Policy paper

Policing for the future: government response to the 10th HASC report (accessible version)

Published 15 March 2019

Introduction

The Government would like to thank the Committee for its inquiry report on Policing for the future, published on 25 October 2018.

Whilst the Committee’s report recognises that there is an “overall picture of a police service which still has great strengths, values and expertise”^{[footnote 1]}, it has examined a number of wide-ranging policing areas with a significant number of conclusions and recommendations.

The Government response deals predominantly with policing in England and Wales. Where the report refers to subjects which are devolved and are the responsibility of the Welsh Government e.g. health, the police and Home Office officials engage with the devolved bodies where appropriate.

The Government’s response to the conclusions and recommendations are set out below.

We are grateful to the Committee for the valuable scrutiny it has provided.

Local and Neighbourhood Policing

1. Recommendation 1: “We welcome efforts to integrate policing with other public services, including through multi-agency teams based in the same location, which focus on individuals who come into repeat contact with authorities. We are concerned, however, that some forces may see this model as their sole ‘offering’ on neighbourhood policing. There can be no substitute for having officers and PCSOs who are embedded in their local communities.” (Paragraphs 21, 30 and 31 at pages 14 and 17 of the inquiry report).

2. Government response: Our police officers and staff do a fantastic job every day to keep us safe. Crime is changing but good neighbourhood policing, accountable to local communities, remains core to the British model of how we protect the public. We are playing our part in this work which is why we abolished all central Government targets and put local people in charge by introducing directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) who are able to respond to local needs and priorities.

3. HASC Conclusion: “It is clear, however, that some forces are struggling to respond to incoming urgent demands, and are using their neighbourhood officers to plug the gap. We welcome the College of Policing’s recent guidance on neighbourhood policing, but this is insufficient to prevent forces from deprioritising proactive neighbourhood work, when faced with competing demands and limited resources.” (Paragraph 39 at page 20)

4. Government response: The Home Office and the sector agree that neighbourhood policing is the bedrock of community safety and security. For that reason, it is a vital component of how the police have defined their future through the Policing Vision 2025. Police forces are also facing growing demand to respond to cyber and online crimes, many of which require specialist capability to respond. That is why the Government is investing in the creation of specialist cyber crime units in all of the 43 police forces in England and Wales. This will give the police increased capability to investigate cyber crimes, support local businesses and victims, and provide the advice and care they need.

5. To ensure local policing is as good as it can be, the Home Office wants to see more consistent standards across the police network, based on strong evidence of good practice. So, we welcome the work done by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing with forces to produce the Neighbourhood Policing Guidelines. These guidelines will help forces more effectively use their local policing resource and encourage proactive neighbourhood work. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) will use the standards within the guidelines to inform future inspections, enabling the public to hold their forces to account.

6. Recommendation 2: “We urge police forces and the Home Office to ensure that neighbourhood policing is not cut back further, and that forces instead start to reinvest in community capacity-building. The Government should report back to us within one month of the Comprehensive Spending Review, to explain what actions it has taken to maintain core neighbourhood policing functions in all forces, and to prevent officers from being diverted to other policing requirements.” (Paragraph 41 at page 21)

7. Government response: This Government has reformed policing to make it more professional, less bureaucratic for officers and, in line with the 2018 cross-Government Victims Strategy, more responsive to victims. We are now undertaking a significant joint programme of work with policing to prepare for the longer term challenges the police face including substantial pieces of work on demand and financial resilience, capability and productivity. The Home Secretary has committed to prioritising police funding at the Spending Review.

8. As part of that work, we have ensured that police forces have the resources they need to carry out their important work. In 2018/19 we increased total investment in the police by over £460m, including council tax precept. Further council tax flexibility for 2019/20 was subject to the delivery of progress on productivity and efficiency milestones, which forces have met. In 2019/20 we are helping forces to meet both additional demand and manage financial pressures. In total, we will enable an increase in funding for the police system of up to £970m. This includes increases in Government grant funding, full use of additional precept flexibility, funding to support pensions costs, and additional national funding to meet the threats from counter-terrorism and serious and organised crime. The deployment of officers is an operational decision for Chief Constables having considered local and national priorities.

9. The Home Office will update the Committee on the Spending Review settlement and what this means for policing in due course.

Online Fraud

10. Recommendation 3: “Despite efforts to improve its response to victims of fraud, Action Fraud has irretrievably lost the confidence of the public, and reasonable expectations from victims are not being met. It is sensible to have a centralised reporting facility for fraud, but this must not simply become a way to divert and fob off victims of crime. Most importantly, it must be accompanied by a proper system to investigate crimes and respond to victims, or it will become irrelevant.” (Paragraph 50 at page 24)

11. Government response: Action Fraud (AF) is committed to ensuring it has the confidence of the public. In October a major Information Technology programme was put in place to improve its online reporting. This new system improves the victim reporting process through the implementation of a streamlined, more intuitive online portal for crime reporting, upgrades the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau’s (NFIB) analytics capability with more automation, increases disseminations to forces, and better identifies vulnerable victims.

12. However, we recognise that this improvement in AF must go hand in hand with the response from law enforcement, particularly police forces. As the National Lead Force, City of London Police is responsible for educating both police forces and the public to understand the nature of AF and hence ensure that it is not viewed as an investigative body. The HMICFRS report on fraud is due to be published this year, and we expect it to recommend how the investigation of fraud can be improved between AF, NFIB, and forces. The Home Office will work with the City of London Police to use these recommendations to determine how best to support and challenge policing to make further improvements in their response to fraud and support for victims. The Home Office will ensure City of London Police undertakes its lead force role for fraud based on HMICFRS’s recommendations, and make sure it is accountable in that role.

13. Conclusion: “it is no surprise that so few fraud victims report their experience to the police or Action Fraud. While we recognise that many offences are committed overseas, it is nevertheless clear to us that the Government has failed to get a grip on this problem, and that major changes are needed to the way in which fraud is reported, investigated and prevented. We commend the City of London Police for its leadership, but one under-resourced police force, facing the same budget pressures as every other force, does not have the capacity or the leverage to introduce the sort of drastic improvements needed at a national and regional level.” (Paragraph 60 at page 27)

14. Government response: We acknowledge that the law enforcement response to fraud must improve. That is why the Home Secretary requested HMICFRS to conduct a thematic inspection on fraud. We will work closely with policing to take forward HMICFRS’s recommendations, expected in early 2019, to improve the response to fraud at the national, regional and local level. Additionally, the Government will provide law enforcement with £6m which is dedicated to improving capability to tackle fraud at the national, regional, and local level. Reflecting the importance we place on tackling economic crime, including fraud, the new Economic Crime Strategic Board met for the first time on 14 January 2019. This bi-annual Board, jointly chaired by the Home Secretary and the Chancellor, with private sector representatives, will set strategic priorities, allocate resources and scrutinise performance against the economic crime threat.

15. The Police Transformation Fund (PTF) in 2018/19 is providing £1.4m to support the City of London Police’s response to fraud by integrating crime and victim data collected through the City of London Police National Fraud and Cyber Reporting Centre, with local force record management systems. The new managed service provides an opportunity to create a fusion of local, regional and national data covering incident and key drivers within fraud and cyber crime. Additionally, £2.9m PTF investment for the NPCC Economic Crime project in 2018/19 will include the training of 158 fraud accredited investigators. It will also develop and begin a fraud direct entrant training programme and a regional fraud collaboration model with staff co-located and operational to pilot a new tasking model.

16. Recommendation 4: “There is a lack of transparency in the way that fraud statistics are published. At present, two sets of records are available: recorded crime figures and outcomes, with no way of linking the two. The Office for National Statistics and other agencies should take immediate steps to ensure that figures can be published on the proportion of online fraud offences resulting in justice outcomes, and the proportion for which no suspect is charged.” (Paragraph 61 at page 27).

17. Government response: The Home Office is working with NFIB to improve data quality. In future, the Home Office intends to publish fraud outcomes data in its official statistics on the same basis as it currently does for other recorded crimes.

18. Recommendation 5: “The police response to fraud is in desperate need of a fundamental overhaul, and we welcome Government ministers’ recognition that the current system is not fit for purpose. There remains a clear requirement for a national reporting and analysis centre, but the current system of tasking and undertaking investigations needs to be overhauled, and standards of victim support are often extremely poor. The Government must show leadership in this area, working with the City of London Police, the NPCC, the National Economic Crime Centre within the NCA and other key stakeholders to implement a ‘hub and spoke’ structure for fraud investigation and victim support, with all investigations undertaken at a national or regional level.” (Paragraph 66 at page 28).

19. Government response: The Government takes the prevention of fraud, the pursuit of perpetrators, and treatment of victims seriously. The HMICFRS’s report on fraud this year will highlight how the reporting of fraud should be connected to its investigation, and how victims, particularly the vulnerable, should be treated in that process. We will review its recommendations to consider what the Home Office can further support.

