The Home Office will set up a dedicated unit to improve policing performance across the country.
Yvette Cooper will announce the new unit at the annual conference hosted by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Association for Police and Crime Commissioners tomorrow, as part of a roadmap for major reform to build a new partnership between the Home Office and police.
The unit will directly monitor police performance in high-priority areas such as tackling violence against women and girls, knife crime and improving neighbourhood policing.
The home secretary is expected to say: “This is a critical juncture for the future of policing. And if as a country we are to remain equipped to fight the fast-changing challenges of today and tomorrow, then we know policing must evolve.
“We have a huge opportunity ahead of us to reset the relationship between government and the police, to regain the trust and support of the people we all serve and to reinvigorate the best of British policing.
“Strong and consistent performance is critical to commanding public confidence. I truly believe that working together we can mobilise behind this mission – and deliver a fairer, safer country for all.”
The Home Office said the unit will give the home secretary a more comprehensive picture of how policing is delivering for its communities, which will enable her to take a “more hands-on approach to driving improvements”. This will include working with policing partners to ensure that the appropriate support and, where necessary, intervention is being identified and delivered.
Some of the priorities the unit will focus on include monitoring officer time spent on the front line; drawing on local police data; and ensuring that police response times are standardised and consistently measured, the Home Office said.
The unit will also use police-recorded data on child sexual abuse to help forces understand and tackle the hidden harms in their areas.
It will also focus on police standards by ensuring that forces are collecting, monitoring and acting on data on misconduct, vetting and disciplinary procedures, to ensure they are "rooting out those who are not fit to serve".