Challenging times

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) was created to implement the Good Friday Agreement’s vision of impartial, representative and rights-based policing.

A successor to the often controversial Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), it followed the recommendations of the review by the Independent Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland, chaired by former Conservative cabinet minister Lord (Chris) Patten.

As policing and justice were not devolved to the new Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive until 2010, the new arrangements were implemented by UK ministers in the Northern Ireland Office.

The Good Friday Agreement had noted the need for “a new beginning to policing in Northern Ireland with a police service capable of attracting and sustaining support from the community as a whole”.

Examining why the composition of the service was such a big issue, the Institute for Government, the UK’s leading independent think-tank, said one of the reasons for the lack of confidence of the Catholic/nationalist community in the RUC was that it was overwhelmingly dominated by Protestants. In 1999 Patten noted that fewer than one in ten RUC officers were Catholic (8.3 per cent).

“Many in the Catholic/Nationalist/Republican community regarded the RUC as at best sectarian, and at worst complicit in illegitimate actions against their community. Many in the Protestant/ Unionist/Loyalist community object strenuously to that interpretation of the past,” said the think-tank.

Patten therefore established a rule to try to redress the imbalance. Qualified candidates would be placed in a pool and recruitment would then follow a 50:50 pattern until such time as around 30 per cent of the force were Catholic. Those special measures were lifted in 2011.

Although recruitment drives have drawn thousands of applicants (including a campaign that recently yielded more than 4,000 applicants), representative diversity appears to have stalled. The percentage of officers from a Catholic background has plateaued at around 30 per cent since the 50:50 recruitment policy ended in 2011, and experts warn it could fall further over the next decade.

Under the leadership of Chief Constable Jon Boutcher, the PSNI has sounded the alarm over chronic underfunding. A major House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee report highlighted that legacy investigations and a lack of dedicated funding continue to severely drain operational resources.

It said more needs to be done to ensure funding is adequate for the unique policing and security challenges in Northern Ireland.

The report that also calls for action on the PSNI’s officer numbers and representation.

The recommendations from the cross-party Northern Ireland Affairs Committee come after an inquiry set up to examine how policing and the security environment has evolved since the PSNI’s establishment 25 years ago, following the recommendation of the Patten Commission.

The committee acknowledges the progress made by the UK Government, Northern Ireland Executive and the PSNI in securing increased support and confidence in policing across communities but concludes that there is still more to do on funding, security and recruitment.

The report says that legacy investigations and legal action unique to Northern Ireland continue to be a drain on policing resources and highlights how the PSNI has faced a real-terms budget cut since 2011.

The committee repeats its recommendation from its previous report on addressing the legacy of the past in Northern Ireland for the UK Government to provide a dedicated, ring-fenced funding stream to meet legacy costs.

On PSNI recruitment, the report calls for an independent comprehensive analysis to determine the most appropriate level of officer and staff numbers. While commending the PSNI for the strides it has made in becoming a more representative police service since its formation in 2001, the committee warns that progress has stalled.

With projections indicating a likely decline in the number of officers from a Catholic background, and with individuals from ethnic minority and working-class backgrounds remaining under-represented, the report calls for the PSNI to act. It should consider setting up a cadet-style scheme and researching barriers to applications to the service from under-represented groups, the report says.

Finally, with the threat from Northern Ireland-related terrorism and paramilitary activity persisting, the committee calls on the UK Government to explain why Northern Ireland is not able to access the counter-terrorism funding stream provide to forces in England and Wales.

Tonia Antoniazzi MP, chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, said: “Over the last 25 years the PSNI has played a pivotal role in supporting the transition from the Troubles to peace and stability in Northern Ireland, but there is still more to do to ensure the service is fit for today’s challenges and representative of the people it protects and serves across all communities.

“The UK Government needs to recognise the drain on the PSNI’s already stretched budget and impact on day-to-day policing of the service’s involvement in legacy investigations and provide a specific pot of funding.

