Recommendations & Conclusions
19 items
2
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
The Programme has demonstrated the value of standardising recruitment practices across police forces. Our work has repeatedly highlighted the importance of collaboration between police forces and consistency in their approaches in improving value for money. The creation of the Programme has helped converge standards and approaches relating to recruitment and …
Government response. The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation and will undertake a review led by Sir Stephen House to improve the department’s understanding of effectiveness and productivity in policing.
HM Treasury
3
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
We are not yet convinced that the new training routes introduced by the College of Policing best meet the needs of police forces. The College of Policing introduced the Police Education and Qualifications Framework (PEQF) in 2016 and initially planned for the new approach to be fully in place by …
Government response. The College of Policing is reviewing the impact of the Police Education and Qualifications Framework, with a final report expected by Spring 2024 and a follow-up report planned for publication in early 2023; the department will also work with partners …
HM Treasury
4
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
We are concerned that the distribution of new officers may not give police forces what they need to respond to the demands they face. The Department has set recruitment targets for each police force based on the Police Allocation Formula (the Formula). But it was already significantly out of date …
Government response. The government has committed to reviewing the Police Funding Formula before the next General Election, with the technical phase underway including engagement with policing representatives and experts, and assurances of well-planned transition arrangements and a full public consultation.
HM Treasury
1
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Home Office (the Department) about the Police Uplift Programme (the Programme).1
Government response. The government will produce a lessons learned report and a best practice document for the Home Office, other parts of government and policing, to be shared in August 2023.
HM Treasury
10
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
The National Audit Office reported that the vetting process used during recruitment had a disproportionate effect on ethnic minority applicants. Applicants of Asian and Black heritage had lower pass rates than those of White heritage and were more likely to succeed in an appeal.14 The Department told us there were …
Government response. The government agreed to include a table setting out the diversity of individual police forces compared to their 2021 local populations within each Uplift statistical release, after the ONS releases the 2021 census data.
HM Treasury
11
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
In July 2021, the Home Affairs Select Committee reported that it was extremely disappointing that 22 years after the publication of the Macpherson report the police service is still a very long way from being representative of the diverse communities it serves. It said that despite commitments made over many …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation and states it has implemented it by publishing its response to ‘The Macpherson Report: twenty-two years on’.
HM Treasury
14
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
The PEQF was originally supposed to fully replace the existing training route (the Initial Police Learning and Development Programme – IPLDP) by December 2019. In 14 C&AG’s report, Figure 10 15 Q 47 16 Home Affairs Select Committee, The Macpherson Report: Twenty-two years on, HC 139, 30 July 2021, paras …
Government response. The government agreed to the recommendation that the College of Policing should review the impact of the Police Education and Qualifications Framework and publish the results by Spring 2024.
HM Treasury
15
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
We asked the Department if it still believed that a ‘degree only’ route was the right approach to police recruitment, given the operational impact of taking officers away for college learning. We noted that stakeholders had suggested that such a one size fits all approach might discourage some candidates, such …
Government response. The College of Policing will review the impact of the Police Education and Qualifications Framework (PEQF) to ensure it meets the needs of both new police officers and their forces, with a final report expected by Spring 2024.
HM Treasury
17
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
We previously found that poor cooperation between the Department and police forces has contributed to a failure to achieve value-for-money for taxpayers. In our December 2021 report into the National Law Enforcement Data Service, we concluded that working effectively with the police was critical to the delivery of NLEDS and …
Government response. The Department and the NPCC will identify and pursue other opportunities for standardisation across policing (for example procurement and IT), led by a review of operational productivity, with findings expected in Spring 2023 and a final report within 12 months; …
HM Treasury
18
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
In contrast, in March 2022 the National Audit Office concluded that the Police Uplift Programme was on track to deliver value for money within its narrowly defined objective of recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers over three years. It reported that the tightly scoped objectives had helped to maintain a …
Government response. The Department will systematically capture and disseminate lessons from the Police Uplift Programme, producing a lessons learned report and a best practice document by August 2023.
