The Home Secretary has approved up to £70 million for
investment in 2018/19 in four national major police-led
programmes covering forces in England and Wales and to
manage the portfolio of projects to ensure maximum
benefits are shared among forces.
The programmes will transform how police use
technology, make it easier for the public to engage
with police online, and boost capacity to deal with
major threats.
Altogether this will help support the police in
preventing and combating existing serious crime and
being better equipped to deal with new types of crime.
The Home Office also announces today (Wednesday 1
August) 15 successful bids to the fund, totalling £42.7
million across 2018/19 and 2019/20.
Minister for Policing and the Fire Service said:
Criminals don’t stand still, and neither should our
police forces. We’re determined to support police
leaders in creating a modern, agile and responsive
police service.
The Police Transformation Fund is delivering real
change in policing, and this new funding will
continue to help forces improve efficiency and tackle
threats like serious and organised crime.
The four police-led national programmes, which are
already underway, include:
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The National Enabling Programme: this will deliver
a unified IT system across policing and deliver
more joined-up working within and between forces.
In Cumbria, for example, cloud-based note-taking
technology allows officers preparing to question
suspects in custody to view real-time information
from victim interviews being conducted by other
officers elsewhere, improving the response offered
to those affected by crime.
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Specialist Capabilities Programme: this will
improve force-to-force resource sharing in key
crime areas like roads policing and armed policing.
In cyber-crime, for example, the programme seeks to
ensure forces can tackle digitally-dependent crime,
with oversight provided through regional organised
crime units (ROCUs).
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The Digital Policing Portfolio: this aims to
improve police’s use of technology, including by
creating a single online hub. The hub allows
members of the public to report low-level incidents
– such as minor road collisions – online rather
than having an officer manually record the
information at their local station, providing a
better service to the public and improving
efficiency for the force.
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Transforming Forensics: this will improve how
biometric services and digital forensics are used,
including the development of a 24/7, faster,
fingerprint identification service.
The national programmes are expected to deliver cash
savings, as well as improving efficiency by, for
example, freeing up officers for frontline policing
roles. Funding will be released in stages to the
programmes subject to progress in delivery to provide
ongoing assurance of this major investment.
The fund was launched in May 2016 and aims to help
police respond to changing crime and shape policing for
the future.
In phase 1 (2016/17 to 2017/18), 98 projects benefited
from £223 million of funding. For phase 2 (2018/19 to
2019/20), investment will focus on the national
programmes and meeting the demands of serious and
organised crime.
