Transcript of this meeting [PDF]

I would say we have done a great deal of excellent work in recent years - and I paytribute to Anne [McMeel] in what she has been doing ever since she joined the MPS.The year before last we saved £72 million in cash. 2008/09. Last year, 2009/2010, wesaved £194 million. This year we are on course to save a further £315 million. We havegot a lot further to go. I do not think we should be talking about doing more for less; Ithink we should be talking about doing better for less. We are looking, as I have said tothe MPA on a number of occasions, to streamline business processes and reduce the costwe spend on our buildings, vehicles and all that sort of thing.A significant part of this includes making efficiency savings around our business supportservices. Under the MPS Service Improvement programme total accumulated savings,up to the end of 2014, are planned and have been discussed in the budget preparationswith the MPA and have been brought back before this Authority. I will just run throughsome of those categories. Planning from catering modernisation of something in theregion of £34 million. Training modernisation, £98 million. The Transforming HRprogramme, which we have had, is taking a long time in gestation but is still on track tosave us, when fully implemented, some £15 million a year in four financial years, so thatwould amount to, over that period, £58 million. Rationalisation of our property estate,£93 million. Property Service Department (PSD) modernisation and contractrationalisation, £73 million. Forensics, £51 million.These are big figures and these are the plans that we have put in place, through theService Improvement programme, that has been driven by Anne [McMeel] andcolleagues in the Management Board. On their own they will not be enough but they area very, very good contribution and an indication that the MPS really does mean businesson cutting our business and support costs.I am absolutely clear that the focus for me is to protect operational capability as far as Ican and that is what we are about. We are prioritising where we actually put ourattention. It is about business support and it is about what Tim Godwin, ratherindelicately, calls the inanimate costs of policing, but I think it does accurately describewhat we have been about.I am also very keen to ensure that, whilst I am passionate about maintaining visible patroland uniformed governance of the streets - and, as you know, we have done quite a lot thisyear and last year to increase the number of patrols that the MPS is putting out. Throughsingle patrol alone, 330 additional patrols every day. I am passionate to maintain that butI am also passionate about maintaining what I call the balanced model of policing. Wedo know that uniformed patrol and Safer Neighbourhood Teams alone will not keep thestreets of London safe. We need to make sure we have the right balance and the rightinvestment to ensure we maintain those specialist services, that have often been discussedat the MPA, to ensure we have that balanced model that can do everything we can to keepthe streets of London safe. It also includes the less visible asset and the protectiveservices.www.merrillcorp.com16