Debate contribution: Policing Resources

Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on 9 September 2024.

MLA

Mrs Naomi Long

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

9 September 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Policing Resources

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4511746

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. I am grateful to be able to address these issues in the House today. As other Members have mentioned, it is Emergency Services Day, or 999 Day as it is, perhaps, better known. I begin by paying tribute to every officer and member of staff who works for the PSNI. From first responders, administrative staff, cleaners and call handlers, each person is playing a role in helping to keep our community safe. Policing is a difficult and challenging job. We rely on the PSNI to protect us from harm 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and they do so at considerable cost to themselves. It is, therefore, truly appalling that police officers, whose job it is to keep people safe, come under attack from rioters who are intent on inciting hatred and terrifying communities. Those people offer nothing to our community, and I condemn their actions unequivocally and am disappointed that not all Members would do so in the terms that I set out. I take this opportunity to place on record my thanks for their bravery and resilience to those officers who were involved in policing the riots and disorder. A total of 40 police officers were injured as a direct result of that disorder, some quite seriously, and I wish each of them a speedy recovery. It can never be acceptable that the police are subject to such violence, and we cannot become desensitised to its impact on individual officers and their families, on morale in the service and on the delivery of policing in our community. I also pay tribute to the Chief Constable for his strong leadership during that period and to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS), the judiciary and the courts for their strong response. Members may be aware of the fact that the additional unfunded costs that were incurred for policing the riots and disorder are in the region of £2·75 million and are in excess of requirements for normal policing operations. Given the level of pressures facing the PSNI and the Department of Justice, those costs are not affordable from within existing budgets. Similarly, the level of financial pressures at block level mean that the Executive are not in a position to provide the funding that is necessary to meet those additional costs. It was, therefore, agreed at an Executive meeting in August that the First Minister and deputy First Minister, the Minister of Finance and I are going to write jointly to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland seeking the additional funding to cover the PSNI's costs. That letter is now with TEO and DOF colleagues for clearance. The fundamental issue at the core of the motion is the chronic and long-term underfunding of the justice system. I have been consistent in raising that since first becoming Justice Minister in 2022, following on from previous Justice Ministers, including David Ford, who raised it as early as 2014. As a result of that underfunding, the PSNI is under-resourced and officers and staff are under extraordinary pressure due to falling numbers. While that pressure is significant even when things are calm, it is compounded when there is unrest such as that which we witnessed over recent weeks, especially when that unrest is dispersed across Northern Ireland. Those levels of pressure on policing are unacceptable, and I welcome the work that the Chief Constable, the Policing Board and my officials did to manage the challenge and address stabilisation — a project that we have been engaged in consistently since my return to office. The motion asks that I, as Justice Minister:

"recommit to reversing the decline in police funding and police officer numbers".

It is a matter of record that I have consistently and robustly raised the underfunding of the entire justice system relative to other Departments with Executive colleagues, successive Secretaries of State and Prime Ministers and in the media. I trust that, given the motion and the various amendments, I can now rely on all parties to commit to properly resourcing policing and justice, because that has simply not been the case to date. While the total Northern Ireland block grant has increased by 52% in the 13 years up to 2024-25, DOJ has seen only a 13% growth in budget allocation. Health and Education have seen their budget allocations grow by just over 80% and 50% respectively over the same period. In real terms, the Department of Justice's 2024-25 budget is around £326 million below where it would be if it had simply kept pace with inflation. I give credit to my officials, who are being dragged through the mud here today. Had we had that purely inflationary uplift, we would, because of their prudent management of the finances, be within budget every year because we have no overspend, taking in even extraordinary expense. The position that the PSNI and the wider justice system are now in is a direct result of budgets being continually squeezed over many years and disproportionately when compared with other Departments. Put simply, neither I nor the Chief Constable can spend money that we do not have. Similarly for the Executive: more money for other Department inevitably means less for policing and justice. That is just simple mathematics.

