Recommendations & Conclusions
30 items
2
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Accepted
The Home Office does not understand how wider policy changes affect the demand on police resources. Police forces face growing demands as they take on additional responsibilities and tackle increasing volumes of more complex crimes, for example, the number of fraud crimes, sexual offences, and stalking and harassment offences, which …
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The Home Office does not understand how wider policy changes affect the demand on police resources. Police forces face growing demands as they take on additional responsibilities and tackle increasing volumes of more complex crimes, for example, the number of fraud crimes, sexual offences, and stalking and harassment offences, which require specialist expertise, has increased from 768,000 in 2014–15 (18% of police recorded crime) to 2.1 million in 2024–25 (32%). Despite this, the Home Office and policing do not fully understand the implications of changing demands. 2 Reforms to the criminal justice system, such as the sentencing review and probation reforms, will affect the demands on policing. The Home Office has improved its working arrangements with the Ministry of Justice but, seven months after the sentencing review, it has still not quantified the impact of reforms on police. The Home Office has not established similar collaborative working arrangements with other departments, or local government, to ensure impacts of policy changes on policing are properly considered. recommendation In its Treasury Minute response, the Home Office should set out the arrangements it has established—across departments, local government and policing stakeholders—to identify and quantify the impact of policy changes affecting policing.
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Government response AI summary
The government states the recommendation is implemented, citing the Police Reform White Paper and existing Consolidated Budgeting Guidance for considering policy impacts on policing. It is currently working with policing stakeholders and relevant departments to assess existing processes and identify necessary changes to manage these …
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HM Treasury
3
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Accepted
Police forces have limited flexibility to recruit people with the skills they need. Since the Police Uplift Programme was established in 2019, the government has ringfenced funding on the condition that forces maintain officer numbers, allocating £270 million to forces in 2025–26 via the officer maintenance grant. It has also …
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Police forces have limited flexibility to recruit people with the skills they need. Since the Police Uplift Programme was established in 2019, the government has ringfenced funding on the condition that forces maintain officer numbers, allocating £270 million to forces in 2025–26 via the officer maintenance grant. It has also provided £200 million to deliver an additional 3,000 personnel into neighbourhood policing roles. Consequently, police forces have responded to financial pressures by reducing the number of civilian staff and using police officers in staff roles. Police forces have also found it difficult to recruit and retain specialist staff, which restricts their ability to implement new technologies and respond to the changing nature of crime. Stakeholders have also highlighted that the current workforce mix, skills gaps and poor workforce well-being result in lost capacity and undermine productivity. recommendation The Home Office should work with the National Police Chiefs’ Council to assess the implications of the existing focus on maintaining police officer numbers, including identifying the impact on personnel and the operational efficiency of forces. Within six months, the Home Office should write to the Committee with the results of this assessment, including the options to improve workforce flexibility and the potential benefits for policing.
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Government response AI summary
The government states it has assessed the implications of maintaining police officer numbers, concluding that the officer maintenance grant was a barrier to visible policing. As a result, the grant and officer headcount targets will be abolished from April 2026 to improve workforce flexibility and …
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HM Treasury
4
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Accepted
The Home Office has not established how it will achieve the planned savings in its police efficiency and collaboration programme. The Home Office has identified £354 million of potential savings over the period to 2028–29 but recognises that achieving this is high risk. As at November 2025, the Home Office …
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The Home Office has not established how it will achieve the planned savings in its police efficiency and collaboration programme. The Home Office has identified £354 million of potential savings over the period to 2028–29 but recognises that achieving this is high risk. As at November 2025, the Home Office had not established how it would fund its savings programme and some initiatives will require legislative change. The Home Office believes it will achieve the planned savings by 2028–29 3 but was unable to explain to us the practical steps needed to achieve lasting changes in working practices across all police forces. The lack of standardisation across police forces is inefficient and represents poor value for money, with the Home Office expecting to achieve half of the savings from commercial efficiencies. However, it has not yet established the scope for standardisation and how it will engage police forces to achieve change. The Home Secretary has powers to mandate forces and/ or specify requirements but these have rarely been used, with the Home Office saying it needs to be confident that mandating would be beneficial for police forces. Without the right data and monitoring systems, it will be difficult for the Home Office to track and assess what progress is being made and how savings are being achieved. recommendation In its Treasury Minute response, the Home Office should set out by when it expects to achieve its planned efficiency savings. In doing so, it should: a. provide details on how it will achieve savings, including the areas in which it is seeking standardisation, which forces are using procurement frameworks, and the areas in which it is planning to mandate greater consistency across policing; and b. set out how it will ensure that claimed savings meet HM Treasury requirements.
