Tolley Anne: Policing (Cost Recovery) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTolley Anne: Policing (Cost Recovery) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 04 November 2014. Volume:701;Page:520. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister for Social Development)on behalf of theMinister of Police: I move That the Policing (Cost Recovery) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Law and Order Committee to consider the bill. This bill amends the Policing Act 2008 to enable cost recovery for certain police services.The New Zealand Police provides a wide range of services to the general public and to public and private sector agencies and organisations in a variety of locations and settings. Most of the services that police provide are core statutory functions and are for the benefit of the general public. Examples of such services include responding to calls for assistance and conducting criminal investigations and prosecutions. These services are provided for society’s general benefit. The provision of such core policing services will not be affected by this bill. However some services delivered by police although still important and highly valued by the public provide a significant degree of private benefit to individuals or particular groups and it is appropriate to shift the cost of funding at least some of these services from the general taxpayer to the specific beneficiaries of these services.In many overseas jurisdictions such demand services already attract a fee to cover the cost of providing this service. For example all police services in all Australian jurisdictions currently apply a cost recovery regime for certain policing services. The New Zealand Police is one of the few police services that do not have legislation that explicitly allows for some degree of cost recovery. Cost recovery will enable police to meet the cost of increases in demand for certain services thereby avoiding placing additional strain on the public purse or shifting resources towards those services at the expense of core front-line police activities. It will also safeguard the delivery of these services by ensuring their future sustainability.The public clearly understands this strategy and during the initial public consultation undertaken by police in 2013 two-thirds of submitters agreed that it is appropriate for police to have the ability to recover costs in some instances. This response is consistent with the public feedback that the previous Labour-led Government received during its consultation in 2006-07 during its review of the Police Act. At that time 75 percent of respondents from the general public supported cost recovery being applied in some situations.This bill firstly sets out the types of police services that may be the subject of cost recovery. These are demand services as defined in the bill. Secondly the bill sets out the criteria on which cost recovery is to be based. These broadly relate to justifiability equity efficiency and transparency. Thirdly the bill sets out consultation provisions; fourthly methods of cost recovery; fifthly the provision of exemptions and waivers of any prescribed fees or charges; and finally amendments to the Act to provide that regulations may be made by Order in Council on the recommendation of the Minister of Police prescribing fees and charges for demand services.As set out in the bill a “demand service” is defined as a service that is requested by and is of direct benefit to an individual or organisation although there may also be an indirect benefit to the public as a whole. Police vetting is listed as an example of a demand service. For avoidance of doubt certain core police functions are excluded from the definition. Prior to recommending regulations to prescribe a fee for any particular service the Minister of Police must be satisfied that the service is a demand service that the service and principles are consistent with the specified criteria that have been drawn from Treasury’s and the Auditor-General’s guidelines for setting charges in the public sector and that due consultation has been undertaken with the affected parties.Following the passage of this bill it is intended to introduce policing regulations to enable cost recovery for the police vetting service along with a charging regime for that service. At present the police vetting service is the only demand service being proposed for cost recovery. Police undertake the vetting of employees and volunteers for approved public sector and private sector agencies involved in a variety of public interaction activities such as education community services caregiving and other health services. The vetting service provides employers with relevant background information on potential employees that may have a bearing on the suitability of an individual to work in a particular environment interact with potentially vulnerable people or handle sensitive information. In 2013 there were around 457700 requests to use the police vetting service and the demand is steadily rising.A number of recent national and international developments have put increasing pressure on the police vetting service. For example the introduction of mandatory safety checks for paid members of the children’s workforce as set out in the Vulnerable Children Act 2014; the proposed agreement with Australia for the sharing of criminal history information on individuals for employment vetting purposes; and the potential vetting of individuals from New Zealand who are seeking employment in the United Kingdom Canada or the United States. So the proposed regulations would allow police to charge for these individual vets so as to recoup the costs involved. This will help safeguard the delivery of the vetting service and ensure its future sustainability in the face of that increasing demand and it will also incentivise efficiencies by both police and the users of the service.So users of the police vetting service will be asked to pay a small fee for something they have previously received for free. The vetting service fee will be around $7 per check. The equivalent fees in the Australian jurisdictions are considerably higher. For example it costs A$52 for a national police check from the New South Wales Police Force and in South Australia the fee is A$56.50 for a national police certificate which details an individual’s offending history. It is expected that most organisations will be able to absorb the vetting service costs with little impact on the volume or quality of their services. Many organisations could pass these costs on to the individuals who derive a private benefit from the end result. However for those organisations that cannot meet the costs incurred provision has been made in the bill for fees to be waived in some cases. We are anticipating that this would be done in accordance with publicly available guidelines and that for example fees could be waived for some volunteers in specific situations. The guidelines would be reviewed after 18 months of operation.I am proposing that the bill not be enacted before June 2015 and that regulations setting out fees for police vetting would not come into force before July 2015. I am also signalling that there will need to be an amendment to the land transport regulations when the policing regulations are made. This is so the vetting fee for the checks that police undertake for the New Zealand Transport Agency currently set at $28.20 is aligned with other vetting fees.In summary enabling police to recover the costs of certain police services will improve the way police resources are used enhance service delivery and provide better value for money. I believe there is a strong case for cost recovery for services where the benefit primarily accrues to individuals and private organisations rather than to the public as a whole. I commend this bill to the House.