Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 9
9
Accepted
Absence of a police productivity measure hinders assessment and hides performance decline.
Recommendation
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
Government Response 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.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
1. PAC conclusion: The Home Office does not have sufficient data on the financial resilience or performance of police forces. 1. PAC recommendation: By July 2026, the Home Office should write to us setting out the key metrics it will use to measure the financial resilience, productivity and performance of police forces. In doing so, it should set out how it will support greater transparency and strengthen accountability by publishing data on the performance of police forces. 1.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: July 2026 1.2 The government has now published the first iteration of the Police Performance Framework, as part of wider reforms to the police performance system described in From Local to National: A New Model for Policing, the Police Reform White Paper. The Framework sets out key metrics of police force performance. Analysis and reporting against the 12 framework will enable better assessment of how a force is performing in its delivery of policing priorities. 1.3 The Home Office has committed to developing the Framework iteratively with a specific commitment to incorporate measures of force productivity and financial resilience in future iterations. The Home Office will write to the Committee by July 2026 setting out the key metrics it will incorporate in future iterations and our plans for public reporting of performance data to support greater transparency and strengthen accountability by publishing data on the performance of police forces. 1.4 The Home Office is currently working to improve and standardise the way in which financial information is provided by forces and developing a proposal to build on the Office for National Statistics’ forthcoming update on police productivity to provide a measure of force- level productivity. This work is being undertaken in collaboration with the policing sector and other external experts.