Debate contribution: PSNI: Pressure due to Health System Failings
Debate contribution by Mr Keith Buchanan on .
- MLA
- Mr Keith Buchanan
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 1 December 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- PSNI: Pressure due to Health System Failings
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5269407
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Thank you. For the record, Mr Deputy Speaker, I declare that I am a member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board. We welcome the motion tabled by the Alliance Party. Nobody disputes that the issues that it raises are serious, unacceptable and must be addressed. Police officers are under immense pressure, and the public rightly expect us to act. Our amendment adds to the motion. It makes some small tweaks to add to it, but it does not take away from its importance or the motion more broadly. Underfunding has reduced our police service's capability in recent years. The public rightly expect their police service to focus on keeping communities safe, preventing crime and responding swiftly when danger arises. Yet, through no fault of their own, officers are being diverted into roles that they are neither trained for nor resourced to carry out. Every day, police officers are deployed to around 100 concern for safety calls. That is not the most appropriate use of policing resources. It is neither safe nor sustainable. The statistics provided by the PSNI are staggering. Officers spend an average of 14 hours in A&E waiting with individuals who require a mental health assessment. That is time taken off our streets when neighbourhood policing numbers are already critically low. Since 2010, spending on public safety has risen by just 8%, while the Health budget has increased by 88%. In that same period, the PSNI budget has fallen below £900 million. Our officers are being asked to do more than ever before, with fewer resources than ever before. In March 2024, the Chief Constable, Jon Boutcher, put it plainly when he said:
"we are becoming the support function for health. ... perhaps if we changed the name to the Police and Health Service of Northern Ireland, we might get some wider budgets."
It is unacceptable. During a briefing to the Policing Board, it was noted that the PSNI responded to around 500 ambulance calls when the Ambulance Service could not attend. In just three months, officers spent over 4,500 hours in hospitals supporting people in mental health crises. They dealt with more than 21,000 mental health-related calls. The PSNI is not only keeping our community safe, but it is increasingly acting as a substitute health service. That is not its role. Without proper funding, the PSNI will face impossible choices about what it can and cannot do. That means slower response times, fewer officers on the ground and communities left vulnerable. Policing is not optional; it is fundamental. If we continue to underfund the PSNI, we risk breaking the backbone of public safety in Northern Ireland. There must be a review of the PSNI budget. We must provide the resources that our officers need, and we debated that in the House last week. We must ensure that the police service remains a police service and not a stretched substitute for the health service. While I recognise that the Department of Justice and the Department of Health have acknowledged the overlap in responsibilities, acknowledgement is not enough. The Minister of Health and the Minister of Justice must move beyond discussion and deliver a properly resourced system in which health professionals lead in a health crisis and police officers can focus on keeping our communities safe. The crisis in mental health in Northern Ireland is deeply worrying. Rates of ill health continue to rise year-on-year, and mental health services are becoming ever more stretched. It is regrettable that Northern Ireland spends less per head on mental health services than the rest of the United Kingdom, despite its having some of the highest rates of mental health cases in the UK. It is imperative that the Health Minister works to prioritise funding for those vital services. Expediting a new regional mental health service would also support a more consistent approach to care across Northern Ireland. The Health Minister should continue to progress the mental health strategy. Progress has been made on a number of actions, but there is still more to do. As cases rise and services stall, the strategy needs to be accelerated. Let us be clear: as a party, we will support any measures that improve treatment and support for people who are experiencing mental health challenges. It is incumbent on us all to continue to press the Government for more funding so that we can tackle those serious issues.
Without decisive intervention from both Ministers, public safety will suffer, and vulnerable people will not receive the specialist care that they deserve.
754 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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