Four years ago, two reports, Roads policing and its contribution to road safety from PACTS and Roads Policing: Not optional. An inspection of roads policing in England and Wales from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services clearly explained the link between roads policing and deaths and serious injuries and recommended ways to help the police improve the effectiveness of roads policing in England and Wales.
In February 2023 the government added roads policing to the national policing priorities and PACTS celebrated the story then (Government adds roads policing to Strategic Policing Requirement – A major breakthrough for road safety. – PACTS ). A year on, two guest writers update us on what the addition has, and will, mean to improving roads policing.
Lisa Townsend, Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) Roads Policing and Transport portfolio lead and PCC for Surrey writes:
“The inclusion of roads policing as a cross-cutting capability in the Strategic Policing Requirement (SPR) is a welcome recognition of the importance of roads policing in countering criminal activity and denying access to the strategic road network. This inclusion is a step forward in ensuring greater alignment and consistency across policing and partners, responding to the HMICFRS report – ‘Roads Policing; Not Optional.’
The SPR emphasises that forces must possess effective locally maintained capabilities, training, procedural knowledge, legislative knowledge, technology, software, equipment, and vehicles. The sum of this this will prevent harm, save lives, and reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured in road traffic collisions. The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), and Home Office are conscious that detailed requirements are now needed to allow forces to understand where they stand in terms of capability and capacity, delivering against the SPR.
To that end, as the national portfolio lead for roads policing, I will engage with all PCCs and Deputy Mayors across England and Wales to understand how they are currently holding their forces to account and setting strategic priorities around roads policing. In the coming weeks, the APCC will produce new guidance for all PCCs on accountability and oversight of the SPR. Each force will have conducted a self-assessment process on their capabilities currently, informing local, regional, and national delivery and future policy. Additionally, the portfolio will guide and support the new intake of PCCs following the 2024 PCC Elections.
It is for PCCs to work with their Chief Constables in ensuring the cross-cutting capabilities of the SPR are met, with the PCC responsible for accountability and including their adherence to the SPR in their annual reports. It is apparent that many forces may be at different stages in their capability and capacity. The APCC will support PCCs in their strategic and accountability role of the SPR, and I will voice emerging national challenges with the Home Office, Department for Transport and NPCC.
At present, 34 out of 43 PCCs are commissioning victim support services to road victims and witnesses, beyond victims of crime. This is a sharp increase compared to 2018. As lead I will continue to engage with the Department for Transport, Ministry of Justice and key stakeholders to ensure a more consistent and efficient service for supporting victims of road collisions.”
Chief Constable Jo Shiner, National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) Lead for Roads Policing explains their actions:
“We are really pleased that the Home Office included Roads Policing as a cross cutting capability in the Strategic Policing Requirement last year. Recognising that this capability helps support police forces to deal with the biggest threats to public safety is a significant step in raising the profile roads of policing activity.
We are currently working with police forces to understand what inclusion in the Strategic Policing Requirement means for their operational activity and what it means for the accountability of roads policing at a local level. In turn this will help us understand, from a national perspective, how inclusion in the Strategic Policing Requirement is influencing our collective efforts, every day, to reduce death and serious injury and tackle criminal behaviour on UK roads.”
In summary, baseline conditions of roads policing are being drawn up to understand how the picture differs across the country. In a debate held in the House of Commons in February the Minister for Roads and Local Transport Guy Opperman MP recognised this in his concluding remarks:
“I entirely accept that police forces have differing approaches when it comes to the thorough investigation of serious collisions. Effort is being made by the chief constables to change that, and I would urge the Home Office to drive that forward.….The Ministry of Justice, which provides police and crime commissioners with annual grant funding to commission local, practical and therapeutic support for victims of all types, should apply that to individual crime victims who have suffered crashes or collisions… I totally accept that this is a work in progress, and on a cross-departmental basis. I assure my hon. Friend the Member for North Devon and this House that we will meet the three key Departments to try to drive forward an integrated Government policy on all these matters. It is not for one Department to fix this; it should be done on a cross-departmental basis. I thank my hon. Friend for securing this debate and all my colleagues for bringing this matter forward.”
Ministerial acknowledgement that improvements are needed across departments is encouraging. Road safety has never been something which can be siloed. However, without the government setting out goals the aims of any improvement are undefined. PACTS recommends that safe system indicators should be used to monitor road safety. Others, from the All Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling & Walking, call for Police and Crime Commissioners to consider all crash victims as victims of crime (except where there is clear evidence to the contrary) and recommend, through a petition, establishing a UK commissioner for road danger reduction involving measuring road danger, setting reduction targets and ensuring effective collaboration among various stakeholders.
Meeting these targets will take commitment, plans and resources. The NPCC are marking out their starting point from which plans can be drawn up, the APCC stand ready to articulate challenges with the Home Office and Department for Transport to bring about an integrated Government policy. Resources must then be forthcoming to recover the decline in roads policing and reverse ongoing plateau of 1,800 people dying and 30,000 being seriously injured on roads in Great Britain each year.