Table A contains the percentages of police officer time spent on different activities for the financial year 2007-08 for England and Wales. To reduce paperwork burdens on police officers the collection of data about time spent by officers on police activities ceased after 2007-08 in response to the recommendations by Sir David Normington in his review of data burdens placed by the Government on the police service published in February 2009. Activities are grouped according to whether they are related to crime incidents, related to non-crime incidents (e.g. road traffic accidents), or not related to specific incidents. In this last case, these activities could be related to crime (e.g. prison interviews), or to general police duties and activities (e.g. training).
The Policing Green Paper published in July 2008 introduced a robust programme to reduce bureaucracy and free-up officer time. This is enabling front line staff to focus on dealing with the public's priorities, as measured against the confidence target—now the only top-down target on forces.
Table A indicates that, in 2007-08, the police in England spent 32.7 per cent. of their time on all crime incident-specific activities, 14.6 per cent. of their time on all non-crime incident specific activities, and 52.7 per cent. of their time on activities which were not related to specific incidents (although some of this will be crime-related).
The comparative figures for Wales are 27.9 per cent., 20.7 per cent. and 51.5 per cent. respectively.
Overall, in 2007-08, police in England and Wales spent 32.5 per cent. of their time on all crime incident-specific activities, 14.9 per cent. of their time on all non-crime incident specific activities, and 52.7 per cent. of their time on activities which were not related to specific incidents.
For the specific offence groupings of robbery, criminal damage and sexual offending, the amount of time spent by the police in England and Wales in 2007-08 on incident-specific activities, as a proportion of total police time, was 2.2 per cent., 2.1 per cent. and 2.3 per cent. respectively. As a proportion of total crime incident-specific time, the figures were 6.7 per cent., 6.3 per cent. and 7.2 per cent. respectively. There is no category of 'gang-related crimes'.
Table B contains police spend on different activities for the financial year 2007-08. As before, crime and non-crime incident-specific activities are differentiated. The categorisation of non-incident specific activities is different in Table B from Table A, however. Table B does not include costs of activities such as training, which are instead treated as overheads and included in the costs of all other activities. Further, Table B separates out some activities which are undertaken by particular staff or roles (e.g. 'intelligence analysis and research')—these are not included in Table A, as activity analysis covered only police officers working on foot, car or beat patrol, CID and traffic duties. Note that costs in Table B do not include 'sustaining overheads' such as running costs for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).
Table B indicates that for the financial year 2007-08 the police in England and Wales spent 34.9 per cent. of its total budget (excluding sustaining overheads) on crime incident-specific activities. For the same specific offence groupings of robbery, criminal damage and sexual offending, the amount of budget spent by the police in England and Wales in 2007-08 on incident-specific activities, as a proportion of total police budget (excluding sustaining overheads), was 2.0 per cent., 2.2 per cent. and 2.6 per cent. respectively. As a proportion of total crime incident-specific budget spending, the figures were 5.7 per cent., 6.3 per cent. and 7.4 per cent. respectively. As before, there is no category of 'gang-related crimes'.
By way of context, Table C provides proportions of crime incidents of different types alongside the proportion of time and budgetary spend on crime devoted to these incident types. Thus it can be seen that, in 2007-08, robbery accounted for 1.7 per cent. of crime incidents, and 6.7 per cent. and 5.7 per cent. of police time and budgetary spend respectively. Criminal damage accounted for 21 per cent. of crime incidents, and 6.3 per cent. of both police time and budget. Sexual offences accounted for 1.1 per cent. of crime incidents, and 7.2 per cent. and 7.4 per cent. of police time and budget respectively.
Percentage of time Activity England Wales Total Dealing with crime incidents Violence against the person—S20 and more serious 3.4 2.3 3.3 Violence against the person—S47 and less serious 4.0 4.2 4.0 Sexual offences 2.3 2.1 2.3 Burglary dwelling 2.8 2.8 2.8 Burglary—commercial and other 1.2 1.5 1.2 Robbery 2.2 0.9 2.2 Theft of or from motor vehicle 1.8 1.7 1.8 Deception/fraud 1.2 0.9 1.2 Theft other 3.3 3.0 3.3 Drugs offences 2.8 2.7 2.8 Criminal damage 2.0 3.2 2.1 Other crime 5.6 2.6 5.5 32.7 27.9 32.5 Dealing with non-crime incidents RTA fatal/serious 1.0 0.9 1.0 RTA minor injury/damage 1.2 1.7 1.2 Traffic Other 2.4 3.8 2.5 Public disorder 1.9 2.8 2.0 Domestic dispute 2.1 2.4 2.2 Complaint/nuisance 0.9 2.5 1.0 Prostitution 0.1 0.0 0.1 False alarms 0.1 0.3 0.2 Missing person 1.1 1.7 1.2 Sudden/suspicious death 0.6 1.2 0.6 Other non crime 3.0 3.3 3.1 14.6 20.7 14.9 Non-incident related Visible patrol 13.7 15.2 13.8 Court duties/escort 0.4 0.3 0.4 Special operations/events 1.9 1.6 1.8 Investigate complaints 0.2 0.2 0.2 Deal with informants 0.4 0.0 0.3 Community involvement 1.3 1.3 1.3 Property inquiries 0.3 0.4 0.3 Non incident inquiries 1.5 1.6 1.5 Crime prevention activity 0.4 0.2 0.4 Prison interviews 0.1 0.0 0.1 Training 1.9 1.1 1.8 Briefings/meetings 6.6 7.2 6.6 Non-incident linked paperwork 7.4 7.0 7.4 Other non-incident related work 5.0 3.6 4.9 Staff development, appraisal, personnel-related 0.9 0.7 0.8 Monitoring cellblock PACE 0.3 0.2 0.3 Relief custody duties 0.4 0.8 0.4 Call handling/relief control room duties/inquiry desk 0.2 0.2 0.2 Checking paperwork (supervisory) 1.8 2.3 1.8 Budgetary/financial 0.1 0.1 0.1 ID parades 0.1 0.1 0.1 Other managerial/supervision 3.6 2.7 3.5 Refreshments 4.2 4.6 4.2 Waiting time 0.3 0.1 0.3 52.7 51.5 52.7 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 1 Excludes Staffordshire, as this force did not submit AA data for 2007-08.