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Government response AI summary
The government states the Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme (PECP) targets £354 million in cashable efficiencies by 2028-29, and thousands of officer hours saved. It details how savings will be achieved through commercial strategies, productivity improvements, data, and shared services, confirming targets were agreed with …
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HM Treasury
5
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Accepted
It is taking too long to identify and scale-up innovative practices and roll-out new technologies to improve police productivity. There are many examples of police forces exploiting innovative technologies—including audio-visual multimedia redaction, live facial recognition and enhanced video response—but scaling these across all 43 police forces has been slow. The …
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It is taking too long to identify and scale-up innovative practices and roll-out new technologies to improve police productivity. There are many examples of police forces exploiting innovative technologies—including audio-visual multimedia redaction, live facial recognition and enhanced video response—but scaling these across all 43 police forces has been slow. The Home Office is implementing some of the changes from the 2023 Policing Productivity Review but has reduced funding to support the roll-out of new technologies from £105 million in 2024–25 to £50 million in 2025–26. As around 80% of police funding is committed to staff pay costs, police forces have limited flexibility to invest in new technologies and have been forced to increase their borrowing to fund their capital programmes. The College of Policing acknowledged that the large number of bodies involved in the roll-out of innovative practices, including identifying and scaling innovations with the greatest potential, was not the most effective way of operating. There is also scope to improve police productivity by streamlining processes. The College of Policing has developed a diagnostic tool to help police forces identify opportunities, in areas such as burglary, but its launch has been delayed. 4 recommendation The Home Office should provide the Committee with an update in six months on the steps it has taken to speed up the adoption of new technologies and support police forces to improve their productivity. This should include setting out: a. the digital technologies with the greatest potential and how it is supporting their wider adoption; b. how it will support the College of Policing to identify innovations with the greatest potential; c. how it will simplify the arrangements for approving and rolling-out new technologies; and d. the results of using the new diagnostic tool to assess the scope for productivity improvements from streamlining police processes, including the potential benefits identi
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees and is accelerating the adoption of new technologies by supporting the College of Policing, prioritising key digital technologies like AI and data analytics, and scaling productivity-enabling systems nationally. It will consider further recommendations as part of implementing force mergers.
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HM Treasury
6
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Accepted
The outdated and piecemeal approach to funding police forces is frustrating efforts to secure long-term productivity improvements. In November 2025, the Home Office was still working to develop an affordable plan to increase the number of personnel in neighbourhood policing roles by 13,000 by 2029. The government provided £200 million …
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The outdated and piecemeal approach to funding police forces is frustrating efforts to secure long-term productivity improvements. In November 2025, the Home Office was still working to develop an affordable plan to increase the number of personnel in neighbourhood policing roles by 13,000 by 2029. The government provided £200 million in 2025–26 to recruit 3,000 additional personnel but forces do not know what funding will be provided from 2026–27 onwards. The Home Office is still using the out-dated police funding formula, which our predecessor Committee recommended be reformed in 2015. The formula was revised 5 in 2013 but subsequent demographic changes and regional variations in precept funding have created increasing financial pressures in some forces, with Bedfordshire Police and Warwickshire Police, for example, seeing government funding per capita fall by nearly 12% since 2015. We were also concerned that funding allocations did not reflect the needs of rural forces. Since 2023–24, the Home Office has provided £123 million of emergency funding to help some forces manage pressures. The new White Paper will be an important step in setting out the Home Office’s vision for policing reform. It offers the opportunity to clarify the leadership role the Home Office will play and how forces will be held to account following the abolition of police and crime commissioners. recommendation After the publication of the White Paper on police reforms, the Home Office should write to the Committee setting out how the new accountability arrangements will support it in leading the policing system to improve its productivity and deliver government’s policy commitments. In doing so, it should: a. set out in detail the new governance arrangements that will replace police and crime commissioners in those areas where there is no regional mayor; and b. explain how it will revise existing funding arrangements to provide police forces with an equitable and stable basis from which to m
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Government response AI summary
The government accepted the recommendation, noting the publication of the Police Reform White Paper detailing new governance arrangements and a review of the police funding formula following an independent review of force structures. The Home Office also confirmed it wrote to the Committee with further …
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HM Treasury
1
Conclusion
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Not Addressed
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Home Office and College of Policing on how they are supporting policing to improve efficiency and productivity, and help meet the government’s policing commitments.1
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On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Home Office and College of Policing on how they are supporting policing to improve efficiency and productivity, and help meet the government’s policing commitments.1
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Government response AI summary
The government's response describes its Police Reform White Paper and a new performance framework aimed at improving police efficiency and productivity. It commits to writing to the Committee by July 2026 to detail key metrics and plans for public reporting of performance data.
