New FOI reveals the true scale of Tory cuts to police
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New analysis by the Labour Party, using figures submitted by the
National Police Chiefs Council to the police pay review body,
released under FoI, reveal the Tories have cut direct government
funding to police forces by a £3.6 billion since 2010-11 (or 33.7
percent). This is over three times more than the extra funding
promised. A leaked letter from the Home Secretary to the Mayor of
London last month, also revealed that up 7,000 of the promised
police officers will not be...Request free trial
New analysis by the Labour Party, using figures submitted by the
National Police Chiefs Council to the police pay review body,
released under FoI, reveal the Tories have cut direct government
funding to police forces by a £3.6 billion since 2010-11 (or 33.7
percent). This is over three times more than the extra funding
promised.
A leaked letter from the Home Secretary to the Mayor of London last month, also revealed that up 7,000 of the promised police officers will not be frontline officers, despite the PM pledging that they would be “on the streets”. Responding, Louise Haigh MP, Shadow Policing Minister said: “Boris Johnson cannot be trusted. As the true extent of the damage that nine years of a Tory government has inflicted on our police forces is exposed, it’s clear that the Tories latest announcement simply isn’t enough.” “Over the past nine years the Tories have cut billions in funding to the police, leading to the loss of tens of thousands of police officers from our streets and soaring levels of violent crime. “A Labour Government will put thousands of officers back on our streets and keep our communities safe.” Notes to editors • The Home Office and Tory ministers claim it is difficult or impossible to calculate the real-terms change funding to police forces since 2010 due to changes in funding sources over the period.
“it is difficult to compare current total police funding
levels with years before 2015-16 due to changes in the structure
of police funding over the period.”
Home Office, Police Funding for England & Wales
2015-2020, July 2019, p4, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/815102/police-funding-england-and-wales-2015-to-2020-hosb1019.pdf
Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State
for the Home Department, what the change in level of funding for
the police force in (a) England and (b) the West Midlands has
been in each year since 2010.
Nick Hurd: It is not possible to make
direct comparisons between these years due to changes in police
funding arrangements over the period.
Hansard, Written Answer 200063, 18 February
2019, https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2019-02-12/220063/
• Similarly, last year when the NAO estimated a 30% fall in
direct Government funding to police forces since 2010-11, they
excluded “funding from the local council tax support grant for
ease of comparison between years” and would not produce a cash
sum figure because the “Department made adjustments to the
funding data in 2015-16, which means figures from 2010-11 to
2014-15 are not directly comparable with later years”.
NAO, Financial Sustainability of police forces in
England and Wales, September 2018, notes 2 & 3,
p15, https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Financial-sustainability-of-police-forces-in-England-and-Wales-2018.pdf
• However, the National Police Chief’s Council’s (NPCC)
2019 submission to the Police Remuneration Review Body stated
that Government funding to police forces had fallen by a third
since 2010.
“4. FUNDING 2019/20 - Economic background, environment and
funding costs 4.1. Since the Chancellor announced the results of
the Coalition Government’s Spending Review in 2010 Government
support for local policing budgets has been reduced, in
real-terms, by 34%. Even with annual increases in council tax
precept, total funding for local police forces has been reduced
by 21%.”
NPCC, Fifth Submission to the Police Remuneration
Review Body, February 2019, p24
• In response to an FoI from Labour, the NPCC revealed that
this equated to a £3.5bn reduction in Government funding under
the Tories up until 2018-19:
“The cash sum amount at the time of the request was
3.504bn. Outside the Act, and to provide assistance, this figure
is now 3.528bn.”
NPCC FoI response, 19 July 2019
• A follow-up FoI to Thames Valley Police, who had made the
submission to the PRRB on the NPCC’s behalf, provided a breakdown
by police force of real-terms changes to direct Government
funding between 2010-11 and 2018-19.
• In contrast to the NAO, the calculations carried out by
the Chief Financial Officer at Thames Valley Police do take into
account of all funding streams to police forces since
2010-11.
• By updating these figures to include the 2019-20 Police
Grant Report, we can see that in total direct Government funding
to police forces has fallen by £3.6bn or 34 percent under the
Tories – including more than £1bn from the Met
Police.
• Even when precept revenue and other sources of funding
are included, police forces have still seen a real-terms fall of
£2.5bn or 17 percent since 2010-11.
Sources: NPCC/Thames Valley Police FoI responses; Home Office, 2019-20 Police Grant Report, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/police-grants-in-england-and-wales-2019-to-2020; HMT, GDP deflators at market prices, and money GDP March 2019 (quarterly National Accounts), 2 April 2019, https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/gdp-deflators-at-market-prices-and-money-gdp-march-2019-quarterly-national-accounts Tories’ history of hypocrisy, dishonesty and broken promises on policing and crime.
They have broken previous promises on frontline policing,
and their pledge to hire 20,000 is already falling
apart.
• In 2010, the Tories claimed that “it is possible for
the police to make significant reductions in their budgets
without affecting frontline policing”.
Theresa May, Andrew Marr Show, 31 October
2010
• In 2015, Boris Johnson said it was ‘essential’
that frontline officer numbers were kept high.
Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): As
I have said before - and you have heard me say this many times
now - there is an important political consideration, which is
the numbers of frontline officers. Indeed, it is
essential to keep that number high.”
Boris Johnson, MQT, 25 March
2015, https://www.london.gov.uk/questions/2015/0912
• However, virtually all officer losses have in fact been
from the frontline - 20,564 officers have been lost since 2010,
of which 20,211 (or 98%) have been frontline
officers.
Home Office, Police workforce, YE March '19, data
tables, table F5, https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales
• There are concerns about capacity to hire 20,000
officers in three years. Staff turnover means that to achieve a
net increase of 20,000 officers, there would need to be around
46,000 recruited. Also, 600 police stations have closed under
the Tories.
Independent, 18 August 2019, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/boris-johnson-police-officers-20000-pledge-target-crime-a9052401.html
• Now a leaked letter from the Home Secretary to the
Mayor of London suggests that up 7,000 of the promised 20,000
uplift will not be frontline officers, despite the PM pledging
“My job is to make your streets safer – and we are going to
begin with another 20,000 police on the streets”.
Guardian, 27 August 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/27/boris-johnson-accused-of-misleading-public-over-police-numbers;
Boris Johnson, 24 July
2019, https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/boris-johnsons-first-speech-as-prime-minister-24-july-2019
They broke their previous promise to protect
police funding after 2015
• At the Spending Review, the Tories pledged that “there
will be no cuts in the police budget at all. There will be
real-terms protection for police funding”.
George Osborne, Hansard, 25 November
2015, c. 1373, http://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2015-11-25/debates/15112551000003/SpendingReviewAndAutumnStatement
• In reality, the Tories have cut £600m in real-terms in
direct government funding to police forces since 2015-16,
expecting local taxpayers to pick up the gap in funding through
increased precepts.
Home Office, Police Funding for England & Wales
2015-2020, 18 July 2019, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/815102/police-funding-england-and-wales-2015-to-2020-hosb1019.pdf
• The Tories have been rebuked by the UK Statistics
Authority twice for making the false claim to have protected
funding.
Guardian, 10 March 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/mar/10/george-osborne-rebuked-no-cuts-police-budgets-claim;
Sir David Norgrove, Letter to Louise Haigh MP, 20 March
2018, https://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Police-Funding-DN-to-Louise-Haigh.pd
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