20. The new National Economic Crime Centre (NECC), a collaboration between the public and private sectors, has been set up to ensure that co-ordination of the effort to combat economic crime, including fraud, is optimised. More broadly, under the new Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) Strategy, we are working to align all law enforcement and government bodies involved in tackling all forms of serious and organised crime, including fraud, to respond as a single system at the local, regional, national and international levels. The National Crime Agency (NCA) are leading work to deliver improved tasking and governance arrangements for the serious and organised crime system to ensure that capabilities are tasked against the threat in the most efficient and effective way. This work is designed to:

• Provide visibility of which organisations hold which capability at national, regional and local levels and provide a strategic understanding of capacity in the serious and organised crime whole system, specifically as this relates to the availability of national and specialist assets;
• Manage capability at a strategic level, including management of capabilities for strategically important high priority cases and the use of national and specialist assets; and
• Provide clarity on the transfer of risk and ownership across the serious and organised crime system and set strategic performance measurements that are applicable at national, regional and local levels.

21. Conclusion “We return to the wider issue of police funding in Chapter 6 Given that much online fraud takes place on platforms provided by extremely profitable global tech giants, or exploits weaknesses in the security of private sector companies, it is reasonable to expect the private sector to contribute to the funding of policing and safety online. Likewise, banks, credit card companies and insurance companies have a lot to lose from the continued escalation of this form of crime, so they too have a considerable interest in contributing to the policing of online fraud.” (Paragraph 67 at page 28)

22. Government response: As published in the SOC Strategy in November 2018, we will invest at least £48m, including the £6m set aside for fraud noted at paragraph 14, in law enforcement capabilities, to step up efforts to tackle illicit finance and enhance our overall response to serious and organised crime, including increased front line capacity and capability to tackle fraud.

23. The objectives and projects of the Joint Fraud Taskforce (JFT) are currently being reset and re-examined against earlier versions. As part of that process, more emphasis will be placed on preventing fraud from taking place, identifying game changers with industry to reduce the level of fraud, and through closer working better gauge the threat and improve the use of technology. Much of the investment to reduce vulnerabilities to fraud will come from the private sector.

24. There are already teams in place, funded by the private sector, including the Dedicated Crime and Payment Unit and an insurance fraud team, which we could use as models for future partnership working with the private sector tackling particular fraud types.

25. Recommendation 6: “Not enough is being done to identify and support vulnerable victims of fraud. This is compounded by pressures on Trading Standards offices. [With investigative resources and capabilities focused at a national and regional level], forces should be given the space to focus predominantly on victim support. When reporting a crime to Action Fraud, victims should be asked a series of questions to assess their levels of vulnerability and their need for follow-up support. This information should be disseminated to forces immediately, so that neighbourhood officers or PCSOs can respond accordingly, with timely and tailored support.” (Paragraph 68 at page 28)

26. Government response: Victims are receiving a much improved service from the enhanced AF system. For the first time victims of crime will be able to update their report and use an online service to track their crime from start to finish. After reporting, victims will also receive prevention advice and fraud alerts from AF so that they can protect themselves in the future when fraudsters may target them. Assessments of information received by AF are undertaken by NFIB, and they ensure that all appropriate information is disseminated to forces including about the victim.

27. City of London Police set up a pan-London Economic Crime Victim Care Unit (ECVCU) in 2014 to support victims whose crimes were not being investigated. Victims of fraud and cyber crime who are assessed to be vulnerable are contacted by highly trained specialist advocates who give practical advice, support and guidance to help them cope and recover, and prevent future / repeat victimisation. ECVCU works in partnership with charities including Age UK and National Debtline, signposting victims to their services. The ECVCU concept has been piloted with two other forces, Greater Manchester and West Midlands, and also expanded to offer guidance and signposting to victims not deemed to be vulnerable in the three police force areas. The pilot will be subject to an evaluation by the Home Office, which is due to report in spring 2019.

28. Recommendation 7: “The Joint Fraud Taskforce is a welcome initiative, but it has little to show for two and a half years of work and at the moment we are not sure what the point of it is, in practice. More transparency is needed, including a clear action plan and ownership of key tasks, regular reports on progress against that plan, and measurements of success in key areas, including public awareness campaigns. It is disappointing that the first annual report, promised for summer 2018, has not yet appeared. By the end of November, the Government should also publish the recent independent review of the Taskforce, which is referred to in the minutes of the June Management Board meeting, along with an action plan to address the weaknesses identified in that Review.” (Paragraph 71 at page 29)

29. Government response: The landscape in which we respond to economic crime continues to evolve. The JFT is examining how it sits within that landscape, including its relationship with the NECC. While the JFT will continue to be a collaboration between Government, law enforcement, and industry it recognises the need to be agile in its response to fraud and the need to draw on the expertise of other sectors, such as the telecommunications industry, to reduce the incidence of fraud.

30. The review of the JFT was produced as an internal document and was not intended for broader publication, but is the basis upon which the JFT has approached its reorganisation, which was finalised in December 2018. The JFT used the findings within the review, and the stakeholder views that were captured to re-examine its structure, governance, processes, and key objectives. The JFT is committed to transparency and will publish its plans, based on the review’s findings, together with its activity, reports on progress, and measures of success, once its objectives, priority projects, and resourcing have been reset.

The Role of Industry on Fraud Online

31. Recommendation 8: “Key private sector companies—those whose customers create the most substantial workload for the police and NCA—should also employ analysts internally to facilitate evidence- gathering by law enforcement agencies. If industry partners will not do so voluntarily, the Government should consider imposing statutory requirements on companies to cooperate with law enforcement agencies.” (Para 76 at page 31).

32. Government response: The JFT – the key means through which we seek private sector engagement on fraud - takes a ‘whole-system’ approach to fraud, and responds to the greatest threats by working with industry to ‘design out’ fraud and thereby reduce the burden on policing. We are also reforming the Suspicious Activity Report process so that it becomes more effective and improves the quality of intelligence shared with law enforcement. The JFT will also examine how best to improve information sharing between the private sector and law enforcement both to design new ways of identifying and closing down vulnerabilities, and to identify, pursue, and disrupt those committing fraud. We continue to work with industry partners which we believe is more beneficial compared with adopting a punitive approach.

33. HASC Conclusion: “Consumers have the right to choose their banking provider based on the full knowledge of the risks they may be taking with their finances. Greater transparency may provide the commercial impetus required to ensure that industry does more to tackle this problem at source, and reduce demand on an overstretched police service.” (Paragraph 77 at page 31).

34. Government response: The Home Office is working with the banking sector to develop a set of benchmark standards that they should adopt, and which would demonstrate publicly what anti-fraud measures each bank has in place. These include the code for a reimbursement model for authorised push- payment frauds which is where a victim is deceived into authorising the transaction, and due to come into effect in May 2019; the British Standards Institution’s Publicly Available Specification (PAS) for protecting customers from financial harm as a result of fraud or financial abuse, which is due to be reviewed towards the end of 2019; and standards within the Take 5 campaign aimed at protecting victims. Additionally, the Home Office is working with the banks, Financial Services Authority and Payment Systems Regulator on the development of a bespoke set of anti-fraud standards as an alternative to the three under consideration.

Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

35. Recommendation 9: “We welcome the Government’s recent announcement of funding for collaboration with child protection organisations, to increase understanding of offender behaviour and prevent future offending. This must seek to identify the key characteristics of online CSA offenders, risk factors for viewing IIOC, the effectiveness of current child protection measures, including the Disclosure and Barring Service, and the likely success of preventative measures to educate young people at an early stage about the impact of this crime on its victims.” (Paragraph 86 at page 34)

36. Government response: We are pleased that the Committee’s inquiry report welcomes the Government’s funding for collaboration with child protection organisations.

37. We need a whole society response to this terrible crime by bringing our collective knowledge, expertise and resources to bear down on these vile offenders. This includes supporting law enforcement to catch the perpetrators as well as investing in charities in parallel to prevent future offending. One part of tackling the complex problem of child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) is understanding how to reduce demand for CSEA materials and prevent further offending before it occurs.

38. In addition to supporting the Lucy Faithfull Foundation’s work to help prevent online offending, the Home Office is funding research to understand pathways and facilitators of offending behaviour. We will also use this funding to lead a national campaign in partnership with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and Marie Collins Foundation (a victim support charity). The Indecent Images of Children (IIOC) Education campaign aims to educate young men (aged 18- 24) on the law around IIOC, and build their understanding of how to report illegal content to the IWF and of the ongoing harm caused to victims of this crime. This activity is based on quantitative and qualitative research which shows that this audience group may have some gaps in their understanding of the law, the reporting process and of victim harm. This campaign is now entering its third year.

39. We recognise that online child sexual abuse is a global crime which demands a global response. The vast majority of child sexual abuse material is now hosted overseas, with less than 1% hosted in the UK, underlining the need for international collaboration and capacity building. The WePROTECT Global Alliance, which is driven and funded by the Home Office, is a global movement that brings together the influence, expertise and resources required to transform how online CSEA is dealt with worldwide. The WePROTECT Global Alliance’s geographical reach is unprecedented: 84 countries are members along with 20 global technology companies and 24 leading Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). In addition, the Home Office has pledged £40m of overseas development aid to tackle online CSEA in the developing world.

