Fife Constabulary should have its highest ever number of officers in post when it meets the target set by the Scottish Government, The Courier understands.
Deputy Chief Constable Andrew Barker has told the region’s police, fire and safety committee Fife is expected to hit the benchmark of 1104 officers set by the SNP Government by the end of March but warned the force faces a significant challenge in weathering the impact of cuts to come over the next few years.
As part of this year’s local government finance settlement, ministers agreed to limit council funding cuts if authorities committed to maintaining police numbers.
The Scottish Government pledged to recruit 1000 more police officers during the lifetime of the parliament, and recently reached an agreement with Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) leaders to maintain police officer numbers during 2011-12 at 17,234 full-time equivalent posts.
Earlier this month, justice secretary Kenny MacAskill claimed the SNP had met its key pledge based on projected figures, although exact numbers on March 31 the date the SNP said they would deliver the pledge won’t be known until after May’s election.
Discussing financial matters at the police, fire and safety committee this week, Mr Barker confirmed Fife will have its greatest ever number of police officers next week and revealed the force’s projected revenue out-turn for 2010-11 is showing an underspend of just under £2.1 million, which will form a reserve to buffer the effects of the cuts faced in 2011-12.
However, with cuts likely for years to come, Mr Barker said the force would continue to exercise prudent management of its resources and police staff.’Squeeze everything’The effects of those efforts are already being felt, with a reduction of 42 police staff posts approved in February.
Despite that, Mr Barker confirmed the force was looking at reducing non-salary costs as far as possible so that the impact on staff over the coming years would be minimal.
He said, “We’ve been asking managers to squeeze everything before we have to go anywhere near staff.
“The amount we’ve managed to save is testament to managers and staff as we’ve been asking them to tighten their belts for some time.
“But everything we’re working toward is a fully-formulated costed plan that will reduce the effect on staff.”
Committee chairman George Kay said work to identify 2012-13 savings and beyond had already begun, with the 2011-12 financial year not even at an end yet.
He said, “It will pre-occupy most of my time to see how we can maintain the 1104 officers and have them doing what they should be doing while at the same time maintaining the fantastic performance we’ve seen in recent years while at the same time realising the financial constraints we have.”
As part of its attempts to find ways to reduce its costs, Fife Constabulary has been in talks with Tayside, Central Scotland and Lothian and Borders police forces to find exactly where resources can be shared between the forces although the significant savings expected are not likely to bear fruit until next year.