National Policing Plan

Firstly there is statutory requirement on the Home Secretary to produce a National Policing Plan annually. The reasoning behind this is to provide a single place for announcing priorities, expectations, targets and new developments for policing in England and Wales. This single focus is of positive benefit for local planning. Secondly there is a need to raise the performance of the police in reducing crime and the fear of criminality, particularly in relation to those crimes which affect so many citizens. The NPP is a key element in achieving this aim by the establishment of the Home Secretary’s priorities. We need to continue to build on our success in reducing the overall level of crime over the past five years. Public investment must mean reform and it must result in safer and more cohesive communities.

The NPP provides a framework to promote high standards and bring every police force up to the performance of the best. The overarching aim of the plan is to deliver improved police performance and enhanced public reassurance with particular regard to the following priorities:

• Providing a citizen focused service to the public, especially victims and witnesses, which responds to the needs of individuals and communities, and inspires confidence in the police, particularly amongst minority ethnic communities.
• Tackling anti-social behaviour and disorder.
• Continuing to reduce burglary, vehicle crime, robbery and drug-related crime in line with the Government’s Public Service Agreement targets.
• Combating serious and organised crime, both across and within force boundaries.
• Narrowing the justice gap by increasing the number of offences brought to justice.

Underpinning themes which are national rather than force specific and in which the Government expects all forces to engage as part of the national endeavour. They are:

• Community engagement and civil renewal.
• Countering terrorism and the threat of terrorism.

Largely, no. The priority of a citizen focused service is, however, new and reflects the development in thinking in this area since the last National Policing Plan. It also sits well with the overall theme of community engagement and civil renewal. However, as the key priorities are designed to inform planning for three years at a time, continuity is important and the other priorities reflect this. They also correctly identify what have been major public concerns for some years and which are unlikely to diminish rapidly in importance in the immediate future. These priorities should be at the heart of local planning and provide a focus of expectation for the public.

A priority is a specific indication of activity or activities that need to be implemented to secure particular goals when it comes to planning resources, initiatives and programmes in policing. A theme should be that mindset that dominates the thinking both of the planning and the delivery of policing - whether key priorities or other ongoing police work. It will initially provoke planners and managers to ask questions as to whether particular operations, training packages or proposals reflect an intention to further community engagement or countering terrorism or not. Both themes reflect a strong Government commitment that for the sake of healthy social, economic and personal relationships, then Britain must engage in a period of civil renewal. It also reflects the Government's refusal to contemplate any level of terrorist activity as acceptable.

The key priorities are for three years, but the Police Reform Act 2002 requires the Home Secretary to set these out annually in the company of any targets, objectives, regulations, codes of practice, guidance and developments that he intends for the following financial year. Thus each National Policing Plan is part of a rolling programme.

Firstly, it weighs less. The NPP 2003-06 not only set out the strategic priorities for the police service over a three year period, it also set out (legitimately) the sorts of things chief officers of police and police authorities needed to take account of in drawing up local plans. The NPP 2004-07 adopts a similar set of priorities, identical targets, but a good deal less narrative on the breadth of policing activity that goes on in England and Wales. This National Policing Plan also reflects the developing work of the Policing Performance Assessment Framework (PPAF), a major project which we are developing with the police service to appropriately weight, categorise and assess a wide range of policing activity. It will enable forces, police authorities and the Government to assess progress down to the level of Basic Command Unit, assess strengths, measure weaknesses and plan for improvement.

The Home Secretary highlighted his agenda for civil renewal in his Edith Kahn speech The Government has at the heart of its policy the desire to reinvigorate communities and give people a real opportunity to contribute to the development and delivery of local services. High crime and insecurity can and do erode the quality of life. The police and their partner organisations need to work together to build safer communities. The Civil Renewal agenda is rooted in localism where consistent and effective local services are shaped and developed with strong and active communities. Development of greater accountability at a local level is a powerful lever to improve police performance for the benefit of everyone. This is a long-term programme and the NPP gives a strong lead as to the direction in the future. Forces and authorities should take the related initiatives on community cohesion and civil renewal into account when developing their local strategic and annual policing plans.

