§ The Minister for Crime Reduction, Policing and Community Safety (Ms Hazel Blears)I am announcing today that I have commissioned an end-to-end review of the Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) and its business processes, including its role in the provision of information technology and communications services to the police.
PITO is a non-departmental public body established as a body corporate under the Police Act of 1997. PITO was to have been reviewed under the now superseded quinquennial arrangements. We now intend that the review will address itself primarily to an examination of how PITO delivers its organisational objectives of ICT provision to the police. Within that context the review will also examine the current structure of PITO, to determine whether it is appropriate to deliver the best possible provision of ICT to the police service and the criminal justice system.
The provision of high quality information and communications technology to the police and the criminal justice system is vital, not only to manage 31WS efficiency throughout the system, but also to ensure officers are better equipped to deliver front-line policing. PITO has a key role to play and the purpose of this review is to look at how well its current structure supports that objective and to make recommendations for changes if necessary.
I have asked Robert McFarland to lead the review. He has previous experience of public sector reviews, having served on the review of the Crown Prosecution Service in 1998, and having led the review of the Forensic Science Service in 2002–03.