Home Office Publishes Merger `Steer`

The Home Office has written to all forces with its preferred options for restructuring, with potentially just 12 forces in England and Wales.

Following the HMIC report into ‘protective services’, police forces have until December 23 to provide financial costings on potential mergers to create forces better equipped to deal with major investigations, serious and organised crime and other areas, said by the report, to be performed better by larger forces.

The government has given forces a ‘steer’ in which options it prefers which generally include one large regional force or a combination. However, forces in Wales have only been given one option which is one large force for the whole country. The North-East have also only been given one choice, one force covering Northumbria, Cleveland and Durham. The options the Home Office have given are:

North East – One force for the region, merging Northumbria, Durham and Cleveland.

North West – 2 options, either;

• two forces – one for Lancashire, Cumbria and Merseyside and another for Cheshire and Greater Manchester Police or

• three forces – one for Lancashire and Cumbria, another for Cheshire and Merseyside, and a separate Greater Manchester force

Yorkshire and Humberside – 2 options, either;

• a single regional force or

• two strategic forces – one for West Yorkshire and North Yorkshire; another

South Yorkshire and Humberside.

West Midlands – 2 options, either;

• one West Midlands force or

• two forces – Staffordshire and West Mercia; plus Warwickshire and West Midlands

East Midlands – 2 options, either;

• one regional force or

• two forces, one covering Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and another for Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire.

Eastern – 2 options, either;

• one Eastern force or

• two forces, in one of two different combinations: Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex plus Suffolk, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, or Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex plus Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

London – No change proposed. However reviews are continuing into the future of the City of London and British Transport Police.

South East – 5 options including:

• Two strategic forces – Kent, Surrey and Sussex plus Thames Valley and Hampshire

• Three forces – one for Kent alone, another for Thames Valley and a third for Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire.

• Three strategic forces – Kent, Surrey and Sussex; Thames Valley as a standalone force; plus Hampshire as a standalone force

• Three strategic forces – Kent and Sussex; Thames Valley as a standalone force; plus Hampshire and Surrey

• Four strategic forces – Kent as a standalone strategic force; Thames Valley as a standalone strategic force; Surrey and Sussex; and Hampshire as a standalone strategic force

South West – 2 options, either;

• one regional force or

• two forces comprising Devon and Cornwall as a standalone force, alongside one covering Avon and Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Dorset

Wales – A national Welsh force merging North Wales, Dyfed-Powys, Gwent and South Wales