Police officer overtime

Report: 4
Date: 8 October 2009
By: Director of Resources on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report will enable members to gain a better understanding of the use of overtime in the MPS, how the MPS use of overtime resources compares to that of other police forces and the actions taken by the MPS to manage levels of expenditure.

A. Recommendations

Members are invited to note the information contained within this report and the attached appendices.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. Members have requested a report on police officer overtime in order to gain a better understanding of the use of overtime in the MPS and the actions being taken to control the level of expenditure.

2. The use of police officer overtime is very well reasoned in a statement made on behalf of ACPO by Vice President Tim Hollis, Chief Constable of Humberside: “Overtime figures reflect the realities of modern policing, including its unpredictability. It must be remembered that overtime generally reflects a cost effective and flexible way of meeting additional demands. It must however be always carefully monitored, calculated and authorised. The police service is a seven day a week, 24 hour organisation with unstinting demands placed upon it. The service has to be operationally able to flex and respond to any event or crime committed at any time”.

3. There are a number of benefits to be gained by the use of overtime. In particular it is an effective tool to enable the MPS to:

• Ensure resilience in service delivery
• Cover spikes in operational demand, sickness, secondments, aid deployments and other absences, in a flexible way without the need to recruit additional officers;
• Gain additional officer capacity, often at short notice;
• Maintain the evidential process and carry out on-going investigations to ensure continuity;
• Maintain agreed minimum staffing levels;
• Ensure that relevant specialist skills are available when required.

4. However, there are also risks associated with the use of overtime which are namely:

• Potential impact on work / life balance and Police Officer safety;
• Costly;
• Officers can become reliant on the additional income and it can become institutionalised;
• Administration effort;
• Potential for lack of management control and fraudulent claims;
• PPotential to extend enquiries to obtain overtime.

Financial analysis of Police Officer Overtime

5. Table 1 shows the budget, outturn and variance on Police Officer Overtime since 2000/01.

Table 1 - Police Officer Overtime expenditure

*Outturn for 2009/10 is the forecast prepared at Period 4.

6. Expenditure on overtime has remained relatively constant since 2003/04. Increases since that date can generally be attributed to particular major operations as listed below:

• Operation Bracknell (Tsunami disaster in south-east Asia) cost £2.8m in 2004/05.
• Operation Theseus (terrorist attacks in London) cost £21.7m in 2005/6.
• Operations Overt & Overamp (terrorist plot to detonate explosive devices on trans-Atlantic flights) cost £7.3m in 2006/07.
• Operation Seagram (terrorist vehicle-borne improvised explosive device in Haymarket) cost £2.4m in 2007/08. An additional £2m was also incurred on Operations Theseus and Overt/Overamp and £9.1m on various other major operations.
• Operation Rize (intelligence led operation targeting a safe depository business) cost £1.4m in 2008/09. There were also various other major operations costing an additional £4m.
• Operation Mirandy (Tamil ceasefire demonstrations) are estimated to cost £7.1m in 2009/10 and policing the G20 summit a further £1.5m.

7. Appendix 1 shows an analysis of overtime costs for major unplanned operations and projects as distinct from normal operational business. The forecast additional overtime costs for these operations are £9.7m. When the costs of these major operations are excluded from the forecast outturn of £135.6m, this results in an amended overspend of £2.7m.

8. Appendix 2 shows the full year budget, actual outturn and annual variance by Business Groups for the 2006/07, 2007/08 and 2008/09 financial years.

Details of Business Groups relying on overtime and main reasons why

9. The four main users of Police Officer Overtime are the operational Business Groups Territorial Policing, Central Operations, Specialist Operations and Specialist Crime. The main reasons why these Business Groups rely on Police Officer Overtime are explained below.

10. Territorial Policing relies on overtime principally to manage fluctuations in demand for policing resources. A number of examples are listed below:

• To provide additional resources as part of proactive tasking operations to manage a specific issue.
• To provide cover for pre-planned events such as the Notting Hill Carnival, New Year celebrations or sports fixtures.
• To provide additional resources for unplanned events such as demonstrations and major incidents. For example policing of G20 protests, Tamil ceasefire and climate camp demonstrations.
• To provide temporary cover for under-resourced units due to vacancies and leave.
• To provide cover for officers who have been extracted from their planned duties.
• To provide resources in response to operational demands where the management of the demand and the budget are not under TP control (e.g. POLSA).

