The proposed ‘merger’ of the Royal Parks Constabulary with the Metropolitan Police Service

Report: 4
Date: 12 November 2004
By: Commissioner

Summary

Agreement was reached in 2003 for the Royal Parks Constabulary to be merged into the MPS, and for the MPS to take on the policing of London’s Royal Parks, funded by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

This merger has been conducted as a three-stage process:

• Early in 2004, the Secretary of State for Culture asked the MPS to assist in policing, and a new MPS OCU, the Royal Parks OCU, was created on 1 April 2004.
• Police Regulations were changed in July 2004, enabling them to be applied to members of the RPC. To date, 88 RPC officers have transferred into the MPS.
• Primary legislation is required to enable a merger to take place, and it is anticipated that clauses may be included in the forthcoming Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill. Depending on the Bill’s progress, the RPC could be wound up in early summer 2005, with responsibility for policing the Royal Parks passing to the Commissioner on that date.

A. Recommendations

That Members note the progress of this initiative.

B. Supporting information

Project management

1. DAC House leads this project, which is overseen by a Steering Group of which the Clerk to the MPA is a member. Other members are the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the Royal Parks Agency and the Home Office.

2. T/Chief Superintendent Helen Ball has had day-to-day control of the project from 1 September 2003, and assumed the role of OCU Commander on 1 April 2004.

Stage 1 – Formation of MPS Operational Command Unit

3. Under the Parks Regulation Act 1872, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Tessa Jowell, has responsibility for policing the ten major Royal Parks and several smaller pieces of Crown Land, [1] which comprise an area of more than 6,000 acres.

4. The Royal Parks Constabulary (RPC) is responsible to the Secretary of State through the Royal Parks Agency (RPA), and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The RPC as currently constituted lacks an independent Police Authority and therefore is not properly accountable. The officers have full police powers, but only within the Royal Parks. RPC officers are employees of the Royal Parks Agency, are both civil servants and attested police officers and have a retirement age of 60.

5. Following a critical inspection report of the RPC by former-AC Anthony Speed in 2000, the DCMS requested that the RPC be merged into the MPS, and a separate and distinct ‘Royal Parks Operational Command Unit’ be created, as recommended in the Speed report. In 2003, the MPA approved the principle of a merger and the creation of a new MPS OCU on a cost-neutral basis.

6. Without a change to primary legislation it is ultra vires for the Commissioner to take on the responsibility of policing the Parks. Therefore, primary legislation is needed to transfer policing responsibility from the Secretary of State for Culture to the Commissioner. This does not prevent MPS officers from exercising police powers in the Royal Parks as in other parts of London.

7. In the autumn of 2003 it became clear that it was not possible in the short to medium term to achieve the change to primary legislation needed. However, the RPC was no longer viable as an effective Force. In anticipation of a merger, it had ceased recruiting, and its numbers had reduced to the extent that there was cause for concern over whether it could carry out basic policing functions in these key iconic locations in London. At the request of the DCMS Minister, Lord McIntosh, the MPS created an OCU that contains RPC and MPS officers, with the two groups of staff being integrated as far as possible.

8. The OCU came into being on 1 April 2004, and polices all the areas that the RPC policed. It provides 24/7 uniformed response cover (from six police bases, in Hyde Park, St James’s Park, The Regent’s Park, Richmond Park, Bushy Park and Greenwich Park), with high visibility police and PCSO patrols. Features of the Royal Parks OCU include:

• A focus on the safety of open spaces. The Mayor is currently concentrating on the policing services delivered to women, including as users of parks and open spaces. The Royal Parks OCU provides the MPS with an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to the safety of parks and open spaces, as well as to the Mayor’s tourist strategy. The OCU Commander is working with GLA staff on the proposed pilot project Women’s Safety in Parks and Open Spaces. There is, too, a similarity with the work of the Transport OCU in relation to safety on buses. The Royal Parks are also an integral part of London life and one where people seek reassurance.
• Environmental issues are important to the OCU, including supporting the Royal Parks’ environmental management system. The vehicle fleet will predominantly be diesel or LPG.
• A main foundation of the policing strategy is a high number of Police Community Support Officers (currently 46). The OCU has designed the role of ‘Parks PCSO’, and this is proving popular with PCSOs themselves and with Park user groups.
• The OCU contains a Career Development Unit, enabling – in particular – transferring RPC officers to develop their skills and gain experience to enable them to deliver a service that meets the needs of the Royal Parks and is to MPS standards.

