Value for money

This section contains links to our reports and findings on how far police forces and authorities provide value for money. From this page, you can:

• Read about ‘Policing in austerity: One year on’, the 2012 follow-up to ‘Adapting to austerity’.
• Read our independent, professional assessment of how well each force is prepared for the financial challenges of the budget cuts over the next four years – just choose Preparedness Inspection from the menu to the left.
• Read ‘Demanding Times – The front line and police visibility’ – an HMIC report from March 2011 defining the police front line, and revealing the percentage of police available to the public.
• Download ‘Valuing the Police – Policing in an age of austerity’ – HMIC’s report from July 2010 which showed that 11 percent of the police were visibly available to the public.
• See your force’s value for money profile. HMIC gathers together data from the Home Office annual data requirement (crime and workforce data) and force satisfaction surveys, as well as Chartered Institute of Public Finance (CIPFA) annual financial returns. This information is then used to create a value for money profile for each force. All force’s profiles can be found by choosing Value for money profiles from the menu to the left. To view this data in .csv format, visit our data section.

2013 inspections

HMIC has now started the 2013 programme of value for money inspections, which is due to report in the summer. We will be visiting all 43 police forces. If you’d like to receive an update when the report is due to be published please email haveyoursay@hmic.gsi.gov.uk and ask to be added to the distribution list.