UK Inquiry Tracker

Increasing police productivity

Public Accounts Committee Open Inquiry

Opened: 10 Jul 2025 Parliament page

Total police funding in 2025-26 is £19.6bn, with approx. 70% of this made up of central government funding and the rest raised through council tax. Government is aiming to put 13,000 additional police officers, police community support officers and special constables into neighbourhood policing roles, paid for by tackling waste … Read more Total police funding in 2025-26 is £19.6bn, with approx. 70% of this made up of central government funding and the rest raised through council tax. Government is aiming to put 13,000 additional police officers, police community support officers and special constables into neighbourhood policing roles, paid for by tackling waste through a programme of reform. This includes plans to centralise functions such as procurement and vetting, and greater use of technology to make officers more productive. The PAC’s 2018 report on the financial sustainability of police forces in England and Wales warned that financial pressures were undermining confidence in the police, which the report found had been severely dented as forces reprioritised work in response to funding cuts. The Committee’s subsequent 2022 report highlighted significant challenges for the Home Office in realising a promised uplift in police numbers. The National Audit Office (NAO) reports in 2025 on police productivity, with a focus on the Home Office’s approach to supporting police forces to improve. Following the NAO’s report, the PAC will take evidence from senior Home Office officials, with likely topics for scrutiny including current financial constraints facing police forces, and how the Home Office is supporting forces to deliver value for money from funding. If you have evidence on these issues, please submit here by 23:59 on Monday 10 November 2025. Please look at the requirements for written evidence submissions and note that the Committee cannot accept material as evidence that is published elsewhere. You can request anonymity or confidentiality when you send evidence, but it is the Committee which decides what information to publish and how. It may treat submissions confidentially, even where you have not requested this. Please note that the Committee’s inquiry cannot assist with individual cases. If you need help with an individual problem you are having, you may wish to read the information on Parliament’s website about who you can contact with different issues . Show less

18 Recommendations

12 Conclusions

1 Report

1 Oral session

4 Letters

1 Event

Activity timeline 8 events

7 Apr
2026

Report published

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Sixty-third report from Session 2024-26

12 Mar
2026

Correspondence

Letter from the Acting Permanent Secretary at the Home Office relating to the Committee’s inquiry into Increasing police productivity, 04 M…

23 Feb
2026

Correspondence

Letter from the Chief Executive Officer of the College of Policing relating to a follow-up to the Committee’s evidence session on 24 Novemb…

28 Jan
2026

Report published

63rd Report - Increasing police productivity

8 Jan
2026

Correspondence

Letter from the Second Permanent Secretary at the Home Office relating to the Committee’s evidence session on 24 November 2025 on Increasin…

15 Dec
2025

Correspondence

Letter from the Chief Executive Officer at The College of Policing relating to the Committee’s evidence session on 24 November 2025 on Incr…

24 Nov
2025

Oral evidence

Oral evidence session

24 Nov
2025

Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Grimond Room, Portcullis House

Committee event

Oral evidence sessions 1 session

24 Nov 2025

View on parliament.uk

Bethan Page-Jones · Home Office Dame Antonia Romeo DCB · Ministry of Justice James Bottomley · College of Policing Richard Clarke · Home Office Sir Andy Marsh QPM · College of Policing

Reports 1 report · click to expand

Title	HC No.	Published	Items	Response
63rd Report - Increasing police productivity	HC 1239	28 Jan 2026	30	Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

11 results

11 Conclusion Acknowledged

63rd Report - Increasing police pr…

Police forces face growing demands from complex crimes and new responsibilities.

Police forces are facing growing demands. This includes an increase in the number of crimes which require more specialist resources to investigate; for example, fraud crimes, sexual offences, and stalking and harassment offences increased from 768,000 cases in 2014–15 (18% … Read more

Government Response

The government agrees and will work closely with policing to understand the impact of policy changes, consider impacts of policies on local authorities, and work with policing to identify if processes in place to manage burdens are sufficient.

HM Treasury

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12 Recommendation Acknowledged

63rd Report - Increasing police pr…

Home Office has not fully costed sentencing reform impacts on policing.

In his written submission, Sir Stephen House highlighted how policing productivity must be considered in the context of an effective end-to-end process.26 We asked the Home Office how it is working with other departments to understand how policy decisions might … Read more

Government Response

The Home Office will work closely with policing to fully understand the impact of any policy changes that affect policing, and is working with policing and relevant departments to understand what changes are required to help policing meet these costs.

HM Treasury

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13 Recommendation Acknowledged

63rd Report - Increasing police pr…

Home Office progress on cross-departmental drug addiction work remains preliminary.

The Home Office acknowledged that further work is required with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the Department for Education and Department for Work and Pensions to understand the whole system join-up and ensure the impact of policy … Read more

Government Response

HM Treasury

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14 Conclusion Acknowledged

63rd Report - Increasing police pr…

Government allocates significant ringfenced funding for police officer numbers and neighbourhood roles.

