United Kingdom

Home Affairs 

The Criminal Justice System (CJS) is facing more demands and pressures than ever before. Increasing demands on services have come at the same time as significant reductions in budgets for both central departments and for all the delivery arms that make up the CJS. 

Current pressures include the ongoing threat of terrorism, the provision of security for the 2012 Olympics, the growth of cross-border organised crime and cyber crime and continuing pressure on prison and probation services. At the same time almost all the parts of the System are facing structural and legislative changes creating both uncertainty and opportunity around their future shape. For example the election of Police and Crime Commissioners, the setting up of the National Crime Agency and the increased use of virtual courts within the wider reform and localism agenda. 

 

KPMG has extensive experience in this sector and understands the end to end criminal justice processes and the culture and complexities of the wider arena.  We have worked with Central Government departments, non-departmental bodies, local Government agencies, a number of voluntary, statutory and private sector organisations, as well as many police forces across the UK. Our dedicated team works to support effective change, with a genuine interest in helping develop and implement solutions which contribute to a better CJS.

 

Contact

Rosemary Sculley

 

Rosemary Scully

 

Partner
KPMG LLP (UK)

 

020 7311 1516

email Rosemary

Last year’s spending review reduced the policing budget for the first time in almost 70 years. This posed forces with a challenge: how to reduce costs whilst improving ways of fighting crime. In this article, originally published in The Times, Nicholas Fox, KPMG’s lead partner for Home Affairs, argues that not only is it possible for forces to both, but the best leaders in the service are already showing the way. 

 

While the strategy for reducing cost and improving efficiency in the Criminal Justice sector remains the subject of speculation in Whitehall and at the front line, two inescapable facts remain: The budget deficit will require unparalleled cuts; There will be no let up in public or political expectation for improvement. Our experience across the sector gives us an unprecedented understanding of where the opportunities for savings and improvement lie and how to deliver them. 

 

While spending cuts dominate the headlines and police chiefs contemplate radical overhaul of policing services, it is tempting to think that continuous improvement is merely ‘nice to have’.

 

However, there is overwhelming evidence from police forces, criminal justice agencies and law enforcement organisations that QUEST can deliver both performance improvement and cost reduction. QUEST has helped organisations generate more than £100m per annum of operational efficiency savings, whilst simultaneously transforming the productivity and performance of frontline services. The average return on investment to date has been 10.1 across the 17 organisations with which we have worked.

 

QUEST achieves extraordinary results through a fast-paced, evidence-based, ‘bottom-up’ approach which supports a genuine step-change in the way organisations think and operate. This approach can be tailored to meet the individual challenges and characteristics of any organisation.