1 Introduction
1. On 26 July 2010, the Home Office published Policing
in the 21st Century: Reconnecting police and the people, proposing
a series of structural changes to the bodies and organisations
that are intended to enable the forces to function effectively.
The Home Secretary said in her introduction that it heralded "the
most radical change to policing in 50 years".[1]
In September 2011, we published a Report on these changes, New
Landscape of Policing. Now, as we approach the end of the
Parliament, we are taking this opportunity to follow up on that
report by reflecting on those changes, with a particular focus
on the College of Policing.
2. The centrepiece of Policing in the 21st Century
was the introduction of directly-elected Police and Crime Commissioners.
However, it also proposed a number of structural changes to the
landscape of policing at national level:
· the
replacement of the Serious Organised Crime Agency by the National
Crime Agency;
· the
closure of the National Policing Improvement Agency, "reviewing
its role and how this translates into a streamlined national landscape";
and
· the
repositioning of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO)
as the national organisation responsible for "providing […]
professional leadership for the police service", by setting
standards and sharing best practice across the range of police
activities.[2]
These proposals were followed, in April 2011, by
the proposal to establish the College of Policing,[3]
and three months later by the proposal to establish a police ICT
company.[4] In Annex A
we have produced a landscape grid, which sets out the policing
landscape in 2010, and where previous organisations' functions
have been transferred to new organisations under the new landscape
of policing. We have also worked with the National Audit Office
to produce tables showing the budgets and staffing numbers of
these organisations in the five years of this Parliament. These
are included in Annexes B and C.
3. Since undertaking our initial inquiry, the Committee
has kept the developments and changes to the landscape of policing
under ongoing scrutiny. The heads of policing organisations have
appeared before us Committee regularly, and we have produced several
reports on related issues, such as Leadership and standards
in the police.[5]
1 Home Office, Policing in the 21st Century: Reconnecting police and the people,
July 2010, p 3 Back
2
Policing in the 21st Century, pp 3, 31 and 33 Back
3
Review of Police Leadership and Training by Peter Neyroud QPM
(Home Office, April 2011) Back
4
Home Secretary speech to the ACPO Conference, 4 July 2011 Back
5
Home Affairs Committee, Third Report of Session 2013-14, Leadership and standards in the police,
HC 67-I, and Tenth Report of Session 2013-14, Leadership and standards in the police: follow-up,
HC 756-I Back
| 
