Dame Vera Baird QC responds to the discussion about police officer numbers and funding
3rd May 2017
“Effective policing is important in every community of England and Wales, including here in Northumbria and it must be properly funded.
“The Home Secretary’s announcement today that the Prime Minister will ring fence the £12billion police budget for the next five years is of no comfort to Northumbria. It pretty much means the status quo, more money will be taken off forces through top slicing to pay for national initiatives, the ring fence won’t take into account levies that the government have introduced such as the National Apprenticeship Service – police funding doesn’t need ring fenced, it needs increasing. Since 2010, Northumbria has lost 898 police officers and has had to make in excess of £120m in savings, from cuts and efficiencies, to offset reductions in government funding over the same period. Ring fencing an already slashed budget won’t help Northumbria.
“Despite the claims by the Home Secretary that crime has fallen it hasn’t and this is backed up by the Crime Statistics for England and Wales stating the same. Against this backdrop, we have seen funding in Northumbria drastically down – this has had an impact on the services the police can deliver and the number of police officers on the beat.
“Putting 10,000 extra police officers on the street nationally would be greatly welcomed, as our share here in Northumbria would make a real difference. Neighbourhood policing is under increasing pressure as officers are having to be deployed elsewhere to tackle issues like cyber-crime and sexual exploitation of the vulnerable – funding specifically to replenish our neighbourhood teams would be timely.
“Northumbria has been hit the hardest out of all police forces and residents of Northumbria will be worried by the Home Secretary saying today that she is ring fencing the budget – rather than increasing it.”
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