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HM Treasury
7
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Accepted
We asked the Home Office whether it has the data it needs to understand the financial risks facing police forces and the impact that this has on police productivity.9 The Home Office said there are multiple datasets scattered across bodies in the policing system, including police forces. It told us …
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We asked the Home Office whether it has the data it needs to understand the financial risks facing police forces and the impact that this has on police productivity.9 The Home Office said there are multiple datasets scattered across bodies in the policing system, including police forces. It told us that a single dataset would better enable data sharing, with forces currently sharing data through manual returns, which is slow, resource intensive and means data can be weeks or months old.10 HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) collects data—including on the efficiency of forces—as part of its inspections. It publishes some of this data, but the Home Office told us it does not share all the data it holds.11 The Home Office said it is getting more detailed data and expects data quality to improve as part of its data reforms.12
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Government response AI summary
The Home Office will write to the Committee by July 2026 setting out the key metrics it will incorporate in future iterations of the Police Performance Framework, and plans for public reporting of performance data.
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HM Treasury
8
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Accepted
In 2015, our predecessor Committee concluded that the Home Office’s “hands off” approach to monitoring police forces had limited its ability to ensure value for money.13 The Home Office told us it is now adopting a stronger central role and has established a Police Standards and Performance Improvements Directorate. As …
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In 2015, our predecessor Committee concluded that the Home Office’s “hands off” approach to monitoring police forces had limited its ability to ensure value for money.13 The Home Office told us it is now adopting a stronger central role and has established a Police Standards and Performance Improvements Directorate. As part of this, it will introduce a new police performance framework and performance dashboard to improve its understanding of what is happening in forces and hold them to account.14 The Home Office told us that it is also investing in better understanding the financial pressures facing police forces.15 In 2025, it analysed the financial resilience of forces, although did not assess the root causes of financial pressures or impacts on operational decisions.16 The Home Office told us that that it needs to do more work to understand the specific context of individual forces.17
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Government response AI summary
The Home Office will write to the Committee by July 2026 setting out the key metrics it will incorporate in future iterations of the Police Performance Framework, and plans for public reporting of performance data.
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HM Treasury
9
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Accepted
Written evidence from Leapwise raised the importance of having a measure of police productivity to assess and reward police forces. It noted that the absence of such a measure has meant that the current decline in police productivity is hidden.18 The Home Office told us that it has not yet …
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Written evidence from Leapwise raised the importance of having a measure of police productivity to assess and reward police forces. It noted that the absence of such a measure has meant that the current decline in police productivity is hidden.18 The Home Office told us that it has not yet agreed a measure of police productivity or what metrics it will use to track this, due to difficulties measuring policing outputs. It is working with the ONS and police forces to determine how to measure police outputs.19 9 Qq 14, 18-19 10 Qq 19-20 11 Q 10 12 Qq 13, 20 13 Committee of Public Accounts, Financial sustainability of police forces in England and Wales, First Report of Session 2015–16, HC 288, 9 September 2015 14 Q 121; C&AG’s Report, para 1.3 15 Q 12 16 C&AG’s Report, para 1.17 17 Q 12 18 Leapwise (IPP0013) 19 Qq 80, 84 9
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Government response AI summary
The Home Office will write to the Committee by July 2026 setting out the key metrics it will incorporate in future iterations of the Police Performance Framework, and plans for public reporting of performance data.
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HM Treasury
10
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Accepted
We asked the Home Office about its plans for publishing data on the performance of police forces. Written evidence from The Productivity Institute highlighted that ‘public trust’ is an important productivity outcome.20 The College of Policing agreed that the antidote to public mistrust is transparency and openness.21 The Home Office …
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We asked the Home Office about its plans for publishing data on the performance of police forces. Written evidence from The Productivity Institute highlighted that ‘public trust’ is an important productivity outcome.20 The College of Policing agreed that the antidote to public mistrust is transparency and openness.21 The Home Office accepted that transparency can drive behaviour change and said its police performance framework will be published, although it did not yet know which particular datasets it would publish, or when, as this is a decision for ministers.22 The changing demands on policing
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Government response AI summary
The government has published the first iteration of the Police Performance Framework and will write to the Committee by July 2026 setting out the key metrics it will incorporate in future iterations and plans for public reporting of performance data to support greater transparency.
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HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Acknowledged
Police forces are facing growing demands. This includes an increase in the number of crimes which require more specialist resources to investigate; for example, fraud crimes, sexual offences, and stalking and harassment offences increased from 768,000 cases in 2014–15 (18% of police recorded crime) to 2.1 million cases in 2024–25 …
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Police forces are facing growing demands. This includes an increase in the number of crimes which require more specialist resources to investigate; for example, fraud crimes, sexual offences, and stalking and harassment offences increased from 768,000 cases in 2014–15 (18% of police recorded crime) to 2.1 million cases in 2024–25 (32%).23 Police forces have also absorbed additional responsibilities, such as the XL Bully dog amendment to the Dangerous Dogs Act, and there have been increases in the time that police officers spend in training in response to new regulations.24 In its written submission, West Midlands Police commented that the new XL Bully dog policy will cost the force an additional £400,000 in the coming year.25
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees and will work closely with policing to understand the impact of policy changes, consider impacts of policies on local authorities, and work with policing to identify if processes in place to manage burdens are sufficient.
