Pay-offs set to leave police facing £25m black hole

POLICE forces are facing further financial crisis with an estimated £37 million needed for redundancy payments, but only £12m in their reserves

Sources say they are looking at a 25m shortfall next year as they try to trim costs to cope with budget cuts.

Police use their reserves for unforeseen emergencies, such as high-profile murder investigations, but will have to use at least some to pay off civilian staff.

Officers cannot be made redundant, but sources expect many with more than 30 years' service to be forced to retire under regulation A19 of the Police Pensions Regulation Act 1987.

A senior source said: "According to the papers I have seen, there is just 12m in reserves - not enough for redundancies.

"In the worst-case scenario, we are looking at a 10 per cent cut in the first year, which will mean 37m is needed to pay redundancies. Some forces are better placed than others. I honestly don't know where some will find the money."

Strathclyde Police, Scotland's biggest force, has 6m in reserves and plans to spend half that on dealing with budget cuts. However, it estimates the full cost of 600 planned redundancies will be more than 20m.

Lothian and Borders Police has 4.7m in reserves, Central Scotland 640,000, Northern Constabulary 453,000 and Dumfries and Galloway 182,000.

Central Scotland is the only force, apart from Strathclyde, to say how many civilians it plans to make redundant - 180 - but not how much it expects this to cost. The Grampian, Tayside and Fife forces were unable to say how much they have in reserve.

A spokeswoman for Northern Constabulary said the force was looking for expressions of interest in voluntary redundancy but had not set a target number.

Superintendent Innes Walker, of Grampian Police, said: "Although reduction in staffing numbers remain a possibility, Grampian Police will be working closely with the Police Federation and staff associations to ensure any such losses are kept to a minimum."

There is concerns over the effect the cuts will have on crime, which fell 10 per cent last year.

David O'Connor, president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, said: "If the forces are facing a 25 per cent cut (over four years], then any idea of delivering more with less has to be discounted. Clearly that's something that politicians, stakeholders and the wider community needs to be aware of."

Richard Baker, Scottish Labour's justice spokesman, said: "This shows the dire position in which our forces have been left by the Scottish Government.

"This figure suggests we are looking at vast redundancies of civilian staff."

Robert Brown, Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesman, said: "This is another example of how the Scottish Government has to show leadership. It has to give guidance to forces on how they're going to meet this cost."

John Lamont, the Scottish Tories' justice spokesman, said: "I know police forces across the country are already looking to see how they might be able to make savings to ensure that front-line policing is protected. That must and should remain their priority."

?A Scottish Government spokesman said it would not know its overall budget from Westminster until the comprehensive spending review on 20 October. He went on: "The actual proposed police budget will be set out when we publish our draft budget bill in November - which will be focused on protecting front-line services and economic recovery."