Latest news with #GavinStephens
Daily Mail
13-06-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Police 'won't prioritise phone thefts and shoplifting' with fewer bobbies on the beat as a result of Rachel Reeves' spending review, sources claim
Police will be forced to deprioritise crimes like shoplifting and mobile phone thefts as a result of Rachel Reeves ' spending review, it's been claimed. The Chancellor's plans for a 2.3 per cent rise in police spending between 2023-24 and 2028-29 has dismayed police leaders, who insist the funding will leave a £1.2 billion shortfall. Gavin Stephens, chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council, said the money would not be enough to cover existing staff costs and put Labour's pledge to recruit 13,000 extra neighbourhood police officers at risk. He said budget shortfalls will require forces to make 'difficult choices' and some will 'struggle to make the numbers add up'. Some have increasingly relied on borrowing, and the cost of debt is expected to rise by 49 per cent in the next three years. Ms Reeves has denied police numbers will need to be reduced, telling LBC: 'I really don't accept there needs to be cuts.' But now, a senior police force has spoken out to warn of the potential consequences for the enforcement of specific crimes. 'Every force will be different but in some areas it might be mobile phone theft, in other areas it will mean less time and fewer people focusing on shoplifting. That equation will have to be different,' the source told The Times. Shoplifting is at unprecedented levels across the UK, with 516,971 offences in England and Wales last year. Meanwhile, there were 99,000 snatch thefts of personal items such as mobile phones and luxury goods, the highest figure in over 20 years. The Metropolitan Police recently announced it will be closing its Royal Parks policing team and removing 371 officers working in schools. Details of how much funding each of the 43 forces in England and Wales will get will be decided in December. So far 3,000 of the 13,000 extra neighbourhood officers pledged by the Government have been recruited so far, but police leaders now doubt how the remainder will be paid for. Gavin Stephens said local forces have had no capital investment for 10 years. The main capital investment has gone to big projects at the centre,' he said. 'We know that to invest in the technology that they've needed, they've had to sell buildings, increase their borrowing costs. We see those rising. 'That's not an effective way of dealing with the problem, which is why we strongly encourage more capital investment into policing. 'We think investment in artificial intelligence and new technology will help us be more effective in keeping our communities safe. 'We know that if that doesn't change, then some forces will find it hard to make the numbers add up.' Mr Stephens said forces could need to cut back on tasks they carry out for other organisations, in the same way that they have already cut back on calls related to mental health. 'Policing is going to have to make some difficult choices as a consequence of this spending review,' he continued. 'Of course, at the top of our list, preventing crime, reducing crime, investigating crime, is always going to be the first thing that we do. 'But over the years, policing has attracted many tasks on behalf of other organisations that we will need to look very closely at, in the same way we've done with our response to mental health in recent years. 'So there are some tough choices ahead for forces.' Details of how much funding each of the 43 forces in England and Wales will get will be decided in December. So far 3,000 of the 13,000 extra neighbourhood officers pledged by the Government have been recruited so far, but police leaders now doubt how the remainder will be paid for. One money-saving idea being put forward is a radical overhaul of the 43-force structure in England and Wales, to create fewer, larger forces. 'The last time we had a deliberate design of policing in England and Wales was in the early 1960s and for some time now, we've been advocating for significant change,' said Mr Stephens. 'There are forces that are finding it increasingly difficult to balance the budget, and we would say that more capable forces, bigger forces, are more likely to be financially sustainable in future. 'So we should look at all options to make sure that we can keep our community safe, not just from the threats that they face today, but the threats that we see coming down the track for the future.' A Home Office spokesperson said: 'This year, we gave the police £1.2 billion boost – including £200 million to put 3,000 neighbourhood officers in post by spring. And this 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.'
