Minister pledges to improve PSNI
Front line policing in Northern Ireland will improve despite plans to reduce the PSNI’s budget by £17m, Security Minister Paul Goggins has said.
Mr Goggins was speaking after meeting Policing Board Chairman Barry Gilligan and ACC Judith Gillespie.
He said: “I believe we can get £17m of efficiency savings whilst getting more police officers on the front line.”
The NIO has said the cuts are needed as part of a government drive to save £5bn in the next financial year.
“We had a very constructive discussion about how best to spend the £1.2bn that the PSNI have each year,” Mr Goggins added.
“I have agreed to make sure the NIO continues to provide the necessary resources so we combat the terrorist threat from the dissidents and, at the same time, the PSNI will continue with their strategic review to see if there are more efficient and effective ways of spending that considerable amount of money.”
ACC Gillespie said the meeting had been about making sure the policing budget was spent as “effectively and efficiently” as possible.
“We have a very generous budget of £1.2bn, we believe we can deliver the police service the people of NI want within that budget,” she said.
Chairman Barry Gilligan described the meeting positive.
He said: “There is no doubt in my mind that the minister is at one with the PSNI and the board about the delivery of an effective and efficient police service to the people of Northern Ireland.”
Internal report
Last month, the BBC revealed that an internal PSNI report said it was failing to deliver an effective service, with officers spending more than 60% of their time in police stations because of red tape and paperwork.
The PSNI has an annual budget of £1.2bn, but only £170m of that is flexible, meaning the chief constable can decide how the money is spent.
Police sources have told the BBC that under the current funding arrangements, the only way they could make the £17m savings demanded by the government would be to reduce the numbers of officers on the ground, and that would have serious implications for frontline policing services.
