§ Mr. ReedTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the percentage of police officer time in Leicestershire spent on paperwork in the last year for which figures are available. [113169]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeInformation on the proportion of time spent by police officers on different tasks is not held centrally. The Association of Chief Police Officers is currently recommending a paper-based method of activity sampling which can be subjected to automated analysis, and is examining Information Technology solutions for the future. These will be compatible with systems being developed under the Home Office's National Strategy for Police Information Systems (NSPIS).
The Government are determined to do everything in their power to help increase the effectiveness of the police in fighting crime, and to ensure that officers are able to spend as much of their time as possible on the front line, as the following measures demonstrate:
The NSPIS Custody and Case Preparation systems, in which we recently announced a new £40 million investment, will minimise the effort involved in completing forms from arrest to prosecution. There are about 1.3 million paper case-files a year which travel between the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts. In the course of preparing cases, police officers complete many different forms, repeating information which had already been made available for other legal requirements. The Custody and Case Preparation systems will automatically share information for delivery to the relevant bodies. This not only saves the police time completing forms, but also avoids making mistakes which take further time to resolve.
The National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) will make possible the electronic capture and identification of fingerprints directly from those who come into custody. This eliminates the need for paper copies and clerical activity and speeds up access to any relevant history.
The introduction of the Public Service Radio Communications System (PSRCS), which will provide data as well as voice communications, will give the police direct information links to police computer systems while they are on patrol, reducing the need to return to the station to complete forms or to obtain important operational information and increasing their operational availability.
504WMeasures introduced last November following the recommendations of the Narey report on Delays in the Criminal Justice systems have gone some way towards reducing the administrative burdens on police officers, and it may be that action which is now being taken pursuant to the Glidewell report on the Crown Prosecution Service will also help in this respect. But work on prosecution case files forms only a part, albeit an important one, of the paperwork required of the police.
The Cabinet Office 'Public Sector Efficiency Team', set up to investigate and provide ways of reducing the burden of bureaucracy in the public sector, have recently published "Making a Difference: Reducing Police Paperwork". The report examines the impact of paperwork on front-line officers, identifying forms that are a burden to the police. It sets out practical solutions that will lead to a significant reduction in the amount of time police have to spend on paperwork by simplifying or removing reports from the system.
§ Mr. HealdTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what methodologies have been developed to estimate the time spent by police officers on(a) paperwork, (b) detection and (c) prevention of crime; and if he will make a statement. [114365]
§ Mr. Charles Clarke[holding answer 13 March 2000]: Information on the proportion of time spent by police officers on different tasks is not held centrally. The Association of Chief Police Officers is currently recommending a paper-based method of activity sampling which can be subjected to automated analysis, and is examining Information Technology solutions for the future. These will be compatible with systems being developed under the Home Office's National Strategy for Police Information Systems (NSPIS).
The Government are determined to do everything in their power to help increase the effectiveness of the police in fighting crime, and to ensure that officers are able to spend as much of their time as possible on the front line, as the following measures demonstrate:
The NSPIS Custody and Case Preparation systems, in which we recently announced a new £40 million investment, will minimise the effort involved in completing forms from arrest to prosecution. There are about 1.3 million paper case-files a year which travel between the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts. In the course of preparing cases, police officers complete many different forms, repeating information which had already been made available for other legal requirements. The Custody and Case Preparation systems will automatically share information for delivery to the relevant bodies. This not only saves the police time completing forms, but also avoids making mistakes which take further time to resolve.
The National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) will; make possible the electronic capture and identification of fingerprints directly from those who come into custody. This eliminates the need for paper copies and clerical activity and speeds up access to any relevant history.
The introduction of the Public Service Radio Communications System (PSRCS), which will provide data as well as voice communications, will give the police 505W direct information links to police computer systems while they are on patrol, reducing the need to return to the station to complete forms or to obtain important operational information and increasing their operational availability.
Measures introduced last November following the recommendations of the Narey report on Delays in the Criminal Justice systems have gone some way towards reducing the administrative burdens on police officers, and it may be that action which is now being taken pursuant to the Glidewell report on the Crown Prosecution Service will also help in this respect. But work on prosecution case files forms only a part, albeit an important one, of the paperwork required of the police.
The Cabinet Office 'Public Sector Efficiency Team', set up to investigate and provide ways of reducing the burden of bureaucracy in the public sector, have recently published "Making a Difference: Reducing Police Paperwork". The report examines the impact of paperwork on front-line officers, identifying forms that are a burden to the police. It sets out practical solutions that will lead to a significant reduction in the amount of time police have to spend on paperwork by simplifying or removing reports from the system.