NPIA Saves Police Service Money

Sun, 04 July 2010 Courtesy of: NPIA

The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) will save the police service £150m in 2010/11 and is on course to help the service save at least £1bn by 2015.

That was the message Chief Executive Peter Neyroud gave to chief officers at the ACPO APA conference in Manchester.

Summarising the work of the NPIA this year, Chief Constable Neyroud said it was his ambition to see every pound spent on the NPIA converted into a minimum £2 saving in the police service.

“Our challenge is to do more with less by being more intelligent and efficient”

He outlined a catalogue of savings the Agency will help the service to save this year, including:

£100m worth of efficiency savings through business and workforce change processes. This work will contribute to a target of £500m of cashable efficiency gains for the service by 2015. £25m cash-saving improvements for the service through better use of technology and procurement, as part of a broader scheme of work to save £200m on police IT by 2015. £10m by helping police forces to share "back office" functions, like finance and HR as part of a plan to save £75m by 2015. £20m of national police non-IT procurement savings.

The savings amount to almost a third of the NPIA's budget for 2010/11 (£466m). Every day the NPIA delivers critical national services that directly support the frontline with 62% (£240m) of its budget supporting major operations such as the police national computer, national fingerprint database, Airwave radio system and national DNA database. It has taken on additional responsibilities since it was established in 2007 and has been able to successfully deliver more services and support to frontline policing whilst cutting its own budget by 20% in three years.

Chief Constable Peter Neyroud said "The NPIA is at the forefront of delivering savings to ensure policing offers maximum value for money at a time when austerity measures are biting. Our plans are ambitious but that is what's called for in this difficult financial climate. Policing will not be immune from the cuts facing the public sector.

"Our challenge is to do more with less by being more intelligent and efficient in how we deliver policing services. Collaboration, sharing and central procurement will be the hallmarks of how the NPIA helps the police service to achieve significant savings in the future."

As part of its own cost saving measures, the NPIA has put forward to the Home Office detailed proposals to save an additional £30m this year, reducing its operating budget in-year to £436m.