Activity Spend (£000) Spend (percentage) Dealing with crime incidents Violence against the person—S20 and more serious 395,906 4.50 Violence against the person—S47 and less serious 346,819 4.00 Sexual offences 226,678 2.60 Burglary dwelling 259,262 3.00 Burglary—commercial and other 130,232 1.50 Robbery 170,458 2.00 Theft of or from motor vehicle 195,493 2.20 Deception/fraud 130,792 1.50 Theft other 273,557 3.10 Drugs offences 271,550 3.10 Criminal damage 187,576 2.20 Other crime 452,835 5.20 3,041,159 35 Dealing with non-crime incidents RTA fatal/serious 76,905 0.90 RTA minor injury/damage 105,163 1.20 Traffic Other 243,729 2.80 Public disorder 235,011 2.70 Domestic dispute 175,446 2.00 Complaint/nuisance 99,671 1.10 Prostitution 7,876 0.10 False alarms 13,058 0.10 Missing person 112,040 1.30 Sudden/suspicious death 81,260 0.90 Other non-crime 276,938 3.20 1,427,097 16 Non-incident related Visible patrol 1,207,838 13.80 Court duties/escort 35,643 0.40 Special operations/events 225,440 2.60 Deal with informants 39,985 0.50 Community involvement 169,188 1.90 Property inquiries 32,032 0.40 Non incident inquiries 135,039 1.50 Crime prevention activity 64,865 0.70 Prison interviews 7,332 0.10 Role Code—National, international policing, CT and Special Branch 474,839 5.40 Role Code—Crime partnerships 90,021 1.00 Role Code—Maintaining and developing partnerships 35,687 0.40 Role Code—Intelligence Research and Analysis 368,101 4.20 Role Code—Prisoner handling/custody 399,657 4.60 Role Code—Call handling/inquiry office 603,164 6.90 Role Code—Licensing 23,475 0.30 Role Code—Criminal justice 273,753 3.10 Role Code—Police protection 21,014 0.20 Role Code—Family liaison 19,830 0.20 Role Code—Warrants 16,581 0.20 ID parades 9,698 0.10 4,253,184 49 Total 8,721,439 100.00 1 Excludes Staffordshire, as this force did not submit AA data for 2007-08.
Percentage Crime incident type Crime incidents Time on crime incidents Budget on crime incidents Violence against the person—S20 and more serious 0.5 10.3 12.9 Violence against the person—S47 and less serious 18.8 12.4 11.5 Sexual offences 1.1 7.2 7.4 Burglary dwelling 5.7 8.6 8.6 Burglary—commercial and other 6.2 3.7 4.3 Robbery 1.7 6.7 5.7 Theft of or from motor vehicle 13.3 5.4 6.3 Deception/fraud 3.2 3.7 4.3 Theft other 22.3 10.1 8.9 Drugs offences 4.6 8.6 8.9 Criminal damage 21.0 6.3 6.3 Other crime 1.4 17.0 14.9 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 1 Excludes Staffordshire, as this force did not submit AA data for 2007-08.
For the period 2003-04 to 2007-08, the front-line policing measure assesses time spent by police officers on core policing duties such as patrol and responding to 999 calls. They also include activities of CID and specialist officers, who, while not always visible to the public, are none the less carrying out core policing duties.
The estimates by year are as follows: 2003-04, 63.6 per cent.; 2004-05, 62.3 per cent.; 2005-06, 63.6 per cent.; 2006-07, 64.2 per cent.; 2007-08, 64.9 per cent. Data for Staffordshire are not available for 2007-08 and these figures therefore exclude Staffordshire.
The Policing Green Paper published in July 2008 introduced a robust programme to reduce bureaucracy and free-up officer time. This is enabling frontline staff to focus on dealing with the public’s priorities, as measured against the confidence target—now the only top-down target on forces. As recommended by Sir David Normington in his review of data burdens placed by the Government on the police service, the collection of data about time spent by officers on police activities ceased after 2007-08.
On 18 March 2010 HM Inspectorate of Constabulary published Value for Money Profiles for the 43 forces in England and Wales. Explanatory material accompanying the profiles contains an overall analysis of the police workforce as at 31 March 2009 which shows the proportion by function as:
Aiding the public 47 per cent.
Working in the community 36 per cent.
Policing roads 4 per cent.
Taking 999 calls and tasking (control room) 7 per cent.
Dealing with criminals 31 per cent.
Investigating crime (for example CID) 13 per cent.
Specialist functions (such as air support, firearms, dogs) 4 per cent.
Gathering intelligence 4 per cent.
Processing forensic evidence 2 per cent.
Preparing cases for court (criminal justice) 5 per cent.
Holding people in custody 3 per cent.
Helping to support 22 per cent.
Operational Support (including planning, estates, vehicles) 8 per cent.
Business Support (including HR, finance, IT) 11 per cent.
Training 2 per cent.
Other (such as catering and stores/supplies) 1 per cent.
Note:
These figures relate to the breakdown of all police personnel by function. They therefore include police staff as well as officers.