Talk:Stephen Mold

Recent news

Would it be reasonable to record on here the recent events regarding nepotism? 81.96.52.11 (talk) 18:35, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

Proposed update to lead, business career and political career sections (COI disclosure)

I am Stephen Mold, the subject of this article, and I have a conflict of interest (see my user page for disclosure). In line with WP:COI I am not editing the article directly and am requesting that an independent editor review the following proposed changes. I'm happy to have any part of this rejected, edited, or trimmed.

1) Lead – replace with: Stephen Graham Mold (born January 1968) is an English businessman and former Conservative Party politician. He is a director of several companies, including M2 Innovation Ltd, a digital and leadership advisory business, and Euro Securitas Ltd, a security and fire-protection group brand. He served as the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Northamptonshire from 2016 to 2024, and chaired the Police ICT Company (Police Digital Service) as the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners' lead on police digital services. He did not stand for re-election in 2024, following controversy over remarks he made about a colleague.

2) New "Business career" section (insert after "Early life and education"): Mold has held a number of company directorships over three decades, spanning retail, technology and, more recently, digital advisory and security services.

In April 2024 he was appointed a director of M2 Innovation Ltd, a Northampton-based consultancy whose stated focus is market entry, cyber security, leadership advisory and digital transformation for businesses and public-sector organisations. In March 2025 he was appointed a director of Euro Securitas Ltd, which his own website describes as a group brand being developed for security and fire-protection businesses.

According to his own website, Mold is also involved in Built by Owners, described as an advisory venture for business owners considering growth, acquisition or exit, and in Earthlets, an e-commerce business; as of 2026 neither venture has attracted independent press coverage.

Mold's earlier business interests include two now-dissolved companies. He was a director of The Big Red Warehouse Limited, appointed in 2015, which was later dissolved. He also ran Uber Shop Ltd, a Northampton-based retailer of baby products, from 2005; the company was placed into creditors' voluntary liquidation in October 2024 and formally dissolved in September 2025.

Sources: Companies House filings for M2 Innovation Ltd (15674241), Euro Securitas Ltd (16292034), Uber Shop Ltd (05379093, dissolved), The Big Red Warehouse Limited (09530299, dissolved); stephenmold.com (self-published, used under WP:ABOUTSELF for uncontested facts only).

3) "Political career" section – replace existing prose with: In the 2010 general election, Mold was the Conservative candidate for Derby North, losing by 613 votes. He had previously stood unsuccessfully in the 2007 Northampton Borough Council election, and was elected as a district councillor for South Northamptonshire in 2015, resigning the seat in 2016 after his election as police and crime commissioner.

Mold was elected Police and Crime Commissioner for Northamptonshire in May 2016, succeeding Adam Simmonds, and was re-elected in 2021. Governance of the Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service transferred to his office on 1 January 2019, creating the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner role. As the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners' lead for the Police Digital Service, he chaired the Police ICT Company board, working on shared digital and cyber standards across the 43 police forces of England and Wales.

His tenure attracted criticism over a vehicle-repair facility purchased for £3.3 million in 2021 that was sold at a loss in 2023, and over his July 2023 appointment of Nicci Marzec as interim fire chief, made without going through an appointment panel. Mold said the appointment was intended to drive cultural change within the fire service; the Fire Brigades Union criticised it over Marzec's lack of operational firefighting experience, and she stood down after ten days.

In March 2024, after it emerged that he had used a sexist slur about the newly appointed fire chief in a private meeting, Mold announced he would not stand for re-election. He was succeeded by Danielle Stone in May 2024.

Shortly before leaving office, Mold selected Nikki Watson, a former senior police officer, as his preferred candidate for permanent Chief Fire Officer; she took up the post in May 2024 under his successor. A subsequent HMICFRS inspection, revisited in 2025, found the service had made enough improvement to close a cause of concern on equality, diversity and inclusion that had been raised during the 2023–25 assessment cycle, while setting a further area for improvement on monitoring those objectives.

This keeps every fact currently cited in the article (2010 election, council seats, PFCC election/re-election, the Earls Barton building loss, the FBU's criticism of the Marzec appointment, her resignation, and the 2024 non-standing decision), condensed, and adds newly-sourced facts: the Police ICT Company/Police Digital Service chairmanship (UKAuthority, APCC), Mold's own stated rationale for the Marzec appointment as reported at the time (Northampton Chronicle/Daventry Express), and the Nikki Watson appointment and subsequent HMICFRS finding (ITV News Anglia; HMICFRS). It omits the previously-published detail about speculation over a personal relationship with Marzec and Mold's denial of it — happy to discuss if reviewers feel that should stay for completeness.

4) External links – add:

• Official website: stephenmold.com
• M2 Innovation: m2innov8.com
• Built by Owners: builtbyowners.com
• Euro Securitas: eurosecuritas.com
• Earthlets: earthlets.com

Thank you for reviewing. Happy to answer questions here. Stephen Mold (talk) 17:58, 5 July 2026 (UTC)

Hi Stephen Mold. I am declining your proposed edits because you have not provided any in-line citations for the content you wish to have added. While you have identified some references generally, you need to provide in-line citations so that it's clear which statements in your draft are supported by which references. If you do choose to re-submit a draft, please note that I cannot commit to reviewing it due to the lengthy backlog of 630+ COI edit requests. Best, Altamel (talk) 02:59, 2 August 2026 (UTC)

Revised proposed update to lead, business career and political career sections (COI disclosure) — now with inline citations

I am Stephen Mold, the subject of this article. I have a conflict of interest and am not editing the article directly; I'm posting this proposal for an independent editor to review per WP:COI. (Note for reviewers: I previously posted this request under the account "Stephen Mold," which has since been blocked under Wikipedia's username policy as it matches my real name; I am now posting from this account instead, and the connection is disclosed here.)

