Home Affairs CommitteeWritten evidence submitted by the Home Office [LSP 19]
LETTER FROM RT HON DAMIAN GREEN MP, MINISTER OF STATE FOR POLICING AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, TO THE CHAIR OF THE COMMITTEE, 30 OCTOBER 2012
I am grateful to the Committee for launching an inquiry into leadership and standards in the police. Recent events regarding police integrity and the creation of the College of Policing provide a timely opportunity for these issues to be considered. The Committee will already be aware, following the debate in the House on the report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel, my Right Honourable friend the Home Secretary undertook to provide further detail to Parliament on proposals to address police integrity before Christmas.
As you are aware, the Home Secretary announced the selection of Alex Marshall as the Chief Executive on 24 October and we expect to make an announcement on the chair in due course. Once in post, we anticipate that the senior leadership of the College will take a number of decisions about the way in which the College will operate following its creation.
Please find enclosed the Government’s written submission. If you require any further information or evidence on any issues, I would be pleased to provide it.
Rt Hon Damian Green MP
Minister of State for Policing and Criminal Justice
MEMORANDUM
Summary
1. The British model of policing by consent is one of which we are rightly proud. Every day, police officers risk their lives to protect the public, intervening in often dangerous situations, usually unarmed. They command the authority of the public because they carry out their work with the public’s consent. The Government is committed to maintaining this model.
2. To enable it to thrive, it is essential that the police abide by the highest standards. It is vital that we have confidence in police leadership to take difficult decisions; that new recruits to the police have the right skills, abilities and aptitude to provide an effective service to the public; that existing police officers have the right incentives to ensure that they acquire the skills they need to fight crime; and that police officers and staff abide by the highest standards of integrity.
3. The Government has embarked on an ambitious programme of reform aimed at improving standards in the police. In 2010, it commissioned Tom Winsor to carry out a review of police pay and conditions to make recommendations so that pay and conditions of service could maximise officer and staff deployment to frontline roles where their powers and skills are required, that were fair and reasonable for the taxpayer and police officers and staff and facilitate the introduction of modern management practices in the police. Tom Winsor reported in March 2011 and March 2012.
4. In 2011, the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act received Royal Assent. This removed the role of central Government from the appointment of senior police officers outside London, handing responsibility to those closest to the public: Police and Crime Commissioners and Chief Constables.
5. In 2011 in response to revelations about phone hacking, the Government established the Leveson Inquiry and commissioned the Independent Police Complaints Commission to report on police corruption and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary to consider instances of undue influence, inappropriate contractual arrangements and other abuses of power.
6. The Government will establish the College of Policing, first as an interim body and then as a statutory body as soon as Parliamentary time allows. The College will have a key role in improving standards in police leadership, for new police recruits, for existing police officers and to ensure that the police uphold the highest standards of integrity. This is an ambitious series of reforms. They are necessary to maintain the British model of policing.
Raising Standards
7. We are fortunate in this country to have the finest police in the world. It is important that police officers and staff continue to acquire and develop the skills they need to provide a high quality service to the public.
Police Leadership
8. At the most senior levels in the service, the public must have the confidence that those appointed to the most senior ranks have undergone rigorous examination and assessment before appointment. To ensure that this is the case, the Government has made it a statutory requirement for aspiring senior police officers to pass both the Senior Police National Assessment Centre and the Strategic Command Course before gaining promotion to the rank of Assistant Chief Constable.
9. On 15 November, Police and Crime Commissioners outside London will be elected. They will have the sole responsibility for the appointment of Chief Constables. They will hold their Chief Constable to account for the delivery of an efficient and effective police force, one which delivers policing and community safety services in the local and national interest. To do this, Chief Constables will need to understand fully the concerns of their communities, bringing communities closer to the police, building confidence in the force and ensuring trust. PCCs, with their powerful directly elected mandate, will hold Chief Constables to account for the extent to which they are able to grasp the concerns of their communities. They will have the ultimate power to remove poorly performing Chief Constables.
