Police chiefs and Government watchdogs write to PM in warning over funding cuts

Independent

5 days ago

Senior police chiefs and Government watchdogs have written to the Prime Minister warning they will be forced to make choices about which crimes they investigate if the Government announces spending cuts to policing, while victim support services are being 'pushed to the brink'.
In a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, Sir Mark Rowley, the head of the Metropolitan Police, warned that cuts to police budgets will have 'far-reaching consequences', The Times reports.
Meanwhile, in a separate letter, Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales Dame Nicole Jacobs and Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales Baroness Newlove wrote to Sir Keir saying victim support services are being 'pushed to the brink', hit by funding cuts and rising costs.
The spending review is due on Wednesday next week, and the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said the Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces 'unavoidably tough decisions' as the demands of NHS and defence spending raise the prospect of cuts in other departments.
The letter from the police chiefs, which was signed by other senior police officers, said that negotiations between the Treasury and the Home Office were going 'poorly'.
'A settlement that fails to address our inflation and pay pressures would entail stark choices about which crimes we no longer prioritise,' it read.
Last week, senior police officers – including Sir Mark – wrote a letter in the Times calling on the Government for 'serious investment' in the spending review, which will set out the Government's day-to-day departmental budgets for the next three years.
'A lack of investment will bake in the structural inefficiencies for another three years and will lose a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reform the service,' the letter warned.
Sir Mark also voiced his concern that fewer criminals serving jail time under proposals to end prison overcrowding will 'generate a lot of work for police'.
As well as increasing demand and new online threats from organised crime, Sir Mark and the other chiefs said the emergency release of prisoners to alleviate overcrowding and recommendations in the sentencing review would put more pressure on policing.
Dame Nicole and Baroness Newlove welcomed Sir Keir's 'personal commitment to halving violence against women and girls within a decade' in their letter but said they were concerned that 'funding cuts and scaled back ambition are leading to piecemeal policies'.
They called for a 'clear, well-funded national approach to prevent and respond to abuse, violence, and exploitation of women and girls'.
They added: 'With bold and ambitious investment, we can finally tackle the systemic stain of violence and abuse, one that would see us get to grips with misogyny, ensure victims can recover from trauma and build a criminal justice system that delivers for survivors every single time.'
On Wednesday, the Transport Secretary denied that some of her Cabinet colleagues are engaged in a row over funding for the police.
Asked about reports that negotiations between the Treasury and the Home Office ahead of next week's spending review were ongoing, Heidi Alexander told Times Radio: 'I know that the Chancellor, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, they are working hand-in-glove with the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.'
Responding to the suggestion they were 'having a row', she said: 'I'm not privy to any of those conversations.
'All that I've seen is a really collegiate atmosphere around the Cabinet table on the part of every single Cabinet member that we can start to deliver on our plan for change, we can get the economy firing on all cylinders, that we recruit those extra police officers – which was a big commitment at the election – that we can invest in the NHS, we can invest in our public transport in terms of the announcement that we are making today.'
A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We are backing the police to protect our communities and keep our streets safe with up to £17.6 billion this year, an increase of up to £1.2 billion.
'This includes £200 million to kickstart putting 13,000 additional neighbourhood police officers, PCSOs and special constables that the public will see back on their streets and patrolling communities, as part of our Plan for Change.'