Wednesday 19th September, 2012

A report in Government Computing states that research by Deloitte estimates a maximum saving of 14% of budget is possible by 2014 through police force-to-force collaborations, according to an HMIC report "Increasing efficiency in the police service - the role of collaboration" released in July 2012. With some notable exceptions, such as the savings achieved by Gwent police with its shared data centres, savings in ICT tend to be in single figure percentages. As forces face 20% budget cuts, it appears likely that other forces will follow the outsourcing path.

Lincolnshire police faced a loss of £20m from a £120m budget over four years. "That is a massive slice out of an organisation that spends 80% of its money on salaries. So we needed significant financial savings. But what we didn't want to do was simply carve up our organisation and effectively have a much poorer [force] at the end of it. We wanted transformation and progression forward as well," says chief constable Neil Rhodes.

Lincolnshire police have outsourced a large quantity of their services to security firm G4S, but with issues brought to light by the recent mishanding of the Olympics contract, some forces are taking a step backward to re-consider their next move.