Since the Police Uplift Programme was established in 2019, the government has ringfenced funding to increase and maintain police officer numbers. In 2025–26, the government allocated £270 million to police forces through the officer maintenance grant, which forces are only … Read more

Government Response

The government has abolished the Police Officer Maintenance Grant from 1 April 2026 and will focus on what officers are doing rather than officer numbers, allocating £363 million to incentivise forces to grow neighbourhood policing teams towards 13,000 additional personnel across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament.

HM Treasury

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16 Recommendation Acknowledged

63rd Report - Increasing police pr…

Police forces struggle to recruit and retain specialist IT staff due to competition.

Police forces face difficulties recruiting and retaining staff with specialist skills, including IT staff, inhibiting their ability to deploy new technology. The Home Office told us that part of the challenge is that all 43 forces are seeking to recruit … Read more

Government Response

The government agrees, has abolished the officer maintenance grant, provides funding to strengthen neighbourhood policing and modernise frontline capability, and outlines plans to improve leadership, professional development and create a new national workforce strategy.

HM Treasury

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17 Recommendation Acknowledged

63rd Report - Increasing police pr…

Police officers lack adequate skills to investigate complex crimes like fraud effectively.

Police forces must also invest in the skills of their workforce to be able to respond to the changing nature of crime. Evidence submitted by ADS Group Ltd stated that, according to a 2025 Police Foundation report, half of police … Read more

Government Response

HM Treasury

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21 Conclusion Acknowledged

63rd Report - Increasing police pr…

Fragmented police HR and other systems lack a firm plan for national simplification.

We sought reassurances that the Home Office was considering simplifying police systems, such as those used in human resources. The Home Office recognised police forces use many different systems and it is a highly fragmented picture. It told us that … Read more

Government Response

The government agrees and states that the Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme (PECP) aims to achieve savings through various workstreams and greater consistency across policing in IT, fleet, and energy spend, with consideration given to mandating approaches where appropriate.

HM Treasury

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22 Conclusion Acknowledged

63rd Report - Increasing police pr…

BlueLight Commercial services are underutilised by police forces, lacking mandatory engagement.

We asked the Home Office whether BlueLight Commercial had been a success. The Home Office said it has made some progress changing the behaviours and culture of police forces to generate savings, but it had not been used to the … Read more

Government Response

HM Treasury

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23 Conclusion Acknowledged

63rd Report - Increasing police pr…

Home Office monitors police efficiency program progress, while College seeks measurement consistency.

We asked whether the Home Office had the data needed to monitor progress towards its planned savings of £354 million by 2028–29.58 The Home Office said it is important to get the right data to hold police 51 Qq 75-77, … Read more

Government Response

HM Treasury

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27 Conclusion Acknowledged

63rd Report - Increasing police pr…

Home Office advancing policing productivity initiatives; diagnostic tool launch delayed until April 2026.

We asked what progress the Home Office has made implementing the recommendations of the 2023 Policing Productivity Review, which identified the potential to save 38 million hours of police time over five years. The Home Office said it had taken … Read more

Government Response

The Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme (PECP) has an annual cashable efficiencies target of £354 million by 2028-29 and a non-cashable efficiencies target of saving thousands of officer hours. PECP will achieve savings through four workstreams: commercial including cost recovery, productivity, data and the enabling services of the National Police Service.

HM Treasury

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30 Conclusion Acknowledged

63rd Report - Increasing police pr…

Home Office anticipates police reform White Paper impact from 2026-27, abolishing PCCs and establishing National Centre.

The Home Office said that it expects the police reform White Paper to start having an impact from 2026–27.86 As part of this, the Home Office said that it will work out implementation plans to establish new arrangements following the … Read more

Government Response

The government published the Police Reform White Paper, setting out an ambitious programme to improve the quality, consistency and efficiency of policing. Plans to abolish the Police and Crime Commissioner model at the end of their current term in May 2028.

HM Treasury

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Government Response AI assessment · 30 of 18 classified

Accepted 14

Accepted in Part 1

Acknowledged 11

Deferred 3

Not Addressed 1

Total 18 recs + 12 conclusions

Correspondence 4 letters

12 Mar 2026 To committee Letter from the Acting Permanent Secretary at the Home Office relating to the Committee’s inquiry into Increasing police productivity, 04 March 2026

Parliament page

23 Feb 2026 To committee Letter from the Chief Executive Officer of the College of Policing relating to a follow-up to the Committee’s evidence session on 24 November 2025 on Increasing police productivity, 18 February 2026

Parliament page

8 Jan 2026 To committee Letter from the Second Permanent Secretary at the Home Office relating to the Committee’s evidence session on 24 November 2025 on Increasing police productivity, 12 December 2025

Parliament page

15 Dec 2025 To committee Letter from the Chief Executive Officer at The College of Policing relating to the Committee’s evidence session on 24 November 2025 on Increasing Police productivity, 08 December 2025

Parliament page