Although the 43 police forces in England and Wales and the Home Office are making savings in the procurement of goods and services for the forces and are implementing initiatives to improve value for money, many opportunities remain unexploited. Police forces procure a wide range of goods and services, from uniforms and police vehicles to estate and facilities management services such as cleaning, spending some £1.7 billion in 2010-11. The Department oversees the police service, and central government provides most of its funding, but individual forces have traditionally bought many goods and services independently. With central government funding being reduced by some £2 billion in real terms over the spending review period, however, the Home Office has taken a role in providing leadership and support. Some forces have set up regional or national approaches to purchase common goods and services which many other forces take advantage of. However, common specifications for many types of goods and services do not exist, which reduces scope for collaborative buying. The NAO estimates forces could save up to a third of their costs in such areas, for example by agreeing a common specification for a uniform, such as that agreed by the Prison Service. The Department, forces and Commissioners will need to work together more effectively to identify and deliver further savings, particularly given the need to minimize the impact that cost reductions have on frontline policing.

Police forces pay widely varying prices for very similar items, which means money is being wasted. The price paid for such basic items as standard-issue boots can vary from £25 to £114, or £14 to £43 for handcuffs. This is even the case where items are identical. It cannot be right that prices paid for the same type of high-visibility jacket varied by as much as 33%. With central funding being cut, police forces must ensure they get best value for money from procurement so that they can focus resources on fighting crime. Forces can make big savings through bulk-buying of items, but have been unable to agree on the most simple things, like how many pockets they should have on their uniforms. The Department cannot persuade enough individual forces to cooperate with its attempts to introduce more centralised procurement, in part because forces are sceptical about the commercial competence of procurement officers working at the centre. National contracts with suppliers are not used by enough forces and do not cover many basic goods and services. Forces' use of the new, online police procurement 'hub' is also woefully below the Home Office's expectations. By 2013, a miniscule 2% of items were being bought through this central hub, against a target of 80% by the end of this Parliament. Police and Crime Commissioners have authority over local spending but, as the Department remains accountable for public money voted by Parliament, it cannot step back from value for money issues

This is the ground-breaking new book for aspiring purchasing and supply chain leaders and anyone with a keen interest in this rapidly evolving field. For too long business has focused on short-term cost advantages through low-cost country sourcing with little regard for the longer-term implications of global sustainability. As the first book to fully address the environmental, social and economic challenges of how companies manage purchasing and supply chains, it aims to inspire the development of current and future purchasing and supply chain leaders. In addition to explaining the basic principles and processes of both purchasing and supply chain management, the book evaluates how to develop strategic and sustainable purchasing and supply chain management. A key message is that purchasing and supply chain management needs to focus on value creation rather than cost cutting. This requires the development of completely new purchasing and supply chain models that involve closed-loop supply structures, supply chain transparency and collaboration with new stakeholders in traditional sourcing and supply chain processes. Aimed at students, educators and practitioners the book integrates sustainability into each chapter as a core element of purchasing and supply chain management. Incorporating case studies from industry into each chapter, the book strikes a balance between theoretical frameworks and guidelines for implementation in practice.

Low confidence in the police and the increasing crime rates during the 1990s led to a series of government initiatives directed at changing both the structure and management of the police service. In 2006 in an attempt to define what a principled police service should resemble, the Home Office Minister, Hazel Blears, announced the development of new Code of Professional Standards for the police service, informed by the Taylor Review of 2005. While there has been a growing awareness of the role of Professional Standards within law enforcement activity, to date there has been little scholarly debate on the understanding of ethics and how that is applied to practical policing. This book provides a single text of different perspectives on how professional standards and ethics has been conceptualised and developed into practical policing processes for the purposes of policing, not only by the police but also by the partner agencies. Leading academics and practitioners consider the moral minefield of policing through examinations of undercover operatives, MI5 and deaths in police custody as well as looking forward to the future considerations and practices in professional conduct. It will be of interest to those working within the field of policing as well as students and academics focussed on policing and criminal justice.

In this report the Home Affairs Committee examines the Government's proposals for policing reform. Key findings: (i) it is unacceptable that, more than a year after the Government announced it was phasing out the National Policing Improvement Agency, it still has not announced any definite decisions about the future of the vast majority of the functions currently performed by the Agency - the phasing out of the Agency should be delayed until the end of 2012; (ii) after the Olympics, the Home Office should consider making counter-terrorism a separate command of the New National Crime Agency, rather than it being the responsibility of the Metropolitan Police; (iii) the Government must urgently appoint a head of the new National Crime Agency; (iv) a Professional Body for policing could ultimately become a useful part of the policing landscape; (v) the Home Office should be more active in encouraging and supporting forces to collaborate with one another; (vi) IT across the police service as a whole is not fit for purpose and the Home Office must make revolutionising police IT a top priority; (vii) the review of pay and conditions is having an inevitable impact on morale in the police service, but it is possible to do more to mitigate this; (viii) The Committee commends the work of Jan Berry, the former Reducing Bureaucracy in Policing Advocate, in emphasising that reducing bureaucracy in the police service is not simply about reducing paperwork but addressing the causes of that paperwork.

In a brief report, the Home Affairs Committee highlights areas of concern in the supply of Tasers to police forces in England and Wales including the issue of having a monopoly distributor of Tasers. This monopoly supplier had their authority revoked after one of the directors of the company gave an 'unauthorised' Taser to police for use in the hunt for Raoul Moat. Following the revocation of the authority, the Home Affairs Committee held an urgent evidence session in response to suggestions that some police forces were due to run out of Taser stock. During the course of the evidence session, the Committee discovered that a new company had been awarded the authority to supply Tasers to police forces in England and Wales. The Committee expressed concern over a number of issues, including: that police forces in England and Wales were close to running out of Taser cartridges following the revocation of the authority of the original company; that there appeared to be widespread confusion about the parameters of the authority to supply Tasers. Not only did the company distribute an ’unauthorised' Taser to Northumbria Police, it had previously sold the same make of Taser to the National Police Improvement Agency; that the new holder of the authority to supply Tasers to police forces in England and Wales is extensively linked to the former distributor, the new company consisting of more or less identical personnel operating in the same premises with a near-duplicate website and also concern about the adequacy of a monopoly supplier business model in police procurement and urges the Home Office to examine other options in order to encourage competition and ensure that potential monopoly profits are not given to a particular company or group of individuals.

This report focuses on the impact of the Government's proposed settlement for police forces from 2011-12 to 2014-15. It is expected that there will be significantly fewer police officers, police community support officers and police staff as a result of the savings being required of police forces over the next four years. The loss of posts will have an impact on the range of services that the police provide and the way in which they are provided. Police forces are being asked to prioritise the front line but there is confusion as what exactly this term means. The Home Office should work with the police service to produce an agreed definition of front line, middle office and back office police roles as soon as possible. The Government should continue taking urgent steps to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy. More co-ordinated procurement also offers scope for savings. The Home Office should clarify who will be responsible for driving better procurement when the National Policing Improvement Agency is phased out in spring 2012. The greatest savings are being required of police forces in 2012-13, when the transition from Police Authorities to Police and Crime Commissioners is scheduled to take place and when police forces nationwide will be under the additional pressure of policing the Olympics. The Home Office should acknowledge that there are risks involved in this transition and should set out how it should be managed. Police forces need a funding system that offers long-term predictability in order to be able to plan more effectively, especially at a time of reduced income.