and partner organisations either nationally, regionally or within the county for the benefit of Merseyside.
North-West Joint Oversight Committee for Collaboration
The Commissioner is a member of the North-West Joint Committee for Collaboration which includes all the Commissioners from the North West. These are as follows: Cumbria, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire and North Wales.
Merseyside is involved in at least 24 different collaborations, some national and others regional or sub-regional, each of which is detailed within a Section 22A Agreement. Section 22A agreements are legal documents, which cover the terms of each collaboration and set out the parties will work together to improve efficiency, operational effectiveness and resilience for police forces, and to help achieve value for money.
The agreements allow multiple forces and policing bodies to legally share resources, responsibilities, staff, specialist capabilities, and infrastructure.
PCCs (Deputy Mayor in Greater Manchester) are required to approve any section 22 agreements within which their force area is involved, and are named as parties to the agreement, along with Chief Constables. This ensures that any collaborative activity between forces is democratically governed, accountable and aligns with local policing priorities, as all agreements set out the following arrangements for governance: Committee structures, performance oversight, funding models, dispute resolution and withdrawal/termination clauses.
Section 22A Publication
As part of their statutory duties, PCCs (and Deputy Mayors) must publicly confirm either that a new Section 22A agreement has been signed, or that an existing one has been amended, renewed or replaced. For clarity, the agreement itself is not required to be published, however the existence of the agreement and/or collaboration, and any appropriate details, do require publication.
Regional Collaborations
Merseyside is currently involved in the following 24 collaborations with other police force areas.
| Collaboration Name | Purpose | Force Areas Involved | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Coast Collaboration | Brings together participating police forces in implementing a shared Niche RMS platform with one set of shared data, enabling users across participating forces to access all forces' data in real time. | Cheshire; Merseyside; North Wales; Dyfed Powys | Feb-22 |
| North West Armed Policing Training Collaboration | Brings together the armed policing units of participating North West forces to collaborate on the delivery of consistent, high‑quality specialist firearms training. Its purpose is to ensure that officers across the region meet national armed policing standards, share specialist expertise, access joint training facilities, and operate to aligned tactics and procedures. This collaboration strengthens operational readiness, improves interoperability, and ensures forces can maintain sufficient numbers of trained firearms officers to meet demand safely and effectively. | Cheshire; Cumbria; Merseyside; North Wales | Apr-24 |
| North West Counter-Terrorism Collaboration | Brings together five North West police forces into a single regional counter‑terrorism capability. Through this agreement, the forces formally collaborate to prevent, deter, investigate and prosecute terrorism and domestic extremism, pooling specialist expertise such as intelligence analysts, detectives, community engagement teams, forensic specialists and high‑tech investigators. | Cheshire; Cumbria; GMP; Lancashire; Merseyside | Jan-20 |
| Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR). | To standardise and share ANPR capability across multiple forces, enabling joint access to ANPR data, coordinated operations, and more efficient use of shared infrastructure and analytical tools. This improves the region’s ability to investigate, prevent and respond to crime, providing a consistent, effective approach across force boundaries. | Cheshire; Cumbria; GMP; Lancashire; Merseyside | Jan-23 |
| North West Forensics Collaboration | Brings together the forensic capabilities of five police forces across the North West into a single, coordinated regional service. Its purpose is to improve efficiency and effectiveness by sharing specialist forensic resources, laboratories, scientific expertise and support services across the region, while reducing duplication and ensuring consistently high standards. Specifically, this collaboration covers a number of areas of activity, including the following: drugs testing, footwear, firearms, DNA and forensic courier services. | Cheshire; Cumbria; Lancashire; Merseyside; North Wales | Aug-23 |
| North West Regional & Organised Crime Unit | Supports the six NW police forces, by working collaboratively with them to lead, support and coordinate the use of core capabilities to address harm, threat & risk posed by serious & organised crime across the region; Provision of 14 capabilities available to the six NW police forces. | All 6 NW Forces | Nov-22 |
| North West Underwater Search & Marine Unit | Brings together police forces across the North West to jointly deliver specialist underwater search and marine policing capabilities. Its purpose is to provide a shared regional resource with the skills, equipment and expertise needed for underwater searches, evidence recovery, missing‑person searches, and marine operations that would be difficult or inefficient for individual forces to maintain alone. | All 6 NW Forces | Apr-23 |
| North West Chronicle | Chronicle is used to record and manage a wide range of operational and training information, including firearms issues and returns, ammunition records, and data supplied to national bodies such as the National Police Coordination Centre (NPoCC). The agreement creates a single collaborative framework to provide centralised expert support, manage system changes, maintain data standards, and ensure the system runs smoothly and consistently across all participating forces. | All 6 NW Forces | Apr-23 |
| Minerva Programme | Formalises national collaboration between police forces that use the NicheRMS365 records management system. Its purpose is to enable forces to work together to develop, manage, and standardise Niche functionality, promote best practice, and support efficient data sharing and convergence across all participating forces. This ensures that the system evolves in a consistent, coordinated way and supports operational policing more effectively. | Part-National | Jun-24 |
