‘Blame for failing police services lies with Government underfunding’

11 July 2023

The Police Federation’s Welsh lead has defended police officers after the service was criticised by the chief inspector of constabulary.

Nicky Ryan was responding to a newly published report from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) brings together significant findings from the 2021/22 police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL) inspection programme.

Among the findings were:

• Too many forces make decisions based on poor data or insufficient analysis;
• Forces too often have knee jerk reactions to long term problems and don’t work proactively enough to prevent issues arising in the first place;
• Too many are failing to understand and manage their own performance, and don’t know where and how they can improve.
• First-line supervisors are not getting the investment and support they need;
• The public is too often being failed, with long call delays to non-emergency 101 calls; and
• The workforce is increasingly under-resourced and under skilled, with forces not doing enough to understand why such a large proportion of its workforce are leaving and having any plans in place to tackle it.

Nicky said: “I hope colleagues will not take these HMICFRS criticisms personally – our officers are working as best they can with the tools available, they are literally holding the service together.

“The nub of the issue, as always, is funding. We endured a decade of austerity and investment is still lacking. Police officers’ pay is well below inflation and while that persists, we will always have trouble with recruitment and retention.”

Accusing the Government of trying to “police on the cheap”, Nicky called for improved training of supervisors, who are key to frontline improvements, and multi-year funding deals which would allow forces to prioritise and prevent crime.

National Federation deputy chair Tiff Lynch said: “If our members are to give the public the service they deserve, then long-term, sustained investment in policing must be the Government’s top priority.

“Only proper investment in the service will allow forces to implement the procedures and training that are vital to improving policing and regaining public confidence and trust.”

Andy Cooke, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, noted that public trust and confidence in the police are at an all-time low, urging chief constables to take heed of the findings and work quickly to rectify issues.

He said: “We found a wealth of examples where police forces are performing well. Forces must learn from each other and should consider if the positive practice described in this report can be applied in their own area.

“But the public are still being let down too often by policing, and there are several improvements that forces need to make. One of the first things forces need to do is to get better at understanding and managing their own performance. Without this, forces cannot aspire to provide the high level of service that the public deserves.”

On the positive side the report highlighted police forces’ progress in recording crime, increasing from an estimated 80.5 per cent of all crime being recorded (excluding fraud) in 2014 to 92.4 per cent at the end of 2021/2022 inspections.