A collection of news articles, reports, and publications available in the public domain, which are relevant to UK policing.
The Working Time (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 were laid before Parliament on 27th March 2020 and are now in force. The regulations were made to allow workers to carry over annual leave into the following leave year for a maximum of two years where workers were unable to take this leave as a result of the effect of coronavirus (Covid-19).
Source: legislation.gov.uk
Officials from the Home Office, College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) have said the target to recruit 20,000 police officers is too low because the figure does not take into account current officers who will be retiring or will leave the service in the same time period. Instead, they say the target should be closer to 50,000.
In addition to the target not being high enough, current figures suggest that only one in ten candidates who apply to join the police are successful, meaning to reach the target of 50,000 officers, nearly 500,000 people would need to apply.
Source: BBC News
Deloitte have published a report which considers how the announcement of a target to recruit 20,000 officers can transform UK policing.
The research presented in the report was compiled through conducting interviews, workshops, data/statistics reviews and a literature review.
The report can be read in full here.
Source: Deloitte
The national campaign to recruit 20,000 new police officers launched on 5 September 2019. The start of the campaign comes a day after the Chancellor announced funding to support the first wave of up to 6,000 officers across the 43 forces in England and Wales.
The funding consists of £45 million to kick-start the recruitment of 6,000 and a further £750 million for 2020/21. The remaining 14,000 officers will be recruited in the following two years alongside further government funding.
Source: GOV.UK
The Cabinet Office has issued guidance about how the UK’s public procurement regulations may be affected in the case of either leaving with an agreed deal or leaving with no deal. The guidance is aimed at contracting authorities including central government departments, local authorities and NHS bodies.
Source gov.uk
The Guardian reports on the risks to personal safety faced by those working in the private security industry , following the death by stabbing of a security guard in central London on News Years’ Day. It goes on to discuss how the industry is growing, as private guards are filling ‘the security vacuum’ caused by a reduction in police numbers and increasing violent crime. The article comments that the police can hand over the roles such as neighbourhood or shopping mall wardens and train guards amongst others, but that private security roles are also increasingly dangerous for staff. Rick Mountfield of the Security Institute said: “The private security sector is certainly filling some of the gaps that were once lower-level policing tasks”.
Source: Guardian
The College of Policing has published guidance on identifying and managing PTSD. The report defines Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, sets out potential risk factors, describes the skills that can help reduce the impact and provides examples from police officers who have experienced trauma. In introducing the report, Chief Constable Andy Rhodes, NPCC Wellbeing and Engagement Lead, says “by understanding how trauma affects us we can move from ignorance to awareness, from negativity to positivity, and from pessimism to hope”.
Late in October Police Professional reported on the response of the Prime Minister who said that the issue of pension funding costs being passed on to police forces “is an issue that has been known about for some years”. The NPCC and APCC issued a joint statement in response, making it clear that the burden of these costs “would undoubtedly significantly damage the service we can provide to the public” and that, contrary to Ms May’s statement “the first notification that has enabled forces to calculate the impact of pension changes came in September 2018”.
Subsequently, the Guardian reported on the unprecedented decision of the NPCC to take legal action in the high court against the government unless it backs down on the plans to pass on the £420m pensions’ shortfall to already dwindling force budgets. This comes amidst the recent damning National Audit Office report on the financial sustainability of police forces in England and Wales and widespread media coverage on a ‘crisis in policing’ as covered in an earlier Police Horizon Scanning blog post.
Crimestoppers is a 30 year old charity which allows people to anonymously pass on information about crimes and can be vital in providing key details that lead to arrests. Callers remain anonymous thanks to the great lengths that Crimestoppers goes to ensure that no one knows where the information it receives has come from, including no record keeping about personal details, phone number or computer IP addresses. It emphasises that it operates independently of and in a different way from the police. In a BBC News report Mark Hallas, chief executive of Crimestoppers, says that this anonymity partially explains why Crimestoppers is growing in popularity with both young people (under 35yrs) and those from BAME communities, commenting that: “Surveys we’ve carried out indicate that there’s a hard core of about 20% of people who find it very difficult to talk to the police directly under any circumstances – but many of those people want to do the right thing and we provide the avenue to let them do that.” Mr Hallas added that “There is in some parts of the country an element of frustration with 101, they know if they call us they will be answered pretty quickly.”
The Guardian reported recently of an unprecedented public warning from the chief constables of the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and Merseyside forces, who said that fresh budget cuts due to a £420million pension shortfall would leave them with dwindling officer numbers last seen in the 1970s.
Ian Hopkins, the chief constable of Greater Manchester, the third biggest force, said “Clearly we would always look to save money without job cuts, but the reality is 83% of our budget is people and after eight years of efficiencies across all parts of the organisation – which has seen us make reductions of £183m – there would be little alternative but to cut posts, both officers and staff.” In addition, GMP have stressed the need for the public to ‘do their bit’ in their recently issued citizens contract, which Mr Hopkins has described as upfront and honest about its priorities and demands amid ongoing budget cuts.
Similarly, David Thompson, chief constable of West Midlands police said that cuts would amount to the equivalent of around 500 officers, bringing the force’s total number down to 6,000, compared to 8,600 in 2010, adding that “The public can already see it is going on. We are already not pursing crimes where we could find a suspect. We are doing things now that surprise me. We are struggling to deliver a service to the public. I think criminals are well aware now how stretched we are.”
The Metropolitan Police, Britain’s largest force, is set to lose 900 officers; West Yorkshire, the fourth biggest force estimates it will lose 400 officers and Merseyside, the sixth biggest force, fears losing around 300 officers as a result of the latest budget squeeze. Andy Cooke, the Merseyside chief constable said: “It is incumbent on me to ensure that those who will make the final decisions in relation to the pension changes understand the crippling impact these changes will have on policing.”
Another Guardian article reveals that the public, who are aware of the impact of dwindling budgets, are becoming increasingly frustrated by a lack of police presence and involvement in resolving ‘everyday crime’ that affects them, such as bicycle robberies. The article’s author warns that this sense of powerlessness is leading to an ever increasing prospect of vigilantism.
Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the opposition challenged the Prime Minister this week about the struggles faced by forces across the UK, echoing Mr Thompson’s comments about the awareness and exploitation of officer shortages by criminals as well as asking the Prime Minister if she would apologise to the chief constable of Staffordshire police, who had to apologise to his colleagues after being forced to cancel their weekend leave. Theresa May’s response was that her party’s delivery of £460million trumped Labour’s £300million estimate of funding for police at the last election. A Home Office spokesperson said: “We are working closely with forces to understand the impact this change will have and are in discussions with police leaders about mitigating the impact on the front line.”
Police Horizon Scanning 