40. The Home Office also recognises the pivotal importance of educating young people about the risks of sexual abuse, and developing and providing high quality materials through campaigns, through schools and via guidance for parents. The NCA’s Thinkuknow education programme, delivered through a network of over 140,000 professionals across the UK, provides educational resources for use with children and young people helping them to identify the risks they may face both online and offline. The network has helped educate over 3.1 million primary and over 2.7 million secondary school children. The Home Office has also invested £3m in our acclaimed Disrespect Nobody campaign which has targeted messages to teenagers about consent, healthy relationships, sexting and sexual harassment. And we are also working closely with the Department for Education in England who are making Relationships Education compulsory in all primary schools, Relationships and Sex Education compulsory in all secondary schools and Health Education compulsory in all state-funded schools. This will be mandatory in schools from September 2020 but schools will be encouraged and supported to start teaching from September 2019. The subjects will include teaching children about positive online behaviour as well as a range of harms including the rules and principles for keeping safe online, how to recognise risks, harmful content and contact, and how to report them.

41. There are already vigorous arrangements to ensure employers are aware of any risks from sex offenders. Individuals seeking to work with children or vulnerable adults may be eligible for a standard or enhanced criminal record certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). Any conviction or caution for a specified offence, or one receiving a custodial sentence, will always be disclosed. The list of specified offences is available on the DBS website and includes serious violence and sexual offending such as, for example, those relating to possessing or making IIOC.

42. Recommendation 10: “We welcome efforts by the College of Policing to prioritise this issue, but we call on the Home Secretary to take urgent action to ensure that all forces have sufficient specialist CSA investigators, properly trained to undertake this vital and urgent child protection work. This may require more resources and capabilities to be provided at a regional level, as we will explore in Chapter 9.” (Paragraph 94 at page 37).

43. Government response: The online CSEA threat is significant. We believe it is becoming easier to exploit children online and we recognise that is placing a greater demand on policing. We agree that there is a need within the police to raise the profile and status of work to tackle CSEA. In 2017, we undertook a programme of work to understand pressures on the police. We recognised changing demands on the police and responded with a £460m increase in overall funding in 2018/19, including increased council tax precept flexibility.

44. And in 2019/20 we are going further. We will help policing to meet additional demand and manage financial pressures by enabling an increase in funding for the police system of up to £970m. The settlement includes £90m funding specifically for serious and organised crime, including investing in capabilities to tackle CSEA. It also includes a substantial increase in police funding (including precept) that will enable forces to continue recruiting, fill crucial capability gaps such as detectives, meet their genuine financial pressures, drive through efficiency programmes, and improve their effectiveness by preventing crime and delivering better outcomes for victims of crime.

45. Collaborative working between police forces and the NCA is resulting in around 400 arrests each month for online CSEA offences, and the safeguarding of around 500 children each month. We have worked with the College of Policing to draw up a package of changes to ensure the police is better placed to respond, including: enhanced coverage of vulnerability in the curriculum for the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (PCDA); courses aimed at equipping undercover officers to undertake covert policing activity to tackle online CSEA; and the development of a licence to practise in high-harm and risk areas, with Public Protection and Safeguarding Leaders currently being considered as the first area for testing.

46. We will continue to work with the police, other law enforcement agencies and Government departments to ensure that the right powers are available for the authorities to tackle sexual crimes and to bring perpetrators to justice.

47. Recommendation 11: “The Government should appoint a Commissioner for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse to work across departments and agencies, work closely with private and non-profit organisations, and produce a bold and comprehensive cross-Government strategy on child protection and the prevention of child sexual abuse.” (Paragraph 151 at page 53).

48. Government response: Addressing the threat of CSEA has been for a number of years, and remains, a strategic priority for this Government. In February 2017, the Government published its Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation: Progress Report. The report built on the ambitious cross- Government package of measures announced in the 2015 report Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation and announced an additional £40m of measures to protect children and young people from CSEA including trafficking, and to crack down on offenders.

49. The Home Secretary made it clear during his speech delivered at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) on 3 September 2018, that combating CSEA remains a priority, and this Government has done more than any other to tackle it. The inter-ministerial group on child sexual abuse provides ongoing assurance that the cross-Government response is joined up and coordinated across departments.

50. There exists a Children’s Commissioner with statutory powers for promoting and protecting the rights of children, particularly the most vulnerable. There is also a Victim’s Commissioner who promotes the interests of victims and promotes better practice in their treatment. The Government works closely with the relevant Commissioners in developing its policies on CSEA. Additionally, the Government established the Independent Inquiry into CSEA to get to the truth, expose what has gone wrong and learn lessons for the future.

The Police Response to Online CSEA

51. Recommendation 12: “We welcome the Home Secretary’s recent announcement of additional resources, and we urge the Government to continue treating this as a high priority area… The NCA must also be supported to ensure that it can build the capabilities required to tackle offenders on the dark web. By the end of November, the Home Office should provide us with a breakdown of how the additional funding for CSA policing will be allocated.” (Paragraph 105 at page 40).

52. Government response: We have prioritised CSEA as a national threat and provided significant extra investment through the PTF to transform the law enforcement response and empower police forces to apply their best skills and expertise to tackle the problem. All UK police forces and the NCA are connected to the Child Abuse Image Database (CAID) built with the assistance of PTF with an award of £972,000 over 2016/17 and 2017/18.

53. CAID provides law enforcement agencies with effective tools to search seized devices for IIOC, reduces the time taken to identify such images and increases the ability to identify victims. The number of UK identified victims depicted in child abuse imagery per year increased from 174 in 2014 to 676 in 2017. Further investment being made in CAID will provide enhanced tools to policing including to identify and grade CSEA material and to speed up triaging devices which could contain IIOC.

54. The Government has significantly increased resources to the NCA leading to a near doubling of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Command’s investigative capability and the Joint Operations Team, a collaborative venture between the NCA and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) launched in 2015, is targeting the most sophisticated online offenders.

55. An extra £21m over the next 18 months will be invested to improve how our law enforcement agencies reduce the volume of offending and pursue the most dangerous and prolific offenders. This funding is allocated as follows:

• We are providing GCHQ with £7.9m over 2 years which will: make it harder for offenders to use communications technology for the sexual abuse of children; and enable the piloting of an online portal to allow government, charities, companies and academia to improve information sharing and collaborate to improve child protection outcomes;
• £500,000 to the NCA to identify and pursue the highest risk suspects of interest on the dark web who are impacting on the UK;
• An additional £2.2m will fund a significant expansion of the NCA and GCHQ Joint Operations Team (the collaborative unit in Warrington), and regional analytical and prevention capabilities to increase their capability to target the most dangerous and determined online child sexual exploitation offenders;
• An additional £4.6m for undercover capabilities to tackle online child sexual exploitation in the Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs); and
• £6.25m will be provided to the NCA to develop law enforcement capabilities to investigate high end offenders at scale, whilst continuing to manage the volume of offenders.

Rehabilitation of Offenders

56. Recommendation 13: “Many of those who may pose a threat to children online will continue to have direct contact with children. We are deeply concerned about the collective failure to protect those children, and a comprehensive strategy led by the Home Office is needed to address this. It must include engagement with other Government departments, as well as the police and criminal justice system, internet and tech companies, children’s services, schools and community organisations. It should also review the interaction between the police and the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) in responding to indecent images of children (IIOC) offences, to prevent dangerous contact with children.” (Paragraph 111 at page 42).

57. Government response: The UK has some of the toughest powers in the world to manage sex offenders in the community and we are committed to working strategically with partners to ensure the system is comprehensive and robust. We will continue to work through the inter-ministerial group on child sexual abuse chaired by the Home Secretary to ensure all departments support our efforts to pose a threat to children.

58. The measures we have in place include the notification requirements (commonly referred to as the ‘sex offenders register’), which require offenders to notify a range of personal details to the police, including their: name, address, date of birth, bank account details and any foreign travel. These details must be notified annually and whenever they change.

59. Under the previous Government, we reformed the civil orders which can be imposed on sex offenders and those who pose a risk through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. The available civil orders can place a range of restrictions on individuals depending on the nature of the case, including preventing contact with children or restricting internet use.

60. Individuals seeking to work with children or vulnerable adults may be eligible for a standard or enhanced criminal record certificate from the DBS. Any conviction or caution for a specified offence, or one receiving a custodial sentence, will always be disclosed. The list of specified offences is available on the DBS website and includes serious violence and sexual offending such as, for example, those relating to possessing or making IIOC.

61. Intelligence information may also be included on an enhanced DBS certificate where a chief officer of police is satisfied that it is relevant to the role being applied for and ought to be disclosed.

62. Someone who commits offences relating to possessing or making IIOC may be barred from working in regulated activity with children. We will continue to work with the police, other law enforcement agencies and Government departments to ensure that the right powers are available for the authorities to tackle sexual crimes and to bring perpetrators to justice.

