A collection of news articles, reports, and publications available in the public domain, which are relevant to UK policing.
On 25 February 2019, the Home Office released guidance for employers and businesses with regards to COVID-19. The guidance is to assist employers in providing advice to staff on COVID-19 including the prevention of spreading of the infection as well as what to do if someone is suspected or confirmed with COVID-19 in a workplace.
The guidance can be read in full here.
Source: Gov.uk
The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), commissioned by the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI), conducted an independent study into the use of data analytics and algorithms by police forces in England and Wales.
The study found that in recent years the use of algorithms by police has significantly expanded in scale and complexity. This has been lead by the increase in volume and complexity of digital data, austerity measures which caused the allocation of limited resources more efficiently and the expectation of the police service to be adopting a preventative, rather than reactive posture.
As a result of this study a number of recommendations are available.
Source: RUSI
The Durham constabulary has been running a new scheme where offenders avoid prosecutions if they take part in a rehabilitation programme for issues such as substance abuse or mental health. To date more than 2,660 offenders who have committed offences such as burglary and assault have taken part in the scheme. The first results of the scheme found a 15 per cent point drop in reoffending after a period of two years in those who took part in rehabilitation in comparison to those who did not. Full results of the scheme are due to be published as part of a University of Cambridge study in 2020.
Source: The Guardian
HMICFRS have published the report PEEL spotlight report: Diverging under pressure – Overview of themes from PEEL inspections 2018/19 which gives an overview of the themes from all 2018/19 inspections.
PEEL is the inspection of police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy. All forces are given a grading of ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ in each of these areas. The report contains charts detailing the number of forces given each grade in each area.
The report can be read in full here.
Source: HMICFRS
The Home Office has published a template for police forces in England and Wales to use when developing their human tissue retention and disposal policies.
The template was approved by the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) and the Secretary of State for the Police and Fire Service in October 2019.
Source: Gov.uk
On 19 December the Queen’s Speech set out the Government’s priorities for this parliamentary session. Strengthening the justice system was an overarching topic of priority encompassing a number of bills and reforms including the Domestic Abuse Bill, the Serious Violence Bill and the announcement of a Royal Commission on the Criminal Justice Process.
In addition to bills to strengthen the criminal justice system, a number of the other announcements will have an impact on policing, such as the mental health reform which partly relates to people in custody who are suffering from mental ill health.
The briefing notes detailing all of the announcements in the December 2019 Queen’s Speech can be read here.
Source: Gov.uk
Deloitte has published its annual State of the State report which is created in conjunction with Reform. The 2019-20 report assesses the views from citizens, public sector leaders and frontline professionals with regard to government and public services.
Key findings include the public and public sector workers wanting to know what post-austerity looks like; infrastructure and skills development are need to tackle social inequality; and concerns about climate change are leading to increased support for the government to consolidate its environmental leadership.
The findings can be read in full here.
Source: Deloitte
This is the eleventh Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) hate crime report, and brings together information on CPS performance in prosecuting racist and religious hate crime, homophobic and transphobic crime, crimes against the older person and disability hate crime.
To download the report click here.
The Home Office has published the Stop and Search ‘Section 60’ pilot: Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs). The EIAs gives the context, objectives and adverse impact mitigation of the relaxation of the Section 60 Stop and Search Powers, compared to current powers.
The purpose of the EIA is to assess the potential impact of proposed changes to S60 powers on people with protected characteristics. These proposed changes entail reducing the required level of certainty that an incident will occur from ‘will take place’ to ‘may take place’ and, lowering the rank of an authorising officer from superintendent or above to ‘senior officer’. These changes would bring the policy in line with the pre-Best Use of Stop and Search Scheme (BUSSS) legislation.
The EIA states that if s60 powers were relaxed, there is an increased risk of magnifying any residual levels of discrimination in the use of this power. However, it also states that there is no evidence to indicate whether disparity rates would increase or decrease.
The EIA can be read in full here.
Source: Gov.uk
HMICFRS have published the report Shining a light on betrayal: Abuse of position for a sexual purpose. The report examines the theme of the abuse of position for a sexual purpose in detail nationally, using the findings from the 29 forces in the first two tranches inspected as part of the integrated PEEL assessments.
The reports details that overall, most forces have improved their understanding of the problem and proactive monitoring of sign of corruption. However, there are some forces that have not done this by not focusing enough resources to tackle the issues and not undertaking enough proactive searching for corruption.
The key issues noted in the report are:
The report contains five recommendations, three of which are aimed at police forces. The report can be read in full here.
Source: HMICFRS
Police Horizon Scanning 