HM Treasury
19
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
The Department told us that the second lesson was that the Programme had benefited from a high degree of stability within its programme team, with very little staff turnover since the Programme began. Finally, the Department told us that the success to date of the Programme was also due to …
Government response. The government agreed to capture and disseminate lessons from the Police Uplift Programme and will produce a lessons learned report and a best practice document by August 2023.
HM Treasury
22
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
Our predecessor Committee highlighted the issues arising from a lack of standardisation and cooperation between the 43 police forces in England and Wales. In the 2013 report on Police Procurement, it noted that despite some efforts by police forces to collaborate with each other, there remained an unacceptable variation in …
Government response. The Department and the NPCC will identify and pursue other opportunities for standardisation across policing (for example procurement and IT), led by a review of operational productivity, with findings expected in Spring 2023 and a final report within 12 months; …
HM Treasury
23
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
We also heard evidence on the potential wider lessons which could be derived from this programme, including learning that could inform how police forces recruit, train and deploy other personnel. The National Police Chiefs Council told us that lessons from the Programme had been used to review the recruitment processes …
Government response. The Department will systematically capture and disseminate lessons from the Police Uplift Programme, producing a lessons learned report and a best practice document by August 2023.
HM Treasury
28
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
The Department based the allocation of the 20,000 additional officers between police forces on the long-outdated Police Allocation Formula.41 Our predecessor Committee noted that this formula was obsolete and in 2018 recommended that “The Department must urgently commit to reviewing the funding formula, and after consultation, deploy a new funding …
Government response. The government agreed to revise the police funding formula, aiming for completion before the next General Election, and assured well-planned transition arrangements and a full public consultation.
HM Treasury
29
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
The Department recognised that the Formula was out of date but told us that, as there was no credible alternative available, it was confident that it was appropriate to use the existing formula to allocate the 20,000 officers.44 The National Audit Office, however, reported that because the Department has used …
Government response. The government agreed to revise the police funding formula, aiming for completion before the next General Election, and assured well-planned transition arrangements and a full public consultation.
HM Treasury
30
Conclusion
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
We asked whether the Programme was about more ‘bobbies on the beat’ rather than tackling the more complex areas of crime that are growing, such as serious sexual offences and fraud. The Department told us that the Programme would not have a direct and immediate impact on such issues, as …
Government response. The government states it is committed to tackling all types of crime, including serious sexual offences and fraud, and is working with forces to ensure they have the right skills and resources. They also mention the NPCC-led review of operational …
HM Treasury
31
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
The National Audit Office reported that to demonstrate value for money in the longer term, the Department must show that the investment in additional officers has better enabled police forces to reduce crime and increase public confidence in policing. To date, the Department’s management of the Programme has largely focused …
Government response. The Home Office is developing a medium to long-term evaluation framework, expected to be in place in Autumn 2022, to assess the impact of the Police Uplift Programme on crime outcomes and public confidence.
HM Treasury
32
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
We challenged the Department on this issue, noting that it had calculated that as a result of the Programme some additional 500,000 crimes prevented annually from 2024–
Government response. The government agreed to develop a framework to evaluate the medium to long-term impact of the Programme. The framework was expected to be in place in Autumn 2022, but the evaluation will continue for several years.
HM Treasury
33
Recommendation
Fifteenth Report - The Police Uplift Pr…
Accepted
In our March 2022 report on reducing the backlog in criminal courts, we reported there were 59,928 Crown Court cases awaiting trial in September 2021, increasing from 33,290 cases since March 2019 (an increase of 80%). We concluded that the government was unlikely to succeed in addressing the unacceptable delays …
Government response. The government agreed to develop a framework to evaluate the medium to long-term impact of the Programme. The framework was expected to be in place in Autumn 2022, but the evaluation will continue for several years.
HM Treasury