Strathclyde preparing for loss of 210 officers

Published on Tuesday 24 August 2010 17:17

Scotland's largest police force could lose 210 officers under plans drawn up to tackle cuts on public spending, it was announced yesterday.

Strathclyde Police said a recruitment freeze means officers may not be replaced when they retire by the end of the financial year in March.

The details emerged after reports that the force is planning even larger cuts among officers and civilian staff. However, officers cannot be made redundant under current rules.

Chief Constable Stephen House told staff in a memo yesterday that options will be discussed at a meeting of the Strathclyde Police Authority tomorrow. He added: "The only means that we currently have at our disposal to reduce officer numbers is to not replace those who retire.

"Our current recruitment freeze means that we are predicting that we will lose 210 officers by the end of March, not the figure that has been given to the media."

He said any decisions will be shared with staff while the force tries to tackle "incredibly difficult circumstances". Mr House continued: "We are putting forward a budget paper to the authority at a time when we do not know the exact size of the cuts that we ourselves will be facing.

"The government's Comprehensive Spending Review does not report until the end of October and we are not expecting to get our finalised budget figures until a few weeks after that."

The SNP government pledged to provide an additional 1,000 officers across Scotland by the end of its term in office.

Last week union leaders said Strathclyde was considering axing 600 of its 2,700 civilian workers and other cost-cutting measures to save 45 million - 10 per cent of its budget.