The Independent
11-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Police forces face financial struggle as cost of borrowing set to spiral
Police forces are facing 'difficult choices' and some will 'struggle to make the numbers add up' as the cost of borrowing spirals, one of Britain's most senior police officers has warned. Gavin Stephens, chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council, said local forces have had no capital investment for 10 years. Some have increasingly relied on borrowing, and the cost of debt is expected to rise by 49% in the next three years. 'Forces' borrowing costs have been going up because for the last decade, local forces have had no capital investment at all. 'The main capital investment has gone to big projects at the centre. 'We know that to invest in the technology that they've needed, they've had to sell buildings, increase their borrowing costs. We see those rising. 'That's not an effective way of dealing with the problem, which is why we strongly encourage more capital investment into policing. 'We think investment in artificial intelligence and new technology will help us be more effective in keeping our communities safe. 'We know that if that doesn't change, then some forces will find it hard to make the numbers add up.' He said forces could need to cut back on tasks they carry out for other organisations, in the same way that they have already cut back on calls related to mental health. 'Policing is going to have to make some difficult choices as a consequence of this spending review. 'Of course, at the top of our list, preventing crime, reducing crime, investigating crime, is always going to be the first thing that we do. 'But over the years, policing has attracted many tasks on behalf of other organisations that we will need to look very closely at, in the same way we've done with our response to mental health in recent years. 'So there are some tough choices ahead for forces.' Details of how much funding each of the 43 forces in England and Wales will get will be decided in December. So far 3,000 of the 13,000 extra neighbourhood officers pledged by the Government have been recruited so far, but police leaders now doubt how the remainder will be paid for. One money-saving idea being put forward is a radical overhaul of the 43-force structure in England and Wales, to create fewer, larger forces. 'The last time we had a deliberate design of policing in England and Wales was in the early 1960s and for some time now, we've been advocating for significant change. 'There are forces that are finding it increasingly difficult to balance the budget, and we would say that more capable forces, bigger forces, are more likely to be financially sustainable in future. 'So we should look at all options to make sure that we can keep our community safe, not just from the threats that they face today, but the threats that we see coming down the track for the future.' Force chiefs want greater say over how they structure their workforces, with the removal of restrictions on ring-fenced funding that was granted by the previous government to replace officers cut during austerity. Mr Stephens said policing needs a variety of workers other than officers, including cyber specialists, crime scene investigators and digital forensic experts, in the same way that 'the health service is much more than just about doctors'. He added: 'We know that the Government had some very difficult choices to make, as a consequence of this, policing is going to have some very difficult choices to make too.'
The Independent
11-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Spending review a ‘huge blow' for police and will hamper efforts to recruit 13,000 neighbourhood police officers
The government's spending review is a "huge blow" for police and will leave forces struggling to recruit 13,000 neighbourhood officers promised by Labour, police leaders have warned. The chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said Rachel Reeves' plans for an average 2.3 per cent rise in police spending per year, the equivalent of £2bn, will cover little more than inflationary pay increases for existing officers and staff. Meanwhile a projected £1.2 billion black hole in police funding will continue to grow, chief constable Gavin Stephens warned. He insisted policing is still focussed on meeting the government's ambitious manifesto pledges to halve violence against and women and girls and knife crime in a decade but admitted the tough funding settlement will make progress 'slower'. Chief constable Paul Sanford, chair of the NPCC's finance committee, warned it will be 'incredibly difficult' to meet the government's pledge to recruit 13,000 additional neighbourhood officers, PCSOs and special constables. Home secretary Yvette Cooper promised every community a named, contactable officer as part of her Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee last November. So far around 3,000 officers have been recruited. CC Sanford added: 'We will be working incredibly hard with the Home Office to complete as much of the recruitment that is required as is possible in the years ahead, but based on this settlement, that does look a real challenge for us.' He also warned forces have increasingly relied on borrowing money to balance the books and the cost of debt is expected to go up by 49 per cent in the next three years. There is also no additional funding to help police to manage more offenders expected to serve their sentences in the community under plans laid out by the Ministry of Justice, following David Gauke's sentencing review. President of the Police Superintendents' Association (PSA), Nick Smart, described the spending review as a 'huge blow' to policing and claimed the fallout 'has the potential to put public safety at risk'. He said: 'Many of the government's election pledges centred around a commitment to 'safer streets', promising the public that it would meet ambitious targets such as halving knife crime. 'Yet the lack of investment announced today means we will continue to struggle to deliver the basics, to maintain officer numbers, cover inflationary costs, cover pay awards, and function as we are, let alone move forward on new public safety and transformation initiatives. 'Leaders representing every part of the police workforce have come out in unison, stating the stark truth of policing today, stressing that it will be impossible to deliver on the pledges made by government without increased, long-term investment, and once again, we are ignored.' Considering the funding challenges, he said 'conversations must be had' around where police can begin to say 'no' when other services turn to them for support, adding: 'We cannot continue to be society's sticking plaster when other services falter.' Acting national chairwoman of the Police Federation, Tiff Lynch, accused the chancellor of failing to listen to police officers or the home secretary in the lead up to the review. She said: "This spending review should have been a turning point after 15 years of austerity that has left policing, and police officers, broken. "Instead, the cuts will continue and it's the public who will pay the price. "As rank-and-file officers kit up for night duty this evening, they'll do so knowing exactly where they stand in the Government's priorities. "It is beyond insulting for cabinet ministers to call on police to 'do their bit' when officers are overworked, underpaid, and under threat like never before. "They are facing blades and bricks, managing mental health crises while battling to protect their own, and carrying the weight of trauma and financial stress home with them every day." The union, which represents 145,000 rank and file officers, claims police pay has fallen by more than 20 per cent in real terms since 2010, while the number of crimes allocated to each officer has risen by a third. Roger Hirst and Joy Allen, joint leads for funding for the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, agreed the settlement is not enough to meet government targets to reduce crime. Mr Hirst warned some areas forces will have to rely on council tax hikes to maintain officer numbers, while Ms Allen said a lack of capital investment will leave many forces struggling with outdated digital infrastructure as well as ageing buildings and vehicle fleets. Ms Reeves has said she recognises "that not everyone has been able to get exactly what they want" from Wednesday's spending review, but insisted forces can meet the government's manifesto commitments. Asked about concerns raised by policing figures, she told the BBC: "I recognise that not everyone has been able to get exactly what they want in this spending review." She added: "We're not able to do everything that everyone would want, but real-terms spending power increases for the police of 2.3 per cent a year, above inflation, enabling us to deliver on the commitments we made in our manifesto."
