Police staff cuts spark warning of huge rise in overtime bills

The region’s constabularies are already spending millions to plug gaps in the service, with officers having received up to £35,000 a year in overtime payments alone.

But rank-and-file police fear reductions to the workforce, driven by deep Government cuts, will result in them having to work more hours to tackle crime.

And one of the region’s most senior officers, Humberside Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Donald, has suggested red tape, and a lack of available solicitors and doctors, can sometimes force staff to work longer than they should.

Three of Yorkshire’s forces have spent at least £102m in total on overtime pay for officers and civilian staff since 2008.

The sum includes £34,675 given to a West Yorkshire officer for their work on a counter-terrorism operation in 2008-09.

At least 18 other officers have received payments in excess of £20,000 in a single year, according to the statistics supplied by the West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Humberside forces.

Civilians have also received large sums. A staff member in West Yorkshire’s estates department collected £15,450 in 2008-09 – one of at least 21 five-figure payments made by the three constabularies.

North Yorkshire Police has yet to respond to a Yorkshire Post freedom of information request, submitted last December.

Overtime costs have fallen steadily since 2009 but West Yorkshire Police Federation chairman Andrew Tempest-Mitchell said he expected them to rise again at his force, which has shed 1,000 staff since June 2010.

“Overtime is much cheaper than employing more officers but, as a staff association, we do not support an excessive hours culture,” he said.

“Officers in some departments are not getting regular days off and it leads to an erosion of the work-life balance that they need.”

Chief constables say overtime budgets are essential to cover major public order operations, such as riots, or complex investigations. But as the Government has imposed 20 per cent cuts on police budgets over four years, forces have been told to curb the amount they spend.

Overtime for constables and sergeants is normally paid at time and a third, but rates can increase to time and a half on rest days and double time on bank holidays.

Civilians generally receive a time-and-a-half pay rate, rising to double time on Sundays and bank holidays.

Forces can claw back some of the money – by charging football clubs for policing matches, for example.

Mr Donald said Humberside Police was trying to cut overtime by using volunteers as much as possible for “non-critical policing”.

“Overtime is an essential part of front-line policing and often out of our control,” he added. “We are frustrated at times by existing regulations, the availability of solicitors, medical practitioners and others which do make it difficult and at times impossible to reduce additional, unplanned spending.”

But Philip Goldberg, a partner at Leeds law firm Lester Morrill, denied solicitors were to blame for delays. “We have to advise our clients properly and thoroughly and how long that takes depends on the facts. My experience is we are waiting for police officers as opposed to the other way around.”

Simon Reevell, the Tory MP for Dewsbury and a criminal barrister, said: “After they have arrested somebody and if there are questions over that person’s fitness to be interviewed, police officers have to wait for doctors to come.

“That has to be the system unless you allow for a doctor to be based in every police station 24 hours a day, which would be too expensive.

“On solicitors, it is the police officer who chooses the stage at which a suspect is interviewed so it is difficult to see, if that is organised properly, why there should be any particular delay.

“I cannot imagine that the availability of lawyers or doctors really contributes significantly to the overtime bill.”

Edward Boyd, research fellow at the think-tank Policy Exchange, said officers doubling their take-home pay were “more likely a result of poor management than any legitimate use of overtime payments”.

Bob Dyson, Temporary Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police, said it was reducing its spending to help meet budget cuts of £45m over four years, but overtime was a “legitimate and effective way” of responding quickly to incidents.

West Yorkshire Deputy Chief Constable David Crompton said his force aimed at cutting overtime by 15 per cent by 2014.