But they’ll waste £100 to change a bulb

Last year it emerged Met chiefs paid up to £100 each time a contractor was called out to change a light bulb in an ‘emergency’. ‘Nonurgent’ cases cost £26.

Officers at the London force also spent more than £35,000 on 110,000 calls to the Speaking Clock over two years and £200,000 on directory enquiries.

Surrey Police spent £15million designing and installing a new computer system which could never be used because it was fatally flawed.

Several forces including Devon and Wiltshire spent thousands of pounds handing out flip-flops to drunk women who were struggling to walk home.

Some £32million was spent last year on ‘spin doctors’ and PR advisers for police forces.