63. Recommendation 14: “This evidence also calls for a major focus on prevention and child safety. All cases referred to police forces must lead to an investigation of whether or not the suspected offender is in contact with children, and whether action is needed to protect children through safeguarding work. Leaving children at risk because police forces don’t have the capacity or expertise they need, or because of failings in co-ordination and the lack of a wider strategy against online child abuse, would be unforgivable. Without urgent action, future generations will look back and be appalled at how slow the system was to respond to this new threat.” (Paragraph 112 at page 42)

64. Government response: The Government has been clear that CSEA is a national threat as set out in the Strategic Policing Requirement, requiring forces to have an appropriate and robust response in place. The NCA and NPCC’s current approach is that for each actionable referral from industry or other partners, work is undertaken to establish whether the offender has contact with children and appropriate safeguarding action is taken through victim and perpetrator identification.

65. In addition, in February 2018, the Home Office launched the Trusted Relationships Fund to enable local authorities in England to apply for funding to work with local partners to deliver initiatives that will protect young people in their area from CSEA and peer abuse.

66. Recommendation 15: “We urge the Government to include in its Online Harms White Paper the imposition of statutory duties on companies to cooperate with investigators in the pursuit of online child abuse offenders, including by providing more comprehensive intelligence packages to CEOP and other investigators. The Government should also establish a regulator with statutory powers to hold internet companies to account against a clear code of practice, developed in consultation with law enforcement experts. Failure to adhere to this code, such as providing inadequate protections against online grooming and the proliferation of child abuse images. should result in penalties being imposed, including fines and other sanctions as appropriate.” (Para 119 at page 44).

67. Government response: The Home Secretary is clear that industry needs to do much more to respond to this evolving threat across a growing range of platforms.

68. The joint Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Home Office Online Harms White Paper will be published shortly, setting out a range of legislative and non-legislative measures detailing how we will tackle online harms and set clear responsibilities for technology companies to keep UK citizens safe.

69. We have considered a range of possible solutions to address existing and emerging issues relating to online safety, including legal and regulatory changes.

70. We believe that an agile approach to regulation can ultimately strengthen a free and open internet by providing a framework that encourages innovators and provides confidence to investors, whilst also building public trust. Our aim is to establish a single framework which will deliver improvements to user safety and provide clarity for industry on their responsibilities to keep users safe.

71. We have engaged closely with industry, civil society and academia to develop our proposals.

72. The Online Harms White Paper will build on the step-change in engagement with technology companies to rid their platforms of child sexual abuse material. This is a vital component of the Government’s efforts to leave no safe space for offenders to operate online. On 3 September 2018, at a speech at the NSPCC, the Home Secretary set out clear, unequivocal asks of industry to step-up their response to the evolving nature of the online threat. And in November 2018, the Home Secretary co-hosted a ‘hackathon’ in the United States, where technology companies developed an artificial intelligence product to detect online grooming which will be licensed free of charge to other technology companies worldwide. The Home Secretary also met company leaders from Facebook, Google, Twitter, Apple, Snap and Microsoft to urge greater action on grooming, live streaming and proactive use of technology to remove imagery from their platforms, and has commissioned the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) to investigate how advertising is funding CSEA activity. A first meeting of a new working group chaired by the Home Secretary and with representatives from advertising agencies, trade bodies and brands, met on 19 December 2018, agreeing a clear set of actions to ensure criminals do not have access to this funding stream.

Missing People

73. Recommendation 16: “We are also concerned that there appears to have been little progress since HMICFRS published its 2016 report on this subject. This is one of many areas in which the national policing lead seems to have insufficient leverage to enact fundamental change at a local level.” (Paragraph 150 at page 53).

74. Government response: Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s (HMIC, now HMICFRS) report, Missing children: who cares? published in March 2016 made a number of recommendations in relation to children who go missing from home and care. We are fully committed to addressing these issues through the forthcoming updated Missing Children and Adults Strategy, due to be published in the coming months. The then National Policing Lead for Missing Persons (NPLFMP) took an active role in the development of this Strategy which includes actions for policing, such as working with the National Law Enforcement Data Programme to deliver a National Register of Missing Persons (NRMP) which will enable us to have a snapshot of live missing incidents across police forces in England and Wales. This will assist officers when they encounter a missing person particularly if that missing person is outside their home force area. We are working towards the NRMP to be in use operationally in 2020/21.

75. The NPLFMP provides a link between Government and police forces in England and Wales to help ensure the Strategy reflects the current demands on police in this area. To assist with this, the NPLFMP has established a new national policing group, the National Missing Person Working Group (NMPWG), attended by regional representatives including the Police Service of Northern Ireland and Police Scotland, to review force practices, develop innovative solutions to challenges in the policing response to missing people, identify and disseminate best practice and maintain consistency of approach.

76. Recommendation 17: “Even if our recommendations are implemented effectively, the police will still have an important role to play in protecting vulnerable people from harm, including managing the risk from sex offenders, referring vulnerable offenders to other agencies, and tracking down missing people. However, our findings strongly point to the need for agencies to be much more joined-up in their approach, with more pooling of resources and a less risk-averse approach to data-sharing.” (Para No 152 at page 53)

77. Government response: The statutory safeguarding guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) makes clear that agencies need to be joined up and share information to keep children safe. The latest version of the guidance contains an expanded section around information sharing, reflecting the changes we made to data protection law through the Data Protection Act 2018.

78. The Act makes clear for the first time in primary legislation that information can be shared without consent for the purposes of keeping vulnerable people safe. So, everyone can be confident about sharing information and fears about doing so cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children at risk of abuse or neglect.

79. The protection of vulnerable communities from hate crime is another area where police need to work with other agencies to be more joined up. In July 2018 the independent police inspectorate published their inspection report on hate crime. The inspection looked at reporting and recording of hate crime in six forces, and highlighted areas of good practice as well as areas for improvement. Half the forces visited used multi-agency risk assessment conferences (MARACs) as part of risk management on hate crime, where partners can exchange information to safeguard victims. West Yorkshire police were noted to have good practice in utilising a MARAC every six weeks, to address both victim safeguarding and dealing with perpetrators. However, the picture illustrated in the inspection report showed a patchy response to hate crime, and made several recommendations around victim safeguarding. We expect police force leads to learn from the good practice highlighted in the report, and the Government will continue to support the NPCC in their implementation of these recommendations as part of the Hate Crime Action Plan Refresh.

Death in Police Custody

80. Recommendation 18: “The Government should provide us with an annual update regarding progress against Dame Eilish Angiolini’s recommendations, and explain why the number of deaths in police custody have increased in the last recorded year.” (Paragraph 133 at page 48).

81. Government response: On 12 December 2018, the Policing Minister issued a written ministerial statement about progress on implementation of the Government response to Dame Elish’s Report of the Independent Review of Deaths and Serious Incidents in Police Custody. Alongside this, a progress update and a leaflet for families were published on Gov.uk. The leaflet provides initial information that is key to empowering families to make important decisions following the death of a loved one in police custody.

82. On 25 July 2018, the Independent Office for Police Conduct published its annual statistics report on deaths during or following police contact. This report shows how many people died in or following police custody between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018 and gives an overview of the nature and circumstances in which the deaths occurred, including the reasons why people were arrested or detained by the police and the cause of death where available. A variety of factors influenced the number of deaths reported in 2017/18; the majority were linked to mental health concerns or alcohol and drugs.

Mental Health Work

83. Recommendation 19: “If an individual requires a health-based place of safety for a mental health crisis, the police service’s involvement in their care should end at the point at which they are sectioned. It is unacceptable that the majority of section 136 cases involve police transport to a health facility, frequently because an ambulance is not available in time. This is an inappropriate way to care for patients, and leaves police forces overstretched. The NHS is currently advancing Integrated Care Systems as an attempt to integrate local health and social care services more effectively. These should take into account the effects of local health needs on the police.” (Paragraph 134 at page 48).

84. Government response: The Government has made clear that it is unacceptable for a person detained by the police to be held in police custody for longer than is necessary for the purposes of criminal investigations, and that no one should be held in police custody where they have committed no crime but have been assessed as needing mental health treatment. Nor should the police have to fulfil the role of health care professionals. If a person is in mental health crisis and needs medical attention, we must ensure that the right processes are in place so that necessary support is provided as quickly as possible in the most appropriate place; this is seldom a police station or being transported in a police vehicle.

85. There is ongoing work with police and health partners, including the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives to ensure that the most appropriate response to a person in crisis is provided, including that the most appropriate method of transportation is used.

86. We have ongoing engagement with the Department for Health and Social Care on mental healthcare service provision in England and have participated in the review of the Mental Health Act in respect of police involvement in dealing with those in mental health crisis.

87. The National Health Service Long-Term Plan for future healthcare priorities in England, published in January 2019, set out commitments to improve mental health service provision by investing at least an additional £2.3bn per year in such services by 2023/24, and including:

• Ensuring a 24/7 community-based mental health crisis response for adults is available across England by 2020/21;
• Providing mental health liaison services in all acute hospital Accident and Emergency departments;
• Expanding mental health services for children and young people;
• Introducing new mental health vehicles to reduce inappropriate transportation by the police;
• Increasing alternative provision of support services through more “safe havens” in the community; and
• Enabling people to access mental health crisis support services 24/7 via NHS 111.

88. This is part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to ensure parity of esteem between mental health and physical health services, and to take pressure off other public services such as the police.

