Year end performance 2000/01

Report: 6
Date: 12 June 2001
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report gives a summary of MPS performance against plans and targets for the year 2000/2001. A full listing of Policing Plan and Best Value Performance Indicators see Appendix 1.

A. Recommendations

1. That PSPM committee and full Authority members note the contents of this report.
2. That PSPM members identify key issues which should be drawn to the attention of the full Authority.

B. Supporting information

1. 2000/2001 saw the introduction of a range of targets for policing, including the full set of BVPIs and five-year crime reduction targets, as well as service priorities set in the Policing Plan.

2. Full details of performance indicators, targets and performance are set out in Appendix 1.

3. In spite of shortages in both police and civil staff manpower, the MPS has delivered improved performance against all but one of the key Policing Plan indicators in comparison with the previous year. Performance against the key indicators in the 2000/2001 Policing Plan is listed in Table 1 (see Supporting material).

4. 2000/2001 headline targets have been met for burglary reduction, increased Class A drugs judicial disposals (JDs), referrals to drugs schemes, homicide detections, detections for racist offences and processing young offenders (28 day target). In addition, targets were met for answering 999 calls, reducing police collisions involving personal injury and response, medical retirements and satisfaction from road traffic collision victims. Details are given in Appendix 1.

5. Burglary reduction has considerably exceeded the target for the year (9.5 per cent as against 2 per cent target), and is well on the way to achieving the five-year crime reduction target (10 per cent reduction). Burglary in London is now down to levels that have not been seen for twenty-two years.

6. Considerable effort was directed at delivering the MPS homicide objective. In a year which saw an above-average caseload (189 homicides compared with an annual average over the last twenty years of 172), the MPS achieved a clear-up rate of 89.9 per cent.

7. During 2000/2001 the MPS set a target to increase the number of judicial disposals for supply and possession with intent to supply class A drugs by 10 per cent with particular focus on heroin, crack and cocaine (baseline: 1998/9). The MPS achieved a 27 per cent increase in JDs relating to class A supply and position with intent (PWI) offences, and 26 per cent, 40 per cent and 14 per cent increases respectively relating specifically to heroin, crack and cocaine. The MPS activity to deliver this target included a co-ordinated approach through Operation Crackdown. During the year drugs arrest referral schemes were established on each borough, and the target to refer 2000 people to these schemes was exceeded.

8. Particular areas which require further improvement before targets can be met are street crime and auto crime reduction, judicial disposals (street crime, burglary and auto crime), processing persistent young offenders (PYOs), customer satisfaction and recruitment of ethnic minority officers. These are the subject of new targets and action plans in the plan for 2001/2.

9. The MPS is on course to deliver the required 2 per cent efficiency targets. The provisional assessment by HMIC agrees that this has been achieved without adverse impact on performance. The year-end assessment will take place in June 2001.

10. The key constraint in delivering performance has been the recruitment challenge. Through a series of initiatives including securing the London pay lead, free rail travel and the work of the recruitment taskforce, the MPS has succeeded in increasing the average number of police joiners from 91 per month in 1999/2000 to 144 per month in the last six months of this year. Nonetheless we have operated throughout the year with a shortfall of between 100 and 370 police officers.

11. Police numbers were supplemented over the year with 1350 incoming officers, but fell by 1469 police leavers, giving a net decrease on the year of 119 officers.

12. The problem was compounded by the secondment of 470 MPS police officers to Surrey, Hertfordshire and Essex to facilitate the smooth handover of operations following the MPS boundary changes. At the end of March 2001 there were still 367 MPS officers working on secondment. The return of these officers over the next year will ease some of the current staffing shortfall.

13. The MPS has also experienced severe shortages of support staff. The MPS ended the year 914 support staff below the manpower target – a shortfall of over 8 per cent.

14. This level of police and support staff vacancies has put a strain on MPS staff and, inevitably, taken an impact on performance. Nonetheless, we have worked to ensure that operational officers are not diverted into administrative and support roles unnecessarily. At the end of the year there were no more than 155 officers filling posts that would otherwise be carried out by support staff.

15. In order to focus resources on local service delivery, 333 police officer posts were identified and given up by central and support departments. These posts have been reallocated to boroughs. The full benefit of this re-distribution cannot be delivered until the MPS police vacancies are filled through recruitment.

C. Financial implications

None.

D. Background papers

None.

E. Contact details

The author of this report is Cath Kitching, MPS Corporate Performance Analysis Unit.

For information contact:

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

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