Recommendations & Conclusions
11 items
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
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
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
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
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