15/12/2014

Public Safety "At Risk" By Policing Cuts

Britain's most senior policeman has warned that public safety is "at risk" unless "radical measures" are taken to tackle funding cuts.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has called on police forces in England and Wales to merge and share resources with other emergency services. The Met Police commissioner added that the UK's police force was facing "years of austerity and shrinking budgets", whoever is in power.

Sir Hogan-Howe made the call in a piece he wrote for the Guardian newspaper.

The commissioner wrote that without fast action and courage, public safety would be put at risk by the ongoing cuts.

(MH/CD)

Related UK National News Stories
Click here for the latest headlines.

05 October 2006
Review launched following Israeli embassy police row
Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair has ordered an inquiry after a Muslim police officer was excused from guarding the Israeli embassy in London.
26 August 2014
Raiders Attack Police With Sledgehammer In Foiled Cash Machine Robbery
A police officer has been treated in hospital after being attacked with a sledgehammer. Police say that the 41-year-old officer was responding to a report of a cash machine robbery at a Tesco Express store in Sandwell.
21 June 2012
Senior Civil Servant Says Spending Cuts Could Last A Decade
Britain's most senior civil servant has warned that public spending cuts could last for up to a decade. Sir Jeremy Heywood, appointed as cabinet secretary by David Cameron last year, said the government was only a quarter of the way through its fiscal consolidation.
25 May 2010
Economy 'Needs Smaller Business Lessons'
Government departments could learn from smaller businesses when trying to manage shrinking budgets.
08 May 2003
FBU claim modernisation package will cost thousands of jobs
Government plans to remove national standards for emergency calls response times is paving the way for the biggest cuts ever seen in a public service, the FBU has claimed today.