10. On 22 November, the powers of Chief Constables to appoint Deputy and Assistant Chief Constables will come into force. This will give Chief Constables the power, for the first time, to appoint the rest of their top teams. Since Chief Constables need to understand fully the concerns of their communities, they are best placed to take decisions about the mix of skills, abilities and individuals they need on their top team in order to provide an effective policing service to their communities. They will be held to account for the decisions they take by their PCC.
New Recruits to the Police
11. Below chief officer ranks, the Government is committed to raising standards. Tom Winsor’s Independent Review of Police Officer and Staff Remuneration and Conditions contained a series of recommendations aimed at improving the skills and abilities of police officers and staff.
12. For those wanting a career in the police, Tom Winsor recommended that they should hold either a level three qualification, or else have served as a member of the Special Constabulary, a PCSO or in another police staff role considered by a Chief Constable as appropriate experience. To provide the most effective service to the public, it is imperative that the police recruit the very best candidates. Raising the standards of new recruits to the police will enable officers to provide a more effective service to their community. They will be able to work with less supervision as they will be more able to take the right decision and follow the correct process. This will free up those working in a supervisory role, enabling police forces to deploy more resources to the frontline.
13. Tom Winsor also recommended the introduction of a fast track scheme for promoting rapidly the very best candidates. The police currently have a scheme, the High Potential Development Scheme, which aims to promote candidates to the rank of Inspector within five years. Tom Winsor recommended that the police should be more ambitious and seek to promote the most capable officers to the rank of Inspector within a period of three years. The Government believes it is important that the police are able to promote its most talented and able officers to senior positions more quickly.
14. Currently, there is only one route to the police for those wanting a career as a police officer: to start as a Police Constable. Leadership skills needed in more senior ranks cannot be tested rigorously enough during the constable recruitment process.
15. The Government recognises that there are outstanding leaders in the police in England and Wales. However, it is not in the best interests of the police or the public that the police can only select its leaders from a narrow pool of officers. Tom Winsor has recommended the introduction of a scheme to recruit individuals from outside the police directly at the rank of Superintendent and, for those with relevant experience overseas, at the rank of Chief Constable. These recommendations will provide the police with access to a wider pool of talent than is the case currently making it more able to fight crime and protect the public. The Government will be consulting on these recommendations.
Serving Police Officers
16. The Government is also committed to raising the skills of those officers currently in the service. For too long, there has been insufficient incentive for officers to develop their skills. For the vast majority of police officers, the only determinant of pay progression has been length of service. Experience and time served are not the sole determinants of how ably a police officer can provide an effective service to the public. To do so, they must also have the right training, the right knowledge and the right skills.
17. The recommendations in Tom Winsor’s Review propose a move away from a system in which pay progression is largely governed by time served and towards a system where those who seek to develop their skills and work in the most challenging roles are rewarded more fairly for their efforts. This will mean focusing pay where it provides greatest incentive to the acquisition of skills and provides greatest encouragement to creating a culture of continuing professional development.
18. The Government believes that these recommendations form a good basis for discussion and consultation, including through the formal police negotiating machinery.
Police Integrity
19. Allegations of unlawful or inappropriate behaviour by police officers must be taken seriously. Such allegations can undermine public confidence in the police and their ability to provide an effective service to the public. The Government has consistently acted on concerns about police integrity. Following the revelations about phone hacking in July 2011, the Government established the Leveson Inquiry to examine relationships between the police, politicians and the press. The Government also commissioned the IPCC to report on police corruption and HMIC to consider instances of undue influence, inappropriate contractual arrangements and other abuses of power in police relationships.
20. Both the HMIC and IPCC reports made clear that corruption is not widespread, nor is it considered widespread, in the police. The IPCC report also made clear that, where corruption does exist, it is corrosive of the public trust that is at the heart of policing. The police recognise that it cannot be complacent about police integrity. The Government is grateful for the work ACPO have done on reviewing existing governance arrangements for professional standards in each police force and including enhanced training on integrity as a part of the Strategic Command Course.