9. Before agreeing to the merger, the RPA asked the MPS to set out its intentions for policing style, accountability, staffing levels and costs post-merger. As a gesture of good faith, the MPS has compiled a ‘Statement of Intent’, which it has asserted carries no legal or contractual obligations for the MPS or the MPA. The Clerk to the MPA has been involved in this process. This Statement also forms the basis of the interim accountability agreement.

Stage 2 – Change of police regulations

10. Police Regulations were changed in July 2004, enabling them to be applied to members of the RPC. Eligible RPC officers can therefore join the MPS (or other Home Office forces) to become police officers on the same terms and conditions as they would have eventually received through a legislative merger.

11. In full, the Regulation changes are:

1. To recognise service in the RPC on a like-for-like basis when RPC officers transfer to another force;
2. To enable RPC officers transferring to a Home Office force to retain rent and/or housing allowance that they were entitled to when serving in the RPC;
3. To set out that RPC officers who have completed their probationary service will not have to serve a further period of probation after transfer to another force;
4. To allow personal records of RPC officers to be kept on transfer to another force.

12. In anticipation of merger and / or Police Regulation changes, the MPS commenced an ‘eligibility exercise’ in December 2003; through which those RPC officers who wished could have their eligibility to be MPS officers checked. The eligibility criteria checked are age, health, absence records, vetting status, and complaints & discipline records.

13. To date, 88 RPC officers, in the ranks of Constable, Sergeant, Inspector and Superintendent, have transferred into the MPS.

Stage 3 – Legislation

14. It is anticipated that clauses to effect the transfer of policing responsibility and wind up the RPC will be included in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill which is due to be introduced in the next session of Parliament. Depending on progress of the legislation, a commencement date in spring / summer 2005 is possible.

15. This would mean the remaining RPC officers, of whom there are then likely to be about 35, deciding to transfer to the MPS as either police officers or police staff members (if they remain eligible), or taking early retirement, redeployment within the DCMS or redundancy.

16. RPC officers who are not eligible to enter the MPS as police officers have been informed of their position. (There are seven MPS-retirees, three officers aged over 59 years and - currently - two whose health does not meet the eligibility criteria.) At full merger, provided they meet the requisite eligibility criteria, they will be offered the opportunity to transfer to the MPS as PCSOs or members of police staff on protected terms and conditions on a marked time basis of three years. At full merger, the DCMS will be responsible for funding any redundancies or early retirements that may arise.

17. The DCMS’s current position is that RPC officers will be considered as voluntarily redundant if they are eligible to transfer to the MPS as police officers on grounds of age but do not enter the eligibility exercise.

18. Leading Counsel’s advice is that it is highly unlikely the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (TUPE) Regulations will apply to the merger when it ultimately happens. Leading Counsel also advises that there is a strong argument that the merger should be treated as an exception to the Cabinet Office Statement of Practice which stipulates that transfers between public bodies should be treated as if TUPE applies.

19. Even if TUPE does not apply, the MPS will observe the spirit of the majority of the Regulations by ensuring that transferee staff are not financially disadvantaged. For example, officers who transfer into the MPS at merger as members of police staff will be offered three years’ marked time pay including allowances.

20. At merger, RPC vehicles will be returned and contracts terminated. The RPC will by then have no other contracts in place.

21. The MPS will require DCMS to indemnify it against claims rising from the merger and against pre-existing claims. DCMS has already indicated that it will provide such an indemnity, and has in the meantime provided an interim indemnity.

Staff

22. The current breakdown of staff in the MPS OCU is as follows:

• 11 members of MPS police staff, 5 of whom were originally administrative staff in the RPC and 5 of whom were originally stablehands contracted to the RPC;
• 86 former-RPC officers who have transferred into the MPS (two specialist-trained officers have joined the relevant MPS specialist department – see para. 25 below);
• 40 current RPC officers;
• 10 experienced MPS officers,
• 22 MPS probationers (who arrived in four intakes between April and August 2004),
• 46 PCSOs (who arrived between April and August 2004),

23. All RPC officers joining since 1980 have been recruited and trained to Home Office standards, undergoing recruit training at Ashford Police Training Centre. They have been integrated into the national promotion system since the inception of the OSPRE examinations in 1992. Skills training, such as driving, and searching, have all been delivered by national Police Training Centres. Transferring RPC officers have therefore not been required to undertake the recruit-training programme.

