Fed calls on Government to commit to long-term funding

9 July 2024

The new Government in Westminster must prioritise tackling the crisis in policing and commit to long-term and sustained investment in the police service, says Dyfed Powys Police Federation deputy secretary Ceris Davies.

Ceris was reacting to Labour’s landslide victory in the General Election which saw the Conservatives losing all their seats in Wales, including that of the former Welsh secretary David TC Davies.

“Labour’s election manifesto set out its plans for tackling crime and anti-social behaviour including recruiting thousands of new police officers, PCSOs and Special Constables, and putting 13,000 extra neighbourhood police and PCSOs on the beat,” says Ceris.

“Of course, we welcome any effort to fight crime and invest in neighbouring policing which was severely hit by the austerity years when officer numbers were cut and we lost valuable links with the communities we serve.

Government

“The Labour manifesto says this will be fully funded by ending tax breaks for private schools and a Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme, which we will be interested to find out more about.

“But what we really want the Government to do first and foremost is restore officer morale which has hit rock bottom in recent years.”

New Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer.

The Federation’s latest pay and morale survey revealed that officers are not happy at how they are treated by Government and they do not feel they are fairly paid for the often dangerous role they carry out in society.

“At the heart of that is the fact that they have seen their pay fall by 20 per cent in real terms and, just as importantly, they do not feel that the supposedly independent body for reviewing police officer pay is fair,” Ceris explained.

“The Police Remuneration Review Body currently has its remit set by the Government which can also over-turn any recommendations it makes. The Federation has currently withdrawn from involvement in the process.”

Investment

Ceris added: “If the Government is serious about tackling crime and anti-social behaviour it needs to first tackle the crisis in policing and that starts with a fair pay review mechanism, a commitment to long-term investment in policing and genuine respect for police officers.”

Labour’s manifesto said it will tackle crime and antisocial behaviour by:

• Cracking down on anti-social behaviour with more neighbourhood police
• Introducing tough new penalties for offenders
• Adopting a plan to get knives off our streets
• Establishing a specialist rape unit in every police force
• Setting up a new network of Young Futures hubs.

It stated Labour’s mission in Government would be to ‘take back our streets’, with ambitious aims to halve serious violence, tackle the scourge of violence against women and girls, and rebuild public confidence in policing by getting police back on the beat.

Read the Labour manifesto.

READ MORE: Have your say on police uniform.