Police Service Strength - Home Affairs Committee Contents


Memorandum submitted by Lancashire Police Academy

  Thank you for your letter of 14 October 2009 together with the opportunity of commenting to the evidence session on Police Service strength. These views are those of the Lancashire Police Authority although we have had sight of the information from Lancashire Constabulary which has contributed to the response from ACPO. The Constabulary have submitted the detailed information that you have requested and we are not repeating this here.

  We agree with the comments of Sir Hugh Orde with regard to the likelihood of significant funding cuts for policing within the current financial climate, and whilst we recognise that no service can be exempt from reductions in budget in the face of substantial increases in public sector borrowing, we have, as an Authority, concerns about how that will impact on the recently imposed target that seeks to measure confidence in the Constabulary.

  The link that members of the public make between Police Officer numbers, and effectiveness and efficiency of police provision is one that has been made on a number of occasions. Lancashire Police Authority, together with the Constabulary have already begun an active programme to scope a range of budget reduction options that will allow us to continue to deliver excellent services that are good value for money. We expect that as part of this we will need to look at the makeup of the workforce and the way in which services are delivered.

  It is the case that in Lancashire the CSR funding has provided only a stand still option at best. We would like to see consideration across government departments to the cumulative impact of cross sector budget cuts. In local government for example, cuts to local authority budgets may well have an impact on resourcing in terms of community safety. An example of these could be not only a reduction in resources available for PCSO's but also a reduction in non-statutory activities, such as parks maintenance, which could directly impact on neighbourhood policing.

November 2009






 
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