The Conservative dominated Westminster government is running the risk of creating a perfect storm within our police service by cutting starting salaries for new police officers. This comes on top of budget cuts that have forced many forces to freeze recruitment, and reduce officer and civilian support staff numbers with redundancies. There will be consequences including a shortage of younger and older officers and a reduction in front line services as civilian support staff are also reduced in number.
Many police forces across the UK are already under severe pressure, as they attempt to balance budget cuts and a drop in personnel while simultaneously trying to maintain a high standard of policing and ensuring public safety. On Tuesday the Home Secretary announced that police officers' starting salary will be cut by 17% to £19,000. This is the latest of series of assaults on funding for public services which are ill thought out and ill-timed.
The Con Dem government’s unsustainable budget cuts and proposed changes in working practices will threaten to undermine the morale of hard-working officers in every force in England and Wales. Our police do a superb and difficult job but both the reputation of our police services and the safety of communities may be put at risk. The Con Dem London government’s priorities are clearly driven by ideology, rather than principle.
We have reached a historic low when it comes to this Westminster Government’s absolute lack of respect for the police service and a complete lack of understanding for the important role our police play in our communities and society. The short term decisions made by this Westminster government will have far-reaching and potentially long lasting consequences by making it more difficult for the police to ensure that they are able to deal with crime and public order.
One unforeseen consequence of Police budget cuts may be a boost to the not so secret Conservative privatisation agenda – back in February (2012) G4S a private security company signed a deal to design, build and run a police station in Lincolnshire. This agreement between G4S and Lincolnshire Police was the first of its kind in the UK and may hint at the future of policing as it is envisaged by Cameron’s Conservatives.
As part of the deal, around two-thirds of civilian support staff employed by the force is to be transferred across to the private sector. This contract might possibly save Lincolnshire Constabulary around £20 million pounds but at what cost over the medium term to support staff terms and condition and the provision of services to the public.
This probably a step too far for most people, but, despite any mutterings to the contrary from Labour in Wales’s representatives in Westminster our Police forces here in Wales are in my opinion acutely vulnerable to back door privatisation and further potential cuts in funding and services. The sooner Policing and Criminal Justice are devolved to Wales the better for all of us as this would strengthen the democratic process and protect our police services and our communities.
Showing posts with label Public Sector Cuts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Public Sector Cuts. Show all posts
Wednesday, 16 January 2013
Tuesday, 18 September 2012
DEVOLUTION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Elfyn Llwyd MP, is spot on with his call for the devolution of the criminal justice system to Wales. David Cameron’s recent cabinet reshuffle amongst other things signals a marked move to the right with all that entails. What with the court closures programme, cuts in the number of Police Officers and Civilian Support Staff due to public sector budget cuts, Criminal Justice in Wales under the Con Dems will neither be safe, fair or robust until full responsibility for it lies in the hands of Welsh people.
Elfyn Llwyd MP, Plaid Cymru Parliamentary leader said:
"Plaid Cymru have always maintained that policing powers should lie in the hands of the Welsh government and the recent appointment of Chris Grayling as Justice Secretary reinforces this view.
“At least under his predecessor Ken Clarke, rehabilitation and reduction of prisoner numbers were given genuine focus.
“Now we are left with a Secretary who will speed up the privatisation of the prison estate and youth justice – a catastrophe waiting to happen, if the mess that surrounded G4S before the Olympics was anything to go by.
“However, in contrast to London’s regressive approach, the campaign to devolve justice powers to Wales is gathering momentum.
“In the last few months alone I have given evidence to the Welsh Government’s Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee inquiry into the establishment of a separate Welsh legal jurisdiction, and spoke on the same topic during a meeting of the Welsh Lawyers’ Association.
“A separate Welsh jurisdiction would have a distinct body of law supported by its own court structure and legal institutions. It would also include the devolved youth justice system – ridding us of unnecessary bureaucracy.
"Overall, devolving policing powers would increase the accountability of the Welsh government while strengthening the democratic process through allowing those who govern Wales to make the decisions which directly impact its people.”
Monday, 19 March 2012
TRUE TO THEIR ROOTS...
Despite the thin layer of ‘caring Conservatism’ and the ‘green wash’ Cameron’s Conservative Party and its government are true heirs to Thatcher, being as ideologically committed to ‘privatisation and dismantling the structures of the state government as she ever was. David Cameron’s Conservative Government is now considering private investment in England's road network . The PM in a speech today will amongst other things call for tolls for new roads as a way of attracting more money from pension funds and other investors for infrastructure investment and development.
