Caught Red Handed: Why We can't Count on Police Recorded Crime Statistics - HC 760


Book Description

Over the next ten years, development aid in the form of grants should be replaced for lower middle income countries. DFID should continue to channel some of its finance through multilaterals, making greater use of their specialist skills and expertise rather than replicating these within its own bilateral programmes. DFID should also establish a financial instrument team, prepare a development finance strategy and publish a Development Finance White Paper during 2014. This strategy should include consideration of whether to establish a UK development bank. The overwhelming drive in UK aid should continue to focus on lifting people out of poverty and meeting post-2015 development objectives. The UK should continue to fund the development and delivery of key services to the very poorest people in low income countries through a system of grants. We should also continue to channel 0.7 % of GNI into development cooperation. But, to support structural transformation in lower middle income countries a significant proportion of future UK development finance should also be delivered via a system of concessional loans and other financial instruments




Policing UK Honour-Based Abuse Crime


Book Description

This book examines the different forms that honour-based abuse crimes take and analyses the discretionary police practices employed when responding to these incidents. Honour-based abuse is an incident or crime involving violence, threats of violence, intimidation, coercion or abuse committed in order to protect or defend the honour of an individual, family and or community for a perceived breach of their code of behaviour. Based on unique UK police data, it includes examination of one hundred honour abuse cases and interviews with fifteen predominantly detective specialist police officers that investigate this crime. This book recognises the challenges encountered when policing honour-based abuse and offers recommendations for addressing them. It will particularly benefit police forces in England and Wales, the Home Office, scholars in gendered violence and policing, and non-government organisations (charities supporting victims) by highlighting some of the issues associated with policing, partnership working arrangements and safeguarding victims of honour-based abuse crimes.




HC 757 - Police And Crime Commissioners: Progress To Date


Book Description

The concept of police and crime commissioners is still very much on probation. Some Commissioners have fallen well short of the public's expectations and urgent reforms are needed to ensure that this concept does not put at risk public trust and engagement in the police, the very objectives for which PCCs were brought in. New Commissioners should have a transition period of one month between election and taking office. The hiring of deputies and the decision to remove chief constables are critical decisions for local communities and it is vital that the amount of the scrutiny applied to commissioners by police and crime panels increases. Panels' powers must be strengthened and extended to ensure that any decision to remove a chief constable is the right one for the public. Only this will provide full public confidence. Deputies should not be cronies that are given their job on the basis of nepotism. Panels should have the power of veto over the appointment of a deputy commissioner, where they have not stood for election alongside the commissioner. By electing Deputies on the same ticket we ensure that the public will be able to have their say on someone who often acts with the powers of the Commissioner. Though good working relationships between chief constables and PCCs are welcomed, the arrangement should never be too cosy. The setting of targets by PCCs must not promote the manipulation of crime figures and all PCCs should review their auditing arrangements immediately




Police Services


Book Description

This volume provides fresh insights and management understanding of the changing role of policing against the backdrop of massive cuts in public expenditure experienced and the changing landscape of policing. The challenges of funding, training, online-crimes and cultural transformation are now felt globally. The need to learn and adapt from suitable models of police service delivery have never been greater. The book offers critical insights into the theory and practice of strategic and operational management of police services and the related professional and policy aspects. One of the highlight of this volume is to bring together scholarship using experts- academics, practitioners and professionals in the field, to each of the chosen topics. The chapters are based in the practical experiences of the authors and are written in a way that is accessible and suitable for a range of audiences. We are confident that this book will cater to a wider audience to inform policy and practice, both in the UK and internationally. Sir Peter Fahy QPM, Chief Constable, Greater Manchester Police Policing across the world is facing an increasing complexity of demand and public expectation creating new challenges for leadership and management. The contributors to this work are among the leading thinkers in policing and present important new insights into both the past and the way forward. It will be welcomed by all those convinced that radical new approaches are required across the public services. Bill Skelly, Deputy Chief Constable, Devon and Cornwall Police, UK At times it feels that the focus on leadership in the police service is all about what went wrong; the negative influences of a tightly-knit culture; and the almost inevitable rise of the technocrat. It is refreshing to read a book that seeks new insights into the positive influences of police leadership and offers the prospect of a more emotionally aware and spiritually rich approach as to how those insights may be practically employed for the benefit of all in the police family and the communities we serve.




