House of Commons Home Affairs Committee New Landscape of Policing Fourteenth Report of Session 2010–12 Volume I: Report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 15 September 2011 HC 939 Published on 23 September 2011 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £0.00 The Home Affairs Committee The Home Affairs Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration, and policy of the Home Office and its associated public bodies. Current membership Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP (Labour, Leicester East) (Chair) Nicola Blackwood MP (Conservative, Oxford West and Abingdon) James Clappison MP (Conservative, Hertsmere) Michael Ellis MP (Conservative, Northampton North) Lorraine Fullbrook MP (Conservative, South Ribble) Dr Julian Huppert MP (Liberal Democrat, Cambridge) Steve McCabe MP (Labour, Birmingham Selly Oak) Rt Hon Alun Michael MP (Labour & Co-operative, Cardiff South and Penarth) Bridget Phillipson MP (Labour, Houghton and Sunderland South) Mark Reckless MP (Conservative, Rochester and Strood) Mr David Winnick MP (Labour, Walsall North) The following members were also members of the committee during the parliament. Mr Aidan Burley MP (Conservative, Cannock Chase) Mary Macleod MP (Conservative, Brentford and Isleworth) Powers The Committee is one of the departmental select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 152. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk. Publication The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the Internet at www.parliament.uk/homeaffairscom. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Elizabeth Flood (Clerk), Joanna Dodd (Second Clerk), Sarah Petit (Committee Specialist), Eleanor Scarnell (Inquiry Manager), Darren Hackett (Senior Committee Assistant), Sheryl Dinsdale (Committee Assistant), Victoria Butt (Committee Assistant), John Graddon (Committee Support Officer) and Alex Paterson (Select Committee Media Officer). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Home Affairs Committee, House of Commons, 7 Millbank, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 3276; the Committee’s email address is [email protected]. Contents Report Page Introduction 9 The Government’s proposals 9 The wider context 10 The financial situation 10 Tom Winsor’s review of pay and conditions 12 The Metropolitan Police and the phone hacking investigations 15 Our inquiry 16 1 National Policing Improvement Agency 21 The role of the National Policing Improvement Agency 21 The Government’s proposals for the National Policing Improvement Agency 25 The financing of the functions 27 Suggested homes for the functions 29 2 National Crime Agency 32 The role of the Serious Organised Crime Agency 32 The Government’s proposals for the National Crime Agency 33 Policing in the 21st Century 33 Plan for the National Crime Agency 35 National Policing Improvement Agency functions 40 Responsibility for counter-terrorism 42 Governance and accountability 43 Budget 45 The future 46 3 The Professional Body 48 Peter Neyroud’s Review 48 The need to professionalise the service 49 The Professional Body and ACPO 50 The role of the Professional Body 53 Guidance and standards 53 Training 55 Budget and governance of the Professional Body 57 The future 58 4 Police-led IT Company 60 The problem 60 Progress so far 61 National Policing Improvement Agency 61 Project Athena 63 Lord Wasserman’s review 63 The outcome of the review 64 Priorities for the new body 69 6 5 Non-IT procurement 71 Savings from better procurement 71 Progress so far 72 The National Policing Improvement Agency’s work 72 National and local procurement 72 Responsibility for procurement in the new landscape 74 Priorities for the future 77 6 Collaboration 79 Collaboration between police forces 79 Progress so far 79 The benefits of collaboration between forces 81 The challenges 82 The future for collaboration between forces 84 Collaboration with other partners 86 Collaboration with the private sector: progress so far 86 Collaboration with the private sector: the future 89 Collaboration with the public sector 93 7 Bureaucracy 96 The problem 96 Progress so far 97 The work of Jan Berry 97 The present Government’s progress 99 The future of bureaucracy in the new landscape 103 8 Conclusion 107 Annex A: New landscape table 109 Annex B: Terms of reference 111 Annex C: Results of the Home Affairs Committee policing poll 112 Annex D: Summary of comments posted in the policing poll 115 Alcohol-related crime 115 Anti-social behaviour 116 Burglary 116 Child Protection 117 Criminal damage 117 Environmental crime 117 Fraud against business or the state 118 Identity theft/credit card fraud 118 Monitoring sex offenders in the community 119 Murder and serious violence, including domestic violence 119 Prostitution 119 Road traffic offences, including road traffic death or injury 120 Robbery 120 Serious organised crime – such as drugs and human trafficking 120 Sexual assault – such as rape 121 Terrorism 121 Vehicle Crime 121 Youth engagement 121 Appendix 1: briefing produced by the National Audit Office for the Home Affairs Committee 123 Introduction 123 Aim and scope of this briefing 123 The future landscape of policing 123 Proposals for future accountability arrangements 125 The Committee of Public Accounts’ ’Fundamentals of Accountability’ 125 Roles and responsibilities for Policing 126 The Home Office 126 Police and Crime Commissioners 126 Police and Crime Panels 127 Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) 127 Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) 127 National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) 128 The framework for accountability in Policing 128 Local accountability arrangements 128 National delivery roles 128 The Home Office’s responsibility for Policing 129 National and local audit arrangements 130 Financial Analysis 132 The National picture 132 Approaches to structured cost reduction 138 Cost reduction programmes across all Police Forces 140 Manpower reductions 142 Conclusions and recommendations 143 Formal Minutes 157 Witnesses 158 List of printed written evidence 160 List of additional written evidence 161 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 162 New Landscape of Policing 9 Introduction The Government’s proposals 1. It is more than a year since the Government announced far-reaching proposals for the reform of policing in England and Wales. On 26 July 2010, the Home Office published Policing in the 21st Century: Reconnecting police and the people. The Home Secretary said in her introduction that it heralded “the most radical change to policing in 50 years.”1 The proposals fell into two broad categories: first, the introduction of directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners to replace Police Authorities, and secondly, a series of structural changes, not to police forces themselves, but to the bodies and organisations that are intended to enable the forces to function effectively. In December 2010, we produced a report on the Government’s plans for Police and Crime Commissioners. The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, which would introduce Commissioners, is currently before Parliament and the first elections for Commissioners are scheduled to take place on 15 November 2012. In this report, we return to focus on the structural changes to what we have called the landscape of policing. 2. The vision behind the Government’s proposals is of a police service more connected to the public it serves. In Policing in the 21st Century, the Home Secretary refers to the mission of the police which was established by Sir Robert Peel nearly 200 years ago and which still applies today: to prevent crime and disorder. However, she states her view that, although the mission has not fundamentally changed, over time the role of central Government in the police has grown, and that the police “have become responsive to government targets and bureaucracy rather than to people.”2 The Home Office states: The Government has set out a clear vision for 21st century policing: rebalancing accountability, freeing the service from central government interference, replacing bureaucratic accountability with democratic accountability, returning discretion to the frontline, and enabling and supporting the police to exercise their professional judgement.3 3. The introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners, who would be directly elected by the public and who would be responsible for holding their local force to account, is intended to contribute to the Government’s stated aim of reconnecting the police and the public. The structural changes that the Government proposes have a less obvious connection, although, if successful they could ultimately mean that the police are better able to fulfil their basic mission of preventing crime and disorder. 4. The main structural changes set out in Policing in the 21st Century are: 1 Home Office, Policing in the 21st Century: Reconnecting police and the people, July 2010, p 3 2 Policing in the 21st Century, p 2 3 Ev146 10 New Landscape of Policing • the phasing out of the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the creation of “a new National Crime Agency to lead the fight against organised crime, protect our borders and provide services best delivered at national level”;4