Station Site Security Review

Question

1. Can the Chief Constable confirm whether the station site security review initiated in February 2023 has been completed across all of the PSNI estate and the date of completion of the review? How many recommendations for improvement were made and have all the recommended actions been implemented? 

2. Is the Chief Constable satisfied that the managed service contract provider is complying fully with the terms and conditions of contract to supply staff for station security role and staff provision under the contract? 

3. How many times in the financial year to date have officers been required to fulfil station security roles / other duties due to staff not being provided under the terms of the contract? 

Answer 

Heads of Department with responsibility for police premises were directed in February to review standing orders in respect of stations security and to ensure that they were content that instructions were being complied with. We did not mandate, as part of this process, that responsible officers report back on their findings, however, we did receive assurance that this process was being undertaken in each location. 

There is an ongoing rolling programme of security inspections undertaken by Security Branch officers with reports of their findings being shared with responsible officers. Findings are also shared with the Chief Superintendent, Local Policing and relevant Districts held accountable for addressing concerns through the monthly Local Policing Performance and Management Meeting, chaired by the Assistant Chief Constable. 

2. The KPI written into the contract is that the contract provider will deliver 98% of total demand. For the period 1 April 2023 to 30 November 2023 the actual hours delivered fulfilled 93% of demand. November, however, saw this increase to 95%, the highest level of service against demand during the review period. Police Service of Northern Ireland regularly meet with key G4S personnel to review performance of the contract and discuss challenges to contract delivery. 

3. We are unable to provide figures for the number of individual instances when officers have been asked to provide backfill for G4S staff on Security and other duties. 

However, in terms of hours of backfill recorded on the Options duty rostering system:

Financially this equates to:

Within the contract there is a provision whereby Police Service of Northern Ireland can recover some of the costs associated with backfilling roles when G4S cannot meet demand and a Police Officer is re-deployed to resource the role.