Police Services (Administrative Burden)
14th December 2009
David Gauke raises his concern that despite Government promises to reduce the administrative burden on police officers, the reality is that the police believe nothing has changed or it has got slightly worse.
Mr. David Gauke (South-West Hertfordshire) (Con): What recent representations he has received on the administrative burden on police services. [306218]
The Minister for Policing, Crime and Counter-Terrorism (Mr. David Hanson): This issue is frequently discussed in meetings between Ministers and police organisations. It has also been recently addressed in the report by Jan Berry entitled "Reducing Bureaucracy in Policing", published on 2 December 2009.
Mr. Gauke: The Minister mentioned Jan Berry, the Government's adviser on reducing police bureaucracy. She was recently asked whether the police were spending more time away from their desks. Her answer was:
"If you talk to police officers they would say it has remained the same or got slightly worse."
Does the Minister agree?
Mr. Hanson: We are trying to ensure that we reduce the amount of unnecessary paperwork that police officers do, and in fact it has fallen over the past five years. Jan Berry's report, published just over 10 days ago, gave us 43 recommendations. We have accepted 13, we shall be looking at 22 with her over the next year and we are still examining a further eight. There is a lot of work to be done, but we are committed to reducing unnecessary bureaucracy.
