Policing minister unveils plans to reduce red-tape

14 April 2023

Proposed policing reforms designed to cut red tape and allow officers to spend more time preventing and investigating crime have been welcomed by Nottinghamshire Police Federation.

The planned shake-up of the way crimes are logged would mean officers were no  longer required to record frivolous allegations of offensive speech or social media rows as crimes.

Policing minister Chris Philp unveiled the proposals in a speech at the Law Society in London in which he said officers were not the “thought police” and that being rude or insulting should not be treated as a “police matter”.

Mr Philp said changing Home Office counting rules on how reported incidents were logged would slash “unnecessary red tape” and free up more time to investigate crime.

He also accepted that police officers should not be expected to deal with mental health cases or act as a stop gap for other agencies.

Nottinghamshire Police Federation chair Simon Riley welcomed the proposals.

He said: “There has been much talk of a return to ‘common sense policing’ in recent months and this would be a step in the right direction.

“Our members have faced increasing demands when it comes to admin in recent years and obviously the more time they spend on paperwork the less time they have to get out and about in their communities.

“They can’t be in two places at once so if ministers are serious about neighbourhood policing and getting more officers on the beat, they will have to take steps to cut bureaucracy.”

Simon also welcomed the minister’s comments on officer hours taken up on cases which could be handled by other agencies.

He said: “We have been warning about this looming crisis for some time and I’m glad our concerns are now being taken on board.

“The police would never ignore a call for help but we often find ourselves in situations where other agencies would be better suited to providing a response than us.”

The proposed shake-up follows recommendations from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) which said a review of productivity found an estimated 443,000 officer hours were spent filling in forms and dealing with unnecessary admin - the equivalent to attending 220,000 domestic abuse incidents or 270,000 burglaries.

In his speech, Mr Philp said: “We’re going to make clear that frivolous allegations of malicious communications should not be recorded as a criminal offence unless the criminal threshold has clearly been met.

“We don’t think that being rude or insulting is a police matter.

“Officers are not the thought police and where something is reported that doesn’t meet the criminal threshold, we don’t want that to be investigated or reported as a crime. We don’t want to waste police time on that kind of thing."

The Home Office said the changes would save police time by no longer recording cases of messages that may offend someone or where a public disturbance occurred but has been resolved.

A spokesman said ministers believed officers should be on the streets investigating crimes such as burglary rather than investigating comments made online.

NPCC chair Gavin Stephenson said: “Police officers must be totally focused on keeping people safe and ensuring they feel safe.

“We want to provide the best possible policing to the public and the work of the police productivity review is aimed at removing barriers and improving effectiveness.”