Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 9
63rd Report - Increasing police productivity
Published 28 Jan 2026
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Increasing police productivity All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
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
From: Public Accounts Committee, 63rd Report - Increasing police productivity (HC 1239), 28 January 2026
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 7 April 2026 (deadline 28 March 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on every recommendation, marking some as implemented and setting target dates for others.
- On performance data, 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 its plans for public reporting of performance data.
- On officer numbers, the officer maintenance grant and the requirement to achieve officer headcount targets "has been abolished from 1 April 2026". The government adds that prioritising neighbourhood policing "may place some limitations on workforce flexibility" which the Home Office "will keep under review".
- On efficiency savings, the Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme has "an annual cashable efficiencies target of £354 million by 2028-29". Mandating approaches to policing "will be considered where there is a case to do so".
- On police IT systems, the government gives a target implementation date of December 2029. It says the National Police Service, once established, "will consider these recommendations further then", and that force-level IT updates "must align" with the implementation of force mergers.