PAC: How can police forces increase their productivity?
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will hold a scrutiny session on increasing police productivity.
Meeting details
The Home Office has identified £354m of potential savings in police forces through to 2028-29. However, the National Audit Office (NAO) has found that it has not yet decided how to meet this ambition, nor established what funding is available. Some potential savings will require new legislation, and over half of the savings identified have been assessed as high or medium risk to deliver. Police forces last year drew down £276m from their reserves to help balance their annual budgets, the NAO found, while using £632m of borrowing to fund 60% of their capital programmes.
In an evidence session with the leadership of the Home Office and senior figures from the College of Policing, the PAC will scrutinise how government is supporting police forces to achieve these savings and achieve sustainable improvements in police productivity, including the adoption of new technologies and standardisation across different police forces. Other likely topics include the possible impact of financial pressures on front line performance, and the disclaiming of the College of Policing’s accounts in July by the NAO’s Comptroller & Auditor General.