21. However, the Government will not allow problems that give wider cause for concern in relation to the integrity of the police to affect public confidence. Lord Justice Leveson will report shortly on the findings of his inquiry, and operations Elvedon and Weeting continue to uncover the involvement of individual police officers and police staff in the activities of News International. The report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel raises further issues that strike at the heart of the trust the public have in police officers. Operations Elvedon and Weeting and the report of the Hillsborough Independent Panel generates a level of public concern and loss of confidence in the police that is damaging to the reputation of the vast majority of decent, hard-working police officers, and therefore to the service’s ability to police with consent.
22. It is partly for this reason that the Government has significantly reformed the policing landscape and the accountability mechanisms for the police. As part of this reform agenda, we are establishing the College of Policing that will put police integrity and transparency at the heart of its work to protect the public interest. How the College works alongside HMIC and the IPCC to build public confidence is of the utmost importance.
The College of Policing
23. The College of Policing will be central to future work to raise standards. The core mission of the College will be to fight crime and to safeguard the public by ensuring professionalism in policing. It will do this through the delivery of five key areas of responsibility.
24. First, it will have responsibility for setting standards and developing guidance and policy for policing, as well as the frameworks within which those standards can be tested. It will develop the national police curriculum for police training. It will devise and carry out examinations and assessments to determine the suitability of individuals seeking a career in the police or those wishing to gain promotion. Depending on the outcome of negotiations through the Police Negotiating Board, these frameworks may determine the way in which police officers are rewarded. Aspects of the business area structure that currently rests within ACPO will, where relevant, be integrated into the governance of the College of Policing.
25. Second, it will build and develop the research evidence for policing. To ensure that the police in England and Wales continue to provide a high quality service to the public, the College will ensure that police forces, as well as individual police officers and staff, are able to learn from the very best examples of policing across the world. The research evidence should be capable of being used by both police officers and staff in the course of their day-to-day work. The College will facilitate its use. The research evidence should also be used by PCCs to inform the way in which they spend their budgets. The College should work alongside academics to help build this evidence, although police officers and staff should play a central role in this work.
26. Third, it will support the professional development of police officers and staff. Although the College will be responsible for delivering some training, the emphasis will be much more on its role in developing a market for police training. Analysis carried out by Deloitte suggests that only 8% of expenditure on police training is on that provided by organisations outside the police. This equates to approximately £290 million. The Government recognises that there are some fields where it will continue to be appropriate for the College to deliver its own training, particularly those that are high risk, low volume and require the use of specialist equipment. However, over time the College will deliver less training directly and, instead, play a greater role in accrediting, licensing and quality assuring third party training providers.
27. Fourth, it will support the police, other law enforcement agencies and those involved in crime reduction to work together. To respond efficiently and effectively to the threat of serious organised crime and terrorism, police forces will need to work across boundaries, either between police forces or other organisations. The College of Policing, through its work to set standards and to accredit and quality assure training will support the police and those other organisations involved in crime reduction to work together.
28. Fifth, it will act in the public interest. As part of its role in enhancing this model, the College will be responsible for maintaining and promoting the ethics and values of policing. Reflecting the Government’s approach, the College will be more accountable to the public by the inclusion of a number of Police and Crime Commissioners on the governing board of the College.
29. The creation of the College will reflect best practice from other professional bodies. Policing is a crucial public service and the governance of the professional body must reflect this. The College must be governed in the professional interest to ensure that its decisions have credibility and legitimacy. To achieve this, the Chief Executive will be a senior police officer and the board will have representatives of Chief Constables, the superintendent ranks, the federated ranks and police staff.
30. The College must also be governed in the public interest. Bodies responsible for setting standards in other, key public services in the United Kingdom in fields such as medicine, nursing, dentistry and the legal profession are governed in the public interest. The College of Policing should follow their examples, as well as those operating in other professions internationally. To ensure the College is governed in the public interest, the chair of the board will be independent of the police. The composition of the board will follow the examples of the General Medical Council, the General Dental Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council. It will contain an equal split between police representatives and non-police representatives, including Police and Crime Commissioners.
Home Office
October 2012