89. Recommendation 20: “The College of Policing should take immediate steps to mandate a minimum two-day mental health course for all officers and PCSOs. We urge chief constables to regard this as an investment rather than a chore.” (Paragraph 139 at page 50)

90. Government response: The College of Policing introduced a new Authorised Professional Practice for mental health issues in October 2016, accompanied by a two-day training package for use by forces as appropriate. This Government believes that the police should treat everyone, including those experiencing mental ill-health with fairness and respect which is why we are seeking to equip police officers to make rational and proportionate decisions in a wide range of circumstances, without unrealistically expecting them to take on roles akin to that of mental health professionals or become mental health experts. We also recognise that a wide range of training will need to be accommodated around day-to-day duties and it is, therefore, a matter for respective Chief Constable’s to manage.

Police Funding

91. Recommendation 21: “The Government must be clear and accurate about police funding, and the resource pressures facing forces…. We strongly recommend that police funding is prioritised in both the upcoming Budget and the next CSR.” (Paragraph 164 at page 57).

92. Government response: The House of Commons approved our proposals for 2019/20 police funding on 5th February. We have prioritised police funding for 2019/20 and are enabling an increase in funding for the police system of up to £970m in 2019/20, including additional council tax precept flexibility, funding to assist with pensions costs, and funding to enhance our response to serious and organised crime and the terrorist threat. This substantial increase will enable forces to continue recruiting, fill crucial capability gaps such as in detectives, meet their genuine financial pressures, drive through efficiency programmes, and improve their effectiveness by preventing crime and delivering better outcomes for victims of crime, in line with the 2018 cross- Government Victims Strategy.

93. The Home Secretary has been clear that he will prioritise police funding at the next Spending Review.

94. Recommendation 22: “The current model for police funding is not fit for purpose, and should be fundamentally revised and restructured. [It is time to] create a funding settlement for forces that is fit for the 21st century, recognising the true cost of policing. This must be based on robust evidence on resource requirements arising from diverse and complex demands. It is also likely to require more resource to be channelled to regional levels, to address the structural challenges outlined later in this report.” (Paragraph 167 at page 57).

95. Government response: We recognise that there is a case for updating the funding formula and we have undertaken substantial work on this issue, in 2015 and most recently in 2016/17. Major progress was made by early 2017 through a joint approach with policing and we recognise that there is more to do.

96. The Government has agreed that a review of the funding formula is required. We have made clear that the most appropriate point to consider the funding formula would be in the context of the Spending Review.

97. The Government undertook substantial work with police stakeholders in 2016 and 2017 to develop some of the technical aspects of a potential new funding formula, which a future review will be able to build on. Since the review was paused in Summer 2017, we have done further work to assess changes in police demand. The police settlement for 2019/20 increases police funding by up to £970m, with additional council tax precept flexibility, pensions funding, and funding for counter-terrorism and serious and organised crime.

98. We recognise that there is more to do to improve the response to existing demand and accelerate the ability of our police system to adapt and keep up with this. We are undertaking substantial work with the police sector to understand changing demand, develop funding models and to find ways to increase efficiency and productivity. Police effectiveness across the sector is not only about funding and its distribution, forces will need to continue to work collaboratively before realising the big benefits and to deliver value for money to the taxpayer.

99. We should not assume that changing the funding formula is the complete answer to improving force financial resilience. PCCs and their predecessors have made long term choices in areas like level of precept to charge, based on the current model. It is essential that any change in the funding formula is well planned, with proper transition arrangements to ensure that we do not implement a system where a force becomes financially unsustainable. That is why it must be considered with the Spending Review.

100. Recommendation 23: “The Government should undertake a review of models that enable the police to pool resources with other public agencies, and facilitate these arrangements where they would enable a more joined-up, effective and cost-efficient response. (Paragraph 168 at page 57).

101. Government response: Police work with other public agencies on a day-to- day basis often pooling their resources. There are a number of programmes up and running locally that pursue joint outcomes through multi-agency working, including an initiative where police in Durham have used Home Office Innovation funding to employ probation ‘navigators’ to support rehabilitative activity for people on out-of-court disposals, which can reduce longer term demands, improve financial savings in the wider Criminal Justice System, as well as contributing towards more effective working practices between agencies. This is now funded from existing police budgets. In addition, many police force areas operate Street Triage schemes in conjunction with their local health partners. These ensure close working and exchange of information between police officers and mental health professionals to provide a rapid assessment of, and advice on, how to deal with individuals found in mental health crisis. We have invested millions in local blue light collaboration projects since 2013 through the Police Innovation Fund, Fire and Rescue Transformation Fund in 2014 which was open to English Fire and Rescue Authorities only, and the PTF. To make collaboration common place, we also introduced a new statutory duty on emergency services to keep collaboration opportunities under review and to enter these where in the interests of their efficiency or effectiveness. This builds on legislation introduced in 2011 which strengthened duties on police forces to identify and enter collaborative ventures with each other.

102. This new duty to collaborate on emergency services is broad and non- prescriptive as local leaders are best placed to determine the sort of collaboration that would be in the best interests of local communities. The sector led Emergency Services Collaboration Working Group has identified good collaborative practice, for example, joint training centres, headquarters and other joint working arrangements. We continue to work closely with the sector to identify ways to drive greater collaboration.

103. To take collaboration between police and fire further, we have also enabled PCCs to take on governance of local fire and rescue services, where a case is made. As of January 2019, there are four Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners (PFCC) in Essex, Staffordshire, North Yorkshire and Northamptonshire. By overseeing both services, PFCCs can maximise the opportunities for innovative collaboration between policing and fire and ensure that best practice is shared.

104. Recommendation 24: “The Government should move to a longer-term funding structure, to enable the service to frontload investment in the technology that will enable it to make the best use of its resources and assets. The Police Transformation Fund is a piecemeal and ad hoc method for funding innovation and new technology in policing, and a much more coordinated, long-term approach is required.” (Paragraph 169 at page 58).

105. Government response: We are undertaking substantial work with the police sector to understand changing demand, the police’s capability needs, efficiency and productivity, and options for the longer-term funding model. This work includes looking at how to fund police capability in future, building on the major investment in police transformation and technology we are making in this Spending Review period.

106. The Home Office is running an ambitious portfolio of programmes to improve the national technology capabilities available to policing. This includes:

• The Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) providing a single platform for critical voice and data;
• Home Office Biometrics provides a single platform for fingerprint, facial recognition and DNA;
• The National Law Enforcement Data Programme provides access across policing to national police information as well as sharing intelligence across forces;
• The National Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) Service will unite all local ANPR systems into a single national system; and
• The Home Office continues to enhance the capabilities of the national CAID.

107. These programmes are replacing aging and obsolete technology, as well as introducing new capabilities, and we are working with policing to support maximisation of the benefits these offer: cash savings, productivity opportunities and better outcomes for the public.

108. The Home Office has also supported policing’s Information Management and Operational Requirements Co-ordination Committee to develop an ‘Exemplar Plan’ for building consistent digital capability nationally across forces. It will act as the blueprint for forces’ individual plans for developing digital capability, setting out the key digital outcomes all forces need to achieve, plus additional stretching technologies. Commissioner Ian Dyson, the NPCC lead for the Exemplar Plan requested that forces complete and return their local plans. To date a majority (thirty-five) forces have returned their action plans using this template and we are working with Commissioner Dyson and wider policing leads to ensure policing adopts a robust approach to driving local implementation going forward. We intend to embed this work in planning for the Spending Review to ensure forces have the key foundation digital capabilities nationally and progress to achieve the stretching technologies needed for future.

109. Over £330m of investment has been provided by the PTF to achieve the Policing Vision 2025. This includes long term investment in the digital policing strand of the Policing Vision 2025 to deliver: a Single Online Home to provide a consistent set of online services and information for the public; a national approach to cyber security for policing; and a common set of productivity tools that will allow policing to work flexibly, effectively and efficiently. In the last year the running of the PTF has matured to develop and oversee a portfolio of investment aligned to Policing Vision 2025 with a focus on delivery and benefits realisation driven by a joint Home Office and policing portfolio team and Portfolio Board which work alongside the strategic Police Reform and Transformation Board (PRTB).

Cyber and Digital Skills

110. Recommendation 25: “Based on the National Digital Exploitation Service model, used for counter-terrorism policing, we believe that a prestigious national digital exploitation centre for serious crime—possibly with regional branches—would be better able to attract and retain talent, alongside the likes of GCHQ. It would also have the purchasing power to invest in innovative methods of digital forensics and analysis, from which all forces could then benefit. We call on the Government and the police service to take steps urgently to cost such a model, in time to account for the required funding in the next Comprehensive Spending Review.” (Paragraph 177 at page 60).

111. Government Response: The Government agrees that a National Digital Exploitation Service (NDES) will better enable the ingestion, analysis and assessment of intelligence data for the NCA, wider Law Enforcement and other parts of Government. The development of a National Digital Exploitation Centre (NDEC) will enable an improved clearer data-informed strategic response to serious and organised crime, both in the policy and operation which should result in better public protection. The PTF will be used to scope and test what a fully functioning NDEC should look like and identify its preferred operating model. A further business case will include business and technical design, and a production of delivery options for a scalable serious and organised crime data exploitation capability for implementation from 2019/20 onwards.

