Home Office ‘does not understand’ impact of police cuts

THE impact of cuts to policing is not properly understood by either the Home Office or local forces, MPs have warned.

The Public Accounts Committee said forces did not sufficiently understand demands, including how these were increasing as other services were cut.

The MPs also said forces outsourcing to make savings did not know if they were getting value for money.

The Home Office said reforms were working and frontline policing was being protected.

The highly critical report from the committee comes after forces’ budgets have fallen by a quarter since 2010 – and as they prepare for further cuts.

But Meg Hillier, the committee’s chair, said: “Too often cuts to services lead to ‘cost shunting’, with the police acting as the default support provider.

“There’s little understanding in the Home Office and in many forces of local demands.”

The committee said only about a fifth of emergency or priority calls that police responded to were crime-related – but forces had no real data setting out where they were picking up work that could have been carried out by another service, such as a local council.

Steve White, Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “The report confirms what we have said, that current government policing policy is based on wishful thinking, and not based on any real data or proper evidence for the direction being taken and the cuts being made.”

The Federation has been warning the current 43-force system is not sustainable with current funding pressures. Mr White said “we need to stop burying our heads in the sand” and accept that the current  force system is outdated and should be changed.

“Most of the immediate problems we are facing are of the government’s own making. The long term financial viability of our police forces is in doubt and the current structure and management of the service is simply not sustainable,” he added.