ITEM NO.
REPORT OF THE DEPUTY LEADER
TO THE CABINET MEETING
ON 8TH NOVEMBER, 2005
TITLE : Police Force Structures in England and Wales
RECOMMENDATIONS : (1) That the recommendation of HM Inspectorate of Constabulary
set out in the attached briefing paper, be noted;
(2) That the Deputy Leader be authorised to make the necessary
representations as part of the formal consultation process, on behalf of the City Council,
such responses to include reference to the importance of maintaining co-terminosity of
boundaries at a county level and the maintenance of basic command units which are coterminous with local authority and CDRP boundaries.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY : A report published by the Home Office last month entitled
“Closing the Gap” stressed the need for stronger protective services to tackle issues such as
terrorism and cross border crime. The Home Office report concluded that smaller forces do
not have the resources and specialist support in certain key strategic areas. The
consultation process currently under way aims to look at options for re-grouping forces to
create more strategic forces.
There are key issues for consideration at a local level that are referred to in the report and if
cabinet agrees I will forward a response on behalf of the City Council.
Attached to this report is a briefing prepared by GMPA for AGMA Leaders, by way of
background.
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS : Briefing paper for AGMA prepared by GMPA and
(Available for public inspection) Home Office consultation document “Closing the Gap – a
Review of the Fitness for Purpose of the current structure of policing in England and Wales.”
ASSESSMENT OF RISK: N/A
SOURCE OF FUNDING: N/A
COMMENTS OF THE STRATEGIC DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER AND SUPPORT
SERVICES (or his representative):
1. LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
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Provided by : GMPA
2. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
Provided by : N/A
PROPERTY (if applicable):
HUMAN RESOURCES (if applicable):
CONTACT OFFICER : Owen Topping, Executive Manager, Executive Services, Chief
Executive Directorate
WARD(S) TO WHICH REPORT RELATE(S): All
KEY COUNCIL POLICIES:
DETAILS:
Last year the Home Secretary commissioned HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) to
examine Force Structures in England and Wales and a report “Closing the Gap – a Review
of the Fitness for Purpose of the current structure of policing in England and Wales” has
been published. The report concluded that whilst basic command unit (BCU) arrangements
and neighbourhood policing provide a solid local platform for the future, the current 30 year
old, 43 police force structure of widely different sizes does not. It was felt that smaller police
services were less likely to protect reliably the public from terrorism and organised crime.
A consultation exercise is under way seeking views on the amalgamation of police forces.
The Home Secretary has made it clear that any restructuring of forces has to take place
within existing regional boundaries.
The report concludes that the best solution would be to regroup forces to create strategic
forces. It recognises that BCUs will however remain the critical building blocks under any
restructure. The report requests forces and authorities to consider a number of factors,
including co-terminosity.
In the case of Greater Manchester one of the key strengths to partnership working – which
has direct and considerable benefits for county level organisations – is the fact that we have
co-terminous boundaries for the conurbation in respect of the 10 local authorities collectively,
the police force, the fire service, probation service, ambulance service and health. To move
away from co-terminosity would impact adversely on the work of each of these organisations
in addition to being damaging for broader partnership work. In addition, there is also the
concern that if the boundaries for Greater Manchester Police were to change other criminal
justice services may follow.
The police authority and the force have worked to complete an option appraisal. The
preferred option for Greater Manchester Police and Authority would be to remain as a stand
alone force and authority. Should there be a requirement placed upon the police authority to
merge with another force area, this will create issues of democratic accountability as it would
potentially mean merger between a Metropolitan Policing area with co-terminosity of BCU’s
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and CDRP’s with a non Metropolitan Policing area without co-terminosity. There would also
be issues around membership of the strategic authority and any future governance
arrangements with merged forces.
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GREATER MANCHESTER POLICE
AUTHORITY
ITEM NO:
PAGES
POLICE FORCE STRUCTURES
BRIEFING NOTE
1. PURPOSE OF THE BRIEFING
1.1 To provide members with an overview of the main points of HMIC’s report into the
“fitness of purpose” of policing in England and Wales
2. DETAIL OF BRIEFING
2.1 HMIC’s report is a “fitness for purpose” report into the policing of England and Wales.
In the light of the need for the enhancement of protective services and other key
assessment areas identified, the report makes some clear recommendations about the
future of the national policing map.
2.2 HMIC’s report points to a future policing environment characterised by:

