Alan Roy Billings was born on 7 October 1942 and is an Anglican priest and Labour politician who served as the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner from 2014 to 2024.
24 Facts About Alan Billings
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Alan Billings went on to study Theology and Philosophy at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, receiving a BA degree.
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Alan Billings holds a Certificate in Education from Bristol University and further degrees from Leicester University and the New York Theological Seminary.
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Alan Billings was ordained deacon and priest in Leicester Cathedral and was curate at St Mary, Knighton, Leicester.
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Alan Billings was an elected member of Leicester City Council for three years.
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Alan Billings served as a parish priest in Sheffield at St Silas, Broomhall, and St Mary, Beighton.
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Alan Billings then became Head of Religious and Social Studies at Broadway School, Barnsley, before returning to parish ministry as Vicar of St Mary, Walkley.
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Alan Billings was a member of the Archbishops' Commission on Urban Priority Areas which produced the report Faith in the City, following the inner-city riots of 1981.
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Alan Billings was Vice Principal of Ripon College, Cuddesdon, Oxford, an Anglican theological college, and Director of the Oxford Institute for Church and Society.
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Alan Billings became Principal of the West Midlands Ministerial Training Course and Acting Principal of Queens College, Birmingham, an ecumenical theological college.
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Alan Billings then returned to parish ministry as Vicar of St George, Kendal, Cumbria.
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Alan Billings was an honorary Senior Research Fellow of Lancaster University and Director of the Centre for Ethics and Religion, researching the contribution of inter-faith activities towards community cohesion and the attitude of 15 year olds to people of another faith in North West mill towns.
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Alan Billings has held a number of positions in the public sector.
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Alan Billings was a board member of the Funding Agency for Schools ; a Schools Adjudicator ; a member of the Home Office Community Cohesion Panel.
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Alan Billings was a board member of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, Chair of the Cumbria Courts Board and a member of the England Committee of the Big Lottery Fund.
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Alan Billings has been a contributor to BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day.
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Alan Billings is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an emeritus canon of Carlisle Cathedral.
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In 2014 Alan Billings was selected as the Labour Party candidate for the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner by-election, to replace the former PCC and Rotherham Borough councillor, Shaun Wright.
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Alan Billings helped secure Home Office funding for South Yorkshire Police to continue their investigation into the disappearance of Ben Needham as a toddler on the Greek Island of Kos.
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Alan Billings is seeking to build bridges between the force and the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, agreeing in 2016 that an archivist should be appointed to put the archives in order, employed by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner.
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South Yorkshire Police and its Chief Constable received immediate criticism as a result of which Alan Billings suspended him citing an erosion of trust and confidence.
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Alan Billings appointed the Deputy Chief Constable of Durham as the new chief constable from November 2016.
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Alan Billings married Veronica Hardstaff in 2007, a former Labour councillor on Sheffield City Council and Member of the European Parliament for Lincolnshire and Humberside South.
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Alan Billings was previously married to Daphne Thomas, with whom he had two sons, and Linda Woodhead.