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HM Treasury
12
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Acknowledged
In his written submission, Sir Stephen House highlighted how policing productivity must be considered in the context of an effective end-to-end process.26 We asked the Home Office how it is working with other departments to understand how policy decisions might affect policing. The Home Office told us it works closely …
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In his written submission, Sir Stephen House highlighted how policing productivity must be considered in the context of an effective end-to-end process.26 We asked the Home Office how it is working with other departments to understand how policy decisions might affect policing. The Home Office told us it works closely with the Ministry of Justice to understand the impact of sentencing reforms and probation reforms on policing. The two departments recognise the need for a system-wide view to avoid one part of the criminal justice system passing responsibility and costs to another part. They use publicly available criminal justice system data dashboards to track how the courts and wider justice system, policing and prosecution work together. The Home Office also told us it sits on an operational implementation group—including the National Police Chiefs’ Council, HM Courts and Tribunals Service and HM Prison and Probation Service—to understand the implications of policy changes.27 20 The Productivity Institute, University of Manchester (IPP0009) 21 Qq 22,25 22 Qq 25, 31-32, 108 23 C&AG’s Report, Figure 4 24 C&AG’s Report, para 1.10 25 West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (IPP0006) 26 Sir Stephen House QPM (IPP0008) 27 Qq 55-57 10 However, seven months after the publication of the independent sentencing review, the Home Office had not fully costed the impact of the sentencing reforms on policing.28
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Government response AI summary
The Home Office will work closely with policing to fully understand the impact of any policy changes that affect policing, and is working with policing and relevant departments to understand what changes are required to help policing meet these costs.
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HM Treasury
13
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Acknowledged
The Home Office acknowledged that further work is required with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the Department for Education and Department for Work and Pensions to understand the whole system join-up and ensure the impact of policy changes on policing is properly considered.29 It told us it …
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The Home Office acknowledged that further work is required with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the Department for Education and Department for Work and Pensions to understand the whole system join-up and ensure the impact of policy changes on policing is properly considered.29 It told us it works with the DHSC to implement the Right Care Right Person Initiative, which aims to reduce the demands on policing from responding to incidents connected to mental ill-health by redirecting this demand to qualified professionals. The College of Policing told us the programme has been implemented by 36 forces and, in evidence received from the College after the session, highlighted that full national adoption could lead to savings of £19 million.30 The Home Office recognised that it must also work closely with DHSC on issues such as illegal drugs, as helping people overcome addiction will lead to fewer people entering the policing system and re-offending. The Home Office told us it is working with DHSC but this work has been at a preliminary stage for some time.31 Police workforce
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Government response AI summary
The Home Office will work closely with policing to fully understand the impact of any policy changes that affect policing, and is working with policing and relevant departments to understand what changes are required to help policing meet these costs.
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HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Acknowledged
Since the Police Uplift Programme was established in 2019, the government has ringfenced funding to increase and maintain police officer numbers. In 2025–26, the government allocated £270 million to police forces through the officer maintenance grant, which forces are only eligible for if they meet their officer number targets.32 Most …
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Since the Police Uplift Programme was established in 2019, the government has ringfenced funding to increase and maintain police officer numbers. In 2025–26, the government allocated £270 million to police forces through the officer maintenance grant, which forces are only eligible for if they meet their officer number targets.32 Most recently, in 2025–26, the government allocated £200 million to fund 3,000 additional personnel in neighbourhood policing roles.33
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Government response AI summary
The government has abolished the Police Officer Maintenance Grant from 1 April 2026 and will focus on what officers are doing rather than officer numbers, allocating £363 million to incentivise forces to grow neighbourhood policing teams towards 13,000 additional personnel across England and Wales by …
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HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Accepted
A number of stakeholders identified that the officer maintenance grant has led to police forces increasingly using officers in staff roles (that do not require a warranted police officer) – an expensive and inefficient practice.34 In written evidence, Leapwise estimated that this practice is costing policing at least £55 million …
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A number of stakeholders identified that the officer maintenance grant has led to police forces increasingly using officers in staff roles (that do not require a warranted police officer) – an expensive and inefficient practice.34 In written evidence, Leapwise estimated that this practice is costing policing at least £55 million a year.35 We were concerned that this approach to funding police officers may be incentivising practices that deliver poor value for money. The Home Office acknowledged that successive governments 28 Q 60 29 Q 59 30 Letter from the College of Policing, 8 December 2025 31 Q 59 32 C&AG’s Report, para 1.6; Q 52 33 Q 34 34 Sir Stephen House QPM (IPP0008); City of London Police IPP0010; Leapwise (IPP0013) 35 Leapwise (IPP0013) 11 have chosen to incentivise police forces to recruit officers through grant arrangements.36 We asked the Home Office whether it understood how skewed the deployment of police officers in staff roles is. It told us that it is for chief constables to decide the balance of police staff and officers, but it is seeking better quality data about how forces are using officers. However, the Home Office said that it had made £75 million available in 2025–26 for forces to spend on resourcing, whether on staff or on police community support officers and officers.37
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Government response AI summary
The officer maintenance grant and the requirement to achieve officer headcount targets has been abolished from 1 April 2026, and has allocated £363 million of ringfenced funding to incentivise forces to grow neighbourhood policing teams towards the aim of 13,000 additional personnel in neighbourhood roles …
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HM Treasury
16
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Acknowledged
Police forces face difficulties recruiting and retaining staff with specialist skills, including IT staff, inhibiting their ability to deploy new technology. The Home Office told us that part of the challenge is that all 43 forces are seeking to recruit individuals with highly specialist skills, putting them in competition with …
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Police forces face difficulties recruiting and retaining staff with specialist skills, including IT staff, inhibiting their ability to deploy new technology. The Home Office told us that part of the challenge is that all 43 forces are seeking to recruit individuals with highly specialist skills, putting them in competition with each other as well as the private sector. It said that it wants to create a smaller, central team of IT experts with specialist skills that forces can draw on to work with local IT staff.38
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees, has abolished the officer maintenance grant, provides funding to strengthen neighbourhood policing and modernise frontline capability, and outlines plans to improve leadership, professional development and create a new national workforce strategy.