Northern Ireland has failed to keep pace with investment in policing and justice in comparison with elsewhere in the UK. The situation that the PSNI finds itself in is a direct consequence of that. I have also raised the need for more investment with the Secretary of State and Prime Minister on a number of occasions, and I will continue to do so not only for Northern Ireland in general but specifically for policing and justice, where, I believe, there is an inherent structural weakness at this point. The Finance Minister, in her engagement with Treasury, has been clear and robust in highlighting the need for further investment in public services across Northern Ireland, and she continues to advocate on behalf of the Executive for the proper funding of our public services. I will support her in her efforts to address that historical imbalance in funding for justice and policing, and I will support the First Minister and deputy First Minister in their endeavours to raise those issues. That we speak with one voice is perhaps the most important thing if we are to have any impact whatever when we deal with Treasury and the Government. I want to be clear that it is not the case that we are choosing not to allocate additional funding to policing. That funding simply does not exist. In the recent urgent in-year financial exercise, my Department reported total pressures of £275 million to the Department of Finance. That included £45 million for day-to-day stabilisation pressures; £2·75 million for additional unfunded policing costs following recent disorder; and £227 million for exceptional pressures relating to the PSNI data breach, holiday pay and McCloud injury to feelings. Every effort has been made and continues to be made by my Department to reduce the level of those pressures, but that has not been achieved without adversely impacting on the justice system. In the absence of additional funding being allocated to my Department in the October monitoring round, extremely difficult decisions on prioritisation and service provision will continue to be required to manage the remaining pressures. Any further actions taken by my Department to live within its budget, if implemented, will inevitably result in a slowing-down of the justice system, including the work of my Department on developing new policy and legislation, and that will compromise our ability to preserve life, protect the public and keep people safe. People need to understand that these are literally matters of life and death. This is not an academic exercise. The number of police officers that we have, the amount of time that we can commit to the justice system and the amount of money and resource that we have need to be taken seriously, if people are genuinely concerned about the state of policing and justice. I fully appreciate the current resourcing pressures faced by the Chief Constable. Police numbers are now at a record low, and that is compounded by high levels of absenteeism that are often due to sickness, stress, injury, long working hours and heavy overtime and can be accompanied by significant numbers of officers on reduced duties. When I was previously Minister, we worked with the Chief Constable and encouraged him to consider recruiting again in 2022. He chose not to do so, as is his choice. We are now in a situation where we need to engage in that recovery process. One of the priorities in 'New Decade, New Approach' was to increase officer numbers to 7,500, but no additional funding was provided to enable us to realise the whole figure. Indeed, we gained some additional funding, which got us to 7,100 officers, but, because it was not baselined, that immediately fell away after that number had been achieved. It is not that efforts have not been made; it is that they have not been sustained. The figure of 7,500 officers is not a new one. It was noted as far back as the Patten review of policing in 1999, though I caution people because we have to remember that there have been changes in operations in the PSNI. Every officer, as part of a transformation process, has been given a handheld digital device so that they do not have to spend time going back to PSNI headquarters. All sorts of transformation has gone on, and that should put us in a position where the same number of officers can achieve more. There is also an issue with the upward trend in population that needs to be held against that, so we need to bottom out what the actual figures are. However, it is an academic exercise at this point, because we are so low now that to get anywhere near a figure that would not be controversial will take us at least this mandate. The Chief Constable and I have agreed to put a pin in what the ideal figure should be, work on that in conjunction with officials to bottom that out but focus on how we build recovery into the system right now. To put it into perspective, as of September 2024, the current service headcount is 6,355 police officers. Police officer numbers are historically low, and, without additional funding, it will not be possible for the PSNI to recover and grow as, I hope, all of us in the House would wish. My officials continue to work closely and constructively with the Chief Constable and his team to build a robust case for the funding required to stabilise policing in the immediate term and to develop a compelling business case to increase police numbers over the next three years. Once that work has been completed, I will make the case to the Executive for additional funding for that purpose, but it will be the Executive who decide whether that business case is funded. It would require a change in legislation and a significant change in practice were we simply to accept the ring-fenced funding, as some suggest, and hypothecation directly from Westminster, because it would entirely tie our hands, make us prioritise exactly the issues prioritised by the Westminster Government and leave us no margin of appreciation in our own decision-making. Decisions on funding allocations are made by the Executive, and I gently remind the UUP and the DUP that they are both members of that Executive. The DUP, in particular, has considerable influence over decisions that are made in the Executive: use that influence where it matters. While we are working closely with the Chief Constable to stabilise and grow officer numbers, I am acutely aware of the necessity of providing an appropriate pay settlement for serving police officers. I am actively considering the recommendations of the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB). I am on record as saying that it is my desire to implement the recommendations in full, and we are focused on making that case as strongly as possible to the Department of Finance. However, I have recognised that the incremental pay award for police officers is contractual and therefore an inescapable pressure, and, on my return to office this year, I instructed officials to proceed on that basis rather than await the consolidated pay award decision. That means that officers will have that money in their pocket. There is ongoing collaborative work between DOJ officials and PSNI colleagues on the pay remit documentation to secure approval of the incremental element that was commissioned on 31 July. I am pleased to confirm to the House that that was approved on Friday. The PSNI was advised and, hopefully, can now get that money into people's pockets. The accounting officer letter, of course, has drawn some attention. It is regrettable and disappointing that private correspondence continues to be sensationalised, distracting from the constructive working relationships. Interestingly, it had the same cc list as the Chief Constable's letter, but that did not trigger a round of debate and a media circus around how desperate the police were for numbers. It is only when there is criticism of the Department that anybody in the Chamber seems to wake up to the fact that there is a problem. The permanent secretary in any Department is the principal accounting officer for that Department. The role carries with it responsibility for ensuring the regularity and propriety of departmental expenditure, for promoting value for money and for ensuring that there are robust systems of corporate governance and financial control in the Department, including living within budgetary controls set by the Assembly. Under devolution, it is for the Assembly and the Executive to make those decisions. Money from the block grant is unhypothecated, and we need to be aware of that. My Department's role in distributing its budget is to allocate the PSNI budget, having regard to its request for resources and the overall financial envelope allocated. Outside routine budget-setting, monitoring and allocation processes, we are commissioning and supporting the development of bids in response to opportunities for additional funding as and when they arise, including for the security element of funding. As a locally elected representative, I am committed and determined to deliver better outcomes for the people whom I serve and the community in which we all live. As Justice Minister, I have ensured that the vital work of policing and justice has been properly reflected in the Programme for Government, and I am making progress on the revised environmental allowance, police pay and police numbers by working closely with the Chief Constable, his staff and the board. However, I cannot deliver that in isolation. It is not about pitting the PSNI against the Department, the Department against the Executive or even the Executive against Westminster. It is in our collective interests that we have a stable, sustainable and effective Police Service. My focus, as Minister, is on ensuring that we all continue to work together effectively to deliver that for our community. Policing in Northern Ireland has my full support. I will continue to work with the Chief Constable, the Policing Board and my Executive colleagues to ensure that the PSNI is adequately resourced for the challenges that it faces. I look forward to Members who have taken such an interest at this time continuing to support that work in future.

2,594 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:58 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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