112. Recommendation 26: “At force-level, there is a clear need to upskill the existing workforce and bring in more staff and officers with advanced cyber skills. We also endorse the Police Superintendents’ Association’s suggestion that the Special Constabulary could be transformed into an effective reserve force, and suggest that resources should be devoted to scoping this as a national model, focused on cyber and digital skills.” (Paragraph 178 at page 61).

113. Government Response: There is a broad range of ongoing work to build cyber skills and make more available cyber expertise in policing. This includes the use of Cyber Specials and Cyber Volunteers from industry, academia and other sectors who are working within police forces.

114. These volunteers with specialist skills from their sectors bring a new approach and benefit policing through improved technical capability and understanding, consequently realising investigative opportunities which might otherwise not have been considered. Examples include:

• Volunteers working with offender management teams inspecting sex offenders’ hardware, providing tactical advice to identify stored evidence;
• A large-scale network monitoring platform has been developed by a Special Constable and is currently being deployed across the British Transport Police network; and
• Volunteers using their specialist knowledge to identify digital lines of enquiry, offering tactical advice on complex cyber investigations.

115. The College of Policing provides a range of courses for police officers and staff on digital and cyber crime, driving up cyber knowledge at the local policing level. In 2015, the College of Policing launched the second phase of its Mainstream Cyber Crime Training course (MCCT2) for police forces, which gives an introduction to how to recognise and investigate cyber crimes. MCCT2 consists of two courses: ‘Cyber Awareness,’ for all staff; and ‘Cyber for Investigators’, for officers and staff carrying out investigations. In excess of 100,000 officers/staff have completed the cyber awareness modules.

116. There is also a College of Policing 5-day residential course for investigators who have been selected to become digital investigators or tactical advisers. This provides investigators with a good awareness of both cyber-enabled and cyber-dependent crime. There are now in excess of 1,500 Digital Media Investigators nationally.

117. This training is further supported by other providers, including private sector partners, delivering cyber training for more specialist cyber investigators.

118. The College of Policing are also working on behalf of the Home Office to create the Cyber Digital Career Pathways (CDCP) project. This recognises that different career pathways are needed to equip the modern workforce in the digital age. The CDCP project will create a Cyber Digital Investigation Profession across all of law enforcement, providing a career pathway and professional certification for Cyber Digital Investigation Professionals who are defined as ‘A person at the core of cyber digital investigations, who may have to present evidence at court of their cyber digital investigation skills’. It will create multi-agency standards within which Cyber Digital Investigation Professionals are recruited, retained and developed. This will enable interoperability between police forces, wider law enforcement and partners.

119. The National Cyber Security Programme and PTF is also supporting a NPCC initiative to deliver specialist cyber crime units in every police force in England and Wales. These units will provide local delivery of the response to cyber crime, improving the victim experience, effective investigative responses and targeted messaging for local cyber crime prevention. The units will work to identify and divert young people who may be vulnerable to going down a path to cyber crime. The PTF will pay for staffing and training costs to deliver specialist cyber crime skills in each force match funded by forces.

Technology and Data-Sharing between Forces

120. Recommendation 27: “The Home Office must make it a clear and stated aim to unify all police databases and communications systems according to a clear timetable, with all new force-level contracts negotiated accordingly, so they can fit into a national framework or contract in future.” (Paragraph 187 at page 63).

121. Recommendation 28: “Stronger national leadership from the Home Office on technology is essential—Ministers need to take ultimate responsibility for the failure of this crucial public service to properly upgrade its technology to deal with the threats of the 21st century. However, this must be accompanied by enhanced capacity and capabilities within the Department: its abject failure to deliver the promised savings from reforms to the Emergency Service Network (ESN) demonstrates what can happen when national projects are poorly managed.” (Paragraph 188 at page 63).

122. Government response: As we set out in paragraph 106 onwards, the Home Office is running an ambitious portfolio of programmes to improve the national technology capabilities available to policing.

123. The Home Office is working with the NCA, in collaboration with law enforcement and national security partners, to build a new NDEC which will transform the way we use data to tackle serious and organised crime.

124. The Home Office undertook a comprehensive review of the ESMCP, which reached three clear conclusions: first and foremost, that Emergency Service Network (ESN) is the right strategic choice to replace Airwave; second, that ESN represents the best value for money option for the taxpayer; and finally, that the way the ESN was being delivered needed to change and thus an incremental delivery approach has been developed in collaboration with users. The department has also worked to strengthen the programme governance and effectiveness in response to this review.

125. The Home Office is also supporting the National Enabling Programmes (NEP) led by Commissioner Ian Dyson, with PTF investment over the last two years of about £14m and a further planned £20.8m in 2018/19, to deliver technologies that will introduce new ways of working and greater sharing of information, and a platform for the better protection of law enforcement information and assets. The NEP will:

• Establish a cyber centre of excellence for UK police forces providing 24/7 capability to detect, protect, monitor and respond to cyber threats;
• Deliver a bespoke model for all back-office software applications, which all forces can use to ensure they are using systems which are compatible and fit for purpose; and
• Provide tools which enable collaboration between forces and wider external partners.

126. Together all these programmes will go a long way towards improving capability reaching the operational front line, including a much greater ability to share data, to consume it over mobile platforms as well as modernising and reducing the running costs of the legacy systems. The Home Office is also supporting national policing to build consistent digital capability by implementing an ’Exemplar Plan’ which sets out the key digital outcomes all forces need to achieve. These foundation capabilities will enable policing to adopt stretch future technologies effectively, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA), which can yield substantial benefits. The Home Office is always looking to improve the running of its programmes. The Home Office is investing more than £5m to transform the Police Information Communications Technology (ICT) Company with a new level of buy-in from the PCCs, including a re-capitalisation, to:

• Scale its existing commercial function to drive further co-ordination and consolidation of contracts across forces. Significant cost reduction can be achieved;
• Become a significant national contracting authority and service management function to support the national programmes and platforms delivering now and in the future;
• Develop the national blueprint and technical standards to help prioritise investment; and
• Invest in common data standards.

127. The Police ICT Company is projecting to deliver circa £70m in economic benefits to policing by 2023. The National Police Technology Council and other policing stakeholders are to assist them with their approach to technology and ensure a robust approach to the Spending Review.

Police Workforce and Culture – Mandatory Training

128. Recommendation 29: “We urge the Government and the College to review urgently the amount of training that is mandated, the scope for introducing compulsory licenses to practice for a wider range of specialisms, and the resource and cultural issues standing in the way of the provision of a higher level of specialist, continuous professional development for police officers and staff.” (Paragraph 201 at page 67).

129. Government response: It is the role of the College of Policing as the professional body for the sector to work with Chief Constable’s to ensure that individuals in forces receive the correct training and that officers and staff are encouraged and supported to undertake continuous professional development. The amount of training that is mandated is a matter for the College of Policing. The Government is clear that policing must have the skills to meet the rapidly changing crime types faced by society and we will continue to support and encourage the sector to address any issues.

130. The Policing Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF) will ensure consistency and a high level of mandatory training for all officers joining through the new entry routes. The three new routes will bring consistency to the entry process so new recruits across all forces meet the same high standards. The curriculum will strengthen key skills required for twenty first century policing and includes new areas of training on digital policing, vulnerability and risk, criminology and crime prevention, and wellbeing and resilience. All other learning has been revised to raise the standard of training and the curriculum has also been designed to evolve as crime changes.

131. The College of Policing continues to work on the design of a licence to practise scheme for individuals working in high risk and high harm roles with the aim that this will deliver consistently high standards for specialist investigators leading in high harm and risk areas of policing - including for CSEA and domestic abuse – bringing them into line with other critical specialist roles such as firearms and public order. After in depth consultation with its key stakeholder groups, The College of Policing has decided that the scheme will initially operate on a voluntary basis and will use its new Head of Public Protection and Safeguarding Leaders Scheme as a pilot licence. This programme, developed alongside practitioners will identify what skills and knowledge is required for senior officers and staff working in public protection roles where high risks are managed. It is anticipated that this programme will be piloted in 2019.

132. In addition, The Home Office PTF is supporting the Mayor’s Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC) and The Open University’s Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL) to work together on an action research project to support the development of the training, learning and development (TLD) function in all 43 English and Welsh territorial police forces. This initiative derives from the Policing Vision 2025, which recognises that the policing challenges of the future are changing in scale and nature, so training, learning and development will need to also change in order to nurture a learning, problem-solving workforce, working not only with craft but with a scientific evidence base. The purpose of this research is to understand to what extent and in what ways English and Welsh police forces are prepared for the changes to training, learning and development required to implement Policing Vision 2025, and how they can best be supported to realise this ambition going forward. This survey aims to establish a baseline of working practices, and attitudes about training, learning and development from both managers and portfolio leads in police forces across England and Wales. This baseline information can then act as a foundation from which changes in practices and attitudes can be measured.

