Police service strength

Book excerpt: The Home Affairs Committee says that, faced with the prospect of funding cuts, the police service will have to fundamentally re-think the way in which it provides back-office functions in order to support the front-line. It says across the board the service needs more support from Government to allow the service to find new ways of maximising service levels and efficiency, such as involving the private sector, or exploring force mergers. Although figures show overall rises in both the number of police officers and the number of police staff employed across the service over the past five years this varied significantly across forces with 13 forces reporting a reduction over the same period. On the basis of provisional financial information from the Government, some forces are planning to cut officer numbers in the next financial year. The position after 2011 is unclear as the Government has given no indication of funding settlements after that, but all forces believe they will have to make significant spending cuts. The Committee believes it may be time to review the entire means by which money is allocated to forces, as the distribution of the police national grant is seen as a barrier to maximising resources. It has become clear to the Committee that voluntary mergers can enable forces to make substantial savings. And in the right circumstances, the private sector can provide the police with expertise they may lack, value for money in service delivery and a source of up-front investment.