House of Commons Home Affairs Committee Policing for the future Tenth Report of Session 2017–19 Report, together with formal minutes relating to the report Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 22 October 2018 HC 515 Published on 25 October 2018 by authority of the House of Commons 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 Yvette Cooper MP (Labour, Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford) (Chair) Rehman Chishti MP (Conservative, Gillingham and Rainham) Sir Christopher Chope MP (Conservative, Christchurch) Stephen Doughty MP (Labour (Co-op), Cardiff South and Penarth) Kate Green MP (Labour, Stretford and Urmston) Kirstene Hair MP (Conservative, Angus) Tim Loughton MP (Conservative, East Worthing and Shoreham) Stuart C. McDonald MP (Scottish National Party, Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) Alex Norris MP (Labour (Co-op), Nottingham North) Douglas Ross MP (Conservative, Moray) John Woodcock MP (Independent, Barrow and Furness) 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. Publications Committee reports are published on the Committee’s website at www.parliament.uk/homeaffairscom and in print by Order of the House. Evidence relating to this report is published on the inquiry publications page of the Committee’s website. Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Elizabeth Hunt (Clerk), Harriet Deane (Second Clerk), Simon Armitage (Committee Specialist), Penny McLean (Committee Specialist), Robert Sabbarton (Committee Specialist), David Gardner (Senior Committee Assistant), Mandy Sullivan (Committee Assistant) and George Perry (Senior Media and Communications Officer). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Home Affairs Committee, House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 6856; the Committee’s email address is [email protected]. Policing for the future 1 Contents Glossary of acronyms 5 Summary 6 1 Introduction 9 Background to this inquiry 9 Report structure 9 Police officer welfare 10 2 Changing trends in crime and policing 12 Introduction 12 Crime rates 12 Detection and charging rates 13 Police funding 13 Neighbourhood policing 15 The value and effectiveness of neighbourhood policing 15 Multi-agency partnerships 16 Impact of police funding reductions 17 Deployment to other policing teams 19 3 Online fraud 22 Introduction 22 Prevalence and trends 22 Action Fraud 23 The police response to fraud 24 Criticism of the police response 24 The Joint Fraud Taskforce 29 The role of industry 30 4 Child sexual abuse 32 Introduction 32 Prevalence and trends 32 The prevalence and impact of online CSA 33 The police response to online CSA 35 Skills and training 36 Disclosure and digital evidence 37 Attrition through the law enforcement response 38 Rehabilitation 40 2 Policing for the future The online space 42 5 Safeguarding vulnerable people 45 Introduction 45 Estimating ‘non-crime’ demand on policing 45 Mental health work 46 Detention of vulnerable individuals 47 Police mental health training 49 Joint working with NHS mental health services 50 Missing people 51 Missing children and child protection work 51 6 Police funding 54 Current levels of funding 54 The police funding formula 55 Comments by Government Ministers 56 7 Police technology 59 Introduction 59 Cyber and digital skills 59 Technology and data-sharing between forces 61 8 Police workforce and culture 64 Introduction 64 The College of Policing 64 Background 64 New recruitment and training routes 65 Mandatory training 66 Recruitment and retention problems 67 Chief Constable recruitment 68 Police culture 69 Our roundtable event 70 9 The role of the Home Office and allocation of responsibilities 73 Introduction 73 The role of the Home Office 73 The 43-force structure 74 The Government’s response 77 Policing for the future 3 Annex: Police force data return 79 Introduction 79 Neighbourhood policing 79 Command and Control calls 85 Force abbreviations 89 Other findings and limitations 90 Indecent Images of Children 90 Command and Control Calls 91 Mental Health Training 91 Conclusions and recommendations 92 Formal minutes 107 Witnesses 108 Published written evidence 111 List of Reports from the Committee during the current Parliament 114 Policing for the future 5 Glossary of acronyms APCC Association of Police and Crime Commissioners CEOP Child Sexual Exploitation and Online Protection Command CPS Crown Prosecution Service CSA Child sexual abuse CSR Comprehensive Spending Review HMICFRS Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (formerly HMIC) IIOC Indecent images of children IOPC Independent Office for Police Conduct JFT Joint Fraud Taskforce NAO National Audit Office NCA National Crime Agency NECC National Economic Crime Centre NFIB National Fraud Intelligence Bureau NPCC National Police Chiefs’ Council ONS Office for National Statistics PAC Public Accounts Committee PCC Police and Crime Commissioner PCSO Police Community Support Officer PSAEW Police Superintendents’ Association of England and Wales ROCU Regional Organised Crime Unit 6 Policing for the future Summary This wide-ranging report examines changing demands on policing, and considers the extent to which the service is able to meet the challenges that these create. We look first at changing trends in crime and policing and the overarching problems facing the police service in England and Wales, such as funding and investment; then at three specific areas of growing pressure on policing—online fraud, child sexual abuse, and safeguarding vulnerable people; and finally at the wider, cross-cutting reforms that are required. Our inquiry has found that police officers across the country continue to perform a remarkable and immensely valuable public service, often in the most exacting of circumstances. However, figures on police welfare paint a picture of a service under serious strain, and we conclude that forces are badly overstretched: the number of traditional volume crimes is rising, but the number of arrests and charges brought by the police is falling. Policing is struggling to cope in the face of changing and rising crimes, as a result of falling staff numbers, outdated technology, capabilities and structures, and fragmented leadership and direction. Without significant reform and investment, communities will be increasingly let down. We found that: • Many ‘volume’ crimes, including robbery, theft from the person, and vehicle- related theft, have been increasing sharply after a long period of decline. While recorded crimes have risen by 32% in the last three years, the number of charges or summons has decreased by 26%, and the number of arrests is also down. • Neighbourhood policing, which is vital to the service’s response to many types of crime, is being eroded: we found that forces had lost at least a fifth of their neighbourhood policing capacity, on average, since 2010. • Without additional funding for policing, we have no doubt that there will be dire consequences for public safety, criminal justice, community cohesion and public confidence. We strongly recommend that police funding is prioritised in the Autumn Budget and the next Comprehensive Spending Review. The current police funding model is not fit for purpose: it is time to stop kicking the problem into the long grass, and recognise the true cost of policing. We make a number of specific recommendations about three growing areas of demand: online fraud, child sexual abuse, and safeguarding vulnerable people. Whilst the police and Home Office have worked together very effectively on investment and reform to counter the changing terror threat, in these other areas in which demand is changing, they are struggling to respond. We reach the following conclusions: Policing for the future 7 • Only a tiny proportion of online fraud cases are ever investigated, and the police response to this form of crime is in desperate need of a fundamental restructure, with investigations undertaken at a national and regional level and local forces focusing on victim support. • The private sector must do much more to reduce demand on policing from online fraud and child sexual abuse, and we make specific recommendations about the regulation of internet companies, including those taking insufficient action against indecent images of children. • Police forces are woefully under-resourced for the number of online child abuse investigations they now need to undertake, and the demands created by the management of registered sex offenders. • The Government should appoint a Commissioner for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse to work across departments and agencies, and who should produce a bold and comprehensive cross-Government strategy on child protection and the prevention of child sexual abuse. • Forces should be mandated to provide a minimum two-day training course on mental health to all officers and police community support officers (PCSOs), and the Government should use the NHS funding uplift to achieve a significant reduction in the level of police involvement in mental health crisis work. Drawing on over 90 pieces of written evidence and nine oral evidence sessions, we also reach a number of overarching