Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Don Randall and Alderman Luder.

There were no declarations received.

To agree the public minutes and summary of the meeting held on 8 February 2013.

RESOLVED – That the public minutes and the summary of the meeting held on 8 February 2013 be approved.

Report of the Commissioner (copy attached).

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Commissioner summarising the performance against the Policing Plan 2012-15 for the period between April 2012 and March 2013. 

The Chairman stated that the Force’s performance in the 2012-13 financial year had been a successful one – with all 18 policing plan targets achieved. While crime reduction continued to be a challenge, the target was still met. It was discussed that with the implementation of City First Change Programme there were still some changes that will take time to be fully implemented.

The Assistant Commissioner stated that the City of London Police (CoLP) would remain focused on the target of a 95% response rate to 999 calls within 12 minutes (97.4% response rate achieved). In response to a Member’s query, the Assistant Commissioner stated he would obtain the average call response time and stated he would consider analysing the call response time between the MET switchboard and the CoLP to improve response times, for next year’s Policing Plan.

The Force were continuing work to reduce the levels of victim based violent crime and in 2012-13 had seen a reduction compared to 2011-12, but this is slightly above the three year average. The Chairman requested that all future performance reports should provide 3 years of data for each indicator to enable Members to look at trends and patterns.

An increase in victim based theft from April 2012 was also a concern raised by Members, particularly with regard to instances of non-dwelling burglaries which had increased by 26.1%. In response to this rise it was explained that the CoLP had deployed dedicated detectives and the number of non-dwelling burglaries should begin to decline. Historically, non-dwelling burglaries had occurred in multiple occupant spaces which affected more than one business.

Members went through Appendix A of

Report of the Commissioner (copy attached).

The Sub-Committee considered a report of the Commissioner setting out the Force’s Human Resources monitoring data from the period 1^st April 2012 to 31^st March 2013.

The Chairman suggested that the proposed future appointments will provide the Force with an opportunity to make the workforce more representative of its community.

The Chairman stated that the contextual commentary giving the reasons for high sickness levels for support staff was very helpful. The Chairman asked that more comparative information be provided in future HR monitoring reports, for example, grievance levels and sickness levels.

The Director of Corporate Services intimated that Members may have a concern over sickness management, and the number of sick days taken by support staff. The average working days lost are 7.5 days for staff and 5.4 days for officers.  He explained that the Force will be undertaking a review of how it managed sickness absence and developing an action plan. In addition, sickness policies would be reviewed with the support of the Corporation’s HR Department and an escalation process will be instituted for more difficult cases. The Force will be writing to those on long term sickness to offer help and support.

RECEIVED.

Report of the Commissioner (copy attached).

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Commissioner updating Members on the CoLP response to HMIC inspection reports for the 2012/13 financial year.

It was agreed that the report was a useful progress update on the CoLP response to the recommendations of the three separate 2012/13 HMIC inspections. The Assistant Commissioner explained that the CoLP had produced actions plans in relation to Anti-Social Behaviour, Custody and Integrity and that the delivery of these actions is robustly monitored by the relevant Directorate Head.

Members and officers agreed that the HMIC Inspections Update was an important item that brought together all the outstanding actions from each of the HMIC inspection reports. It was decided that a further HMIC Inspection Progress Report be produced as an item at the next meeting of the Sub-Committee, as many of the outstanding actions detailed in the plan would have been achieved.

RESOLVED – That an update report of the CoLP’s completion of HMIC Inspections recommendations be produced for the next meeting of the Sub-Committee.

Report of the Chamberlain (copy attached).

The Sub-Committee received a six monthly report of the Chamberlain providing details of internal audit reviews undertaken in the financial year ending March 2013.

The Chairman expressed his disappointment with the level of audit activity in 2012-13 – with only 13 internal audit days completed out of the planned 80 days. Members were informed that although the service was moving forward positively, the level of progress had been affected by a number of factors including staff turnover and audit re-prioritisation. The Assistant Commissioner added that he was satisfied with the work of Internal Audit going forward

Members sought assurance that Internal Audit would deliver its Force Internal Audit programme for 2013-14 and requested an update on the recommendations from the following future audit reviews - Police Fleet Management and the Police Use of Third Party Payments (including consultants).

It was also requested that Internal Audit provide a detailed outline of the audit and inspection framework to ensure that audit coverage provided by the HMIC is not being duplicated by the planned audit work programmed by Internal Audit

RESOLVED – That a report be produced for the next meeting that sets out the audit and inspection framework to ensure audit duplication was not occurring with HMIC.

Report of the Commissioner (copy attached).

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Commissioner providing further analysis of the original submission of the HMIC VfM Profiles 2012 presented at the previous meeting of the Sub-Committee.

The Assistant Commissioner explained that the CoLP’s high cost of services and salaries allied to a small population will always position it as an outlier in comparison with forces nationally, as population is a key comparator used by the HMIC. The HMIC VfM Profiles also do not take into account the Force’s growing national economic crime responsibilities with the subsequent increase in support costs and supervision ratios.

The Assistant Commissioner stated that the VfM Profiles are a snapshot in time and past figures did not capture the reduced cost of policing borne across many functional areas as part of City First Change Programme.

The Assistant Commissioner assured Members that the CoLP did offer value for money and the budget position for the coming year and 2014-15 will show the Force is in a much stronger position to sustain the current policing model within the current budget constraints.

The Chairman noted the reputational impact of the Force appearing as a persistent outlier, where no context is provided. It was agreed that the Force would work with the Chamberlain to undertake a joint review of the Force’s service costs – both to identify more meaningful comparators and to develop a robust means of benchmarking the CoLP’s costs in the future.

RESOLVED – That a joint review be undertaken by the Chamberlain’s Department in partnership with the Force to benchmark Police Services and that the outputs be presented to the November 15^th 2013 meeting of the Sub-Committee.

There were no questions.

In response to concern from the Chairman over the effectiveness of meetings, the Town Clerk undertook to establish future meetings of the Sub-Committee with lunch in the Guildhall Club as opposed to a working lunch while the committee meets.

MOTION: That under Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

Motion – That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

There were no questions.

There were none.