Chairman's reaction: Government cannot use policing as an opportunity to cut costs

4 November 2022

“The Government cannot once again use policing as an opportunity to cut costs,” Humberside Police Federation has said ahead of this month’s budget.

It has been reported that fighting crime is one of new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s top priorities, but the autumn budget on 17 November is likely to include public spending cuts.

Humberside Police Federation Chair Lee Sims said he feared a return to austerity.

He said: “Policing is yet to even come close to recovering from the austerity measures imposed upon it by the Conservative Government, despite the headline figures of 20,000 new officers. These numbers come nowhere near to getting officer numbers back to where they were and where they should be.

“If the new Government is serious about tackling crime, as they would have us believe, then they simply cannot once again use policing as an opportunity to cut costs.”

Last month, Home Secretary Suella Braverman wrote to police chiefs telling them to concentrate on burglaries, car theft and drugs.

Lee said: “This is exactly what police officers want to be doing, but we need to be funded correctly and any further cuts to budgets will make this more and more difficult.

“While we continue to have to backfill other agencies instead of doing this vital police work, we will struggle. I hope that the Government will take the opportunity in the next budget to show how much they value and support our police by not imposing any further cuts.”