MPA welcomes Home Office assessments of MPS performance

54/05
27 October 2005

Len Duvall, chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), today welcomed the publication of the Police Performance Assessments Framework (PPAF) together with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s (HMIC) Baseline Assessments. He said:

“The MPA welcomes the use of Baseline Assessment and the Police Performance Assessment Framework as tools to measure the ongoing performance of the MPS, although it should be acknowledged that it is not always possible to compare the MPS with other metropolitan forces.

“No other force deals with the unique range of policing issues, including the international, national and capital city functions, faced by the MPS. Of course there are challenges ahead, not least our determination to prevent further terrorist attacks, but for the first time in Met history we have in excess of 30,000 police officers and nearly 2,000 Police Community Support Officers. This expansion has brought huge benefit to those who live, visit or work in the capital.”

In the Baseline Assessment the MPS results are mixed, with three ‘excellent’ assessments, eleven ‘good’ assessments, ten ‘fair’ and two ‘poor’. It is disappointing that reducing and investigating volume crime have both been judged as ‘poor’.

That said, the Authority is pleased that pleased that the MPS has been judged as ‘improving’ in 20 out of 21 areas, the final area (customer service and accessibility) has been judged stable. This makes the MPS the most improved force over the last 12 months.

It is clear from the judgements that improvement is needed in key areas, particularly reducing and investigating volume crime and ensuring the customer experience of the MPS is better. The MPA has been working closely with the MPS in recent months to deliver those improvements. For example:

• a Deputy Assistant Commissioner with prime responsibility for citizen focus has been appointed;
• establishing the ‘Modernising the MPS’ programme as a result of the service review, the new (draft) corporate strategy and Together agenda; and
• accelerating the roll out of the Safer Neighbourhood programme across London by the end of the next financial year (06/07).

In the Police Performance Assessment Framework (PPAF) the MPS results are again varied, with three 'good' assessments, one 'fair’ and three 'poor'. The MPS has been assessed as 'good' for Providing Assistance, Resource Use and Local Policing, with all three areas improving.

Considerable progress has occurred since this assessment. Improvements include: burglary, street and motor vehicle crime which are all down for the second successive year, fear of crime is down and public confidence is up. London is experiencing its lowest burglary rate for 29 years, and the number of robbery victims has reduced by 18,000 during the past three years. Crime was down in 2004/05 by 4% and detections rose to 21%. Reducing crime has been assessed as ‘fair’, with the direction of travel capped at ‘stable’, as a result of the 'red' NCRS audit.

Investigating crime was assessed as 'poor', although this was borderline with a 'fair' assessment result. The direction has also been capped at 'stable' as a result of the 'red' NCRS audit. Promoting Safety and Citizen Focus were both assessed as 'poor' with a 'stable' direction.

The MPA continues to stress to the MPS that detection rates must improve but acknowledges the current increase to an overall detection rate of 24% in April to September 2005.

Len Duvall concluded that:

“It is disappointing that the improvements being made by the MPS were not all recognised because of the 'red' audit of the NCRS standard. The MPA continues to work with the MPS to improve data quality in order to overcome this problem and this work is now producing results.”

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