"Home Office Must Fund REAL Cost of Police Merger" - Öpik

12.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 19th May 2006

"I've written to John Reid to get his latest estimate on the real cost of the police merger and how it is going to be paid for."

The Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, Lembit Öpik, said today that if the Home Office insisted on the merger of the Welsh Police they must fund the REAL cost of the process.

Lembit, MP for Montgomeryshire said:

"Labour are promising that the Home Office will pay the full costs of the merger, but the Home Office still hasn't given us a realistic estimate of how much it will cost!

"The most senior police officers in Wales told us this week that current Government plans would leave Welsh policing with a £79 million shortfall every year by 2012! That works out as £71 per band D household in Wales.

"How can the Home office embark on the most fundamental police reforms we've seen for decades without working out the TRUE costs first?

"It's crass incompetence which could leave Welsh taxpayers paying more money for a worse service.

"The irony is that if the cost of merging was spent on extra officers it would have more effect on crime and clear-up rates than any merger possibly could. It seems that former Home Office ministers were so wedded to the merger they couldn't what a terrible idea it is.

"I've written to John Reid to get his latest estimate on the real cost of the police merger and how it is going to be paid for."

ENDS

Notes

Wales' four chief constables gave evidence to the Assembly's Social Justice Committee on Wednesday. Their latest calculations show that by 2012, the annual deficit of a single police force would reach £79m.