Recommendation 12

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