Cameron has noted that more work is needed to relieve gridlock by widening "pinch points" and allowing traffic to use the hard shoulder on motorways. His call for an innovative approaches to finance road improvements, and road tolls are only one option. In plain english what we are talking about is the privatisation of the major highways. Cameron’s speech comes as a poll suggests that only 2% of people think he is living up to his "greenest government ever" pledge.
A YouGov poll commissioned by Greenpeace and the RSPB, suggests that the coalition has not persuaded people that it is living up to Mr Cameron's pledge to be the "greenest government ever". The opinion poll with a sample of more than 1,700 adults across the UK found shows that barely 2% of people asked (and incidentally no Lib Dem voters) thought that the government was meeting the promise, and only 4% believed current rules and regulations protecting the environment were too strong. A majority of people - 53% - believed its green credentials were about average, while 7% believed it was the least green government ever.
The news that Cameron’s government may also be planning to take over the liability for the Post Office pensions, potentially a first step to a further privatisation of the Post Office, along with Cameron’s NHS England reforms; may alarm some. It may also bring a comfortable warm glow to members of Labour in Wales who are more than happy for Cameron to push ahead with his privatisation agenda, so they can make hay by verbally opposing it.
Public sector regional pay variations may be just around the corner, something which could result in nurses, teachers, police officers and civil servants being paid less because they live and work in Wales. The real danger here is that this could damage the Welsh economy, it could bed in the already pretty rampant inequality that exists between Wales and the south-east of England. This is something that Mr’s T contemplated but never actually did, it should come as no real surprise though as ideologically the current government is being driven by David Cameron and George Osborne the masterminds of Michael Howard’s failed Westminster campaign in 2005.
This is perhaps part of some bizarre public manifestation of an ideological battle between the different but fundamentally economically interdependent sectors of the economy. As for trying to unravel the interlinked public and private sectors of the economy... let me know how that one goes. As for pitting private and public sector workers against each other – it is pretty pointless, as it is a game that no one can win. When it comes to supplying services to local government private sector employers (and their workers) may end up being the ones who bite the bullet as the full impact of public sector cuts roll on through
The problem with basing you positions and your decisions on and around ideology is that you tend to get trapped in the past. I have no doubt Labour in Wales will moan, groan and cry crocodile tears, the reality is that if New Labour was in power in Westminster they probably would have privatised the Post Office by now and be well on their way to expanding competition with the NHS in England (and probably Wales). I have little doubt that any changes would have been happily voted through by the Labour in Wales lobby fodder with scant if any thought on their part.
Cameron has noted that more work is needed to relieve gridlock by widening "pinch points" and allowing traffic to use the hard shoulder on motorways. His call for an innovative approaches to finance road improvements, and road tolls are only one option. In plain english what we are talking about is the privatisation of the major highways. Cameron’s speech comes as a poll suggests that only 2% of people think he is living up to his "greenest government ever" pledge.
A YouGov poll commissioned by Greenpeace and the RSPB, suggests that the coalition has not persuaded people that it is living up to Mr Cameron's pledge to be the "greenest government ever". The opinion poll with a sample of more than 1,700 adults across the UK found shows that barely 2% of people asked (and incidentally no Lib Dem voters) thought that the government was meeting the promise, and only 4% believed current rules and regulations protecting the environment were too strong. A majority of people - 53% - believed its green credentials were about average, while 7% believed it was the least green government ever.
The news that Cameron’s government may also be planning to take over the liability for the Post Office pensions, potentially a first step to a further privatisation of the Post Office, along with Cameron’s NHS England reforms; may alarm some. It may also bring a comfortable warm glow to members of Labour in Wales who are more than happy for Cameron to push ahead with his privatisation agenda, so they can make hay by verbally opposing it.
Public sector regional pay variations may be just around the corner, something which could result in nurses, teachers, police officers and civil servants being paid less because they live and work in Wales. The real danger here is that this could damage the Welsh economy, it could bed in the already pretty rampant inequality that exists between Wales and the south-east of England. This is something that Mr’s T contemplated but never actually did, it should come as no real surprise though as ideologically the current government is being driven by David Cameron and George Osborne the masterminds of Michael Howard’s failed Westminster campaign in 2005.
