Jan Berry took up her role as the independent Reducing Bureaucracy Advocate on 1 October 2008 and she was asked to bring a fresh perspective to reducing unnecessary bureaucracy in policing. Her role is independent from the Home Office and she has been given a broad remit, specifically to drive forward the implementation of the bureaucracy reducing recommendations made by Sir Ronnie Flanagan; to challenge the Government and the police service to remove or reduce unnecessary bureaucracy; and to tackle risk aversion where it is preventing police officers from exercising their professional judgment.
Since her appointment, Jan Berry has established a Reducing Bureaucracy Practitioner Group, comprising frontline police officers and support staff, to analyse common procedures undertaken by frontline officers and staff with a view to reducing the bureaucracy involved in them. The group has already drawn up an initial list of processes for future analysis; including accident reporting, call handling, case building, custody, missing persons investigations and the use of force.
Jan Berry has met with a number of policing representatives, across all ranks, as well as colleagues from across the criminal justice system, to inform her consideration of the bureaucracy involved in policing. She has also held meetings with the Attorney-General, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Chief Prosecuting Solicitor to seek agreement to work towards a complimentary and integrated IT system across the whole of the CJS. She is also working with the DPP and conducting research into custody processes with a view to making recommendations for change.
Throughout her work to date Jan Berry has emphasised her view that removing paper processes will not in itself remove unnecessary bureaucracy and that there is a need to provide police officers with experience to make good decisions and to rebuild trust and confidence.
Her interim report, ‘Reducing Bureaucracy in Policing’, was published on 16 February 2009 and is available in the House Library. Her full report is expected in summer 2009.