Spending review 'makes policing more challenging'

Derbyshire's most senior police officer has said the government's spending review "falls far short for policing".

Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a 2.3% annual funding increase for policing in England and Wales on Wednesday.

However, Derbyshire Police Chief Constable Rachel Swann said the review will make policing "more challenging", having announced a budget gap of more than £8.5m in January.

"This is a challenging outcome and this increase will cover little more than the inflationary pay increases for officers and staff, leaving me and other chiefs the difficult decisions about the type of service we can provide in the future", said Ms Swann.

Reeves had warned not every government department would "get everything they want", adding there were "good things I've had to say no to".

The chancellor stressed an increase of "more than £2bn" will mean government pledges on cutting crime and increasing police numbers can be kept.

"We won't know the actual figure until we get the settlement in December," said Ms Swann.

"Financially it's really difficult across all sectors and we have seen this through the comprehensive spending review. It falls far short within policing.

"The budget settlement is going to make policing more challenging than it faces already.

"Whilst it appears as a big investment, three quarters of that will be used for pay reviews, which leaves very little behind in terms of what flexibility is to be used within the forces."

Ms Swann said she is still trying to balance Derbyshire Police's budget "without dropping police officer numbers".

She added she is still looking to work towards government targets on continuing work into knife crime and violence against women.

However, she stressed there are "some things that can not be done due to a financial shortfall", adding the number of incidents reported to the force increased from 203,000 to 218,000 in the last year.

"That's a significant increase we are resourcing," she said.

Ms Swann also said she has the "same amount" of police officers as she did in 2010.

She added: "This is a stark position to be in."

A Home Office spokesperson said: "This year, we gave the police a £1.2bn boost – including £200m to put 3,000 neighbourhood officers in post by spring.

"And (last) week, the chancellor built on this with a real-terms increase of 2.3% for policing.

"Funding allocations for individual police forces will be confirmed in the police settlement and we will continue to work with the police to make the best use of this funding to put more officers into our neighbourhoods and keep our streets safe to support delivery of our Plan for Change."

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