This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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New unit aims to improve frontline policing
27/09/2004
A new Business Benefits Unit is to be set up by the
Executive and Association of Chief Police Officers in
Scotland to help forces improve their efficiency and
finances are concentrated on frontline policing.
The unit will seek out savings in back-office functions
such as IT and payroll, and advise forces on how best to
cut red-tape and squeeze best value out of their
procedures.
A pilot scheme to improve the way police vehicles are
sourced and maintained is already under way and is expected
to yield savings of £200,000 a year.
Ministers expect the new unit be self-funding after two
years and to identify significant savings - all of which
can be ploughed into frontline police efforts to prevent
and detect crime.
Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson described the unit as 'a
tangible way in which a key public service can manage its
affairs more efficiently, and make a contribution to a
safer society'.
Initially based with ACPOS Secretariat and supported by
£288,200 in Executive funding, it will:
- Scrutinise forces' best value reviews to help them
improve efficiency and ensure that existing good
practice is spread across the country
- Develop standard ways of managing back office work
such as legal advice, IT support, and procurement which
will be rolled out across the country, and where
appropriate, handled nationally
- Help forces implement and monitor the changes being
introduced as part of these reviews, to ensure they are
delivering results
Ms Jamieson said:
"We are committed to strengthening Scotland's police
forces in the fight against crime. That's why our policy is
to invest in the police, and encourage reform with a
package of measures to ensure more frontline officers spend
more police time on what they do best - tackling crime.
"Clearly, if back office work such as payroll, IT
support and procurement can be made more efficient and cost
effective, then more money can be spent on frontline
policing.
"Vital work that may initially be invisible to the
public - but which in time will be highly visible in terms
of frontline police initiatives.
"The police have already been piloting such work through
a national review of fleet management.
"This has already identified potential savings of around
£200,000 a year through all forces using one supplier for
different types of police vehicles.
"It is time to step up the pace of that reform, step up
the savings, and start to translate hard work behind the
scenes into resources on the street and in our
communities.
"That vital work will now be led by the new Business
Benefits Unit which will support each of Scotland's eight
police forces on overseeing and auditing their best value
reviews, and implementing and monitoring the
recommendations from those and future reviews.
"This unit is a tangible way in which the a key public
service can manage its affairs more efficiently, and make a
contribution to a safer society."
Colin McKerracher, Chief Constable of Grampian,
said:
"The creation of a Business Benefits Unit demonstrates
the commitment of the police service in Scotland to
increasing efficiency and improving the level of service it
delivers.
"The unit will add significantly to the capacity that
ACPOS has to systematically examine key areas of its back
office processes and to move forward an ambitious programme
of review and evaluation.
"The aim is to identify and fully exploit potential
efficiency gains and areas for quality improvement and to
do so way that is sustainable in the long term.
"An important feature of the BBU approach is that all
gains will be quantifiable and the benefits derived from
them will have a direct impact on the quality of the
support being delivered to frontline policing."
The creation of the unit follows a proposal from ACPOS
during the ongoing review of common police services, which
aims to extend the range of services provided
nationally.
The Executive will provide £288,200 - £93,000 in
2004-05, £130,200 in 2005/06 and £65,000 in 2006-07 - for
the first two years of the project.
The BBU will then be evaluated and become self-financing
from the savings accrued from its work. It will include
three full time staff.
The BBU will initially be based within ACPOS Secretariat
but will eventually become part of the new common police
services organisation which will be set up as part of the
planned Police Bill.
The back office processes to be examined by the unit
will include:
- management and maintenance of fleet vehicles, with
the aim of standardising the vehicles and vehicle kit
used by each of Scotland's forces
- finance/payroll
- procurement, for example the buying of gas and
electricity, IT equipment, uniforms
- IT support
- Estates management
- Custodier, which for example would cover the
storage and handling of lost property, and storage of
evidence of court proceedings
- Health and safety, for example the provision of
health and safety and occupational health services to
officers
- Legal, for example provision of advice on
conveyancing as well as court matters