MP warns of impact of £11m pension bill on force

NORTHUMBRIA WILL FACE THE EQUIVALENT OF LOSING 220 OFFICERS

THE Home Office is under pressure to help police forces meet rising pension costs following warnings that Northumbria Police faces an unexpected bill for £11m.

Blaydon MP Liz Twist told the House of Commons that the surprise cost was the equivalent of losing 220 police officers. But the Home Office said it was looking at the impact of the pension changes. A spokesperson said: “We are working closely with the police to understand the impact of this change and mitigate the impact on the front line. The Government is committed to continuing to ensure that the police have the resources they need to do their vital work and the Home Secretary has been clear that he will prioritise police funding at the next Spending Review.”

Extra costs are being imposed on the police because the Government has changed the way it calculates how much public sector employers are expected to contribute to some pension schemes. And Dame Vera Baird, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria Police, has described the changes as “impossible”, warning that they could cost the force more than £11m in the next two years.

She said: “It would be a mortal wound to Northumbria Police. We have discussed whether there are any economies that we can plan in order to prepare for this extra unnecessary cost and we simply cannot pay it.”

There was no extra money for police forces such as Northumbria in the Chancellor’s Budget speech this week, though he announced an additional £160m for counter-terrorism police, who are funded separately.

Instead, the Chancellor hinted that there may be some help for police forces later in the year, saying: “I recognise that policing more generally is under pressure from the changing nature of crime.”

The Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, is to review police funding when he announces grants for police forces in December, the Chancellor said.

Mr Hammond also said that the Government would make further funding announcements in his spending review, due next year.

But Ms Twist, a Labour MP, called on the Government to provide help with the pensions contributions. She said: “Since 2010, Northumbria Police have had funding cuts of £140m and seen 1,000 jobs lost. Now it faces an additional cost from employer pension contributions of £11m, which is equivalent to 220 officers.”

Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah told the House of Commons that her constituents were more worried about crime than ever before. She said: “Recently I spent a day with Northumbria police. Austerity has cut its budget by a third – the largest cut in the country – and now the Government are trying to fiddle a further £11m out of it in pensions payments.

“For the first time, I have to hold constituency surgeries just on crime.

“The thin blue line of brave and committed officers is desperately trying to stem the consequences of slashed youth services, rising homelessness, poverty and mental health issues, as well as cyber-crime, historical sex abuse and current day sexual exploitation and trafficking.”