English and Welsh Police Force Efficiency: Demonstration Project Peer Review Results

The recent report by the Public Service Productivity Panel (PSPP) (2000), proposed that non-parametric (DEA) and parametric (SFA) modelling techniques be utilised as an aid to allow efficiency bandings of police forces. To determine whether these techniques could be utilised, a data set approved by the Home Office Steering Committee was compiled, and a report commissioned to present the results of the Demonstration Project (DP). This paper presents abridged results from a Peer Review report on the DP showing that the given data set could indeed produce efficiency bandings and hence facilitate future discussions concerning differential payments of funds to English and Welsh police forces. Due to the sensitivity of the results, the police force names have been changed.