NPIA outlines £200m IT savings plan

The chief executive of the National Policing Improvement Agency has outlined plans to save £200m by 2015 through 'better use of technology and procurement'.

Peter Neyroud said the agency will make IT savings of £25m during 2010-11, out of total savings of £1bn across all areas of the agency by 2015.

In May, the NPIA was told by the coalition government to make £30m worth of cuts. Speaking at the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Association of Police Authorities (APA) conference in Manchester, Neyroud said he wanted to ensure that "policing offers maximum value for money at a time when austerity measures are biting". But he acknowledged that the agency's savings plans were "ambitious".

"Our challenge is to do more with less by being more intelligent and efficient in how we deliver policing services. Collaboration, sharing and central procurement will be the hallmarks of how the NPIA helps the police service to achieve significant savings in the future," Neyroud said.

The chief executive called for police forces to share back office functions like finance and human resources, revealing that the agency plans to save £75m by 2015 through shared services.

Neyroud concluded that his ambition was to see every pound spent on the agency converted into a minimum £2 saving in the police service.

The NPIA supports a number of front-line police operations such as the police national computer, the national fingerprint database, the Airwave radio system and the National DNA Database.

This article was originally published at Kable.

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