CHANCELLOR George Osborne has announced there will no cuts to the police budget in the duration of this Parliament.<\/p>\n
Mr Osborne told Parliament in the Autumn Spending Review: “Now is the time to back our police. No cuts in the police budget. The police protect us and we are going to protect them.<\/p>\n
“There will be real-term protection for police funding.”<\/p>\n
It had widely been expected that there would be cuts to the police budget ranging between 25% 40%, so the announcement came as a surprise.<\/p>\n
The Treasury said that overall police spending would be \u201cprotected in real terms over the Spending Review period to enable to the police to adapt to emerging crime threats, and to train more firearms officers while taking further steps to improve efficiency”.<\/p>\n
Neil Bowles, Chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said: “This is good news. It shows that eventually our #CutsHaveConsequences campaign has been listened to on top of the tragedies in Paris and Egypt.<\/p>\n
“However the devil is in the detail – and we are still being hit by the cuts from the last CSR.”<\/p>\n
The Chancellor confirmed Police and Crime Commissioners would be given more freedom to increase local council tax precepts.<\/p>\n
Steve White, Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “We welcome that sense has finally prevailed and that the Chancellor has announced there will be no further cuts to police budgets over this Parliament.<\/p>\n
“This is clearly good news but it doesn\u2019t mean that the problems we have been highlighting in recent years have miraculously vanished overnight. Officers are still hugely under pressure and many forces still have the final tranche of savings from the last set of cuts to find.\u201d<\/p>\n
National Police Chiefs\u2019 Council Chair, Sara Thornton, said: \u201cWe are delighted on behalf of the public with the announcement made by the Chancellor that police budgets will not be cut over the course of this Parliament.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Chancellor is right when he says that we protect the public and he has therefore protected police budgets. We are grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n