Widespread enterprising organised criminality, proliferating international terrorism
and domestic extremism;

A premium on intelligence, expertise and smart use of capacity;

An increasingly risk concerned public and intrusive media.
2.3 HMIC identify a requirement for a more efficient, integrated operating platform above
BCU level. The organisation of service delivery must be on a scale large enough to
respond dynamically, but local enough to understand the diverse context within which
it operates. This means significant rationalisation of the protective services and
support processes to put them on a stronger more efficient footing. This will place new
demands on leadership, oversight and support from government.
2.4 Standards identified and agreed with ACPO on intelligence (what do we know about
the issue); prevention (what are we doing to stop this); and enforcement/resolution
(what ability do we have to intervene effectively) were considered and very few forces
assessed fully met the required standard. It was also apparent that size matters in
respect of the conclusions within the report. Larger forces are likely to have much
greater capability and resilience than smaller forces. Forces with over 4000 officers,
or 6000 staff, tended to meet the standard across the seven protective services
measured, in that they demonstrated good reactive capability with a clear measure of
proactive capacity. The seven broad areas assessed were:







Major Crime (homicide)
Serious, Organised and Cross Border Crime
Counter Terrorism and Extremism
Civil Contingencies
Critical Incidents
Public Order
Strategic Roads Policing
2.5 Within the assessment itself, each force was scored on a rating scale of 1-4 for each
of the templates. The scoring system is as follows:
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1.
2.
3.
4.
Only reactive capability demonstrated
Reactive capability, with only limited proactive capability demonstrated
Reactive capability, with significant proactive capability demonstrated
Reactive capability with comprehensive proactive capability demonstrated
Only two forces assessed, the Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police,
achieved 3 or more under each heading, but even these fell short of the optimum
standard (of 4) across all areas.
2.5 Vulnerability was evident in relation to counter terrorism and domestic extremism,
serious and organised crime and public order. In relation to major crime, to some
extent, success turned on whether forces had dedicated Major Investigation Teams
(MITs) or not.
2.6 Intelligence was the aspect with the lowest scores, and greatest shortcomings,
regardless of size of police force. The report recognises that the discussion on
organised crime, counter terrorism and civil contingencies has occurred at national
level, rather than focussing on what could or should be done about these services at
an intermediate (force/regional) level. The exception has occurred around those
forces e.g. Avon and Somerset, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and Greater
Manchester Police, where the dangers of violent organised crime have spilt onto the
streets, albeit the spread of organised crime and terrorism is now raising a wider
awareness and concern on these issues.
2.7 The report stresses that the current structure and efficiency regime is not designed to
yield a step change in value for money, nor easily support workforce modernisation.
Tight budget settlements and rising demands in policing, mean that the every effort
must be made to ensure maximum value for money to ensure that provision of service
does not deteriorate. Some feel for the scale of the efficiencies that might be achieved
is possible. Direct savings from merger might amount to £70 million annually.
Although there is an acceptance by HMIC that initially there will be a cost associated
with any reorganisation.
2.8 HMIC stress that resistance to combining smaller forces can be abated, to some
degree, by emphasising that local arrangements – i.e. at BCU and neighbourhood
level – will not change. One of the gaps this work has highlighted is the absence of a
clear definition of what the purpose of policing below national level actually should be
in the future. At the simplest level, three responsibilities of policing below the national
level are evident:



The development of local and neighbourhood policing;
The provision of protective services to national standards;
The organisation of affordable support and strategic development.
2.9 In considering the type of structure that would benefit the 7 key assessment areas of
policing identified by HMIC, they have taken into account the possibility of
disaggregating certain functions - giving one force the role of investigating major
crimes for two or three neighbours for example - but with the possible exception of
counter-terrorism. They also identified particular design considerations around
combinations of forces which include:


Size – the review indicates minimum size of over 4000 police officers, but must be
cognisant of the need to design-in resilience and spare capacity.
Mix of capability – any structural change must take account of the graded capability
of potential ‘partners’ (i.e. forces that could be amalgamated or work more
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




collaboratively) as indicated through both performance on volume crime and the
Protective Services Review.
Criminal Markets – it is fundamental to understand the underlying criminal markets
and context in which any new entity is to operate.
Geography – the scale and demography may require a measure of pragmatism in
proposals for change.
Risk – it is essential that opportunities to reduce risk are maximised by considering
current capability and consolidating to generate new strengths.
Co-terminosity – it is essential to consider established political and partners
boundaries.
Identity – whilst accepting the local focus of public perception historical and natural
boundaries should be maximised where possible.
2.10 In respect of the options for change, it is assumed that the status quo, even with
an enhanced performance regime, stronger ‘bottom-up’ intelligence system and
greater flexibility, will not produce significant improvements that yield consistent
delivery of protective services to a national standard. The structural options that were
identified in the report included, collaboration, lead forces with specialist capabilities,
lead regional force, a federation of forces or the now preferred option of government,
the idea of strategic forces.
2.11 The Strategic Force is the most radical option with forces being re-grouped
against a framework of design considerations, such as: exceeding critical mass;
criminality; and geography. This is the structure that is also supported by government
and the way in which the Home Secretary told police leaders he wanted to see police
forces re-organised The HMIC report makes clear that local policing arrangements
(BCU, etc) need not be disrupted whilst force level services are rationalised. The
report suggests that a prescriptive reform approach could be initiated relatively quickly
if a new executive and strategic authority were appointed at an early stage and a tight
timescale was set.] As the current policing system is over 30 years old, this new
strategic policing structure would create a policing service of significantly less forces
and current figures of around 20 have been muted.
2.12 The report identifies that the strategic forces option offers the best business
solution. It offers the best potential, within reasonable time-scales, of improving
protective services and providing better value for money.
2.13
HMIC stress that in creating a structure that is fit for purpose the overall goal
should be the creation of forces large enough to provide a full suite of sustainable
services, yet still small enough to be able to relate to local communities. Such an
organisation would benefit from a mix of environments that stimulate development of
protective services. There must be a performance regime in place to assess
protective services. HMIC will work with PSU to develop a process by April 2006.
3. CONCLUSIONS
3.1 The government has a clear idea about the new policing structure for England and
Wales. The focus on neighbourhood policing, BCU level policing has already been
proposed and is now complemented by the concept of new strategic forces with
improved capabilities of dealing with protective services. The government is seeking
the leadership of every police force in the country to respond to the challenges set in
HMIC’s report and make their proposals for creating this new strategic framework.
The Home Secretary has stressed that the status quo is not an option and change is
inevitable. He has asked police authorities and forces to work together to examine
options for their regions. The deadline for comments has been set for December.
3.2 The challenge for police authorities and forces to work together is of utmost
importance. HMIC stress that adherence to local authority boundaries is not a
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requirement of the new strategic force proposal. The government is likely to consider
a number of options for the amalgamation of forces within this region – this will need
careful consideration.
3.3 Clearly any changes to current policing in Greater Manchester needs also to be
considered in the light of the current debate on city region governance.
3.4 The views of AGMA leaders will be extremely helpful in formulating the authority’s
response to the Home Secretary’s proposal.
AUTHOR
Christina Smith – Director of Police Authority Services
0161 793 3133
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