New Recruitment and Training Routes

133. Recommendation 30: “By March, the Home Office and College of Policing should publish a comprehensive impact assessment of the police apprenticeship (based on the plan to implement it from 2019/2020), including the likely impact on neighbourhood policing (time spent by new recruits in dedicated wards), response times to calls for service, the resources available for training existing staff and officers, and the diversity of new recruits.” (Paragraph 203 at page 67).

134. Government response: A specific evaluation of the PCDA will include an assessment of how the new entry routes are supporting diversity in the workforce. The College of Policing has a short, medium and long-term evaluation plan for the PEQF. The first three forces recruited PCDA officers in September 2018, with nine expected to do so by the end of 2018/19. This evaluation will be conducted from early 2019 with the first report expected in autumn 2019.

135. Recommendation 31: “The Government should revisit Sir Thomas Winsor’s previous recommendation for additional allowances for detectives, and consult the profession on their introduction. It must also work with the Police Federation, PSAEW and NPCC to identify ways of enhancing the support offered to detectives in managing their caseload and taking appropriate risks, providing the necessary funding to ensure that a detective career becomes a more attractive prospect for existing officers.” (Paragraph 206 at page 68).

136. Government response: We are supportive of the leadership shown by the NPCC and the College of Policing in supporting forces to attract, recruit and upskill investigators. It is clear however that innovative solutions must also be sought. We are providing funding to forces through the 2019/20 settlement that will enable them to meet the financial pressures they face in that financial year, while continuing to recruit and fill capability gaps, such as the shortage of detectives.

137. To further support national efforts, we are funding the immediate development of a Police Now Detective Scheme (PNDS) aiming to help bridge the gap in detective numbers. Police Now has demonstrated its ability in establishing a successful neighbourhood policing scheme, training neighbourhood officers in an intense six-week summer academy to a high standard.

138. The development of the PNDS is a further opportunity to bring in a diverse and talented group of people to support the policing mission. The PNDS training offer is anticipated to start over twelve weeks which will be part of a longer two-year programme overall.

139. Forces across the country are developing local initiatives to bridge the overall gap including Detective Entry and local initiatives in forces. The leadership being shown by policing on this crucial area is now generating positive results in attracting greater diversity and skills into policing.

140. We acknowledge that this report includes multiple references to the need to consider specialist payments as a longer-term solution especially for detectives. At the recent Police Superintendents’ Association Conference (PSAC), the Home Secretary announced that the Government has approved the NPCC proposal to allow Chief Constables to give a discretionary bonus payment of up to £4,000 a year for officers who take on hard to fill roles in the federated ranks, and to superintendents with especially challenging roles. The proposals were made in response to recommendations made by the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB), and are time-limited through to September 2020. We are in the process of amending legislation to enable these payments to be made with retrospective effect from 1 September 2017 and will complement the ongoing work on pay reform.

141. The NPCC submitted the design principles, framework and assumptions for police officer pay reform to the PRRB in the 2019/20 pay round, enabling implementation of the new structures to begin from 2020.

142. In general, the Government acknowledges that good recruitment practices and positive retention measures are crucial to the good health of a police service. New entry routes for policing such as Direct Entry and Police Now are raising standards, opening policing to people from a range of backgrounds and equipping recruits with the skills needed for modern day policing. Three forces have recruited police constables through the degree apprenticeship scheme with fourteen forces expected to do the same by the end of 2018/19. This suite of complementary workforce reforms will work together to ensure that policing is able to attract the right individuals into policing, both on entry and at different ranks or specialisms, supported by pay reforms which will ensure that pay is linked to competence, skills and levels of accountability rather than time served.

Recruitment and Retention Problems

143. Recommendation 32: “We urge the Government to undertake a review of the relationship between chief officers and PCCs, to identify issues on either side. It should also eliminate bureaucratic obstacles to promotion, addressing any problems with pension and taxation rules, to ensure that capable candidates are not disincentivised from taking on the enormous responsibility of running a police force.” (Paragraph 210 at page 69).

144. Government Response: Increasing the competition and attractiveness of Chief Constable posts is vitally important. That is why we have funded the College of Policing to develop a Leadership Hub (LH) which will provide strategic and operational support to ensure there is a transparent national view on the pipeline of talent for chief officer/staff equivalent roles.

145. The Senior LH, funded through the PTF, will have three key functions:

• Overseeing chief officer continuing professional development and careers development service;
• Supporting Senior Appointments; and
• Progression of under-represented groups.

146. Importantly there will be a strategic overview of the talent pipeline and data tracking so a more proactive approach can be taken to developing and sustaining attraction and promotion particularly diversity.

147. In July 2018, the NPCC report on Chief Constable attraction and recruitment was submitted to Chief Constables’ Council. The report focuses on dynamics between Chief Constables’ and PCCs. Under the leadership of Mike Cunningham, Chief Executive Officer of the College of Policing, the sector has agreed to develop a four-point plan to develop “effective, robust and professional relationships” that will include: reviewing the personal impact on individuals considering chief officer roles, including financial, family and relocation factors; enabling effective accountability including governance guidance; selection and continuing development; and developing talent and diversity. The Home Office will continue to work with policing to ensure this work builds on the good work already delivered through the 2015 Leadership Review.

Police Culture

148. Recommendation 33: “The College of Policing should undertake a review of barriers to innovation and reform, and ensure that the new Policing Education Qualifications Framework promotes a more open and innovative culture. While acknowledging the need to maintain discipline, this should encourage constructive challenge from officers at junior ranks, and discourage the promotion of ‘continuity at all costs’ over innovation and change. Police culture needs to shift away from blame- and-claim and towards learning from failure, and policing leaders need to take a much more consultative approach to their oversight of more junior colleagues.” (Paragraph 217 at page 72).

149. Government response: The College of Policing has consulted closely with the sector over the past months in order to clarify its delivery priorities, ensuring it has a clarity of purpose within the sector. The new plan the College of Policing has put in place focuses on the capabilities it needs to deliver three priorities. As well as a focus on standards and on leadership and talent development, the College of Policing will work to strengthen and enhance its role in dissemination of best practice, innovation and ‘what works’ across the sector.

150. The College of Policing are also working closely with the Home Office on the ongoing review of Front Line Policing (The Front Line Review) which aims to gather evidence and ideas from front line officers and staff. This includes isolating procedural challenges and internal barriers to innovation. The review will report a series of policy commitments, with implications for both the Government and its policing partners, in April 2019.

151. Through the PTF the Home Office has supported the College of Policing in reviewing barriers to knowledge sharing and innovation which highlighted some of the key technical, cultural and process issues involved. The work, produced in co-operation with the Open University, also examined what actions would best support the police to overcome these barriers. On the basis of this and other evidence the PTF is now supporting the College of Policing to take forward work in a number of related areas - this includes creating a network of innovation champions across the service, designing a framework for sharing lessons learned, and reviewing the best IT platform solution to help the police share innovation and best practice. This work will complete in early 2020 and be an important contribution to shifting police culture towards a more open and innovative one which shares best practice effectively and learns lessons from past successes and failures.

152. The College of Policing’s PEQF does not solely focus on new entry routes into policing. The curriculum that underpins the new initial entry programmes under the PEQF has been designed to ensure that officers develop higher levels of knowledge, skill and understanding to develop a greater ability to think critically, become innovative problem solvers and confident, autonomous decision makers. This critical shift from training to education will help develop a learning culture and will lead to a workforce with the ability to facilitate change from within. The new learning programmes will ensure policing has reflective practitioners, capable and confident to challenge existing practice where appropriate.

The Role of the Home Office and Allocation of Responsibilities

153. Recommendation 34: “We urge the Home Office to play a much stronger role in driving reform in key areas, such as data-sharing between public services, the negotiation of national technology contracts, and the regulation of internet companies. Sitting back and leaving it to individual police forces is irresponsible. We welcome the Policing Minister’s recognition that “the Home Office needs to take a stronger view on a number of things”, which appears to signify a major shift in departmental policy.” (Paragraph 224 at page 74).

154. Government response: In a complex system, it is important to have correct organisations performing the right roles. Over the last eight years this Government has successfully implemented a series of reforms to establish a framework of institutions and processes to ensure that policing is more accountable, more effective, and more professional than ever before. These include:

• Democratically elected PCCs who hold their forces to account on behalf of the communities they serve, ensuring that local needs and priorities are met;
• A more independent and robust Inspectorate, shining a light on police performance and efficiency for the public;
• The College of Policing, established to act as the professional body for police officers and staff;
• An NCA with the resources, reach and powers to direct the fight against serious and organised crime at home and abroad;
• A reformed NPCC, with a much stronger emphasis on operational coordination;
• A modern and independent evidence-based process for pay and conditions; and
• A Home Office that restored professional discretion for operational delivery by scrapping all national targets and unnecessary bureaucracy on forces.

155. However, as crime and demand on policing changes, so must our approach. We must build on the success of our past reforms to make sure that policing keeps pace with modern threats. That is why we recognise that the Home Office must take a more forward-leaning approach to its engagement with policing. We can work together collaboratively with policing to protect the public and deliver against the aims of the Policing Vision 2025 with the Home Office feeding in strategic direction and convening the relevant parts of the system together to progress issues. That includes discussion of what national capabilities need to be added or strengthened, and where those capabilities are best located. We also expect to have a common strategic plan in relation to harnessing the potential of digital technology and improving support for front line officers.

