20th August 2015

Police commissioner’s office denies claims it is taking funds away from frontline services

DORSET’S Police and Crime Commissioner has criticised claims that spending is being taken away from frontline services because of the introduction of commissioners.

The Dorset office has also denied that it is the least efficient in the country.

The Taxpayers’ Alliance says that more than a thousand extra police officers could be paid for with the £52million spent nationally by the offices of Police and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales.

It said that Dorset was one of the worst – spending £931,000 more in 2013-14 than the police authority was replaced.

But the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset said the figures were crude and were comparing “apples and pears”.

Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “Taxpayers were told that the new system of Police and Crime Commissioners wouldn’t cost them any more than the authorities they replaced, but this research suggests that’s not the case in many parts of the country.”

The alliance claims that the Dorset office costs of the PCC amount ed to £1.58million in 2013/14, compared to £651,000 in 2011/12 for the old police authority, a difference of £931,000, which it claims is the highest in the country when broken down as a percentage per 1,000 population.

A statement from the office of Dorset’s PCC Martyn Underhill said: “Specifically for Dorset, the offices of the PCC funds a number of additional services, such as victim services and the Restorative Justice programme, which in some other areas will appear in a force’s budget rather than the offices of the PCC.

“The actual cost of running the offices of the PCC for comparison is £870,000, which is no greater than the previous ‘more invisible’ police authority.”

There was also criticism of the four people the Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner is said to employ in “promotional activities”. In addition 11 other staff are on the payroll.

In the statement from the Dorset office of the Police and Crime Commissioner it said that the four were employed in “communications and engagement roles, delivering a lot more than the ‘promotional’ activity suggested by the TPA”.

Police commissioner’s office denies claims it is taking funds away from frontline services

Comments

Add new comment