Hundreds of police jobs go as budget cuts bite

Published on Thursday 26 August 2010 17:44

Scotland's biggest police force is cutting 200 officers and 600 civilian staff as budget pressures start to take their toll.

Strathclyde Police will offer voluntary redundancy to support staff. While police officers cannot be made redundant, 130 are expected to move on, and 70 retire, and a recruitment freeze will stop them being replaced.

Pat Shearer, chief constable of Dumfries and Galloway, has said his force will reduce staff numbers by 62 officers and 138 civilians.

However, the majority of Scotland's police forces are yet to put numbers on staff reductions. They face budget cuts of up to 25 per cent over four years, with personnel accounting for 85 per cent of their spending.

The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos) will unveil plans to deal with budget cuts at a Scottish Policing Board meeting on 13 September. Forces are also waiting on the outcome of UK and Scottish government spending reviews.

However, if the cuts made in Strathclyde are matched elsewhere, some 2.5 per cent of police officers and almost a quarter of civilian staff will be axed.

Strathclyde Chief Constable Steve House said: "It is with great regret that we have to lose any staff, but we have no choice given the projected budgets."

Councillor Stephen Curran, convener of the Strathclyde Police Authority , said: "As well as moving to modernise the terms and conditions of staff contracts, we will offer all police support staff an attractive voluntary redundancy and redundancy retirement option."

It is likely other forces will follow suit in the coming months.

Councillor Iain Whyte, convener of the Lothian and Borders police authority, said: "A number of options are being looked at.

"If we are faced with the worst case scenario, there will have to be police staff redundancies in Lothian and Borders, and every police force in Scotland."

Councillor Martin Greig, convener of Grampian Joint Police Board, said: "We're very worried about the spending review and taking that extremely seriously."

Acpos, the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (ASPS), the Scottish Police Federation and police board members met last week to discuss budget pressures and whether to push the Scottish Government not to ring-fence health spending.

Mr Greig said: "I'm very concerned protecting health spending will do little for making efficiencies in the health service and the police will suffer unduly."

David O'Connor, president of the ASPS, said: "We fully accept that we should take a share of the pain, but the key word is 'share'. Every agency or organisation has to take a critical look at the way they deliver services.There can be no protectionism on this."

The Scottish Government has funded an additional 1,000 officers on Scottish streets and has warned chief constables that that level should remain for at least as long as the funding, which is until 31 March next year.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "The chief constable and Strathclyde Police Authority have taken these decisions based on the current economic climate and not on a set budget. We will not know what Strathclyde police force's budget is until after the UK spending review is announced on 20 October, and Scotland's budget is published in the following weeks."

Assistant Chief Constable Cliff Anderson, the general secretary of Acpos, said: "In common with other areas of the public sector, we are facing a significant reduction to the policing budget in the coming years and whilst the precise reduction is still unknown, it is emerging that it could be in the region of 16 to 25 per cent over the four years from 2011. We will have a clearer picture later in the year when we have the results of the national spending review."