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HM Treasury
17
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Acknowledged
Police forces must also invest in the skills of their workforce to be able to respond to the changing nature of crime. Evidence submitted by ADS Group Ltd stated that, according to a 2025 Police Foundation report, half of police officers surveyed didn’t believe they had adequate skills to investigate …
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Police forces must also invest in the skills of their workforce to be able to respond to the changing nature of crime. Evidence submitted by ADS Group Ltd stated that, according to a 2025 Police Foundation report, half of police officers surveyed didn’t believe they had adequate skills to investigate fraud.39 The Home Office also told us the proposed National Centre of Policing will work closely with police forces to build the market for specialist skills.40 In written evidence, ADS Group Ltd also recommended a more flexible approach, for example, secondments or analyst pathways into police forces to tap into complex specialist skills.41
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees, has abolished the officer maintenance grant, provides funding to strengthen neighbourhood policing and modernise frontline capability, and outlines plans to improve leadership, professional development and create a new national workforce strategy.
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HM Treasury
18
Conclusion
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Accepted
Written evidence from Leapwise, Sir Stephen House and the City of London Police all highlighted how an inflexible workforce model can undermine police productivity.42 Leapwise highlighted how poor workforce wellbeing is reducing workforce capacity, identifying that the proportion of police officers on long-term sick leave has increased from 1.5% in …
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Written evidence from Leapwise, Sir Stephen House and the City of London Police all highlighted how an inflexible workforce model can undermine police productivity.42 Leapwise highlighted how poor workforce wellbeing is reducing workforce capacity, identifying that the proportion of police officers on long-term sick leave has increased from 1.5% in March 2021 to 2.2% in 2025, with a 47% increase in officers sick for more than 28 days. This equates to 3,165 officers off-duty for considerable periods, with a cost of approximately £52 million to £92 million a year for policing.43 36 Qq 33, 52 37 Q 51 38 Qq 124, 127 39 ADS Group Ltd (IPP0002) 40 Q 123 41 ADS Group Ltd (IPP0002) 42 Sir Stephen House QPM (IPP0008); City of London Police (IPP0010); Leapwise (IPP0013) 43 Leapwise (IPP0013) 12 2 Improving police efficiency and productivity Implementing the Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme
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Government response AI summary
The officer maintenance grant and the requirement to achieve officer headcount targets has been abolished from 1 April 2026, and has allocated £363 million of ringfenced funding to incentivise forces to grow neighbourhood policing teams towards the aim of 13,000 additional personnel in neighbourhood roles …
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HM Treasury
19
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Accepted
The Labour Party manifesto set out that the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee would be paid for by tackling waste through a Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme.44 The Home Office has identified efficiency savings of £354 million over the period 2025–26 to 2028–29.45 We sought reassurances that the Police Efficiency and Collaboration …
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The Labour Party manifesto set out that the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee would be paid for by tackling waste through a Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme.44 The Home Office has identified efficiency savings of £354 million over the period 2025–26 to 2028–29.45 We sought reassurances that the Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme will be more effective than previous attempts to drive efficiency savings across police forces, which were based on forces finding savings from their annual budget allocations.46 The Home Office told us this was a more ambitious programme in which it is seeking to work more closely with police forces and stakeholders. It was confident that that it would achieve the savings by 2028–29 but acknowledged that some deliverables are high risk. For example, some initiatives require legislative change and, at November 2025, it had not established the funding necessary to deliver the programme.47
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Government response AI summary
The Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme (PECP) has an annual cashable efficiencies target of £354 million by 2028-29 and a non-cashable efficiencies target of saving thousands of officer hours to support government priorities such as neighbourhood policing.