The Government is firmly of the opinion that the police service as a core part of the criminal justice system should be anchored in and accountable to the communities it serves. A means of improving on the current situation and ensuring local accountability is to explore the possibilities of further delegation to Basic Command Unit level and beyond to neighbourhood level. Police authorities should examine their role to ensure they are effective, visible and responsive to their communities. They can do so through the successful implementation of local policing plans and as the conduit for information about what the police are doing and need to do. The police service and police authorities should conduct an examination of their role in communities, seeking to ensure that all of their partners see crime reduction and community safety as core responsibilities. Local strategic and annual policing plans should describe how forces and authorities intend to play the fullest possible role in these wider developments.

 In some areas crime and the fear of crime remains high whilst public expectations, generally continue to increase. The Home Office PSAs commit it to improving the performance of police forces. Performance needs to be measured and compared consistently to support the development of best practice. PPAF enshrines this approach. In February 2003 the first set of performance monitors was published, providing for the first time a high level summary of relative force performance across different police business areas and between groups of most similar forces. A second set of monitors was published in October 2003. The Government is of the view that PPAF provides an excellent analytical basis for enabling forces and authorities to identify the progress they have to make and the scale of the issues involved.

There has been significant progress made against all of the milestones listed at Annex C of the NPP 2003/06. Detail of progress is included at Annex A of the NPP 2004/07 but briefly successes include:

• The deployment of more than 1900 Community Safety Officers in England and Wales, with the expectation that there will be 2500 CSOs in 38 police forces by the end of March 2004. This is far in excess of the milestone figure of 1000.
• Increased use of anti social behaviour orders.
• The publication of the Police Performance Monitoring Document for 2002/3.
• The installation of 175 Livescan units in 27 forces, the abolition of over 2800 forms in 6 forces as part of the trial to reduce the amount of paperwork undertaken by officers and the national roll out of fixed penalty notices which will be completed by early 2004.
• The best practice on street crime which is being spread by the Association of Chief Police Officers and Police Standards Unit.
• £50 million per annum made available to Basic Command Units in high crime areas.

No. The Home Secretary is responsible to Parliament for the performance of the police service nationally, so it is reasonable for the Home Secretary to set out his and the public’s expectations. There are some targets – not as many as people think – and there are a number of initiatives aimed at the key business of reducing crime and the fear of crime. Not all initiatives originate with the Home Office as suggestions from ACPO, the APA and the staff associations have been taken onboard. The onus however will still be on delivering local priorities. The NPP sets out a framework of national standards against which local performance will be judged. The fact remains however, that there is a need to continue to get crime down and detections and convictions up. The Plan sets out the means by which the reduction of crime and criminality can be made a reality. Decision making and initiative remain overwhelmingly local matters.

The Plan provides clarity about what forces and BCU commanders are expected to achieve and the resources with which they are expected to deliver it. It is of central importance that police officers are carried with us in the process of introducing the plan. This is not a message we have ignored. Central to the consultation for this year’s NPP have been very useful discussions with ACPO, the Superintendents’ Association and the Police Federation. Also the Minister and senior officials have also, as part of the consultation process, attended a number of regional conferences to consult interested parties about the NPP including a number of individual BCU commanders.

The Government recognises fully the fact that most crime is local in nature and that it is only right that local forces operate with freedom from central control. There are a range of crimes however that blight the lives of people and communities throughout the country and these form the basis of the strategic priorities for the police service in the NPP. Within this framework decisions on local priorities are a matter for the force commanders for example where specific types of crimes are faced in particular locations the local force will obviously treat these with importance. It is well established that police forces and authorities mesh local circumstances with national priorities. The increased use of the National Intelligence Model has already resulted in an increase in the detection rate and a reduction in crime, disorder, and anti social behaviour.

