Agenda item

Report of the Commissioner of Police

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Commissioner of Police that provided Members with an update on the HMICFRS Inspection.

The Assistant Commissioner explained that good progress had been made, with 16+ new areas marked as GREEN, and 10 left as RED.

The Assistant Commissioner explained that the HMIC had extended its remit to include inspections of fire and rescue services in England, leading to its new title of HMICFRS.  He explained that no reports in the last period had been published on the CoLP.

The Assistant commissioner explained that an inspection on “effectiveness” was upcoming and would last for 3 days.

The Assistant Commissioner explained that many of the indicators were essentially ready to move to GREEN status.  The Chairman requested that closedown timelines are included for all open indicators. (8)

The Chairman asked for information on the approach taken by HMICFRS towards inspections.  The Head of Strategic Development explained that they were moving towards basing them on “Force Management Statements”, with the launch of requirements taking place on Monday 2 October.  The HMICFRS would look at crime data before making a decision on which areas to inspect.  He explained that the CoLP were in a strong position due to the STRA process.  He explained that there would continue to be thematic inspections alongside one-off inspections.

A Member asked about the status of Stop and Search data.  The Assistant Commissioner credited the team for their improvements to management of systems for Stop & Search data.

A Member asked about the status of the Deloitte review of workforce, which was marked as RED under an area for improvement within the report.  The Assistant commissioner explained that this was imminently about to move into GREEN status.  He explained that Officer Skills and Training Database systems were due to go live in October 2017.

The Chairman asked for confirmation of what was meant by “internal deadline”.  The Assistant Commissioner explained that this was used in cases where HMICFRS did not provide their own deadline.  The Chairman asked for confirmation that this meant there had not been deadlines missed or postponed, and the Assistant Commissioner confirmed this, citing the use of RED status. 

The Chairman asked if specific dates would be more appropriate than marking as “immediate”.  A Member asked if this meant that the work had not been done.  The Head of Strategic Development explained that these were used in cases in which disclosure issues exist, leading to reviews in these areas (regardless of the issues not being those of CoLP).

The Chairman asked for confirmation that Stop and Search indicators would move from RED to GREEN with the introduction of “Niche” in November 2017.  The Assistant Commissioner confirmed that this was the case.

The Chairman asked for confirmation of when the Police Legitimacy indicators currently marked as RED would move to GREEN.  The Assistant Commissioner explained that both of these are expected to move to GREEN in December 2017.

The Chairman asked for timeframes on the tri-service review of the joint emergency services interoperability principles indicators moving to GREEN.  The Assistant Commissioner explained that multiagency programmes such as these pose significant challenges with regards to connecting timelines, and as a result it would be very difficult to predict future dates of completion.  The Chairman noted that therefore not all statuses were ready to go GREEN.  The Assistant Commissioner explained that this was the case only due to reliance on other forces to coordinate.  The Head of Strategic development explained that the CoLP’s regime is limited by the calendar of integration with 3 other forces and how they are able to feed back.

A Member illustrated their concern at the comments made regarding Organised Crime under the Police Effectiveness section.  The Assistant Commissioner explained that a significant amount of work had been done alongside the Metropolitan Police Service to map this out.  He explained that improvements had been made over the last 6-9 months, and that a large proportion of the issues were related to decisions around funding.  He explained that these issues were prevalent nationally.  The Commissioner explained that this was a new area of focus for CoLP, and that it was linked to the London model.  He confirmed that there had not been any indication to alert CoLP of dangers based on the 2016 reviews.  The Chairman asked that REDs included more detailed comments for Members in future.

RESOLVED – That the report be received.