| Shared Situational Awareness System | Enables participating police forces to jointly procure, operate and benefit from a shared digital platform that provides real‑time situational awareness across the region. Its purpose is to improve coordination, information‑sharing, and operational decision‑making by ensuring all forces work from a common, up‑to‑date intelligence picture during routine policing, major incidents, and critical events. | Part-National | Feb-24 |
| National Policing Coordination Centre | To ensure that the National Police Coordination Centre can lawfully and efficiently organise the mobilisation of officers and specialist assets across the country during major events, large‑scale operations, national emergencies, or times of exceptional demand. This includes coordinating mutual aid, ensuring forces can rapidly access extra capacity, and acting as the link between policing and central government during national incidents. | National | Nov-21 |
| National Police Air Service | Provision of air support for all forces nationally. | National | Aug-12 |
| National Ballistics Intelligence | Establishes a national partnership between police forces to deliver a unified ballistics intelligence capability that supports investigations involving firearms. Its purpose is to provide fast‑time ballistic intelligence, enabling forces to link firearms, ammunition and ballistic material across incidents, track how weapons move between areas, and quickly identify patterns that help solve gun‑related crime. This ensures consistent scientific standards, shared intelligence, and coordinated responses across the UK. | National | Aug-17 |
| Single Online Home | Creates a national, unified digital platform allowing police forces across England and Wales to provide a consistent online experience for the public through the police.uk website. Its purpose is to standardise digital public contact, improve accessibility, and ensure that citizens can report crime, access information, and receive policing services in the same way regardless of where they live. | National | May-21 |
| National Police Chiefs' Council | Provides a shared structure for developing national policing strategy, setting standards, coordinating operational activity, and agreeing collective decisions that support the efficiency and effectiveness of all police forces. | National | Nov-17 |
| West & Southern Coast Consortium | Brings together police forces across the West and Southern coastal regions to jointly procure and deliver forensic and analytical services. Its purpose is to create a shared, efficient, and cost‑effective contractual framework that allows participating forces to access high‑quality forensic services through a single collaborative arrangement rather than managing multiple separate contracts. This supports operational policing by ensuring consistent service standards, economies of scale, and improved resilience across the consortium. | National | Oct-21 |
| Modern Slavery & Organised Immigration Crime Programme | Brings police forces and policing bodies together nationally to support a unified programme aimed at improving the policing response to modern slavery and organised immigration crime. Its purpose is to provide a national team, funded through external sources, that delivers strategic coordination, specialist support, intelligence development, and capability‑building to help all forces more effectively identify victims, pursue offenders, and dismantle organised networks. | National | May-24 |
| National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NAVCIS) | Establishes a national partnership between police forces to deliver a unified vehicle‑crime intelligence capability. Its purpose is to support forces in preventing and disrupting organised vehicle crime—such as thefts, vehicle‑enabled criminality, freight crime, and cross‑border offending—by providing coordinated intelligence, analysis, and specialist investigative support. NAVCIS acts as a national hub that identifies patterns, links offences across force areas, and shares intelligence rapidly to improve policing outcomes. | National | Dec-17 |
| National Wildlife Crime Unit (NWCU) | Enables the NWCU to carry out its national functions on behalf of all police forces. Its core purpose is to provide the legal and governance framework that allows forces to work collectively, ensuring the NWCU can operate effectively across jurisdictions and deliver specialist intelligence, analysis, and support in tackling wildlife crime. | National | Dec-17 |
| National Police Freedom of Information & Data Protection Unit (NPFDU) | Provides a shared legal and operational framework that allows the NPFDU to function as a national unit, ensuring consistent handling of FOI and data‑protection matters across forces. | National | Dec-17 |
| Civil Nuclear Constabulary | Established in April 2005, the CNC is responsible for the armed protection of civil nuclear facilities and materials whether they are on site or in transit. | National | Apr-05 |
| National Criminal Records Office | To. ensure that criminal history information is processed to common standards, shared lawfully, and used to support public protection, policing operations, and justice outcomes. By formalising this collaboration under Section 22A, the agreement strengthens governance, accountability, and interoperability across forces, enabling ACRO to act as a trusted national authority for criminal records management and international data exchange. | National | Jun-16 |
| National Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) | The CHIS Section 22A Agreement establishes a national collaborative unit so police forces can jointly manage and authorise the use of Covert Human Intelligence Sources (CHIS) in a consistent, lawful, and efficient way. Its purpose is to standardise processes, strengthen oversight, and ensure that CHIS authorisations meet legal, ethical, and operational requirements across all participating forces. | National | Aug-17 |
| National Forensic Collision Investigation Network | This Agreement creates a single national collaboration to strengthen the quality, consistency, and scientific standards of forensic collision investigation across all police forces in England and Wales. Its core purpose is to help every force achieve and maintain UKAS accreditation, supported through shared scientific development, national testing, auditing, and quality management processes. | National | Apr-23 |
