Home Affairs CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by the Public and Commercial Services Union [LSP 07]

1. PCS, the Public and Commercial Services union, represents over 270,000 members throughout the civil service and government agencies, making us the UK’s largest civil service trade union. We also organise widely in the private sector, usually in areas that have been privatised.

2. Our members include those currently working at the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) which is set to be abolished on 30 November. About 400 staff expect to be transferred into the new College of Policing.

3. Our submission to this timely inquiry has been put together with the assistance of PCS reps in the NPIA who have the knowledge and experience of what is required to ensure standards of policing are improved.

4. Our members who are set to transfer out of NPIA are understandably at this late stage concerned about their futures as there is still a lack of clarity over their future employment status and roles. We are still seeking assurances that these staff will retain their civil service status and access to the civil service pension scheme.

5. We have set out our answers to the questions posed in the committee’s terms of reference for the inquiry individually below.

What powers, responsibilities and resource should be given to the College of Policing?

6. We recommend that the college retains the powers of the parts of the NPIA that transfer into it and that its quality assurance powers be enhanced. We note that when the Home Secretary addressed the Superintendents’ Association Conference on 11 September 2012 she made reference to the College of Policing setting first class standards for training, development, skills and qualifications. However, these can only be achieved if the new body is given adequate resources and powers to deliver them.

What lessons can be learnt from other professional bodies within the UK and from police professional bodies in other countries?

7. We do not believe that any of the predecessor organisations to the NPIA were truly professional policing bodies. They provided a range of services to the police, and other bodies concerned with policing, but did not generally set standards of policing and did not have authority to enforce them.

7.1 For the College of Policing to have this role, it would need to have a guaranteed independence of judgement from the Home Office, the police service and other policing bodies. It would consult, and work closely with, these but the judgement would have to be that of the College of Policing.

7.2 We do not think that it would be practicable for the College of Policing to retain an independent status if it were to charge the police service for the services it provided, if it had to compete with other providers, and it would be invidious if it did charge but was a sole provider.

Is it possible for one institution to balance responsibilities for representing police services; setting and upholding standards; testing and rewarding; training; and guarding public interests?

8. We do not believe that this is possible. The responsibility for representing police services is not compatible with setting and upholding stands; testing and rewarding; training and guarding public interests. We think the responsibility for representing police services should lie with the Association of Chief Police Officers.

Would it be preferable to create two separate institutions to provide delivery functions and professional representation?

9. There is a difference between representing police services, as a group of organisations, and representing the police as a profession but it is a narrow one. It would be difficult to draw a distinction in our view.

9.1 PCS believes that it would be better for the College to focus on setting and upholding standards and providing professional representation in that sense alone. We believe that this can be combined with delivery functions, and therefore those functions not handled by police services should go to a separate institution.

How will the professional body interact with HMIC; the IPCC; ACPO; and other institutions in providing leadership and setting standards for police forces?

10. We believe that these bodies have different roles. The College of Policing should be responsible for setting the standards of policing and upholding them and would consult and work with the other bodies on this.

10.1 It would not be a regulator, as the HMIC is to be; it would have no complaints handling role as the IPCC has; it would not represent police services or have the coordinating role as ACPO does and neither would it have the law enforcement and intelligence functions that SOCA has and that the National Crime Agency will possess.

10.2 We would expect it to provide some training and other services to these bodies. It could for example provide legal, diversity and human rights validation of policies and training material for the other three bodies. It could also provide leadership, senior command and some specialist training for their staff.

What role should the College of Policing have in recruitment and training?

11. We believe that the college should retain the role that NPIA currently has. This includes the design and operation of Police SEARCH recruitment assessment centres and assistance and quality assurance of such centres operated by the police services. NPIA also provides executive services to the tripartite body (Home Office, ACPO, Association of Police Authorities) overseeing the Initial Police Learning and Development Programme that includes design of the learning outcomes, the provision of learning materials and quality assurance for the Initial Police Learning and Development Programme (IPLDP).

What role could the College have in recruiting non-police officers to senior roles within the police service?

12. We recommend that this should be an extension of the current selection arrangements for ACPO posts and that it include defining the learning requirements for these entrants, to enable them to perform in roles as effectively as police officers do

12.1 We understand that courses for senior police managers have been attended by civilian police managers and we think this indicates that there is no inherent problem in running joint selection exercises for police officers and others.

Are police recruitment processes fair and open and how could they be improved?

13. The recruitment process for police constables, as designed and delivered by or under the quality assurance of the examinations and assessments process is rigorously checked at each stage to eliminate discrimination and to be otherwise fair.

13.1 PCS does not know whether, and to what extent, there are additional, force specific, selection processes, and whether they are fair and open. We have no reason to believe that if they exist, they are not fair and open.

13.2 We are concerned that the recruitment of police from BME backgrounds still falls disappointingly well short of reflecting the 7% target figure set by the Home Office in 1999 to reflect the proportion of ethnic minorities in the population as a whole. According to Home Office figures there were 6,679 FTE minority ethnic officers in the 43 English and Welsh police forces as at 31 March 2012, 5% of the total strength, compared with 4.8% a year earlier.

Are there specific challenges facing the leaders of the Metropolitan Police Force, which the College of Policing should address?

14. The Met is the largest force in the UK and we think this may well impose specific challenges. There are also Met functions arising from policing the capital of, and the largest city in the UK, which may well have similar consequences. We think the setting and upholding of standards by the College of Policing should take account of these.

Should the professional body be responsible for civilian police employees?

15. Yes, we believe that they should be. The police service has an increasing proportion of civilian employees and the range of functions they carry out is also on the increase. Therefore it is vital that the new body has responsibility for these employees.

How should the College of Policing be funded?

16. We believe that the activities of the College of Policing should be primarily financed by the Home Office, following the same funding model that the NPIA has had.

Public and Commercial Services Union

September 2012