Nottinghamshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Paddy Tipping will tell Policing Minister Mike Penning MP that tough settlements will mean more tough decisions at a high level meeting today (21 Oct) regarding police finance.
The Nottinghamshire Police Force has already made substantial savings during the last Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) period equating to £42m or 20% over the last three years plus a further £11m in the current year.
Alarmingly, the Chancellor has asked the police to prepare for further savings of 25% or 40% over the next CSR, the results of which are due to be announced at the end of November.
For Nottinghamshire this means additional savings of either £30m or £50m.
Put another way, between 2010 and 2020 the force will have lost approaching 60% of its grant from the Government.
To put this in perspective, in broad terms 80% of force spending goes on staff and officers.
Paddy Tipping said: “Making savings on this scale implies tough choices. This year we’re not recruiting officers and will lose over 100 and the decision to reduce the number of PCSOs by 72 has been controversial but necessary.
“Undoubtedly a tough financial settlement will mean further reductions in officers and staff. Clearly final decisions will have to wait until after the result of the CSR in November and the grant allocation in December. If we decide not to replace officers who leave, police numbers could fall from the present 2,000 to just over 1,600 in 2020. Back in 2010 Nottinghamshire employed almost 2,400 officers.
There will also need to be similar reductions in police staff in Nottinghamshire.
“People living in Nottingham want to feel safe and secure in their homes and streets. Budget cuts on this scale make that increasingly difficult for Nottinghamshire Police.” Some tough decisions will have seen to be made about both staffing levels and priorities.
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Posted on Wednesday 21st October 2015