c) Reported savings should clearly distinguish between savings meeting the Treasury's criteria and other improvements in value for money to give credit to activities which do not count towards the CSR07 target but are nevertheless worthwhile. The Home Office wishes to incentivise activities which improve efficiency but which do not necessarily contribute to its savings target, because they do not release resources in the short term. Better use of police time which does not allow redeployment and innovative procurement of long-term contracts are two such areas highlighted in this report.
d) Issue further guidance for police forces on the difference between cash releasing savings and service improvements, and rules covering the carry-over of savings made in previous years. A substantial proportion of police savings result from efficiency measures that do not release cash but enable key resources to be reallocated to priority frontline services. To distinguish these savings from more qualitative improvements, forces should be specific in how savings are being reinvested.
e) Review of all reported savings prior to publication. We recommend that as well as the Internal Audit review of reporting systems required by Treasury guidelines, the Department needs to ensure that all significant savings, including those made by police forces and other arms length bodies, are real and are publicly defensible. If possible this review should take place before the figures are published in annual and autumn reports.
f) Establish clear budgetary baselines for evaluating major procurement projects and administrative spending. In order to demonstrate that reported savings have released cash as claimed, and is meeting the five per cent target for administrative spending, the Department should be able to reconcile actual spending to a defensible counterfactual based on its spend in 2007-08.