Starmer will break crime pledges without funding boost, police chiefs warn

Telegraph

6 days ago

Six of Britain's most senior police chiefs have warned Sir Keir Starmer he will fail to deliver his crime pledges without significant extra funding.
With only a fortnight to go before the Government's spending review, the six chiefs including Sir Mark Rowley, the Met Commissioner, have warned they face a £1.3 billion shortfall in funding.
Without plugging the gap, they said Labour pledges to halve knife crime, slash rates of violence against women and girls and recruit 13,000 additional police officers into neighbourhood policing will be at risk.
In an article in The Times, the police chiefs said it was 'the most important moment in decades for the government to choose to back policing'.
They warned that their ability to 'secure outcomes for victims is at risk' without 'substantial investments'.
As well as Sir Mark, they included Serena Kennedy, the chief constable of Merseyside Police, which has faced two of the biggest challenges in policing over the past year with the Southport attack and the Liverpool parade crash on Monday.
The other four signatories are Stephen Watson, chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, Craig Guildford, chief constable of West Midlands Police, John Robins, chief constable of West Yorkshire Police, and Gavin Stephens, the chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC).
The Home Office is one of the departments facing the biggest cuts in the spending review, which will set out the Government's next three years of spending plans from 2026 to 2029, when the next general election is expected to be held.
The intervention comes just days after police chiefs warned of the need for extra resources for police and probation to cope with the early release of thousands more prisoners to combat the prison overcrowding crisis.
They said there will be a surge in reoffending by freed prisoners unless Chancellor Rachel Reeves provides the extra cash for probation officers to supervise the thousands more criminals set to be released early.
One senior police source told The Telegraph: 'We can see why the Government has to do this after a decade of underinvestment in criminal justice but we have some concerns about what the impact will be on policing. We don't feel it's well understood at this point.'
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) have written to Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood warning that letting criminals 'out of prison' earlier must not mean the offenders are 'out of control.'
Under the Government's plans killers, rapists and other violent offenders serving four years or more in jail will be eligible for release after serving just half of their sentence rather than two-thirds if they behave well and engage with rehabilitation schemes.
Other less serious criminals such as burglars, thieves and fraudsters on standard determinate sentences with earlier release points can be freed after just a third of their time if they demonstrate good behaviour.
Sentences under one year will also be scrapped unless there are exceptional circumstances such as domestic abusers or stalkers who pose a risk and offenders who have breached orders linked to violence against women and girls.
The plans were recommended by an independent sentencing review headed by David Gauke and accepted by Ms Mahmood in order to free up 9,800 prison places and avoid overcrowded jails in England and Wales running out of cells.
However, Ms Mahmood rejected proposals by the review to free offenders on 'extended determinate sentences' where a judge has set a specific time limit in jail because the court regarded them as dangerous.
Chief Constable Sacha Hatchett, who leads on criminal justice for the NPCC, said: 'Out of prison should not mean out of control.
'Adequate funding to support these measures must be reflected in the upcoming spending review, as well as investment in probation services and technology, including electronic monitoring, to enable policing to work across criminal justice agencies to monitor offenders and reduce reoffending.'
She added: 'It is crucial for public safety that high-risk offenders, including those convicted of violent or sexual offences, and those who pose a threat to national security, are exempt from early prison release.
'Robust prison sentences for these crimes must remain in place as a strong deterrent and means of keeping the public safe. It is also crucial that victims of domestic abuse are protected and that perpetrators understand that there will be harsh consequences for breaching orders.'
Ms Mahmood told MPs she had secured an extra £700 million for the probation service in the spending review as well as deploying 'tens of thousands' more electronic tags to place high-risk offenders under effective 'house arrest' with curfews at night and during the day alongside tighter exclusions which they must not leave.