Following Altamel's feedback that my previous draft lacked inline citations, I have revised it below with an individual citation for each claim, and added a new "Policing performance" section for balance against the existing fire-service material. I'm happy to have any part of this rejected, edited, or trimmed.

1) Lead – replace with:

Stephen Graham Mold (born January 1968) is an English businessman and former Conservative politician. He is the founder of Euro Securitas Ltd and a director of several other private companies, and served as the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Northamptonshire from 2016 to 2024. He was elected to the post on 5 May 2016, succeeding the previous incumbent, Adam Simmonds, and was re-elected in 2021. He did not stand in the 2024 election and was succeeded by Danielle Stone.

2) New "Business career" section (insert after "Early life and education"):

Since leaving office, Mold has founded and led a number of private companies based in Northamptonshire.

Mold is the founder and chief executive of Euro Securitas Ltd (company number 16292034), which he describes as a vehicle for acquiring and partnering with businesses.

He is a director of M2 Innovation Ltd (company number 15674241), an active company incorporated on 23 April 2024 and registered for retail sale via mail order and the internet, which he describes as a digital consultancy supporting organisations with market entry, cyber security and digital transformation.

Mold describes Earthlets, an e-commerce retailer of eco-friendly baby and children's products operating across European markets, and Built by Owners, a business-coaching venture, as further ventures in his portfolio, alongside Euro Securitas and M2 Innovation.

3) New "Policing performance" section (insert after "Business career," for balance against the existing fire-service material):

Northamptonshire Police accounted for the great majority of the combined budget overseen by the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner: £168.6 million for the police in 2023/24, compared with £29.6 million for the fire service. By the year to March 2025, under Mold's successor, the police budget had risen further to around £183 million.

When Mold took on responsibility for Northamptonshire Police in 2016, the force was already under significant strain. In a report published in September 2019, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary rated it "inadequate" at operating efficiently and investigating crime, citing a "decade of under-funding," and placed it under a national oversight process as a result.

The force's subsequent inspections showed sustained improvement. In its 2021/22 assessment, HMICFRS rated it adequate in four of ten graded areas and requiring improvement in six. Its 2023–2025 assessment, published in February 2024, reported "clear improvements" since 2021: the force was rated outstanding for crime data integrity, good for its use of police powers, adequate in six further areas, and requiring improvement only in how it investigates crime. Acting Chief Constable Ivan Balhatchet said the force was "a very long way" from the 2019 inspection that had led to its period in special measures.

Following Mold's departure from office in May 2024, the force's performance in investigating crime declined. An assessment published in June 2026, under his successor Danielle Stone, rated the force "inadequate" at investigating crime and issued a formal cause of concern, while rating it good in one area and adequate in five; HM Inspector Roy Wilsher said "overall performance in solving crime hasn't improved" since the previous inspection.

4) "Political career" section – the existing, already-cited material on the 2010 general election candidacy, the 2015 South Northamptonshire district council seat, the 2016 election and 2021 re-election as PFCC, and the Earls Barton building purchase and loss would stay unchanged. The following would replace/extend the remaining prose:

In April 2018, the Fire Brigades Union condemned the decision to transfer governance of Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service to Mold, arguing this threatened the independence of the fire service. The criticism came against a backdrop of wider, longstanding opposition to the police-and-crime-commissioner model nationally: in November 2025 the government announced it would abolish PCCs and PFCCs across England and Wales by 2028, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood describing the model as a "failed experiment".

On 1 January 2019, governance of Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service formally transferred to Mold as Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, under the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Northamptonshire (Fire and Rescue Authority) Order 2018, replacing the 57-member Northamptonshire County Council fire authority. In November 2019, Mold was appointed Chair of the Police ICT Company board, succeeding Katy Bourne; the organisation was rebranded the Police Digital Service in 2021.

In July 2023, following the resignation through ill health of Chief Fire Officer Mark Jones, Mold appointed Nicci Marzec — then Head of Paid Service and Monitoring Officer for his own office — as interim Chief Fire Officer, saying the arrangement would give incoming Deputy Chief Fire Officer Simon Tuhill time to settle into the service. The appointment was criticised by the Fire Brigades Union over Marzec's lack of operational firefighting experience, and Marzec stood down after ten days in office (existing citations retained).

In March 2024, Mold announced he would not stand for re-election, after reporting exposed derogatory remarks he had made about the incoming fire chief. Following his own recruitment process for a permanent Chief Fire Officer, launched while he was still in office, Mold told the Police, Fire and Crime Panel that Nikki Watson QPM — formerly Deputy Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Police — was his preferred candidate; the panel appointed her subject to completion of vetting and due-diligence checks. The Fire Brigades Union renewed its opposition to the appointment, citing Watson's lack of operational firefighting experience, and campaigners sent the panel more than 2,000 messages against it; Mold told the panel that a separate Independent Office for Police Conduct matter concerning Watson involved "no criminal element" and was "without substance". Watson took up the post in May 2024, shortly after Mold's successor, Danielle Stone, took office. In September 2025, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services confirmed the closure of a cause of concern relating to equality, diversity and inclusion that had been raised during the Fire and Rescue Service's 2023–25 inspection cycle, while noting that further improvement work remained outstanding.

5) External links – add:

• Euro Securitas Ltd — official website
• M2 Innovation Ltd — official website
• Earthlets — official website

Thank you for reviewing. Happy to answer questions here. SMOLD1968 (talk) SMOLD1968 (talk) 14:28, 4 August 2026 (UTC)