PEEL News – Update 1

HMIC is developing a new programme of annual all-force inspections, called the PEEL (police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy) assessments. This is the first in a series of short updates, aimed at keeping you informed during the development of the new programme.

Overview

The PEEL assessments will allow the public to find out whether their local police force is performing well or badly when it comes to cutting crime and providing value for money, using a small number of easy-to-understand categories.

The PEEL assessments will look at:

  • effectiveness: how well each force carries out its responsibilities, including cutting crime, protecting the vulnerable, tackling anti-social behaviour and dealing with emergencies and other calls for service;
  • efficiency: how well police forces provide value for money; and
  • legitimacy: how well each force provides a service that is fair and treats people properly and within the law.

Each force will then receive one of four judgment grades – outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate – for each of these areas.

PEEL 2014

The first PEEL assessments will be published on 27 November 2014. They will be a more complete assessment of police force performance than HMIC has provided before, but will reflect the fact that this is a transition period for us.

Many of the inspections HMIC has already done this year won’t be able to provide a graded judgment as they took place before the decision was made to carry out annual inspections. However, three inspections were designed to provide these for each force in 2014:

  • Policing in Austerity – meeting the challenge;
  • Police Integrity and Corruption; and
  • Crime

Evidence from our other inspections published in the last twelve months will be used to produce a narrative assessment of individual forces. This includes inspections such as domestic abuse and crime data integrity. Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMIs) will use their professional judgment to make an overall assessment of the evidence from inspections of each force in their region.

Find out more about the first PEEL assessment. You can also download a presentation with more detailed information about the first PEEL assessment.

PEEL 2015

Through inspecting and consulting, we will constantly improve our approach and methodology. Each year we will ask the public for their views on the all-force assessments.

Next year we will plan our inspections in a way that allows for an even fuller assessment of force performance.

Keeping you updated

As you can see, there is a great deal happening over the next few months as we approach the publication date for the first PEEL assessment. To keep up to date on PEEL news,
view the list of our PEEL news articles or subscribe to our news feed.

If you have any comments or questions about the PEEL assessments, you can email the programme team at HMICPEELProgramme@hmicfrs.gov.uk

Coming up next week

The next update will explain more about the crime inspection, for which fieldwork was carried out during October 2014.