Agenda item

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.