Top tips for thieves:
This story about local man (currently a guest of Her Majesty) Aaron Evans was reported by the Bristol Evening Post, using video supplied by Avon & Somerset Constabulary.
My wallet was stolen on Tuesday, while I was running a conference in a venue near Reading. I'm not too sure at what point, although I've narrowed it down to a window of opportunity of around six hours on the day in question. This is a first for me, as I've stayed in numerous hotels over the years without problems.
In my wallet, as well as a debit and credit cards and less than fifty quid in cash, I also had the plastic part of my UK Drivers License, plus a few random loyalty cards and some membership cards like my Rotary International card and my Bristol Libraries Membership Card.
The staff at De Vere's Wokefield Park were very helpful, but since the supervisor had left (at 17:00) the reception team weren't able to open the "Lost Property" box to check whether my wallet had been handed in. This probably didn't make much difference this time, but in other circumstances perhaps a guest would have delayed reporting the loss due to this policy.
Immediately, I contacted my bank (HSBC) and my credit card company to cancel the cards. I also logged on to my Internet banking service to have a look at my statement. And I was surprised to find a single charge for the following:
29 Jul DR TRAVEL FACILITIES 2517.33
Bit odd, I think: I haven't bought any plane tickets this month. Time to call the police. Or rather, email them.
Deciding to put yesterday's advice to one side, I signed on to Avon and Somerset Constabulary's Online Non-urgent Crime/Incident recording service. And it's really very good. Through the encrypted website, I was able to list all the details of the incident and the lost items that would otherwise have required me to take up a Police Constable's time for a couple of hours while s/he drove out to my house (obviously not the crime scene) to take a statement and write it all up in Biro. I even got my "Crime Number" by email.
Meanwhile, I rang HSBC to enquire about the "Travel Facilities" transaction. The crack team at the call centre were straight on the case.
A few days later, after a couple more calls to Bangalore and a bit more digging, it turned out that "I" had walked into the HSBC branch in Newbury and purchased £2517.33 worth (including fees) of foreign currency.
It would appear that you can walk into any random HSBC branch with a Debit Card, the account holder's photographic ID and a library card, and walk out with £2517.33 (excluding fees) of cash in any of eighty currencies of your choice. And you don't even need to know the PIN or be able to forge a signature. This service is known as "Travel Money", presumably because it allows your money to travel from your account into someone else's pocket.
No doubt my refund from HSBC is already on its way, so I'm not too bothered. But it does raise some interesting issues. Getting challenged for ID is not uncommon these days. I can think of occasions when I've been asked for ID (Drivers License or Passport) before setting up loyalty cards, non-credit accounts, and picking up pre-booked tickets. Having ID on hand for these challenges is convenient, but the risk associated with routinely carrying your ID would appear to be higher than one might think.
I'll be watching my Experian Credit Expert service like a hawk for the next few months just in case there's a follow-up Identity Theft attempt.
The Database State has its merits
In another first, I then used the DVLA's web service to find out how to request a new Driver's License. I was assuming I'd have to fill in a form, take it to the Post Office and perhaps even send off my Passport as verification. But, no: it's all online now. You will be charged £17.50 for the privilege, which can be paid online if you have any cards left.
I have a Government Gateway account, which I originally obtained to sign up for the National Blood Service. This is a single sign-on service for government applications, and it is now in use by the DVLA. Once you are logged in, you can order a replacement drivers license as long as your address hasn't changed, and as long as you have a UK Passport. The latter is an interesting point: to verify your transaction, the DVLA ask for your Passport number. So the relationship in the databases between your passport and your drivers license has already been made.
I don't like laws that make the refusal to carry identification papers a crime (see NO2ID), but the focus on the physical bit of mandatory national identity systems is somewhat irrelevent as the underlying database is already being built. Databases are tools, and like any tool can be put to virtuous or malign purpose, which is why I worry less about the data and more about the people using it.