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HM Treasury
20
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Accepted
The Home Office told us that about that half of the planned £354 million of savings will come from commercial savings, such as national purchasing, with the remainder from cost recovery and improved productivity.48 We asked whether there has been any investigation into policing’s purchases of basic services, noting the …
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The Home Office told us that about that half of the planned £354 million of savings will come from commercial savings, such as national purchasing, with the remainder from cost recovery and improved productivity.48 We asked whether there has been any investigation into policing’s purchases of basic services, noting the previous Committee’s work on similar issues in the national health service.49 In written evidence, stakeholders also identified the inefficiency of police forces running separate procurement exercises.50 The Home Office said it is using national purchasing frameworks and seeking to standardise specifications for some equipment, including laptops and vehicles. 44 C&AG’s Report, para 3 45 Q 40 46 Q 70 47 Qq 45, 70; C&AG’s Report, para 2.8 48 Q 70 49 Q 75 50 The Productivity Institute, University of Manchester (IPP0009); Leapwise (IPP0013) 13 It is also working with the Crown Commercial Service on energy purchasing, with 39 forces signed up. However, the Home Office acknowledged that there is no standardisation across the 43 police forces and that it does not know exactly who is doing what. It said it will need up to two years to gather data on the scope for standardisation, the level of variation across forces and whether it was better to purchase nationally, while recognising the benefits of competition between suppliers.51
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Government response AI summary
The Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme (PECP) has an annual cashable efficiencies target of £354 million by 2028-29 and a non-cashable efficiencies target of saving thousands of officer hours to support government priorities such as neighbourhood policing.
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HM Treasury
21
Conclusion
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Acknowledged
We sought reassurances that the Home Office was considering simplifying police systems, such as those used in human resources. The Home Office recognised police forces use many different systems and it is a highly fragmented picture. It told us that it is trialling standardisation in “some areas”.52 It has included …
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We sought reassurances that the Home Office was considering simplifying police systems, such as those used in human resources. The Home Office recognised police forces use many different systems and it is a highly fragmented picture. It told us that it is trialling standardisation in “some areas”.52 It has included shared services as part of the Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme and is seeking to put as much as possible into a new central organisation.53 The Home Office acknowledged the scope to do more and said it is working with police chiefs to identify priority areas, although there was no firm plan and it was unable to provide any detail on a timeline.54
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees and states that the Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme (PECP) aims to achieve savings through various workstreams and greater consistency across policing in IT, fleet, and energy spend, with consideration given to mandating approaches where appropriate.
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HM Treasury
22
Conclusion
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Acknowledged
We asked the Home Office whether BlueLight Commercial had been a success. The Home Office said it has made some progress changing the behaviours and culture of police forces to generate savings, but it had not been used to the extent that was intended.55 BlueLight Commercial manages 300 contracts on …
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We asked the Home Office whether BlueLight Commercial had been a success. The Home Office said it has made some progress changing the behaviours and culture of police forces to generate savings, but it had not been used to the extent that was intended.55 BlueLight Commercial manages 300 contracts on behalf of policing but forces are under no obligation to engage and not all are using the services it offers.56 The Home Office told us it had increased its oversight and scrutiny of BlueLight Commercial and is analysing which forces are using procurement frameworks. As part of the forthcoming police reforms, it will consider what BlueLight Commercial is providing and whether to use the Home Secretary’s powers to mandate police forces to use BlueLight Commercial’s services. The Home Office acknowledged that it would need confidence in the value of what BlueLight Commercial is offering if it is going to adopt an approach that is stronger than ‘persuasion’.57
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees and states that the Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme (PECP) aims to achieve savings through various workstreams and greater consistency across policing in IT, fleet, and energy spend, with consideration given to mandating approaches where appropriate.
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HM Treasury
23
Conclusion
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Acknowledged
We asked whether the Home Office had the data needed to monitor progress towards its planned savings of £354 million by 2028–29.58 The Home Office said it is important to get the right data to hold police 51 Qq 75-77, 95, 96, 103-106, 111 52 Q 51 53 Qq 71, …
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We asked whether the Home Office had the data needed to monitor progress towards its planned savings of £354 million by 2028–29.58 The Home Office said it is important to get the right data to hold police 51 Qq 75-77, 95, 96, 103-106, 111 52 Q 51 53 Qq 71, 73 54 Qq 73-74 55 Qq 98-99, 109-110 56 Q 110; C&AG’s Report, para 2.4 57 Qq 99-102, 109-110 58 Q 41 14 forces to account, as this drives innovation and delivers savings.59 It has established a programme board to monitor progress on the Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme.60 The College of Policing told us it is seeking to encourage greater consistency in measurement across forces. It has issued guidance on benefits realisation and is testing a measurement framework in five forces.61 Improving police productivity
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees and states that the Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme (PECP) aims to achieve savings through various workstreams and greater consistency across policing in IT, fleet, and energy spend, with consideration given to mandating approaches where appropriate.
