Recommendation 25

Despite these opportunities, scaling innovation and new technologies across the 43 police forces in England and Wales has been slow. The Home Office and College of Policing acknowledged the lack of speed and told us that scale-up was the biggest barrier.65 We asked about the mechanisms needed to scale innovation.66 In supplementary evidence received after our evidence session, the College of Policing highlighted that its Centre for Police Productivity is dedicated to identifying innovation and supporting forces to implement new initiatives. It has identified and sifted 1,400 innovations, putting 120 of these with the greatest potential into a ‘promising practice’ bank.67 The College of Policing also highlighted that is aware of 90 initiatives using AI in 29 forces, and told us it evaluates between eight and 12 initiatives a year, seeking to fast-track them to policing.68 The College acknowledged that it needed to do more but said that its funding had fallen (from 0.4% of all police funding in 2012–13 to 0.2% in 2025–26) and that it does not 59 Q 120 60 Q 41 61 Qq 84-85 62 C&AG’s Report, Examples 1-3 63 Qq 79, 112 64 City of London Police (IPP0010) 65 Q 119; C&AG’s Report, para 3.9 66 Qq 120, 130 67 Letter from the College of Policing, 8 December 2025 68 Qq 112, 119 15 have sufficient gravity to drive some of these initiatives.69 It also pointed to the number of bodies involved in rolling-out new measures—a “crowded landscape”—which is not the most efficient or effective way of delivering national services.70