Grampian police and joint police board perform well while more progress could be made

The Best Value Audit and Inspection: Grampian Police and Grampian Joint Police Board provides an overview of how both these bodies are meeting their best value duties, and is a joint report from the Accounts Commission and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary for Scotland (HMICS).

The performance assessment of the force found that there has been an overall reduction in recorded crimes since 2006/07 and crimes of violence, indecency, dishonesty and reckless behaviour are at their lowest level for seven years.

Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, Andrew Laing, said:

“Grampian Police force is performing well and demonstrates many of the elements of best value. Levels of public satisfaction are high and improving and, overall, crime rates in the area are falling. However, it is unclear why recorded instances of racially motivated crime and complaints against the police have increased and the force should make further efforts to understand and explain this”.

The report also says the force should make efforts to calculate how much individual policing activities cost to help it work with the board to make difficult decisions on future priorities, and where money should be spent in the future.

The Accounts Commission found that the board has a good understanding of its role, and that members actively question and challenge the force about its performance in a constructive way.

Chair of the Accounts Commission, John Baillie, said:

“The board works well to meet the needs of local communities. It has a positive partnership with the force, and together, they have developed a shared vision for policing in the area and a clear set of priorities. However, with public finances tight, the board should develop its longer-term financial planning and scrutiny roles to ensure the best use of resources. It could also do more to help identify savings through partnership and shared services initiatives.”

The board should also make sure that arrangements for an effective independent custody visiting scheme are implemented quickly. At present, the board is the only police authority in the United Kingdom not to have an operational scheme in place.

The force and the board will now produce an improvement plan to show how they intend to address the findings.