This is perhaps part of some bizarre public manifestation of an ideological battle between the different but fundamentally economically interdependent sectors of the economy. As for trying to unravel the interlinked public and private sectors of the economy... let me know how that one goes. As for pitting private and public sector workers against each other – it is pretty pointless, as it is a game that no one can win. When it comes to supplying services to local government private sector employers (and their workers) may end up being the ones who bite the bullet as the full impact of public sector cuts roll on through
The problem with basing you positions and your decisions on and around ideology is that you tend to get trapped in the past. I have no doubt Labour in Wales will moan, groan and cry crocodile tears, the reality is that if New Labour was in power in Westminster they probably would have privatised the Post Office by now and be well on their way to expanding competition with the NHS in England (and probably Wales). I have little doubt that any changes would have been happily voted through by the Labour in Wales lobby fodder with scant if any thought on their part.
Monday, 30 January 2012
A WAFER THIN BLUE LINE?
At the moment, despite Teresa May (who may actually turn out to be a worse Home Secretary that Michael Howard) there are some 136,000 officers spread across the 43 forces in England and Wales. These figures for the number of police officers in England and Wales record a fall of 6,000 over the past year, as public spending cuts have bitten deep. Interestingly enough if you want to play the numbers game this fall takes us back to where we were (in numbers at least) back in 2002.
The last New Labour government learning a lesson from Mrs Thatcher (that seems to have escaped the current Con Dem Government) spent more money and employed more Police Officers and Civilian Support Staff to make services better and to buy their acquiescence. The Tory right believes that New Labour only made them more inefficient and that what with the constraints on public sector spending they believe that new ways of policing need to be explored, and that cutting substantially the back office staffing will reduce paperwork and red tape.
This is a right wing fantasy that has little basis in reality, which shows how cut off from reality they are closeted away in their own little world. To this end, the Con Dem’s have decided that there will be elective police and crime commissioners. They justify this be suggesting its part of a value for money agenda that will protect front-line services. As for value for money, back in September 2011, the Westminster government postponed the elections for Police Commissioners from May to November of 2012.
Somewhat ironically this decision has pushed up the costs of the implementation process by around £25m to a total of £75m. The Westminster Home Affairs Committee was told last September that the £25m additional cost of staging the elections in November would not come out of the existing police budgets and the Home Office was in discussions with the Treasury about where the money would come from.
The Con Dem’s road to elected Police Commissioners in England (and Wales) which are being brought in as part of the Police and Social Responsibility Bill, has been a pretty rocky one. The plans were rejected once by the House of Lords (in May 2011), and rejected by the National Assembly (in Cardiff) who chose not to pass a Legislative Compliance Motion (LCM) , even the Association of Chief Police Officers have expressed their concerns.
As to what an elected Gwent Police Commissioner will be able to accomplish is pretty much open to question. Gwent Police are now engaged in some serious belt tightening as the force comes to terms with seriously reduced funding. Retaining Police Officers (on and off the beat) and civilian support staff has to be the bottom line.
Once you go down the path of cutting civilian support staff, which some may consider an easier and slightly more acceptable situation than reducing police numbers, there will be real consequences. A reduction in civilian support staff numbers will lead to a reduction in the availability of operational police officers, which will have consequences for all of us.
Policing, like everything else is driven by funding - this is the reality of modern (and old time) policing, our hard pressed Police Service (whether in Gwent, South Wales, Dyfed-Powys or North Wales) all need additional funding and an increase in the number of serving officers. On top of that our Police Officers actively need the active support of our communities, especially if we are seriously going to deal with crime and anti-social behaviour and to ensure proper Policing within our communities.
Lets be honest there is absolutely no reason why we should not be more creative when it comes to the ‘how are Communities are policed'. Certainly a more flexible approach to shift patterns to tackle periods when higher levels of criminal offences actually take place are higher is worth exploring and may pay dividends.
We need to actually respond to local communities concerns rather than those of Ministry of Justice's (formerly the Home Office) perceived priorities and targets. We need to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past when it comes to basing Policing strategies on core and periphery because the end result is that some of our communities will lose out when it comes to access to Police services and resources.
If we are really serious about reforming and reorganising our Police then we need to develop a coherent national community safety strategy with a clear approach to tackling crime and the fear of crime in our communities. And be prepared to ask and answer hard questions: do we want two tier Policing? Should Policing targets be generated by local Police officers and local communities?
And where are we going to find the money to do this because Policing is not cheap? At one level if we want to solve, curb or reduce crime in Wales, then it makes sense for the control of Policing as well as Justice and Prisons within Wales to be fully devolved to the National Assembly.