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HM Treasury
24
Conclusion
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Accepted
There are many examples of police forces exploiting innovative technologies, including audio-visual multimedia redaction, live facial recognition and enhanced video response.62 These technologies can help to improve police productivity and performance. For example, the College of Policing estimated that scaling the use of enhanced video response could save up to …
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There are many examples of police forces exploiting innovative technologies, including audio-visual multimedia redaction, live facial recognition and enhanced video response.62 These technologies can help to improve police productivity and performance. For example, the College of Policing estimated that scaling the use of enhanced video response could save up to £25 million and the Metropolitan Police reported that it had made over 1,300 arrests due to live facial recognition since January 2024.63 In its written evidence, the City of London Police highlighted its productivity gains from using an auto-redaction tool in preparing case files for the Crown Prosecution Service.64
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees that it is working to accelerate the adoption of new technologies to improve police productivity by providing financial and practical support to the College of Policing and its Centre for Police Productivity and investing in new secure national infrastructure.
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HM Treasury
25
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Deferred
Despite these opportunities, scaling innovation and new technologies across the 43 police forces in England and Wales has been slow. The Home Office and College of Policing acknowledged the lack of speed and told us that scale-up was the biggest barrier.65 We asked about the mechanisms needed to scale innovation.66 …
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Despite these opportunities, scaling innovation and new technologies across the 43 police forces in England and Wales has been slow. The Home Office and College of Policing acknowledged the lack of speed and told us that scale-up was the biggest barrier.65 We asked about the mechanisms needed to scale innovation.66 In supplementary evidence received after our evidence session, the College of Policing highlighted that its Centre for Police Productivity is dedicated to identifying innovation and supporting forces to implement new initiatives. It has identified and sifted 1,400 innovations, putting 120 of these with the greatest potential into a ‘promising practice’ bank.67 The College of Policing also highlighted that is aware of 90 initiatives using AI in 29 forces, and told us it evaluates between eight and 12 initiatives a year, seeking to fast-track them to policing.68 The College acknowledged that it needed to do more but said that its funding had fallen (from 0.4% of all police funding in 2012–13 to 0.2% in 2025–26) and that it does not 59 Q 120 60 Q 41 61 Qq 84-85 62 C&AG’s Report, Examples 1-3 63 Qq 79, 112 64 City of London Police (IPP0010) 65 Q 119; C&AG’s Report, para 3.9 66 Qq 120, 130 67 Letter from the College of Policing, 8 December 2025 68 Qq 112, 119 15 have sufficient gravity to drive some of these initiatives.69 It also pointed to the number of bodies involved in rolling-out new measures—a “crowded landscape”—which is not the most efficient or effective way of delivering national services.70
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees to provide an update in July 2027 on the steps taken to speed up the adoption of new technologies and support police forces to improve their productivity, including the technologies with the greatest potential, support for the College of Policing, simplifying arrangements …
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HM Treasury
26
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Deferred
We asked if police forces had sufficient funding to improve their IT systems,71 particularly given the financial pressures they are facing, which has led them to increase borrowing to fund capital programmes.72 Forces also spend around 80% of their funding on officer and staff pay, which means they have limited …
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We asked if police forces had sufficient funding to improve their IT systems,71 particularly given the financial pressures they are facing, which has led them to increase borrowing to fund capital programmes.72 Forces also spend around 80% of their funding on officer and staff pay, which means they have limited flexibility to make capital investments, support transformation or invest in new technology.73 The Home Office reduced funding for programmes to improve productivity and roll-out new technologies, from £105 million in 2024–25 to £50 million in 2025–26.74 It told us that funding is constrained, and it does not determine how much money goes into innovation. Within these constraints, the Home Office said it is seeking to focus on initiatives that could deliver the best outcomes, pointing to its funding for facial recognition technology.75
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Government response AI summary
The government agrees and sets a target implementation date of December 2029, noting that the National Police Service will consider these recommendations further once established; meanwhile, the Home Office is working closely with policing to modernise IT systems and is addressing concerns through work on …
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HM Treasury
27
Conclusion
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Acknowledged
We asked what progress the Home Office has made implementing the recommendations of the 2023 Policing Productivity Review, which identified the potential to save 38 million hours of police time over five years. The Home Office said it had taken a number of initiatives forward, such as the establishment of …