No. It is simply that local targets and priorities will predominate. The Government will not micro-manage.

Forces and police authorities have long been involved in medium term planning so the introduction of three-year strategic plans under Section 92 of the Police Reform Act 2002 is not a drastic step change from what was being done previously. The main difference is that the arrangements are now formalised and the legislation requires the three-year plans published.

No. It is true that forces must play their part in the reductions identified nationally as necessary for volume crime and police authorities must plan in line with the key priorities set by the Home Secretary. However, the scope beyond this is wide and local plans will reflect the local needs and expectations of local people. Priorities and targets will be set accordingly by the police authority on the basis of how best to meet public expectations.

Whilst the national target for the reduction of robbery relates to those areas which have the highest prevalence of such crime it is not the case that such crimes only occur in those areas. Accordingly, all local strategic plans should reflect lessons learnt from the Street Crime Initiative.

It is appreciated that in very few force areas a particular type of crime may be particularly small in number eg: some areas do not have a great deal of street robbery. However, there is no police area which is entirely unaffected by such crime. Where such crime is relatively rare, forces must ensure that steps are taken to ensure that, at the bare minimum such crime does not rise above the existing figures. Where particular crime types are focussed in a defined geographical location within the force area forces should take steps to ensure that the number of such criminal acts is reduced.

Police authorities should examine successive National Policing Plans to see whether modification is necessary - as it will this year. Similarly, authorities and forces should monitor changing crime patterns and significant local developments to see if any revisions need to be made before the completion of the planning cycle. They should take the opportunity of alignment with the cycle of CDRP strategies for consistency of planning. Annual policing and best value performance plans should be consistent with local three-year strategic plans. Where a review leads to a modification of the plan either as a whole or in part, the modified plan or modifications once agreed locally, should be sent to the Home Secretary who should receive them no later than 2 months after the date of approval by the police authority.

The Home Secretary will review the plans received in relation to compliance with the National Policing Plan as soon as possible. In the vast majority of cases there will be no difficulty in doing this. However where there are concerns about compliance of the three year plans with the NPP, the Home Secretary will consult the Chief Officer, the local police authority and the Association of Police Authorities and ACPO before formally responding to the police authority.

 In developing their three-year strategies authorities and forces should have regard to local crime and disorder strategies being prepared by CDRPs. It is appreciated that it is not possible immediately to ensure convergence of timescales for the different plans needed to be produced. However the current three -year strategy plan covers the period to 31 March 2005. Subsequent three - year periods will commence on 1 April 2005, 1 April 2008 and every third year thereafter. Accordingly this should ensure that the timescales of these plans converge with those of the Crime and Reduction Partnership Plans by 2005 and the Drug Action Team Plans by 2008. CDRPs will be auditing their current strategies in 2004/5 and it is important that police authorities and forces take part in this with an eye to aligning planning from 2005/6.

Most targets are set at the discretion of the police authority and it is a matter of public expectation and local judgement as to changes that may be made in previously set targets - either to be become less challenging or more robust. However, there are a small number of national targets. The Home Secretary has not set specific targets for each force to meet, but does expect the police service as a whole to meet the targets set under the Home Office's Public Service Agreements. To do so, it is important that forces meet the targets set them by their police authorities in April 2000. Each police authority and force should, therefore examine the data available, utilise best practice and plan resources for an ambitious reduction in vehicle crime, burglary and (where appropriate) robbery. 2004/5 will be a crunch year for the achievement of public expectation in crime reduction.

A number of hard copies have been sent to each police authority and chief officer of police. Additional copies (with a ceiling) may be ordered from PROLOG on 0870 241 4680, fax 0870 241 4786 or email homeoffice@prolog.uk.com and not from the Home Office.

The guidance issued on 27 August was guidance over a range of planning and simply consolidated the existing guidance on three-year strategic plans issued in January. The issue of three year plans this Spring has enabled us to better judge the needs of guidance and this is reflected in the document.