North Yorkshire Police save £4m with fewer cops (From York Press)

North Yorkshire Police save £4m with fewer cops

1:00pm Friday 28th November 2008

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POLICE bosses saved nearly £4 million last year by choosing cost-cutting measures above putting bobbies on the beat.

The North Yorkshire Police authority’s annual budget for 2007/08 was £62,657 million, but the wage bill only totalled £58,901 million – meaning an underspend of £3.763 million in the last year.

But most of the cost-savings were gained through less police officers being employed by the force.

As The Press told earlier this year, in a report of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), it was revealed North Yorkshire Police (NYP) imposed a recruitment freeze on PCs and PCSOs while it adjusted to a tightened budget.

The NYPA authorities report released this week states a significant proportion of the underspend was for “salary-related budgets”, with £2.586 million saved in police officer, police staff and police community support officer (PCSO) salaries.

The authority’s report stated: “This underspend is a combination of delays in filling vacancies, vacancies held pending departmental reviews, general process delays and difficulties in recruiting staff and transitional funding.”

Joanna Carter, chief finance officer for NYPA, said the costs saved from the recruitment freeze would stand the authority in good stead for the future of the force. “North Yorkshire Police has been implementing the plan to deliver over £5 million-worth of savings to the ongoing budget level as set out in this years budget,” she said. “To deliver on this we anticipated a number of one-off costs to undertake and embed the change and the process will continue through to the end of this financial year.

“The progress has been made without incurring a number of the one-off costs that could have been expected, due to a concerted effort by management, staff associations, the police federation, the authority and, of course, individuals themselves.

“However, there have been savings due to staff vacancies as a significant number of posts changed and have been recruited to throughout the year.

“This has taken a little longer than planned and has resulted in one-off cost savings.

“As a result, costs have been saved, so ensuring the sustainability of North Yorkshire Police’s services.”

She said North Yorkshire Police were now looking towards implementing recruitment campaigns next year. “This is under way and will contribute to maintaining performance of North Yorkshire police.

“We are also looking very closely at resource requirements for next year and this will be in the context of both the successful delivery of ongoing savings and effectively using any one off funds.”

Other reasons for the underspend include saving £156,000 on premises costs, £116,000 on supplies and services, and £64,000 on pension costs.

By the end of the year, the police authority is estimated to have an underspend of £5.176 million.

Protecting our police service

LAST year The Press hailed a major victory in protecting North Yorkshire Police from sweeping funding cuts.

In September last year, The Press’s Fund Our Force Campaign was launched after the paper exclusively revealed that proposals by the Home Office could see £10 million slashed off North Yorkshire’s police budget – the equivalent of 300 officers.

Chief Constable of North Yorkshire Police Grahame Maxwell warned such a cut would have “devastating” consequences for frontline policing.

The campaign won the backing of politicians, residents, retailers and police across North Yorkshire, and a petition signed by 1,350 people was taken to the Minister in October 2007.

Consequently, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the formula would not change, and the force would receive a 2.5 per cent increase in the base grant in 2008/09 to £74,797,000, compared to previous year’s grant of £72,973,000.

The news was greeted with jubilation by York MP Hugh Bayley, who presented the dossier.

He said at the time: “This is a great victory for The Press campaign – and a victory for democracy.

The Home Secretary listened to the arguments against the change in the funding formula.

“She took notice of the petition and the force did not get a £10 million cut in funding, as had been feared. It has got a 2.5 per cent increase in funding for the next three years.”

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