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- Latest News Budget Reduction
As most will now be aware the Force has been considering how it will manage potential budget reduction of 25% which the Coalition Government has indicated will need to be made by all Police Forces in the next 4 years. Clearly this represents significant cuts and as a worst case scenario this could mean a requirement for as much as £73 million pounds of savings per year.
With a budget that is made up of 85% staff costs it is clear that these savings cannot be made without significantly reducing staff numbers. We are aware that there is current a recruitment freeze which on average will reduce Police Officer numbers by 200 per year. This recruitment freeze will continue and mean that by March 2012 Police officer numbers on Merseyside will have fallen to 4190. This is a reduction of around 400 officers from the position we were in at March 2010 when the Force establishment stood at 4590. There is the potential that the recruitment freeze could go beyond this date and police officer numbers potentially fall by as much as 800.
In terms of Police Staff there is a similar recruitment freeze which over the same period will reduce Police Staff numbers by around 360.
Losses of this magnitude will mean that the Force will require fundamental restructuring to meet the priority commitments of responding to calls for service, delivering neighbourhood policing and tackling serious and organised crime. However, in the longer term it is the Federations view that if these cuts are sustained beyond one year then even these priority services will need to be reduced.
More worryingly, even with the above losses this will not be sufficient to meet the proposed 25% reduction in budget and there is the potential for the need for even greater cuts which would need to be met from Voluntary and Compulsory Redundancies.
Currently Police officers cannot be made redundant, however, I understand that a number of Chief Officers across the country have been lobbying the Home Office and claiming that they can only meet these cuts if they are given the ability to get rid off officers more easily on capability grounds and by introducing the ability to make Police officers redundant. Teresa May has apparently indicated that the coalition government would introduce enabling legislation in the autumn to make it easier for Forces to get rid off officers unable to perform front line duties on capability grounds and also introduce redundancy.
Clearly this would also need changes to Police Pension Regulations, but as we are aware there is a current review in the police pension scheme benefits which could deliver some changes that would make ill health retirement almost impossible to achieve.
At the minute Police officers are not employees but are servants of the crown and therefore are limited in their rights to go to Employment Tribunal. If these changes are driven through then it is clear that this would need to change. So that officers could take claims for unfair and constructive dismissal to the Tribunal Courts.
We are further aware that a number of Forces, included Merseyside have sought advice regarding Police Pension Regulation A19 which allows for the compulsory retirement of Police Officers who have completed thirty years service. Currently there are no plans to utilise this regulation however, as indicted above if the required savings are greater than can be achieved through natural wastage then this position may also need to be reviewed.
Clearly in the interim period there will be a complete re-structure of the Force to fill gaps as they appear. This will mean significant challenges for the police officers and police staff. We will ensure that area representatives are updated and any information will be placed on our website as soon as possible. If you are not already registered on our web site then please register at www. merpolfed.org.uk
Ian Leyland
Secretary
Joint Branch Board