156. In the last year we have convened roundtables which are making real progress on policing’s use of technology, officer wellbeing and serious violence to name a few. We have also recognised the need for development of the Police ICT Company to provide the necessary national centre of expertise for technology and its procurement. We have supported this development with investment. A more active role for the Home Office in supporting and challenging policing will not undermine the core principles of operational independence and local accountability through PCCs, it will support them. We have already seen the success of this approach as the Home Office led efforts to prevent crimes enabled by mopeds and motorcycles, following the problems we saw in London in 2017.

157. We expect to continue this approach as we develop the case for investment for the next Spending Review and will develop this approach further over that Spending Review period while respecting the statutory framework of the policing system.

158. Recommendation 35: “The current allocation of responsibilities in policing at a national, regional and local level is broken, and in dire need of review. Policing structures remain largely unchanged since the 1960s, and whilst the creation of PCCs has enabled leadership and new partnerships within many force areas, collaboration between forces is still a problem in those areas where regional or national action is required. Local identity is a significant strength in UK policing, but our evidence on neighbourhood policing indicates that relationships with officers at a neighbourhood and community level are more important than the 43-force structure. As the Policing Minister acknowledged, the current structure is a significant barrier to the service’s ability to tackle national and transnational threats, which require an advanced level of specialist capability.” (Paragraph 236 at page 77).

159. Recommendation 36: We recognise that previous force mergers have been beset by difficulties, and the Government is unlikely to reduce the number of forces. We believe that a more strategic, evidence-based approach is required. Before the end of November, the Home Office should launch a transparent, root-and-branch review of policing, publishing proposals by the end of February, which should focus on the allocation of responsibilities and capabilities at a local, regional and national level.” (Para 237 at page 78).

160. Government Response: Changing the structure of the policing system would take a significant amount of time. Even within the current structure, a great deal more could be done to operate the network in a better, more efficient and effective way. The Home Office is working with all players in the system to embed the operation of a network through the Specialist Capabilities Programme, ROCUs, the SOC Strategy, force collaboration and other work. We are undertaking a significant joint programme of work with policing to prepare for the longer term challenges the police face, including substantial pieces of work on demand and financial resilience. The Home Secretary has committed to prioritising police funding at the Spending Review.

161. There is greater ambition for policing to work more as one system in order to better manage new threats, deliver more consistent standards, flush out financial inefficiency and seize the opportunity that digital technology and data analytics bring to transform the capability and effectiveness of the police, and to build a learning culture and capacity to look ahead.

162. There is much we are doing working with policing to make a difference in these areas. We have already indicated the expansive technological work that is being taken forward under recommendations 25, 28 and 29. We continue to believe that maximising the use of technologies will free up officer time, improve the investigation, detection and prevention of crime and enable officers to engage effectively with the public.

163. We recently launched a new SOC Strategy which will establish a single, whole-system response, ensuring all parts of government and law enforcement play their role, bring their respective powers to bear and respond using shared capabilities. The NCA are leading work to deliver improved tasking and governance arrangements to ensure that capabilities are tasked against the threat in the most efficient and effective way.

164. Through the Serious Violence Strategy we have provided £3.6m to the NCA and NPCC over two years to establish a new National County Lines Co- ordination Centre (NCLCC) which was launched in September 2018. It will help bring the law enforcement effort together as the links behind county lines are complicated and the threat crosses police force boundaries. The NCLCC will support operational policing as well as providing a central point at which intelligence and information is shared and the links with criminal exploitation and illegal drugs markets are identified. The NCLCC will build this into a wider response involving partners in the health, education and welfare arenas.

165. We are undertaking a review with front line officers to ensure their experience informs operational decision making and government policy development. The PTF also supported work to review barriers to knowledge sharing and innovation which informed work that the College of Policing are taking forward to: create a network of innovation champions across the service; design a framework for sharing lessons learned; and reviewing the best IT platform solution to help the police share innovation and best practice. This will be an important contribution to shifting police culture towards a more open and innovative one which shares best practice effectively and learns lessons from past successes and failures.

166. The Home Office also welcomes proposals from any forces that wish to voluntarily merge. Such proposals would be considered where they are supported by a robust business case and have sufficient local consent, including from the relevant PCCs. The Home Office would expect any merger proposal to provide viable modelling for approaches to council tax precept- equalisation that are affordable to local council tax payers whilst providing sufficient funds to maintain services.

167. Recommendation 37: Based on what we have seen, we propose that local policing should be given the space to focus on community relations and local crime and disorder, including inter-agency working to reduce harm and address repeat offending. The driving force for restructures, such as mergers of whole forces, back offices, or between police and fire and rescue services, should be service improvement, rather than the hope of savings. At a national and regional level, forces need to pool resources and capabilities to a far greater extent, particularly for online crimes such as fraud, but also in complex areas where crimes often cross force borders, such as organised crime, county lines and modern slavery. The structure for counter-terrorism policing, which is frequently singled out for praise, could serve as a model for other areas of policing.” (Paragraph 237 at page 78).

168. Government response: Consideration is being given to key specialist capabilities and how they are delivered for policing at a local, regional and national level through the ongoing work of the Specialist Capabilities Programme funded jointly by the PTF and NPCC. It is designed to develop police led recommendations for greater force to force collaboration initially across seven specialist capabilities which are: Armed Policing; Major Investigations; Roads Policing; Surveillance; Technical Support (for Surveillance) Units (TSU); Police Intelligence; and Cyber-Dependent Crime.

169. The aim of the work is to provide forces with a sound evidence base to inform decisions on future collaboration partnerships, taking a fresh look at whether forces have the right access to the right capabilities to effectively respond to threats, and whether those capabilities are then organised and held in the most efficient way, including whether at the local, regional and national level.

170. This Programme is currently running pilots in volunteer forces with a view to rolling out to forces who sign up. The ambition is that this approach will be applied to other capabilities in future.

171. Recommendation 38: “An ambitious reform programme of this kind will be impossible without stronger national leadership, and a more dynamic and transparent approach to policing policy-making. It is vital that the operational independence of chief officers is maintained, and that PCCs are able to act on local priorities and local problems. But the current state of police ICT and communications systems is a striking example of the problems generated by this fractured system of policy-making and governance.” (Paragraph 238 at page 78).

172. Government response: The PRTB formed in 2016, seeks to coordinate national reform and transformation activity in policing. Its membership includes PCCs, Chief Constables, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), the NCA, the College of Policing, HMICFRS and the Home Office amongst others. The minutes from the PRTB are made available on the NPCC website providing a large degree of transparency to the decision making.

173. The PRTB works collaboratively to support making changes aiming to transform policing by 2025 to tackle new threats and improve the service for the public. Its purpose is to oversee and support the change to ensure it is coherent and provides the best service to the public. The PRTB oversees the structure, delivery and funding of police reform and transformation work. The PRTB is considering now how to further develop as a strategic future facing Board, including the approach it will take and key areas of focus, in light of a number of changes in the policing landscape, and recent reports including the HASC report.

174. The PRTB continues to review progress against the aims of the Policing Vision 2025 and make recommendations to Ministers about the use of the PTF. Underpinning this Vision, the PTF supports a reform portfolio, investing in major national programmes commissioned and delivered by the sector that deliver technology change at scale; increases capability including to tackle serious and organised crime; further progress workforce reform; and support more co-ordinated working arrangements both within policing and with other partners.

175. Recommendation 39: “The Government should create a National Policing Council, chaired by the Home Secretary and comprising representatives of the APCC, NPCC, officer/staff associations, College of Policing and HMICFRS. Proposals for reform could be put to a National Police Assembly comprising all PCCs and chief constables in England and Wales. The Home Office should consider key policy areas where decisions of the Council and Assembly could then be binding on all forces.” (Paragraph 239 at page 78).

176. Recommendation 40: “It is time for the Government to demonstrate clear ownership of policing policy and funding, and stop abdicating responsibility. The Home Secretary must make it clearer to the police service what areas he expects it to prioritise, where to focus its limited resources, and what he will do to drive much-needed reform at a national level.” (Paragraph 240 at page 78).

177. Government response: The structure of policing and the organisations within the system are still developing to play their rightful roles and the Government will continue to evolve the role it plays including the manner in which it does so, taking into account other developments in the system and the requirements of its statutory framework. We will continue to work closely with police leaders to develop the system including close engagement about the future development of the PRTB and its role which will both inform and be informed by our Spending Review proposition which will have a clear vision and plan for policing.

178. As part of the collaborative Spending Review process the Home Office will be discussing with police what needs to change in order to deliver on Policing Vision 2025 and to improve the effectiveness and productivity of our police system. That includes discussion of what national capabilities need to be added or strengthened, and where those capabilities are best located. We also expect to have a common strategic plan in relation to harnessing the potential of digital technology and improving support for front line officers.

1. The “Home Affairs Committee – Policing for the future - Tenth Report of Session 2017-2019” published on 25th October 2018. Reference taken from paragraph 5 on page 10. ↩