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Government reduce red tape for police

By James Ledward
Jan 22, 2012 - 10:51:29 PM
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Simon Kirby, MP

Simon Kirby, Member of Parliament for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, has welcomed the progress the coalition Government has made on reducing the burden of red tape which has tied police officers to their desks for too long under the previous Labour administration.

Simon said:
“It is clear to me, and many of my constituents, that police should be focussing on fighting crime and not paper work. That is why I welcome the package of policies that will cut police red tape, saving up to 3.3 million police hours per year, the equivalent of over 1500 police officers.”

This work is being taken forward by the joint Home Office and Association of Chief Police Officers Reducing Bureaucracy Programme Board, chaired by Chief Constable Chris Sims

Simon added:
“The Government has already made substantial progress on this issue, for instance by:
    •    Scrapping central targets - Freeing the police from central control by removing time-wasting bureaucracy that hampers police operations. We have scrapped the last Government’s target on public confidence.
    •    Central performance management - We have removed excessive central performance management, for example, by abolishing the Assessment of Policing and Community Safety.
    •    Charging decisions - In supporting officers to use their professional discretion by empowering police officers to make key decisions, we have returned charging decisions to the police for certain offences. This will ensure that officers feel sufficiently empowered to take considered and informed decisions and work more effectively with Crown Prosecution Service colleagues, saving up to 50,000 officer hours per year.
    •    Stop and Search - We have scrapped the national requirement for the Stop and Account form and reduced the burden of the Stop and Search procedures, saving a potential 800,000 police hours per year.
    •    Police Performance Development Review – We have launched a shorter and more straightforward annual appraisal model for forces to manage police performance and development, saving up to 1.5 million police hours per year.
    •    New Health & Safety guidance – We have published new guidance to support officers that do the right thing through a common sense application of health and safety rules - police officers should not be at risk of prosecution under health and safety legislation when engaged in the course of their duties if they put themselves at risk as a result of committing an heroic act.
    •    Drug testing – We have scrapped the target for all forces to drug test at least 95% of those arrested for a trigger offence. Forces no longer submit a monthly arrest figure and can use their professional discretion to decide who it is most appropriate to drug test."

Simon concluded:
“The coalition Government is not resting despite the progress already made and will be taking a number of further policies forward to further reduce the administrative burden on officers.”

The coalition Government will be introducing initiatives such as:
    •    Crime recording - championing a simplified crime recording process: saving time for officers when they have to fill in crime reports reduces the amount of data they have to collect for minor crimes. This could save up to 95,000 hours of police officer time each year.
    •    Charging decisions - piloting extended police discretion over charging decisions, eventually giving police discretion over 80% of charging decisions, saving an additional 40,000 officer hours annually.
    •    Charge by post – Implementing new measures to bring a defendant to court for prosecution, including allowing officers to send a written charge by post rather than call the suspect back to the police station for charging. This could save a further 40,000 hours of police officer hours each year
    •    ACPO Doctrine – the Association of Chief Police Officers is leading work to significantly reduce guidance from over 600 pieces to an approved set of fewer than 100 which will go live in June 2012.
    •    Domestic violence - better identification, management and action on the most vulnerable domestic violence cases, by ending duplication and unnecessary processes, freeing officers to reinvest in safeguarding those who are most at risk.
    •    Audit of Home Office burdens on the police – We have conducted an audit of all Home Office burdens on the police. The Home Secretary is reviewing information which has come out of the audit with the aim of removing or reducing any burdens which are unnecessary or overly bureaucratic.

Ministers will make a public statement shortly on the next steps.


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