PSA President Nick Smart has commented following today's Autumn Budget announcements:
"Today’s early Budget announcement included a government commitment to ‘making streets safer,’ but that ambition must be matched by the resources needed to deliver it. It is therefore deeply disappointing that there was no reference to additional funding for policing. Once again, it is a public service that is not viewed as a priority.
"We cannot stress strongly enough that safer streets and safer communities depend on a police service that is sustainably and adequately funded. We have been making this case for more than a decade.
"The government has heard evidence from across policing about the financial pressures facing the service and the consequences of trying to meet growing and increasingly complex demand with insufficient resources. There is a clear internal threat to which we must respond through policing, rather than solely focussing on the external threat.
"Forces are using reserves to support day-to-day policing and making extensive savings simply to balance their budgets. Policing has been dealing with the consequences of sustained financial pressure for around 15 years. If the government is serious about moving beyond austerity, that must extend to the police service.
"At the same time, pressures elsewhere in the criminal justice system are creating further demand for policing and significant challenges for communities and criminal justice partners. The Early Release Scheme alone has been forecast by the NPCC to cost policing an additional £480 million in the next year, without additional funding to meet that cost and burden of managing offenders who pose an increased risk to the community and require ongoing management.
"Policing also continues to absorb demand that should sit elsewhere in the public sector, which prevents us from delivering an effective service to meet the needs and expectations of the public. There remains no clear definition of the police mission - simply doing everything should not be an option.
"Until government addresses both the resources available to policing and the demand being placed upon it, delivering the everyday service communities rightly expect will become increasingly difficult.
"This is not simply a financial issue. It is having a direct impact on our people. National data shows that 44% of the police workforce report often or always feeling burnt out because of their job, compared with 32% within the NHS. More than half of the police workforce, 55%, struggle to take sufficient breaks, while almost two-thirds, 63%, work unpaid hours every week. This is neither safe nor sustainable.
"Police officer numbers per head of population remain below where they were 15 years ago, and the lowest in Europe, while demand continues to rise. The gap between what policing is being asked to deliver and the resources available to deliver it cannot continue to widen.
"Police reform has begun. We welcome the opportunity it presents to build the police service our country needs for the future. But reform cannot be delivered on ambition alone, and it cannot become another demand placed upon a service without the resources to deliver it.
"Our message to government is urgent and clear. As it develops its 10-year plan and Spending Review, it must properly fund policing, define the police mission, address the demand being placed on the service, and within this review the entire criminal justice system - police reform cannot be done in isolation.
"This early budget suggests another year of austerity for policing, which would be shameful. If the government wants safer streets, stronger communities and meaningful police reform, it must invest in the police service and the people expected to deliver them."
