First force to face bankruptcy may have to cut ‘bedrock of policing'
External auditors found Lincolnshire police at risk of having to issue a section 114 notice, declaring itself effectively bankrupt, if it does not receive a significant injection of extra cash.
In recent years several councils that have been unable to balance their books have issued section 114 notices. No police force has yet done so.
Paul Gibson, the chief constable, said the situation was 'stark'.
'That is not a position we want to be in. The organisation doesn't deserve that. This is eminently resolvable,' he said.
The Lincolnshire force already receives the country's lowest funding per resident. Gibson, who joined the force in 1998 and became chief constable in April last year, said that 15 to 20 years of underfunding was having a detrimental effect on the force's ability to keep the public safe.
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The Sun
6 minutes ago
- The Sun
Lucy Letby seen partying at pal's wedding while on bail for murdering seven babies in shock unseen photos
SHOCKING unseen pictures show Lucy Letby partying at a pal's wedding while on bail for murdering seven new-born babies. The images were shared by a friend of Letby, who did not want to be named, as part of a documentary which is due to air tonight. 7 7 7 Lucy Letby was convicted in 2023 of the sickening murder of seven babies and attempted murder of seven others. A friend of the child killer, using the fake name Dawn, siad she was thrilled that Letby could attend her wedding. She was determined that her friend, who she met as a teenager, was innocent and sought special permission from authorities for the killer to attend the wedding while on bail. Dawn remains convinced of her childhood friend's innocence and has stood by Letby despite her horrific crimes. She went on to claim that scribbled notes found in Letby's house weren't any sort of confession as previously suggested. She revealed that both her and Letby trained in peer-support counselling and learned to write down their worst fears and feelings as a method to deal with anxieties. Dawn was working when Letby was handed down a guilty verdict and said she couldn't take the news in. She said: "My assumption when all of this happened was that perhaps she had inadvertently forgotten bits of procedure or she has made some mistakes. "There were those dark moments where I thought perhaps has she inadvertently caused harm because she was so newly qualified in such a high pressure environment and perhaps that's why she was being targeted for these accusations. "Shortly after this she was held in custody, so I don't think she has seen these [photographs]." Lucy Letby cops arrest 3 senior members of leadership team at hospital where killer nurse murdered 7 babies Dawn added: "'I sat there dumbfounded for a while, not really knowing how to process what I was hearing. "I didn't think it was real. I immediately switched to thinking what happens next? This can't be it, she can't just spend the rest of her life in prison. "I'm living a life that Lucy should be living beside me." Between 2015 and 2016 nearly three times as many new-born babies died at the Countess of Chester Hospital, where Letby worked, than normal. 7 7 The killer nurse, 35, was found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more, she is currently serving 15 life sentences. Some of the 35-year-old killers colleagues still struggle to accept that Letby committed the crimes. Karen Rees former head of urgent care nursing at the hospital also spoke in the documentary. She said: "I loved working here. "We were all shocked, really shocked, when I look back to when it all started, I don't think any of us thought that this storyline would ride out the way it has." Thinking back, she added: "I was made aware that the mortality rates appeared to be higher than they had been in the previous years. "It was tough because everyone was trying, thinking please let us find a reason for this." During her trial Letby was accused of being cold and unfeeling but Ms Rees said the convicted murderer was actually devastated by the accusations. Ms Rees was responsible for breaking the news to Letby that she was being removed from her role caring for new-borns. Letby was moved to an out-of-the-way desk job in a humiliating move for the nurse. According to Ms Rees Letby had to tell colleagues that this was her choice. Rees said: "I was told just to say that concerns had been raised, and that this was seen as a neutral act. "She was not being accused of anything at this point. But it seemed safer to take her off clinical practice to protect herself as well as babies on that neonatal unit." 7 7 Letby didn't even question the decision as she was marched away from the unit where she worked. Ms Rees said Letby was just looking at her, in shock over the allegations levelled against her. 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According to the barrister the objections to the guilty verdict could have been raised at the original trial, so it may be claimed that it was not the court's fault that things went wrong.
The Independent
8 minutes ago
- The Independent
Will Labour's new migrant controls stop the boats… or encourage Nigel Farage?
Maybe everyone can agree on one thing: if stopping the boats was easy, it would have been done by now. Whether the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, ever deluded herself otherwise, a year of only limited progress in the government's mission to 'smash the gangs' must have brought home to her just how intractable irregular migration is. The numbers of those crossing the Channel are as high as ever – partly because of the warm weather and calm waters, but also because the criminals who run these people-smuggling businesses are also smart and innovative. When Keir Starmer said he would bring the same legal powers and resources to the criminal gangs as had been applied to terrorism and drugs, he seemed to have forgotten that those wars are also far from over – let alone won. Will more of the same work? Cooper must hope so. She's promising another £100m for the National Crime Agency to recruit more officers, and there'll be enhanced 'detection technology' to defeat the people traffickers. Making those distasteful online 'ads' for smuggling services is to be a specific criminal offence. Less convincingly, the government proposes to financially penalise universities where too many foreign students fail to complete their courses because they use their study visas as the first stage in an asylum application. How the university applications officers are supposed to vet all their student applicants in this way is far from clear – quite aside from the fact that the right to claim asylum is absolute and universal under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). This, by the way, is why no migrant seeking refugee status can be labelled 'illegal', even though that is what was laid down in domestic law by the previous administration. So Cooper is in this for the long haul, making slow, incremental progress both at home and in cooperation with other concerned nations near and far, patiently waiting for the forces of law and order to push their investigations and prosecutions forward. Any single measure, inevitably, tends to get dismissed as hopelessly inadequate. How, it is asked, can the German authorities stop the trade in dinghies and marine engines? How will a crackdown on TikTok videos stop anyone trying to make the journey? Will the treaty with the French, agreed last month, ever be scaled up to make a real difference? Even if one gang is broken up, surely there will be more ready to take their trade? Such scepticism is entirely justified, but it is no reason to give up. Cooper's political pitch has to be that only painstakingly slow, hard work – constantly bearing down on the gangs, working through the vast asylum claim backlog, and getting other countries to take or take back the failed asylum seekers – can succeed. This dedicated effort has to be contrasted with the deceptively easy solutions promised by Reform UK. Nigel Farage, in other words, does not have the answers and would not solve the problem. Just the same as Brexit, in fact, when he also made extravagant claims about how it would solve our economic problems, and then blamed everyone else when it left the nation impoverished. Now he's blaming the migrants rather than Brussels, and his policies – little more than slogans – should be treated with extreme caution. Leaving the ECHR, for example – which he used to call 'Brexit 2.0' before Brexit 1.0 turned out to be a flop – wouldn't change a thing over in Calais. 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Labour's way is to get it done slowly but surely – grinding hard graft, with some respect for humanity, compassion for the most vulnerable, and dealing swiftly with any criminality. It just needs to be seen to be working, and it ain't easy.
Auto Express
8 minutes ago
- Auto Express
How green is an EV? BMW reveals the surprise truth about EV vs ICE carbon footprints
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