Dyfed-Powys Police avoids escapes worst of budget cuts

New figures released by Labour show that police forces across England and Wales have experienced cuts totalling £413 million in their main grants from central government.

However only two of the 43 forces avoided grant cuts, Dyfed-Powys and North Wales.

The axe has fallen the hardest on South Wales, with a 5.7 per cent reduction, and 5.4 per cent in Gwent.

But the Home Office said the police system as a whole had received a budget increase of more than £475 million from taxpayers since 2015, when additional money provided through sources such as special grants and the Police Transformation Fund as well as receipts from council tax are taken into account.

Labour policing spokeswoman Louise Haigh said ministers had been "caught red-handed", after promises to protect police funding.

Analysis by the House of Commons Library showed the total police grant settlement to forces fell from £7,452,541,075 in 2015/16 to £7,324,892,843 in 2017/18 - a cut of almost £128 million, 1.7 per cent, in cash terms.

When inflation is taken into account, the researchers found the real value of the cut was £413 million, or 5.4 per cent of the total grant.

The figure excludes special payments to the Metropolitan and City of London forces.

Labour said the figures contradicted the claim of Home Secretary Amber Rudd to a parliamentary committee last month, when she said: "The funding provided to individual police forces, we have protected it from 2015 to 2020."

"Ministers have been caught red-handed," said Ms Haigh.

"They claimed to have protected police spending, but in reality forces across the country have lost out.

"These reckless cuts are a threat to public safety. It's time the Tories kept the promise they made to the police."

A Home Office spokesman said: "In 2017, taxpayers invest £11.9 billion in our police system, an increase of more than £475 million from 2015, and this Government has protected overall police spending in real terms since the 2015 Spending Review.

"However, we recognise that demand on the police is changing, and we are very sensitive to the pressure they are under. That is why we are reviewing demand and resilience, as well as police plans for greater efficiency and prudent use of over £1.6 billion of financial reserves.

"As part of this process we are speaking to chief constables, police and crime commissioners and frontline officers from across the country."