The Forms Squad - You're Ticked

It appears that the Met Police are taking paperwork seriously - they've got a 'forms squad', and what's more, it's an award winner....

Some revealing numbers in this response to my colleague Richard Barnes:

Richard Barnes: How many forms have been created by the MPS since the establishment of the MPS anti-bureaucracy task force?

Ken Livingstone: There are approximately 2,300 MPS forms in existence. The MPS forms unit states that 326 new forms have been created since September 2004. Pioneering work by the MPS forms unit has ensured that some of the most widely used electronic forms 'self populate' with the author's personal details. This process saves the MPS approximately £350,000 a year and has just won first prize in this year's National Reducing Bureaucracy Awards Scheme. The forms unit has a rolling programme to ensure that whenever possible, forms are available only via their intranet site, to be downloaded on demand. This reduces printing, ordering and storage costs. It also ensures that only the most up to date form is used. As a result, most of the available forms have been converted.