MPS to lose 3,500 staff as part of £500m savings plan

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) will be shedding 3,500 police staff jobs in an attempt to make savings of more than £500 million.

While 1,100 of the posts included are already vacant, the majority of the rest will be expected to be lost through voluntary redundancy.

A further 1,200 senior police officers positions (above sergeant) will be lost and replaced by 2,000 constables under the MPS’ budgetary plans. There are also plans to use regulation A19 to forcibly retire senior officers after 30 years of service.

These changes will, it is hoped, result in significant savings; around £90 million per annum from the lost police staff posts and a further £32 million from the unfilled vacant posts.

These changes will allow the MPS to recruit up to 2,000 police officers a year for the next three to five years while simultaneously reducing the number of ACPO ranks at the force by 25 per cent.
Changes in staffing will be supplemented by the sale of a number of buildings, including New Scotland Yard, to make £60 million in savings with a reorganisation of the MPS’ structure also mooted.

Craig Mackay, the deputy commissioner, said: “The new organisation will be built around the model of Safer Neighbourhood Policing but there will be a much smaller HQ.
“The corporate centre will be much smaller, not just in the number of people, but also in the number of functions.

“It is clear that in some areas of the MPS we have duplication and this is where we can make savings.”

Jenny Jones, deputy chair of the London Assembly’s police and crime committee, said: “I am concerned the plan to cut a quarter of the support staff in the Met is a panic measure to stay within the budget and will result in more police officers in backroom roles. Over one in four support staff are going to be sacked, and at what cost in redundancy payments, in order to achieve the mayor’s fabled target of wanting 32,000 police officers?”