Action plan to improve PNC performance in the MPS

Report: 12
Date: 14 September 2006
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report forms part of the ongoing MPS commitment to improving the performance of Police National Computer. MPS Performance for creating 90% of Arrest Summons (AS) numbers within 24 hrs is now 81%, the national average is 72%. MPS performance for imputing 75% of court disposals within 10 days is 46%, the national average is 61%. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) remains concerned about MPS performance regarding updating court results onto the PNC in a timely fashion. Performance is slowly improving but requires significant coordinated action by the courts, Operational Command Units and PNC Bureau (PNCB). Significant progress has been made on the action plan to improve PNC performance. However, it is unclear at this stage what effect the proposed move of PNCB to Marlow House will have on staff retention and consequently impact further on PNC performance.

A. Recommendation

That members note the attached report and associated action plan to improve PNC performance in the MPS.

B. Supporting information

1. Since the Police and Criminal Evidence Act was amended in April 2004 to allow fingerprints and DNA of suspects who have been arrested for recordable offences to be taken, there has been in the MPS a 70% increase in the number of entries placed on PNC.

2. Between 14 and 18 February 2005 HMIC visited the MPS and completed a PNC Compliance Inspection across the organisation and rated the MPS compliance as ‘Poor’. HMIC consequently made 23 recommendations.

3. In response, the PNCB produced a comprehensive action plan to address these concerns. Considerable progress has been made with the action plan. The outstanding actions can be found at Appendix 1.

4. In December 2005, the Actual Workforce Target (AWT) for PNCB was 130, it currently stands at 157 and will eventually reach 165. The increase in staff has started to address the backlog of work in PNCB.

5. Table 1 below shows that MPS performance for the two key national Performance Indicators (PIs) for the PNC. The placing of arrestees on the PNC within 24 hours is 81%, below the national target but 9% above the national average. Operation Emerald is using its performance meeting with Criminal Justice Unit managers to improve this performance and achieving the national target of 90%, is a realistic goal.

Table 1 – PNC Key Performance Indicators in the MPS the National Average is shown in Brackets

6. Improving the PI for placing court disposals within 10 days is more problematic. Courts should submit a validated court list to the OCUs within 3 days. Currently they are taking on average 9 days. OCUs are on average taking 52 days to submit this list to PNCB and PNCB take on average 37 days to place it on the PNC. Resulting of cases which conclude with No Further Action (NFA) under the counting rules also contribute to this PI. They are relatively quick and easy to result but on average OCUs take 37 days to submit them to PNC. Operation Emerald is again using their performance meeting with CJU managers to improve performance in both these areas.

7. Court resulting is one of the more complex tasks undertaken within PNCB. The increase in AWT is now starting to show improvement in a number of key functions. In July 2006 PNC took 185 days to result 75% of all cases, in August that figure was 129 days. This is still a long way from the required 10 days but significant improvement nevertheless.

8. Appendix 2 shows further improvement in PNCB’s reduction in outstanding disposals, court resulting and response times for answering calls. Chart 3, Appendix 2 shows a slight increase in the August response time but this can be attributed to annual leave. PNCB now answer 56% of all calls within one minute.

9. The rollout of the National Strategy for Police Information Systems (NSPIS) in the MPS commenced on the 9 August at Newham. NSPIS allows OCUs to automatically create AS numbers rather than ringing PNCB as happens now. This should lead to a significant reduction in the number of staff required to work in PNCB who create AS numbers. The Newham experience should give valuable insight to the actual business benefits of NSPIS and the number of staff required in PNCB after full roll out.

10. Currently, NSPIS is not being used for court resulting at Newham as it awaits a software upgrade, which should be in place in September 06. It is intended that PNCB will then pilot court resulting at Newham. Avon & Somerset Police are already piloting NSPIS resulting and their early experience is that court resulting will be completed in a timelier manner, but there are no savings in staff required to complete resulting. This is mainly because NSPIS requires the imputer to complete interim results such as court remands, which were previously not entered onto PNC.

11. PNCB is to amalgamate with a number of other MPS units. It has been proposed that all these units will be based at Marlowe House in Kent. Full consultation is taking place and a business case for such a move is being prepared for consideration by Management Board.

C. Race and equality impact

There are no known race or diversity issues.

D. Financial implications

There are no direct financial implications arising from this matter, as all costs are bourn from within existing Specialist Crime budget lines although currently eighteen of the staff positions in PNCB are unfunded.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Det Supt. David Miveld, MPS

For more information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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