Senedd debate on The Police Settlement 2023-24

The Senedd today debated the Police Settlement 2023-24

Extracts

Peredur Owen Griffiths MS 17:12:44

The initial wave of Tory-driven austerity led to 400 police officers and 100 community support officers being lost from the ranks of the South Wales Police force alone. Despite the recent investments, staffing levels at this force remain well below the numbers it had in 2010.

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Peredur Owen Griffiths MS 17:13:22

The deterioration in policing levels over the past decade was brought up during a recent street surgery last Friday in Pontlottyn. People had noticed what the Tories, backed by the others in Westminster, have done to community policing. This settlement will make for further grim reading for each of our Welsh police forces. An increase of merely 0.3 per cent in central support funding will do little to address the severe resourcing pressures being faced by our police forces. It will necessitate extremely difficult budget decisions. South Wales Police, for example, is facing a £20.8 million budget gap, and are having to identify £9.6 million-worth of savings this year to show that their spending plans for the financial year of 2023-24 are sustainable, whilst Dyfed-Powys Police are having to contemplate savings of £5.9 million over the next five years. 

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