11. Central Operations is a pan London response business group which relies on overtime to provide flexibility for workforce deployment in respect of operational policing including spontaneous incidents related to public order, firearms, counter terrorism and major traffic incidents. Major examples this year include policing of the G20 protests, Tamil ceasefire and climate camp demonstrations. Without the use of overtime Central Operations would need a significant increase in Police Officer numbers to cover all the possible eventualities. This would be not be an operationally or cost effective use of resources.

12. Special Operations relies heavily on overtime for three primary reasons:

• Shortfall in Dedicated Security Posts (DSP) funding. In DSP funded units the grant from the Home Office does not provide enough funding to cover all the mandated posts. The operational risks associated with this funding shortfall have to be bridged by the use of overtime.
• Shortfall of Police Officer numbers. Despite extensive activity Specialist Operations still remains some way behind its recruitment profile for Police Officer deployment. Some of the staff shortages are managed through the use of overtime. It should be noted that year on year for the last three years overtime expenditure has reduced across Specialist Operations as Police Officer numbers have increased.
• Operational necessity. Overtime remains an effective means of managing the fluctuation of operational demands in year. In counter terrorism terms the demand from one year to the next can be quite significant.

13. Specialist Crime relies on overtime to provide flexibility in order to meet demand led operational requirements. If there are increased numbers of homicides or, as is the situation this year, an increased number of shootings, overtime is necessary to provide additional resources to investigate these crimes during such peak periods. In addition despite extensive recruitment activity Specialist Crime still has a shortfall in its deployment plan numbers. The use of overtime is a means of managing this shortfall.

External comparison with other Police Authorities

14. Appendix 3 provides a comparison of MPS overtime expenditure with the 11 other Police Authorities that make up the top 12 based on total Police Officer salary costs. This shows that for 2006/07 and 2007/08 MPS overtime expenditure has remained relatively unchanged, at around 6.9%, as a percentage of total police officer salaries and is marginally above the average of 6.3% for these 12 Authorities. A major factor as to why the MPS has the second highest ratio behind Northern Ireland is its exceptional national, international and capital city functions. For example the Specialist Protection Unit, which provides 24 hour protection to ministers and visiting foreign dignitaries, is forecast to spend £1.52 million on Police Officer salaries in 2009/10 including £419,000 on overtime. This is an overtime to total Police Officer salary costs ratio of approximately 27.5%.

Work undertaken by the MPS to reduce the level of overtime

15. Much work has already been done to effectively manage the policing resources allocated to demonstrations and events based on risk assessments and significant reductions have been made, despite an increasing number of events. The police have, however, a number of responsibilities and duties in relation to such matters and must ensure that those responsibilities and duties are properly carried out. The police will continue to seek to maximise efficiency in the policing of demonstrations and public order events.

16. In addition, as a result of the Finance and Resources Modernisation project, finance support is being restructured in order to provide a more consistent and coherent approach to financial management support in Business Groups. The restructured finance cluster will provide consistent and timely overtime management information, which will enable senior officers and managers to take appropriate management action. This should result in further improvements to the detailed monitoring reports that are already provided internally and to the Metropolitan Police Authority.

17. The MPS Management Board is committed to the effective control and management of overtime in supporting the delivery of an efficient policing service. Some initiatives undertaken to control overtime expenditure include:

• Improved duty rostering to minimise overtime;
• Delivery of financial management courses to improve the financial management skills of officers and managers thus enabling them to effectively manage resources;
• Inclusion of budget management within Performance Development Reviews;
• Increased Authority scrutiny and challenge, i.e. detailed reports on Police Officer overtime have been previously provided to the MPA Budget and Overtime Group on a monthly basis including details of top 500 earners and those Police Officers being paid for over 100 hours in a month;
• Detailed reports on overtime are regularly provided to Operational Command Units within Business Groups to enable more effective decision making;
• Robust challenging of overspends within Business Groups with potential financial penalties for BOCUs/OCUs that do not manage overtime budgets appropriately;
• Production of an overtime manual providing advice and guidance to Business Groups as to best practice with regards to the management of overtime;

Examples of specific Business Group control measures:

18. Territorial Policing has the largest number of budgeted Police Officer posts and overtime budget of all the business groups. In recognition of the need to keep tight control of expenditure Territorial Policing senior management have introduced various actions to manage and control the use of overtime.

