2,000 of the most experienced police officers will be made to retire by 2015 as forces across England and Wales try to find 20% budget cuts, a Labour survey has claimed.
A series of Freedom of Information Act requests by the shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has disclosed that over the next four years 13 of the 43 forces intend to use an obscure regulation to compulsorily retire 1,138 officers who have more than 30 years of service.
Labour estimates that a further 986 officers could be affected if some of the remaining 30 forces also decide to use the same regulation to find budget savings.
Cooper said that it was "deeply worrying" that 13 forces had already decided to use the A19 regulation to compulsorily retire some of the most experienced officers in the force.
"Some of these officers are experts in their fields and internationally respected for what they do in the fight against crime," she said.
"The home secretary must realise that you cannot make 20% front-loaded cuts to the police without losing the very crime fighters we need. The home secretary is taking unacceptable risks with public safety and the continued fight against crime."
As fully sworn officers of the crown rather than employees, policemen and women cannot be made redundant under existing rules. However, the A19 regulation can forcibly retire officers with more than 30 years' service on not less than two-thirds pension on the grounds of the efficiency of the force.
The experienced officers who have already left or are leaving the police this week include:
• An inspector with 33 years' service who is the longest serving specialist in crime reduction and crime prevention in England and Wales. He advises architects and builders on "designing out" crime in new buildings, especially on council estates.
• A neighbourhood sergeant who, at 48, is one of the youngest to be forcibly retired. He manages a team of officers and liaises with the local community on anti-social behaviour.
• A 55-year-old frontline roads policing officer who has spent the last 20 years responding to motorway incidents.
The latest Labour survey of police authority current plans shows that the jobs of 12,500 officers are to be lost over the next four years in addition to a further 15,000 police staff jobs, confirming the estimate of 28,000 jobs made by the Association of Chief Police Officers.
The Home Office estimated in November that 3,200 officers in England and Wales could be affected if all the 43 forces decided to enforce the compulsorily retirement rule.
The Labour survey suggests that a total of 2,200 are likely to be forced out through this route by 2015, indicating that deeper cuts in police staff numbers or other measures may be required.
Police forces froze their recruitment last year, which saw 2,500 jobs go through natural wastage.
Home Office minsters say that forces should be able to identify sufficient savings to ensure that the budget cuts have no effect on the level of service the public receive.
The police minister, Nick Herbert, said there were currently "immense opportunities" to make savings without hitting the frontline.
0 comments:
Post a Comment