Andrew Dismore

At today’s Mayor’s Question Time London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden Andrew Dismore AM questioned Mayor Sadiq Khan over the Government’s underfunding of the Metropolitan Police; and over the evaluation of the borough merger pilot in Camden and Islington. (Watch video here and here)

Mr Dismore said:

‘I am sure we all welcome the reports that the Government is finally considering giving police officers a much-deserved pay rise, though whether it is enough for our hard-working London Met officers is rather debateable to say the least.

 

‘The $64,000 question, though (and actually significantly rather more than that) is where is the money coming from to fund this: has the Government indicated that they will meet the cost of this pay rise, or will it have to come from the existing overstretched Met budget; and if so what will the impact be on the Met.’s overall finances?

 

‘How are negotiations on the new Police funding allocation formula which may be introduced for the 2018/19 progressing, bearing in mind that the Met stood to lose between £184m and £700m from its yearly budget under their previous version:  have there been any indications that the Government will drop this scheme; and if not what would the outcome be?

 

‘What would you say to those Conservative London MPs, like the three we have in Barnet, and especially the MP for Chipping Barnet, who says she doesn’t recognise the £400 million shortfall in Government funding, who consistently voted for central Government budgets that have led to this underfunding crisis in the Met, and who now challenges the police station closure in her constituency?

 

 

 

‘I have raised with you before, local concerns over the police borough merger pathfinder in Camden and Islington, including poor communty engagment, answering  101 calls, and most importantly worsened response times to emergency I and urgent S calls for help. You have rightly said that the roll out across the capital will not happen till the merger problems are sorted out; can you say when the evaluation  will now take place, and confirm it will be carried out on published and objective criteria?’

 

The Mayor responded that with inflation at 3%, a 2% increase this year and 1% next is hardly fair. The Government have not funded this, so it will come out of existing budgets, costing an extra £18 million. There is no point in the Government announcing an increase if there is no funding. Conservative and Lib Dem MPs have collective amnesia. They say the Police are wonderful, which they are, but year after year from 2010 they voted for only 1% pay rises and underfunding of the police. They wasted £140 million on an unnecessary election, which could have paid for police officers. It is too late for the funding formula change for next year, but they must reverse the cuts and ensure proper funding, or officer numbers will fall below 30,000.

 

The merger evaluation will be at the end of the year; it could have been earlier but for these problems and there have been improvements in some services. Response times are of concern, and that he would will to Mr Dismore with the criteria that is to be applied.