Home Office delay NPIA decisions to June

14 March 2011

Home Secretary Theresa May has still not decided which National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) functions to keep, it has emerged.

The agency, which has been responsible for developing technology for frontline policing as well as delivering savings of £1bn through ICT and procurement transformation, is to be scrapped as part of the government's decision to abolish hundreds of quangos.

But the decision on what to do with roles performed by the agency has for a third time been listed in the missed deadline section of the Home Office Structural Reform Plan (SRP).

The Home Office originally set a December 2010 deadline to decide which NPIA roles to keep. But the latest SRP update stated the decision would now be made by June, after the Home Secretary has considered the outcomes from two policing reviews.

"The Home Secretary will consider recommendations from chief constable Neyroud's review of leadership and development and Lord Wasserman's review of policing ICT, as well as assessing which operational functions will be consistent with the core crime-fighting purpose of the National Crime Agency. We expect to complete these actions by June 2011," the plan said.

A Home Office spokesman told Publicservice.co.uk: "We are currently reviewing with interested parties the NPIA's functions as part of our reform of the police and our commitment to phase out quangos.

"Consideration is ongoing regarding which of the NPIA's functions might need to continue being delivered centrally and if so, how they may best be delivered in the new landscape."

In a recent update, NPIA chief executive Nick Gargan confirmed the NPIA would be phased out during 2012 and that some roles including non-IT procurement would move to the Home Office sooner, according to a news story on the agency's website.