Criminology


Book Description

The seventh edition of 'Criminology' offers updated coverage of the main criminological theories. An engaging read for students of criminology, it traces the history and development of these key theories, and provides full references to guide the reader in their further criminological studies.




The Oxford Handbook of Criminology


Book Description

Beginning with the history of criminology this updated and revised edition deals with topics as diverse as policing, substance abuse, juvenile crime, statistics, prisons, victims, and organised crime in Britain.




Too Soon to Scrap the Census - HC 1090


Book Description

At the start of this Parliament, the Minister for the Cabinet Office indicated the ten-yearly census should be axed and the 2011 census should be the last. But in this report the Public Administration Select Committee urges the government not to scrap the 2021 census. Good figures on the people in the country are of fundamental importance to the statistical system, policy makers and society more widely, and the ten-yearly census gives detailed information on small areas. This report follows the National Statistician's announcement in March 2014 that she recommends that Government keep the Census in 2021, but that it should be conducted largely online, and that the Government should make much greater use of the data which it already holds in order to improve the accuracy of population estimates. The Committee supports the recommendation from the National Statistician, but urges the Office for National Statistics to do much more to make the best use of the data which the Government already collects, for example through the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs and the Department of Health. The Committee says that the Office for National Statistics' work on the future of the Census has, to date, been limited, and recommends that the Office for National Statistics now sets out a much more ambitious vision for the use of this data to provide rich and valuable population statistics.




Time for a People's Ombudsman Service - HC 655


Book Description

In this report the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) calls for a 'People's Ombudsman' and says the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), which investigates complaints against the NHS and other government departments and agencies, is outdated. Citizens should have direct and more user-friendly access to the Ombudsman. None of the Ombudsmen created since the PHSO's operations were established in legislation 47 years ago have adopted the same restricted model as the Parliamentary Ombudsman. As a priority, the restriction on citizens' direct and open access to PHSO, known as the MP filter, must be abolished (as is already the case in respect of NHS complaints). PHSO must be able to receive complaints other than in writing: such as in person, by telephone or online, just as is expected of any normal complaints system. PHSO should have powers to investigate areas of concern without having first to receive a complaint from a service user. Parliament should strengthen the accountability of PHSO. PASC, along with other Departmental Select Committees, should make greater use of the intelligence gathered by the PHSO to hold Government to account. A consultation should be held on the creation of a single public services ombudsman for England. At the same time, there must be a distinctive ombudsman service for UK non-devolved matters.




HC 111 - Lessons For Civil Service Impartiality From The Scottish Independence Referendum


Book Description

This Report has been compiled so that lessons may be drawn for future referendums. On 18 September 2014, the Scottish public voted for Scotland to remain part of the United Kingdom. The roles played by civil servants in both Scotland and London in the Scottish referendum last summer were subject to criticism and controversy. The referendum campaign exposed two major issues: first, the question of how a unified Civil Service can serve both HM Government and the Scottish Government; and second, the challenges to Civil Service impartiality generated by the Scottish independence referendum. Particular concerns were raised about the Scottish Government's White Paper, Scotland's Future, which included a description of the SNP's proposed programme for government that was contingent upon their winning the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections. This did not uphold the factual standards expected of a UK Government White Paper and raised questions about the use of public money for partisan purposes. There was also concern that the publication of normally confidential advice by the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury called into question the impartiality of the Civil Service. The Committee concludes that parts of the White Paper should not have been included in a government publication. Civil servants should not be required to carry out ministers' wishes, if they are being asked to use public funds to promote the agenda of a political party, as was evident in this case.




HC 886 - Investigating Clinical Incidents in the NHS


Book Description

PASC is inquiring into how incidents of clinical failure in the NHS are investigated - and how subsequent complaints are handled. The Committee is considering ways that untoward clinical incidents could be investigated immediately at a local level, so that facts and evidence are established early, without the need to find blame, and regardless of whether a complaint has been raised. It is hoped that this work will reduce the need for complaints to go to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman (PHSO), whose main role relates to administrative and service failures in the NHS in England.