24. The OCU has delivered all mandatory MPS training, including policing safely, emergency life support and officer safety training. Officers are currently being trained in CRIMINT and CRIS systems, and a training needs analysis commenced in late October to establish the further training needs of transferring officers. MPS probationers undergo the corporate street duties programme followed by a bespoke set of developmental attachments to Borough OCUs so that they can benefit from the same opportunities as their Borough colleagues.

25. The RPC contained a few specialist-trained Mounted officers, dog-handlers and motorcyclists. Two of those officers who transferred to the MPS have subsequently transferred from the Royal Parks OCU to the relevant MPS specialist unit. A further nine officers plus five stablehands will transfer from the OCU to MPS Mounted Branch on 15 November 2004. The Royal Parks OCU will not contain any of these specialisms from that date.

C. Race and equality impact

1. 32 per cent of the OCU’s MPS officers and staff are women, and 14 per cent are from visible ethnic minorities. It is the intention of the OCU to at least maintain the level of female staff and to further increase the level of staff members from visible ethnic minorities.

2. The eligibility exercise includes an equal opportunities monitoring form, and the exercise is being monitored for any disproportionality. Of the 88 RPC officers who have transferred, 31 per cent are women and 7 percent are from visible ethnic minorities; of the 40 RPC officers who have not transferred, 22 per cent are women and none are from visible ethnic minorities.

D. Financial implications

Funding

1. The MPA has previously approved the principle of a merger on a ‘cost neutral’ basis. The same principle is being applied to the interim arrangements.

2. The DCMS has paid £1.3 million to meet start up costs. This covers equipping for AWARE in the six RPC sites, telephony, buying Airwave radios, buying a vehicle fleet, buying uniform and equipment, carrying out training and so on.

3. DCMS officials have agreed on-going funding of £7.5m in the financial year 2004-2005, rising to £7.8m in the financial year 2005-2006 for Royal Parks policing. (The latter sum is subject to the spending review.) Both sums are less than the MPS’s full year costing estimate of £8.0m, but the DCMS accepts that the level of service will be commensurate with the funding made available.

4. In practice, the exact sum the MPS is receiving is more complicated in the interim, because the RPC still exists, and is incurring costs. It has been agreed that the RPA will retain the actual costs of the RPC and pass the remainder of the money to the MPA. The Agency accounts for its retention on a four-monthly basis.

5. Post-merger, the annual running costs will still need to be transferred from the DCMS to the MPA. A Baseline Transfer from DCMS to the Home Office followed by either a Specific Grant or an adjustment to the Special Payment are both feasible methods that have been agreed with the Home Office. The Home Office will ensure that the legislation passed contains provision for funding transfer.

Pensions

6. Most of the RPC officers belong to the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme, and funds transfer with them. On becoming MPS police officers they are required to join the Police Pension Scheme. The transferee RPC officers will receive the level of pensions credit which their service in the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme equates to in the Police Pension Scheme, and following advice from the Government Actuary’s Department, most officers will receive a credit of 70% (for example ten years service in the RPC means an officer can ‘buy’ seven years service in the Police Pension Scheme).

7. Initial indications are that there may be a shortfall in the accrued pension value of up to £4.1 million based on the assumption that the majority of the RPC staff will become MPS officers and will be appointed at a salary level based on their accrued service as opposed to commensurate with their current salary levels. DCMS has confirmed that it will fund any pensions shortfall arising.

E. Background papers

• Briefing paper for the informal session of Co-ordination and Policing Committee held on 1 September 2003
• Discussion paper for the Co-ordination and Policing Committee meeting held on 17 February 2003
• Discussion paper for the Co-ordination and Policing Committee meeting held on 5 March 2004

F. Contact details

Report author: T/ Chief Superintendent Helen Ball

For more information contact:

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

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback