Police Grant

Marie Rimmer Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Marie Rimmer (St Helens South and Whiston) (Lab)]

I listened carefully to the hon. Member for St Austell and Newquay (Steve Double) and, in particular, to my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Paul Blomfield), whose remarks ring true.

Merseyside police relies on the Government for 81% of its funding due to a low council tax base. Percentage cuts to the Government grant therefore hit us particularly hard. Since 2010, the Merseyside police budget has been reduced by 15%. During this period, the force has been required to make a £91 million reduction in police spending. The Merseyside police budget is now £21 million short of restoring the 4,000 police officers we need. In 2010, the police force employed 4,588 police officers but by next March that will be reduced to 3,580—a loss of more than 1,000. If these cuts continue, the force estimates that by 2020 it will be operating with more than 26% fewer officers compared with 2010, having been reduced to 3,400 police officers.

As the Government continue to cut our police grant, Ministers are determining police force budgets by assuming that forces will increase the police precept by the maximum allowed of 1.95% a year. Our commissioner has not really been given a choice: our county has a low council tax base, with most of our properties in bands A or B, so people are not well off and £5 therefore has a significant impact on them. Before Christmas, the Government confirmed that the grant allocated to Merseyside police would be further cut in 2017-18 by 1.4%, leaving the force with £3.3 million less in grant next year in comparison with this year. Even increasing the precept by the maximum allowed would raise less than half the money lost through the grant, at just £1.2 million. Even with the extra contribution provided by taxpayers, the force still has to find £6.8 million of savings in the next financial year to balance the books.

As for the demands on Merseyside police, they take 1.2 million calls every year—between 500 and 700 emergency 999 calls every day—and record 1,234 incidents each day. They deal with well over 200 overt and covert operations and events every year, including large-scale public order events. One of the most demanding issues is organised crime, which is a major priority in Merseyside. Some 83 organised crime groups operate regionally with identified crossovers or geographical links to Merseyside. Force analysis highlights a significant national spread of activity of Merseyside organised crime in all 43 forces. This means that our police have to cross over into all the other 42 forces. In addition, Merseyside has a significantly high number of organised crime groups with international links. Assessments have indicated that Merseyside is one of three national hubs for drugs—the main criminality for 70% of Merseyside’s organised crime groups is drugs—the others being the areas covered by the Metropolitan Police Service and West Midlands police. This is a further indication of the impact of Merseyside organised crime groups on national crime trends.

On recorded crime, Merseyside has recorded 5,903 drug offences. Nationally, only the Met police recorded more. As for gun crime, the year 2014-15 saw 162 firearms offences, which was the sixth highest in the country, as reported to Parliament. The National Ballistics Intelligence Service indicated that there were 277 inferred firearms on Merseyside, 38 of which were active, meaning that they had been fired within the last 12 months. Since 2010, Merseyside has witnessed a 12% increase in the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads. Furthermore, according to recent data, every 12 months more than 500 people are sadly killed or suffer serious injuries.

Merseyside has some of the most deprived boroughs in the country. The index of multiple deprivation rates Liverpool and Knowsley as the second and fifth local authority districts with the largest proportions of highly deprived neighbourhoods in England, with Liverpool being the local authority with the largest number of neighbourhoods in the most deprived 1%. This issue is further exacerbated by ongoing cuts to other public services, such as local authorities, which have magnificent working relationships with the police: they work together on many joined-up issues, but those are now sadly now under threat. We have also seen cuts to youth offending services, which were previously better able to support the police in their community safety work. Furthermore, Merseyside police’s ability to assist other forces by mutual aid, which it has done admirably in the past, might be compromised, making this as much a national as a local issue.

The Government are working on a new funding formula that will dictate how much each police force receives from the funding pot. We deserve a fairer funding settlement from the Government. It saddens me, but I need to say it: this Conservative Government’s chosen austerity programme and cuts to all our public services, which are valued by everyone in the country, are taking the “Great” out of “Great Britain” and threatening what we were so admired for in years gone by.