• BOCU Commanders are held to account for their total devolved budgets with overtime highlighted in the monthly reports.
• A key Performance Management Framework is in place, led by DAC Operations TP, which reviews the use of resources and overtime against performance and identifies those BOCUs that require management action.
• Police overtime is flagged as a high profile line in resource management.
• Achieving a balanced outturn for total devolved budgets (including Police Officer overtime) is part of a BOCU Commander’s Performance Development Reviews.
• Business Support team will visit BOCUs where an overspend is forecast and will test systems, controls, etc.
• High overtime earners are closely monitored.
• As part of the Territorial Policing financial framework, financial penalties can and have been imposed on BOCUs for overspending the overtime budget.

Summary of the Audit Commission’s 2006/07 Overtime audit recommendations and where the MPS currently are in the implementation of these.

19. The Audit Commission undertook a comprehensive review of the MPS management of Police Officer Overtime in 2006/07 across all business groups. Their report, “Management of Police Officer Overtime”, which includes an agreed action plan, was published in May 2008. The main conclusions of the report are summarised below:

• The management arrangements for Police Officer overtime are improving across the MPS. A strong message is being delivered by senior management across the organisation, in terms of the importance of sound financial management.
• There are a number of areas where intrusive management linked with robust financial management has reduced the use of Police Officer overtime. However this is not being consistently applied across the MPS.
• There remain barriers to the effective, efficient and economic management of Police Officer overtime. These include a top down approach to budget and service planning; a strong focus on managing the overall financial position rather than individual budgets; and limited financial management skills.
• The MPS is unable to identify consistently the benefits achieved from additional resources funded through overtime expenditure.
• There remain areas where there is a gap between operational and financial accountability. These are primarily around the provision and use of Central Aid and Police Search Adviser (POLSA) related activities.
• A number of areas of good practice were identified within B/OCUs that are supporting continuous improvement. However there is a general lack of sharing of good practice both within business groups and across the MPS.
• A culture of long working hours within some units is acting as an inhibitor to reducing overtime. Where excessive hours have become the norm the MPS is exposed to significant health and safety risks.

20. The Audit Commission put forward some recommendations which in discussion with the MPS were formulated into an Action Plan. This Action Plan is summarised in Appendix 4 which provides details of the recommendations, the MPS response and a current update on progress in implementing the recommendations.

C. Race and equality impact

1. It is evident that some units of the MPS rely on the use of overtime considerably more than others. For example of the top 100 overtime earners for Periods 1 to 4 this year 53 of them work in the Specialist Protection unit. Appendix 5 provides analysis of the gender and ethnicity of the top 100 overtime earners compared to Specialist Protection and the MPS as a whole. The percentage of female officers within the top 100 overtime earners (3%) is significantly less than the percentage of female officers within the MPS as a whole (22.7%). However the percentage of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) officers within the top 100 overtime earners (6%) is closer to the overall MPS percentage of BME officers (9%).

D. Financial implications

1. The financial implications are those set out in this report.

E. Legal implications

None given.

F. Background papers

• Policing London 2009-12 Business Plan.
• Appendix 1: Analysis of Overtime Costs on Major Operations as at Period 4 - 2009 / 2010
• Appendix 2: MPS Annual Overtime Costs - Police Officers Annual Budget, Forecast, and Variance
• Appendix 3: Extract of Annual Overtime Costs From CIPFA Service Statistics
• Appendix 4: Summary of Police Officer Overtime Audit Recommendations published by the Audit Commission in 2008
• Appendix 5: Metropolitan Police Service Gender and Ethnicity Analysis as at Period 4 - 2009/10

G. Contact details

Report author: Paul James, Director of Finance Services

For more information contact:

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

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