HOW WE'RE RAISING

National Standards

National Standards for data and technology in policing help to drive innovation, reduce costs and improve interoperability. The development of National Standards brings together UK policing, the Home Office and suppliers, in a common approach to sourcing, promoting and adopting standards in line with the National Policing Digital Strategy.

The Police Digital Service works with our national policing partners to coordinate the National Standards programme.

Learn more below

Watch our National Standards overview to learn more

Helping Deliver the National Policing Digital Strategy

Launched in 2020, the National Policing Digital Strategy sets out a new digital ambition for the UK police service.

The Strategy is underpinned by five digital ambitions. Key to realising these ambitions is ensuring forces can easily identify what is required to achieve and maintain a consistent level of quality. It’s with this that the National Standards platform assists.

National Standards help ensure the quality of planning, design and implementation of digital, data and technology projects within policing. The new standards platform and governance structure encourages greater transparency, discussion and collaboration, to help minimise rework, avoid duplication and ensure quality, whilst offering forces the flexibility to tailor their approach to local demands.

More Info & Download the Strategy

Seamless Citizen Experience

Addressing Harm

Enabling Officers and Staff Through Digital

Embedding a Whole Public System Approach

Empower the Private Sector

Democratising National Standards

The National Standards programme was tasked with creating a platform that would allow standards and other policy documents to be accessed more easily, created more collaboratively, and governed more transparently.

The programme delivered these outcomes on budget and on time and has now transitioned to a service, helping coordinate work into standards on a local and national scale, engaging with a broad range of stakeholders to ensure the programme remains useful, useable and used.

More Collaboration

The organisation of 43 different police forces naturally leads to divergence and silo working. So to assist collaboration, the National Standards programme has created a community of practitioners and leaders across all areas of policing. Our network is engaged with any request for a new or changed standard. This joined up approach means standards are kept useful and used across all sections of policing, from high level boards to on-the-ground working groups.

Improved Accessibility

Access to standards was previously inhibited by a log-in process and lack of awareness around where standards could be found. So we created an openly accessible platform, running as a simple website, with no requirement to register an account or log in for non sensitive standards. Users can quickly access the platform whenever and wherever they need to and locate the information they want, making the standards more easily accessible.

Full Transparency

In the past, the absence of a single platform and framework for standards made it hard to find information. This also led to duplication, due to a lack of awareness about who was working on what, at any given time. So we built a central platform and framework. Now, it is clearer when a standard is in development or live, progress is visible to all forces, and retired standards are archived. This allows resources to be more effectively allocated and the outputs shared, helps users make informed decisions about which standards to adopt, and ensures inquiries or commissions can easily access past standards.

Easier Search

Previously, the range and number of standards, together with how they were structured, made it difficult for users to navigate standards. The new platform presents a simpler, flatter classification structure. This makes it easier for technical and non-technical audiences to search the site and find value. In addition, we have developed use cases to help show users how standards can be applied at various points in the journey of a product or service, from inception to disposal.

Get Involved

Select an option below to find out more, begin searching National Standards and to contact the National Standards team for further information. We look forward to working with you!

VISIT THE NATIONAL STANDARDS SITE

SEARCH THE STANDARDS PORTAL

CONTACT THE PROGRAMME TEAM