Police Procurement is ‘clearly inefficient’

14 Jul 2016 12:32 PM

The Home Affairs Select Committee publishes its report on the College of Policing, highlighting current inefficiencies in police procurement.

Earlier this week the Home Affairs Select Committee released its report on the College of Policing, examining the progress it has made in the three years since its creation. College of Policing: three years on concluded that there is an ‘alarming lack of consistency’ across the country’s police forces.

Current police procurement practises are described as ‘clearly inefficient’, and the Committee calls on the College of Policing to provide central advice to forces on procurement and technical issues, so that significant savings can be realised through increased collaboration and reductions in duplication. This particularly applies to procurement of specialist equipment. “It is self-evident that equipment should be standardised across policing because it could reduce purchasing and training costs and increase interoperability when forces work together.”

The reports highlights that police procurement has been a concern for the Committee ‘for some time.’ Every police force has responsibility for its own procurement. This approach has grown organically over time, rather than being designed, and “the inefficiency in such an approach is clear.” The Committee acknowledges the work the Home Office has undertaken to improve procurement, commissioning a Collaborative Law Enforcement Procurement Programme (CLEP) to review police procurement and improve value for money. But the report concludes that despite these efforts, police procurement is still too inefficient.

Responding to the report, techUK’s Programme Manager for Justice and Emergency Services, Henry Rex, said “The Committee is right to highlight the flaws and inefficiencies in police procurement practices. In order to deliver value for money police must be more co-ordinated and collaborative in their approach to procurement, especially when it comes to buying specialist equipment and capabilities. techUK looks forward to working with the Home Office, the Police ICT Company, the College of Policing, and forces, as they work to clarify the stakeholder landscape for suppliers and co-ordinate their approach to procurement.”