Overall, assuming HSBC don't start prevaricating, I'm down about £100.00, plus a few old photos and other items of sentimental value. A reasonable price for a useful lesson.
Things to remember
A quick Google Map:
A couple of thought-provoking videos today, both via the Coyote Blog. Head over that way for some commentary.
And in this one Prof. James Duane of the Regent University School of Law contends that you should never speak to police officers, tax collectors or other law-enforcement agents. Amazingly, the police agree with him. Remember that there is no Fifth Amendment in the United Kingdom, (and not much Magna Carta anymore either), so it may harm your defense if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence...
A while ago I wrote about SouthWest One, a Joint Venture Shared Service Company, which has taken over the administration and "back office" functions of several local government bodies and most recently the Avon & Somerset Constabulary.
Somerset & Sedgemoor MP Liddell Grainger (Con) has really torn into this one. In particular he has highlighted the vague rationale for undertaking such a high-risk approach to delivering public service, and the astonishing level of secrecy associated with the contract. The following paragraphs are from his speech, made last month, to the House of Commons:
Southwest One is formed of two councils—Somerset county and Taunton Deane borough—plus one police authority, Avon and Somerset constabulary. I remind the House that its business partner is IBM. Hon. Members will be surprised to learn that IBM owns 75 per cent. of the company. That means that, if Southwest One ever makes a profit, the “Big Blue” will pocket three quarters of it. It is a 10-year venture, which was supposed to save money. Somerset council claims that it will save it £200 million—£20 million a year. Yet the county offers no logical explanation or business realisation plan. Why? There is not one. [...]
[T]he architects of the joint venture company have strangled information to such a tiny trickle that nobody outside the magic inner circle knows what is going on.
Not one elected councillor of any persuasion has been given unrestricted access to the 3,000 page contract, which was signed last September. Most of it stays hidden. Councillors, the unions and the public who, like me, pay for all that, have been treated like mushrooms. We have been left in the dark and, every now and then, some smug soul chucks a bucket of manure over us. The last big bucket of dung was delivered yesterday by the very man who boasted that not a single job would be put at risk by the deal.
Trade magazine Computer Weekly are now taking an interest, and SouthWest One is working hard to dodge Freedom of Information requests. You can follow the story on Tony Collins's IT Projects Blog.
ITV West are doing a special programme on the subject on Thursday 24th July at 19:30 in the West Eye View documentary slot. One to watch, I think. While you're waiting, here's a short video delivered at last year's [2007] Society of IT Managers Annual Conference.
Courtesy of the National Archives, here's a Public Information Film from 1959 detailing the daily routine of a British Police Constable. More commentary on the Police to follow.
Avon and Somerset Constabulary are planning to outsource a large proportion of their back office administration and support functions ("Shared Services") to a private consortium.
This may be a good idea. Economic growth is founded upon the increase in productivity that comes with specialisation. For example, are you a subsistence farmer? No? I didn't think so: you've "outsourced" your food production to others.
What about housing, clothing, furniture or entertainment? Do you fufil all these needs from your own resources, or do you purchase such services from specialists? I'm pretty sure that in at least three of these four categories you rely exclusively on the traded ability of others.
It is reasonable to expect that a Police service could improve their service and save money by concentrating on their specialism of Law Enforcement. Isn't it?
The Constabulary have spent considerable time investigating joining a Joint Venture Shared Servces company - now active and branded SouthWest One - formed by IBM, Somerset County Council and Taunton Deane Borough Council.
Now the interesting thing about SouthWest One is that it's more than just an outsourcing exercise - it's also runs a "framework agreement for shared services". You may at this point be starting to feel your eyelids drooping, but stay with me. If you need a break, go and play Buzzword Bingo.
