HC Deb 02 February 1989 vol 146 cc385-6W
68. Mr. Norris

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to promote greater efficiency in the Metropolitan police.

79. Mr. Carrington

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress he has made in securing greater value for money from the Metropolitan police.

81. Mr. Gerald Bowden

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress he has made in securing greater value for money from the Metropolitan police.

Mr. Douglas Hogg

Measures have been introduced on a number of fronts to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and economic use of Metropolitan police resources and to ensure value for money of Metropolitan police expenditure. Changes were made last year to the systems of estimating, monitoring and controlling expenditure and to the composition of the cash limit in order to strengthen the controls on running costs and other current expenditure. An estimate screening process has been introduced to concentrate attention on the relative priorities of competing demands, increasing value for money in the use of resources and identifying policies or projects which require more detailed examination. Work is being done on the improvement of financial management information and pilot schemes to assess the effectiveness of divisional budgets. There is a programme of civilianisation to release police officers for operational duties and to ensure that functions are carried out in the most economic way. Independent inspections by Her Majesty's inspectors of constabulary will augment the internal system of inspections in measuring the efficiency of the force.

Other initiatives aimed at improving greater Efficiency and value for money include a continuing programme of scrutinies and reviews, contracting out of services, and the wider use of output measures and performance indicators.

Some recent achievements include: 218 headquarters posts abolished through reorganisation in the last three years; 1,300 posts devolved from headquarters to areas in the last three years; 322 posts civilianised since March 1986; 500 cleaning posts contracted out; hours spent on street duty in 1988 up by some 7.5 per cent. over the previous year; a reduction of 10 per cent. in real terms in the overtime budget; a 7 per cent. improvement in arrest rates; and a 6 per cent. improvement in clear-up rates.