‘The Government has shown us little respect and little value’

29 July 2021

Boris Johnson’s new Beating Crime Plan has been dismissed as “old ideas that have been rebranded”  by the Police Federation’s Welsh affairs lead.

Nicky Ryan joined the chorus of criticism of the Prime Minister’s plan, which includes the wider use of public “chain gangs” to tackle anti-social behaviour, the permanent relaxing of conditions on Section 60 Stop and Search powers and the extension of a pilot forcing burglars and thieves to wear GPS tags on release from prison.

Nicky said ministers had failed to consult anyone from policing on the Beating Crime Plan and warned some of its proposed measures could lead to officers being forced to cut corners to meet targets.

She told BBC Radio Wales: “There has been absolutely no consultation from the Government with the Police Federation or any other professionals within policing around this document. Our national chair John Apter was only contacted by the Home Office on Monday to brief him about this.

“What we would like is an absolute bottom-up conversation with the Government about the funding of the criminal justice system and restructuring if we need it.”

Referring to the Beating Crime Plan, which was unveiled by Mr Johnson on Tuesday, Nicky said: “A lot of this we actually do already.  There’s one point in there about improving the responsiveness of local police to 101 and 999 calls but response times are already measured.

“Making them into a league table is a dangerous way to go because league tables lead to perverse outcomes and perverse practices and the only people that suffer from that are the public: the people that we serve and the people who we provide a service to.”

When asked if she was worried Police Federation members might be asked to cut corners to achieve targets, Nicky replied: “I think they would be given no option but to cut corners to hit targets and that is a system and a service that we got away from many years ago.

“Unfortunately, the Government wants to take us back to a league table culture. We are not against performance measures but they have to be measures that actually provide a good service to the public.”

Nicky was also asked if there was an element of politics with the Police Federation’s wider criticisms of the Government.

She replied: “We are the poor relatives of the public sector because we have no industrial rights and the Government abuses that fact.

“It’s no secret that we have been given a nought per cent pay rise and we have walked away from the pay review process because it is not fit for purpose, it is not independent and the Government interferes in that.

“All we want is a fair process, we want to provide a service to the public and, unfortunately, while we would like to stay neutral in all of these conversations and all of these debates, the Government is our boss and sets the tone.”

Nicky said police officers deserved to be treated fairly for the job they do.

She said: “Police officers are very, very committed. Throughout the pandemic officers weren’t vaccinated but still went out every day. We dealt with the legislation that was unclear and complicated.

“The Government has given us little respect and shown us little value.”