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We asked what progress the Home Office has made implementing the recommendations of the 2023 Policing Productivity Review, which identified the potential to save 38 million hours of police time over five years. The Home Office said it had taken a number of initiatives forward, such as the establishment of the Centre for Police Productivity, and others would be taken forward as part of the Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme or police reforms.76 The College of Policing has also developed a diagnostic tool which will allow police forces to examine their processes for tackling burglary, robbery and shoplifting. The College is testing the tool with nine forces and hopes to make this available to all forces by April 2026, after previously expecting to launch this in December 2025.77 Implementing the White Paper on police reform
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Government response AI summary
The Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme (PECP) has an annual cashable efficiencies target of £354 million by 2028-29 and a non-cashable efficiencies target of saving thousands of officer hours. PECP will achieve savings through four workstreams: commercial including cost recovery, productivity, data and the enabling …
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HM Treasury
28
Recommendation
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Accepted in Part
We asked how the government’s commitment to put 13,000 extra personnel into neighbourhood policing roles by 2029 will be funded. The government provided £200 million in 2025–26 to recruit 3,000 additional neighbourhood 69 Q 115 70 Q 130 71 Q 67 72 Q 7; C&AG’s Report, para 1.12 73 C&AG’s …
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We asked how the government’s commitment to put 13,000 extra personnel into neighbourhood policing roles by 2029 will be funded. The government provided £200 million in 2025–26 to recruit 3,000 additional neighbourhood 69 Q 115 70 Q 130 71 Q 67 72 Q 7; C&AG’s Report, para 1.12 73 C&AG’s Report, para 1.9 74 Q 78; C&AG’s Report, para 2.15 and 3.20 75 Qq 79, 118 76 Q 112 77 Qq 22, 114; C&AG’s Report, para 2.14 16 policing personnel (police officers and police community support officers) and the Home Office told us it is confident that forces will achieve this.78 However, forces do not yet know what funding will be provided from 2026–27 onwards and, in November 2025, the Home Office was still working to develop an affordable plan to deliver the government’s commitment. The Home Office said it was managing the neighbourhood policing grant on an annual basis and will announce arrangements for future years before the end of 2025, as part of the provisional police funding settlement.79
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Government response AI summary
The government allocated £363 million of ringfenced funding to incentivise forces to grow neighbourhood policing teams, but prioritising neighbourhood policing may place some limitations on workforce flexibility which the Home Office will keep under review.
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HM Treasury
29
Conclusion
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Deferred
In its 2015 report on the financial sustainability of police forces, our predecessor Committee recommended that a new police funding formula be introduced in 2016–17.80 In our evidence session, we asked whether changing demographics meant the out-of-date formula had led to a structural funding gap.81 We were also concerned about …
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In its 2015 report on the financial sustainability of police forces, our predecessor Committee recommended that a new police funding formula be introduced in 2016–17.80 In our evidence session, we asked whether changing demographics meant the out-of-date formula had led to a structural funding gap.81 We were also concerned about the impact on rural police forces.82 Demographic changes have meant some forces, such as Bedfordshire and Warwickshire, have seen government funding per capita fall by nearly 12% since 2015.83 The Home Office has provided £123 million of additional support to five forces to help them respond to financial pressures since 2023–24.84 It told us that it is willing to speak to forces about local pressures, is scrutinising forces’ financial plans to work out where additional funding might be needed and uses the special grant system to respond to local pressures. The Home Office also highlighted that the funding formula is just one element of police funding and that it expects to look at the arrangements as part of the police reforms.85
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Government response AI summary
The Home Office will review the police funding formula once the implementation of police reform is underway and will launch an independent review into police force structures to consider the right model for local policing, which will report in the summer.
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HM Treasury
30
Conclusion
63rd Report - Increasing police product…
Acknowledged
The Home Office said that it expects the police reform White Paper to start having an impact from 2026–27.86 As part of this, the Home Office said that it will work out implementation plans to establish new arrangements following the abolition of the role of police and crime commissioners.87 The …
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The Home Office said that it expects the police reform White Paper to start having an impact from 2026–27.86 As part of this, the Home Office said that it will work out implementation plans to establish new arrangements following the abolition of the role of police and crime commissioners.87 The Home Office told us it is also reversing its previous light-touch approach and plans to establish a National Centre of Policing. In doing so, the Home Office will consider how to hold police forces to account and the system of accountability that is needed.88 78 Qq 33-36 79 Q 33; C&AG’s Report, para 1.9 80 Committee of Public Accounts, Financial sustainability of police forces in England and Wales, First Report of Session 2015–16, HC 288, 9 September 2015 81 Qq 12, 61, 63 82 Qq 66, 67 83 C&AG’s Report, para 1.9 84 Qq 7, 8; C&AG’s Report, para 1.13 85 Qq 62, 64, 65 86 Q 29 87 Qq 42-45 88 Qq 121, 123 17
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Government response AI summary
The government published the Police Reform White Paper, setting out an ambitious programme to improve the quality, consistency and efficiency of policing. Plans to abolish the Police and Crime Commissioner model at the end of their current term in May 2028.
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HM Treasury