A Duffer's Guide to Public Procurement
If you as a private citizen wish to buy "stuff" you might select your supplier based on advertising or research; maybe the recommendation of a friend. Or you might just buy the first shiny object you see in a shop window. Ultimately, if you make a bad decision, it's your own money being wasted so you've got no one to blame but yourself.
For a public body, buying "stuff" - whether it be goods, services, land or labour - is a much more convoluted affair since not only must the responsible officer be mindful of the economics of the transaction (getting a good price), he must also make sure that he is seen to be fair and impartial, since he is not spending his money but your money.
To ensure that public procurement is seen to be impartial, and that your money is not being given to mates of the local councillor for substandard merchandise, government at local, national and supra-national level have developed procedures for carrying out public procurement.
For example, if Bristol City Council wished to purchase a large quantity of some sort of commodity - let's say it's Bog Roll - they would be expected to carry out a competition at which different Bog Roll suppliers would be asked to bid for the right to supply an appropriate quantity of Bog Roll. Assuming no collusion between bidders, and assuming each provided an equivalent quality of bog roll, then the "most economically advantageous tender" would win, and the taxpayers of Bristol would sleep soundly in the knowledge that they had got a fair deal.
If the Council decided they needed a really huge quantity of bog roll, they might need to go through a more convoluted process in which they would advertise their Bog Roll requirements in the pages of the Official Journal of the European Union.
Such procurement processes for public bodies are not optional. Get it wrong and - as an officer - you may find yourself in trouble and - as an institution - you may find yourself in court. The rationale for legal rules on procurement over and above existing law on Theft, Embezzlement and Fraud is derived from a reaction to previous scandals, and a desire to promote cross-EU trade. But the extra bureaucracy can create as many problems as it solves.
Framework Agreements
If you're trying to get something done in the public sector, and you'd rather not spend half your life running competitive tenders - which are not cheap - one option you have is to enter into a framework agreement which has been set up by another public body. The assumption is that if a framework agreement defines a number of standard goods or services, and that agreement has gone through a competitive tendering process, then it is automatically deemed to be an acceptable way to spend public money on the requisite services.
Therefore, as a public sector procurement professional, you can simply pick the goods and services you need from the framework agreement at an agreed price, just like selecting your lunch off a menu.
Except... this only makes economic sense if the services on the framework agreement are the services you want to buy. If you've got a framework agreement with McDonalds but you really want a Subway sandwich, then you're out of luck.
The suppliers offering a framework agreement do so on the basis that they can take advantage of economies of scale to deliver the same service to multiple clients with a reduction in marginal costs, and thus make a profit. If a new public body comes along and needs something slightly different, the price may not turn out to be so economically advantageous.
It's a difficult balancing act - if a framework is too narrowly specified it may not offer a service that public bodies want to buy. But if it is too wide in scope, the consequent risks are that the absence of specialisation reduces the attractiveness of the price, or that an attempt to deliver an overly flexible service at a fixed price results in someone going bankrupt.
£400 Million over 10 years
The SouthWest One framework agreement for "Shared Services" with Somerset and Taunton Deane is promoted as costing £400m over 10 years. Further, the two councils "expect to save in the region of £200 million over the course of 10 years". Which translated means that they expect in total to cut £20 million of their annual budgets.
What does the National Audit Office have to say about these sorts of deals, using their terminology of "Service-Delivery Partnerships":
Councils should only deliver services through SSPs if they are prepared to manage them effectively.
As a taxpayer, that doesn't fill me with confidence. How does one effectively manage a 10 year contract, where you're in a complicated contractual agreement with other public sector partners. To use my current favourite comparison, even Stalin only tried for a five year plan.
In regard to the decision, the unelected Chair of the Avon and Somerset Police Authority, Dr Moira Hamlin said:
There is no doubt that this was a huge decision today and a bold one for the police authority. We are in a very tight financial position and [this] will continue in the foreseeable future.
Whenever people talk about taking bold decisions with my money, I get very worried.
James Barlow's Blog by James M. Barlow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
