Background to the report 

The role of the police is to maintain public safety and order, prevent crime and uphold the law. There are 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales, which are accountable to locally elected police and crime commissioners and mayors. While the Home Office has overall responsibility for police forces, individual forces are operationally independent. The Home Office allocates the majority of police funding and maintains a system of local accountability, including intervening if chief constables or police and crime commissioners fail to carry out their duties. 

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Scope of the report 

This report examines how the Home Office is supporting police forces to improve their productivity and long-term financial sustainability. It covers:  

  • the financial pressures facing policing  
  • the Home Office’s approach to improving the financial sustainability of policing 
  • what is needed to achieve lasting improvements in police productivity 

Video summary

Richard Baynham, Senior Audit Manager, summarises the findings our report.

Conclusions 

The pressures facing policing are growing and current approaches to managing these pressures risk damaging the services that police forces provide. Improving the productivity of the police is crucial to helping them manage financial pressures while supporting their ability to respond to changing demands.

The Home Office’s previous attempts to improve efficiency and productivity have not led to sustainable long-term change across the 43 police forces. A limited understanding of what works, lack of standardisation across forces and patchy adoption of digital technology have all hampered the pursuit of greater productivity.  

We have previously identified the risks inherent in a ‘light touch’ approach to overseeing the policing system, and the Home Office is now adopting a stronger central role in overseeing the resilience and performance of the police. It is working to better understand the challenges facing police and is shortly to publish a white paper on police reform.

While any structural changes may take time, there are steps the Home Office can take now to lead the policing system to address the barriers to productivity and support better value for money from police funding. 

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Publication details

Press release

View press release (3 Nov 2025)

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