The Independent
11-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Warnings that police £1.2bn funding shortfall will continue to grow
A projected £1.2 billion shortfall in police funding will continue to grow, leaving forces facing further cuts, police leaders have warned. Key figures in the service in England and Wales painted a bleak picture after the Chancellor outlined plans for an average 2.3% rise in police spending per year. Chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council Gavin Stephens said: 'It is clear that this is an incredibly challenging outcome for policing. 'In real terms, today's increase in funding will cover little more than annual inflationary pay increases for officers and staff. 'Whilst we await further detail on allocation to individual forces, the amount falls far short of what is required to fund the Government's ambitions and maintain our existing workforce. 'A decade of under-investment has left police forces selling buildings, borrowing money and raising local taxes to maintain what we already have, with forces facing a projected shortfall of £1.2 billion over the next two years, which is now expected to rise. 'This is against a backdrop of increasing crime rates, with new and escalating threats from organised crime and hostile states, and more offenders being managed in the community as a result of an overstretched criminal justice system. 'Cutting crime isn't just about officer numbers, we need specialist skills and people, supported with the right systems and technology, to better protect communities. 'We fully support the Government's drive to cut crime and grow officer numbers, but for these to succeed, investment in policing must live up to the ambition.' Speaking to journalists on Wednesday afternoon, Norfolk Chief Constable Paul Sanford said police forces have increasingly relied on borrowing money to balance the books, and the cost of debt is expected to go up by 49% in the next three years. The 2.3% announced by the Government covers last year, which includes national insurance contributions and pay awards already granted, leaving a 1.7% increase in funding for this spending review period, he said. It will be decided in December how the money will be shared between the 43 forces in England and Wales, and the pay settlement to be given to officers is also not yet known. Mr Sanford, who is head of the finance co-ordination committee of the National Police Chiefs Council, said he is concerned that some forces have underestimated the cost of pay for the coming year. He added: 'It will be incredibly difficult for the commitment to deliver the additional 13,000 neighbourhood police officers to be delivered within this funding envelope.' Acting national chairwoman of the Police Federation, Tiff Lynch, accused the Chancellor of failing to listen to police officers or the home secretary in the lead up to the review. She said: 'This spending review should have been a turning point after 15 years of austerity that has left policing, and police officers, broken. 'Instead, the cuts will continue and it's the public who will pay the price. 'As rank-and-file officers kit up for night duty this evening, they'll do so knowing exactly where they stand in the Government's priorities. 'It is beyond insulting for cabinet ministers to call on police to 'do their bit' when officers are overworked, underpaid, and under threat like never before. 'They are facing blades and bricks, managing mental health crises while battling to protect their own, and carrying the weight of trauma and financial stress home with them every day.' The Police Federation claims that police pay has fallen by more than 20% in real terms since 2010, while the number of crimes allocated to each officer has risen by a third. 'We will lose 10,000 experienced officers a year to resignation by the end of this spending review period, driven out by poor pay and unacceptable working conditions,' she added. 'This Chancellor hasn't listened to police officers. She hasn't listened to the home secretary. She hasn't listened to the public's concerns about community safety. 'We await the Government's decision on police pay in the coming weeks. 'But with this spending review, the signs are deeply worrying; the consequences will be even more so. And those consequences sit squarely on the shoulders of the Chancellor and the prime minister.' Roger Hirst and Joy Allen, who are joint leads for funding for the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, said the funding settlement is not enough to meet government targets to reduce crime and called for changes to the current formula used to decide how much each force gets. Mr Hirst said there is no funding 'to meet the challenges of evolving threats and the need to invest in more officers and new technologies', and in some areas forces will have to rely on council tax hikes to maintain officer numbers. Ms Allen said: 'With a lack of capital investment, many forces are still working from ageing buildings, managing vehicle fleets beyond their operational life and relying on outdated digital infrastructure that no longer meets the demands of modern policing. 'While the ringfenced funding for neighbourhood policing is welcome, the broader settlement does not yet go far enough to support delivery of the Government's ambitious policing priorities – halving knife crime, tackling violence against women and girls, and embedding the neighbourhood policing guarantee.'
