Officers face axe as police slash budgets

Published on Saturday 24 January 2009 18:46

SCOTLAND'S biggest police force will this week reveal proposals to make swingeing budget cuts that could include a massive cull of mid-ranking officers.

Strathclyde Police, which covers Glasgow and most of the west of the country, is also considering scrapping its teenage cadet scheme and a big cutback on supplies and equipment, Scotland on Sunday can reveal.

The Force is to try to make "efficiency savings" of nearly 40m over the next two years just to make ends meet.

And in an unusually strongly-worded statement, the force said government policy was "wholly unrealistic" in suggesting that money should be reinvested in frontline services.

The force is also warning of even bigger problems to come in the financial year after next, when it said it may have to cut overall numbers and officers and staff, posing a serious threat to the SNP pledge to recruit an extra 1,000 police in the lifetime of this parliament.

The savings are included in force budgets currently being approved by police boards up and down the country.

All forces are seeing their headline figures go up with cash for extra officers and a one-off financial shot-in-the-arm from the Scottish Government to help meet fast rising pension commitments. However, costs are rising faster, say police.

Senior officers and politicians privately admit that the kind of efficiency savings being expected of police – and other public bodies – cannot be ploughed back into improving frontline services, as promised by the SNP.

Strathclyde's budget, which will go before its ruling board on Thursday, makes the position brutally clear.

The force said: "The Government anticipates that the savings will be retained and reinvested within the police budget. In the light of the budget shortfall identified for 2009-2010, this is wholly unrealistic and, as in 2008-2009, efficiency savings will be required to balance the budget."

The force will be able to increase its overall police numbers in line with the Government's recruitment drive.

However, it will scrap the posts of 67 inspectors, 37 chief inspectors, 25 superintendents and two chief superintendents to make way for 96 extra constables and 35 sergeants. One insider last night explained: "We are getting rid of chiefs so we can have more Indians."

The move has had a mixed response among officers. Some said they were glad to see the back of 'fat-cat cops', others worry the force may lose the experience and expertise of such officers.

Strathclyde will save money by scrapping a scheme under which it recruited teenagers as cadets, looking for savings in its budget for supplies and equipment and keeping a closer eye on spending on big investigations.

It did, however, manage to save extra cash for key priorities, including a move to double the amount of money it spends on enforcing licensing rules and tackling underage drinking. It is unlikely to have such room for manoeuvre next year, insiders said.

Strathclyde is now officially predicting a 'significant budget deficit' in 2010-2011 unless it can make major cuts.

Its budget warned: "Inevitably the ability to maintain staff numbers, both police and support staff, will come under challenge."

Paul Rooney, the Glasgow Labour councillor who chairs Strathclyde's joint police board, said: "The budget process for 2009/10 is progressing in the face of unprecedented financial constraints.

"The police authority is working with the force to address the many challenges we face and focus our priorities.

"As the process continues we will identify all possible efficiencies and ensure more police officers can be recruited for Strathclyde's streets."

An aide to Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said the SNP would ensure that police work was properly funded.

"Record levels of funding have been provided to Scotland's police forces, enabling forces to recruit record levels of officers," he said.

"That is why we currently have an all-time high of 16,526 police officers in Scotland, as well as having a 25-year low for recorded crime."

He added: "For the first time, we have ensured that efficiency savings are available for investing in frontline services. We have not been made aware of any difficulties, and are always happy to discuss these issues with Strathclyde.

"However, there is a world of difference between Scottish Government efficiency savings which can be reinvested in services, and the UK Labour Government's intention to cut Scotland's budget by 500m in 2010/11 and again in 2011/12."

But Labour's justice spokesman, Richard Baker MSP, said he was angry that efficiency savings could not be put to better use to improve services.

Baker said: "We have been assured by the Government time and time again that efficiency savings would be retained by the force for use in frontline services. It is quite clear from what Strathclyde is saying that this is not going to happen."

Public sector feels the pain

Strathclyde Police is just one public body which says it is finding it difficult to make ends meet.

SNP ministers came into office promising to cut through the "organisational spaghetti" in Scotland's public sector, insisting that more than 4bn could be saved over its four-year term. The carrot for public bodies was that they would be allowed to keep the "efficiency savings" and plough them into frontline services.

However, costs for public bodies have now rocketed. Furthermore, the public purse is facing massive cutbacks from next year as UK ministers attempt to rein in huge government debts.

Consequently, there are claims of cuts from across Scotland. Within the police service, Grampian has sought volunteers among civilian staff for redundancy, while Lothian and Borders has said it scrapping the time-honoured posts of staff officers, adjutants who serve its most senior figures. In the NHS, 500m in savings are being demanded by 2011. Opposition parties say there is evidence that the "efficiency savings" are actually being made in frontline care on wards.

In schools, there are claims that heads are cutting back on classroom assistants and saving money by reducing the number of supply teachers.

Meanwhile, local authority leaders are warning that the cutbacks will force them to increase charges, for example on elderly home help.

Scottish ministers insist that accusations of cuts are scaremongering and point out that all savings can be reinvested. Furthermore, they blame Gordon Brown. From next year, the 33bn Scottish Budget is likely to be reduced by 500m as Chancellor Alistair Darling starts paying for the new fiscal stimulus.