Port of Tilbury-Police Constable

[Fedster + 1,307]

Former Met commissioner says money which could prevent some cuts is already available within the service.

Lord Hogan-Howe on Question Time. Picture: BBC

 

Apprenticeships and the police transformation fund could be scrapped to free up investment into the frontline.

Former Met commissioner Lord Bernard Hogan-Howe suggested the two flagship schemes could be done away with to fund investment into regular policing.

Asked about rising crime on BBC’s Question Time, the non-party political peer said: “It seems a bit odd that when the NHS has more demand we spend £8 billion on it, when we have more crime we spend less on the police.

“Government doesn’t even have to spend more money from anywhere else: there’s about £350 million sat in a transformation fund, there’s about one per cent going out of the police in terms of apprentice funds, they can’t get anything back because they’re not recruiting.

“These are very clear opportunities to spend about half a billion on what in this city alone and in other cities around the country needs to have money spent on it.”

The police transformation fund gives top-sliced cash to specific projects.

These have included things such as funding for regional crime units, the armed policing uplift, and the Police Now recruitment scheme.

Police Now was developed at the Met during Lord Hogan-Howe’s tenure.

Policing apprenticeships form part of the College of Policing’s education framework and are due to become the only non-degree based route into the service. Welsh forces have no way to access the funds which are taken from their budgets, but many in England are preparing to take on recruits via the method.

Last week Nottinghamshire Police began promoting its apprenticeship scheme, which Police Oracle first reported on in March. PCC Paddy Tipping said: “I think it’s good for the apprentices to gain hands-on experience while they study for the qualifications they will need to become a police officer. 

“Young people in particular will also be pleased to know that they will receive a good wage which in effect means that they will earn while they learn.”

View On Police Oracle