Police forces across the country are cutting tens of thousands of hours in overtime, an investigation by The Times has found, as they battle to reduce their spending as budget cuts start to bite.
A dozen forces cut more than 10,000 hours from their officer overtime bill for a three month period at the end of last year, dramatically reducing the amount they pay for weekend and night time shift work.
The Police Federation warned that while they welcomed, and had advocated a cut in overtime, it was important that such cuts “are not putting the public at risk just to save money on overtime”.
The figures, obtained from a Freedom of Information request, come as the Government considers plans to cut millions from the police pay bill. The police overtime bill currently amounts to £450 million a year — a significant chunk of the £11bn spent on police pay.
In the last three months of 2010, police officers at 35 forces in the UK worked 580,000 fewer hours than in the same period 12 months previously. Only two forces who responded to the FOI with figures on officers only increased overtime during that period. If that pattern was repeated at the 52 forces across the country, it would have meant a total reduction of over 860,000 hours of police overtime in just three months.
Advertisement
Some larger forces saw huge decreases in the amount of officer overtime every month: the Met reduced overtime by 265,000 hours during October and November last year, compared to the same period the year before, saving £4 million. North Yorkshire Police reduced overtime by 30,000 hours in October, November, and December to save £0.8m, while in Merseyside officer overtime was down by 45,000 hours, saving £0.7million.
Peter Fahy, the chief constable of Greater Manchester Police and a spokesperson for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: “All forces have put the brakes on pretty rapidly.
“Times have changed. Managers are asking hard questions. In the good times, when there was money about, there probably was not that level of scrutiny.”
The figures reveal that forces cut £10.2 million from their overtime bill for the end of the year compared to the same period in 2009.
But Simon Reed, the vice chair of the Police Federation, said that while cuts in overtime were necessary in a time of policing cuts, it was important that public safety was not affected as a result.
Advertisement
“Overtime spending has increased in recent years because of the huge demand on policing.
“With the reduction in officer numbers we are seeing-- we’ve already lost 3,000-- the pressure is going to increase,” he said. “We welcome the reduction [in overtime] but we have to be careful we are not putting the public at risk just to save money on overtime.”
The Federation has warned that spending cuts could have a dramatic impact on the ability of forces to successfully police the country.
It is concerned that thousands of officers could be lost over the next three to four years as forces make cuts of up 20 per cent, a situation that would leave the number of police officers in relation to the size of the population back down to what it was in the 1970s. Paul McKeever, chairman of the federation, said at that level the police operation had been “in chaos”.
On overtime, Greater Manchester Police said “rigorous controls” on overtime across the whole force were now in place due to an overspend at the beginning of the financial year, while Lincolnshire Police said the force had applied a 15 per cent reduction in police officer casual overtime this year, cutting costs by £892,000. Strathclyde, Scotland’s largest police force, which cut overtime by 56,000 hours, said that as part of its budget strategy for 2010/2011 it is planning on cutting the overtime budget by 25 per cent.
Advertisement
Many of the forces surveyed say that overtime is only ever approved if it is essential to the delivery of the policing service, and is operationally necessary.
Dr Roger Grimshaw, from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, an independent charity, said that their research had shown a huge increase in the amount of police overtime over the last ten years- with officer overtime increasing “by about 90 per cent.”
Of the findings on overtime, he said: “It may be a sign that people within the police are looking hard at what economies can happen.”