Oddly enough in Scotland where they already control their own Policing (and have done since 1945) we have not had any of this nonsense. Perhaps this is because the Scot's competently manage their own Police, I don't for a moment believe that we in Wales are less capable than the Scots or less of a nation than Scotland?
The last New Labour government learning a lesson from Mrs Thatcher (that seems to have escaped the current Con Dem Government) spent more money and employed more Police Officers and Civilian Support Staff to make services better and to buy their acquiescence. The Tory right believes that New Labour only made them more inefficient and that what with the constraints on public sector spending they believe that new ways of policing need to be explored, and that cutting substantially the back office staffing will reduce paperwork and red tape.
This is a right wing fantasy that has little basis in reality, which shows how cut off from reality they are closeted away in their own little world. To this end, the Con Dem’s have decided that there will be elective police and crime commissioners. They justify this be suggesting its part of a value for money agenda that will protect front-line services. As for value for money, back in September 2011, the Westminster government postponed the elections for Police Commissioners from May to November of 2012.
Somewhat ironically this decision has pushed up the costs of the implementation process by around £25m to a total of £75m. The Westminster Home Affairs Committee was told last September that the £25m additional cost of staging the elections in November would not come out of the existing police budgets and the Home Office was in discussions with the Treasury about where the money would come from.
The Con Dem’s road to elected Police Commissioners in England (and Wales) which are being brought in as part of the Police and Social Responsibility Bill, has been a pretty rocky one. The plans were rejected once by the House of Lords (in May 2011), and rejected by the National Assembly (in Cardiff) who chose not to pass a Legislative Compliance Motion (LCM) , even the Association of Chief Police Officers have expressed their concerns.
As to what an elected Gwent Police Commissioner will be able to accomplish is pretty much open to question. Gwent Police are now engaged in some serious belt tightening as the force comes to terms with seriously reduced funding. Retaining Police Officers (on and off the beat) and civilian support staff has to be the bottom line.
Once you go down the path of cutting civilian support staff, which some may consider an easier and slightly more acceptable situation than reducing police numbers, there will be real consequences. A reduction in civilian support staff numbers will lead to a reduction in the availability of operational police officers, which will have consequences for all of us.
Policing, like everything else is driven by funding - this is the reality of modern (and old time) policing, our hard pressed Police Service (whether in Gwent, South Wales, Dyfed-Powys or North Wales) all need additional funding and an increase in the number of serving officers. On top of that our Police Officers actively need the active support of our communities, especially if we are seriously going to deal with crime and anti-social behaviour and to ensure proper Policing within our communities.
Lets be honest there is absolutely no reason why we should not be more creative when it comes to the ‘how are Communities are policed'. Certainly a more flexible approach to shift patterns to tackle periods when higher levels of criminal offences actually take place are higher is worth exploring and may pay dividends.
We need to actually respond to local communities concerns rather than those of Ministry of Justice's (formerly the Home Office) perceived priorities and targets. We need to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past when it comes to basing Policing strategies on core and periphery because the end result is that some of our communities will lose out when it comes to access to Police services and resources.
If we are really serious about reforming and reorganising our Police then we need to develop a coherent national community safety strategy with a clear approach to tackling crime and the fear of crime in our communities. And be prepared to ask and answer hard questions: do we want two tier Policing? Should Policing targets be generated by local Police officers and local communities?
And where are we going to find the money to do this because Policing is not cheap? At one level if we want to solve, curb or reduce crime in Wales, then it makes sense for the control of Policing as well as Justice and Prisons within Wales to be fully devolved to the National Assembly.
Oddly enough in Scotland where they already control their own Policing (and have done since 1945) we have not had any of this nonsense. Perhaps this is because the Scot's competently manage their own Police, I don't for a moment believe that we in Wales are less capable than the Scots or less of a nation than Scotland?
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
SAVING NEWPORT'S PASSPORT OFFICE
The potential loss of Newport's passport office, which employs around 300 people, will have a big impact in and around Newport, where the public sector plays an important role in the local economy. The Passport Office is a significant employer and the potential loss of 300 jobs would have wider impact well beyond those who may lose their jobs - out in the wider business community across Newport. There is only one Passport Office in Wales and its loss will be keenly felt. Here in Wales we should not have to be reliant on making the potentially arduous trek to Liverpool or London to access passport services. It has been said that this decision is not set in stone, so there is room for manoeuvre - its definitely time to think again about where savings can be made. Save our Passport Office. Sign the Petition.
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