Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 13
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)
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
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.