The Independent
29-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Chief officers call for radical overhaul of structure of UK policing
Police chiefs in England and Wales want a radical overhaul of the structure of UK policing with fewer, larger forces, amid financial shortages and difficulties dealing with fraud and updating technology. The current structure of 43 geographical forces was established in the 1960s and there have long been concerns that the model is not fit for purpose. As the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) published the police data strategy for 2025 to 2030 on Thursday, force bosses called for a redesign of the structure of policing in England and Wales. NPCC chairman Gavin Stephens said: 'We need police forces that are strong and capable to be able to use technology…that are able to respond to a range of threats that might emerge in their local area and be resilient to those. 'At the moment, the system is not resilient, so I would absolutely argue for bigger, capable forces led by a stronger national centre.' He said that the way UK policing is currently set up is 'too fragmented and sometimes uncoordinated'. 'There are many things that, particularly in the digital world, where if we do it once well for everybody, we can get the sort of scale that we need. 'I think it's completely unacceptable that if you're a victim of crime in one area compared to another, that you might have a stand a better chance of having your perpetrator bought to justice because that particular force is deploying some technology in comparison with another force that hasn't. 'We need a system where digital advancements, that do move rapidly, we can evolve and get those implemented at scale.' The chief constable's comments came after a report by think tank the Police Foundation earlier this month found that fraud victims are being let down because of the outdated 1960s structure. It said that UK policing is trying to battle '21st century cyber-enabled cross-border crime' in a localised system that is decades old, with fraud now accounting for 40% of crime in Britain. Research by report sponsor Virgin Media O2 also found that three forces in England and Wales had no officers dedicated to investigating fraud. The digital strategy, published on Thursday, says it is estimated that forces will spend around £2 billion on IT in 2025/26, £590 million of which will go on maintaining systems that could instead be modernised. Chief Constable Rob Carden, who is the NPCC lead for digital, data and technology, also highlighted issues with recruiting specialist staff who otherwise go to the private sector. He said the Government's safer streets plan to reduce crime and boost public confidence will not be possible without more investment in technology. 'It's certainly my personal contention that the safer streets mission is simply not achievable without digital data and technology,' he said. His comments came after one of Britain's most senior police officers Sir Mark Rowley joined with five other chief officers, including Mr Stephens, to call on the Government for 'serious investment' in the next spending review in June. In a letter to the Times, they along with the chief constables of Merseyside, West Midlands, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire Police said: 'A lack of investment will bake in the structural inefficiencies for another three years and will lose a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reform the service.' The digital strategy estimates that 15 million hours of police time could be saved if the Government gives forces £220 million for spending on technology over the next three years. The NPCC said that projects that have already been piloted have saved 347,656 workforce hours and £8.2 million per year, and could save 15 million hours and £370 million per year if rolled out nationally. Mr Stephens said: 'Without investment, we will fall behind rather than become more productive. 'We will not be able to restore neighbourhood policing. 'Halving violence against women and girls and knife crime will become much harder to reach targets.' The projects that are currently being piloted include: – live facial recognition – currently used by the Met, Essex and South Wales Police. It is hoped this could be made available for use by individual officers in the future. – a system in Kent where domestic abuse victims are connected with an officer via video call, reducing the average response time from 32 hours to three minutes. – finish setting up the national digital forensics platform to make analysis of devices quicker – using AI to triage 101 calls, as currently being trialled by West Midlands Police – expanding use of robotic process automation for administrative tasks – national rollout of video and text redaction tools including new deepfake detection technology. The system to automatically redact text is estimated to save around one million hours of staff time per year. – increased use of drones.
