Efficiency at North Yorkshire Police not good enough, says inspector

North Yorkshire Police has been told it is not running the force efficiently enough.

In a report released today, the Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Service said the force required improvement in the way it matches demand on services with the skills of people, and on financial planning.

Last year it was rated as ‘good’ for efficiency.

HM Inspector of Constabulary Mike Cunningham said the downgrade was mainly due to work that needs to be done to “identify and reduce inefficient processes and work required to increase its understanding of likely future demand amongst developing communities in its area”.

He added: “It also needs to progress its plans to ensure that officers are equipped with the appropriate technology, something which has been delayed.

“North Yorkshire Police has a good understanding of the current demand for its services and is seeking to develop its work in collaboration with other organisations.

“Additionally, the force has a good track record of making savings; it will need to build on this if it is to meet the significant challenge of a predicted shortfall in its budget for 2019/20.”

In response, Police and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan said she welcomed the report and the force was working on a number of these issues already.

She added: “I have been in close contact with our chief HM Inspector from the outset of this inspection several months ago, and am in broad agreement with them on the findings. I have also been saying for some time that North Yorkshire Police has room to improve its efficiency and this report confirms much of my own analysis.

“Having said this, I do believe that the force has extremely strong foundations and, in comparison to others, is relatively well funded so is in a good position to move forwards.”

The commissioner added that she was concerned about the impact other organisations were having on the police.

“For example, last week, the Government published a report that showed the ambulance service is not responding in the way it should and the police are often left to deal with the consequences, having to transport mental health patients to hospital in over 65 per cent of cases.

“The police’s data also shows that there are up to five incidents on a typical weekend when officers have to transport injured people to hospital because of ambulance delays.

“This is not good enough and is something I shall be raising with the people in charge of the ambulance service.”

To read the full report click here.