“There also must be much more transparency about how security funding is allocated. Whilst the security situation has improved significantly, as recent attacks show, the threat from paramilitaries and Northern Ireland-related terrorism remains.

“For the PSNI to be truly effective, it needs to be representative of the people that it serves. Progress recruiting from across communities has largely stalled and the PSNI needs to redouble its efforts to increase numbers from underrepresented groups, particularly Catholic staff and officers.”

The report follows written and oral evidence by the PSNI’s chief constable and Assistant Chief Constable Davy Beck to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee as part of its evidence-gathering.

Key milestones and reforms

2001: PSNI officially replaces the RUC, radically changing the culture, symbols, and recruitment structure of policing in Northern Ireland.

2011: The 50:50 recruitment quota (designed to rapidly boost Catholic representation) is officially ended after dramatically increasing the number of Catholic officers.

2025/26: Launch of the new Northern Ireland Policing Plan, which focuses on a victim-first approach, building community confidence, and developing a valued workforce.

PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher

“As we approach the 25th anniversary of the PSNI, I believe this inquiry is an incredibly welcome report from a respected committee that provides yet another opportunity to take stock of the perilous financial situation the PSNI has been placed in.

“Everyone in Northern Ireland and indeed beyond our borders should be concerned about the way police funding has failed to keep pace with other public services. This is a report that was to highlight how far the PSNIhas come in 25 years, and examine the work that still needs to be done. It is dominated by the lack of financial support for policing and this cannot continue. The dire financial situation which PSNI continues to face is widely recognised and acknowledged in numerous reports such as this. There has to be a watershed moment and I hope this report proves to be that moment. We need decisive action to ensure there is a plan to properly finance the PSNI for the longer term.

“I am enormously grateful that the committee recognises, and has taken this opportunity to highlight, our critically dangerous budgetary pressures and the impact of this unacceptably low funding has had on our officers and ultimately upon our service delivery. It is our outstanding workforce that has kept the ship afloat but this cannot be expected to continue.

“Despite some recent welcome indications of political funding support the PSNI remains structurally underfunded and in a precarious and unworkable financial situation. Two months into the new financial year we still don’t have an agreed budget and are staring down the barrel of projected shortfalls of roughly £57 million, £92 million and £149 million over the next three years.

“I must particularly make comment about the absolute lack of any recognition for the enduring and increasing legacy costs placed upon the PSNI. Legacy alone costs policing £24million each year and that is merely to sustain legal cases and the ongoing demands of various inquiries.

“There has been no proper planning or forecasting of legacy costs on the PSNI. Indeed the opposite is the case; when I suggest such discussions about legacy funding I get pushed from pillar to post with no political responsibility being taken to support the organisation in dealing with these increasing costs. This not only impacts directly on the trust and confidence in the PSNI but is a continuing theme of victims being let down.

“Legacy costs have to be paid from our core/everyday policing budget that is provided for Neighbourhood officers needed to tackle anti-social behaviour and keeping communities safe, for those Response officers who come to people’s aid when immediate help is needed from 999 calls, and for detectives to deal with violence against women and girls, and those criminal gangs who threaten and exploit the vulnerable in our society including our children. Money that should be spent on policing today is being spent on the past. This has to stop. We cannot continue to provide money for legacy, when it should be spent on policing and keeping Northern Ireland safe today.

“I am, of course, especially aware of the responsibility policing has towards the victims of legacy. We cannot continue to fail them because we are not funded to deal with these issues.

“I am very concerned about the Government’s one dimensional approach to the Legacy Commission, as the be all and end all of legacy. Without the PSNI being funded to service the demands of this expanding legacy body, the entire project will fail.

“The requirements of the proposed Schedule 4 of the Troubles Bill are entirely unworkable. It is not for the PSNI to categorise documents from a security perspective or determine if those documents are prejudicial.

“All of the legacy records the PSNI hold should be directly accessible to the Legacy Commission in an unfettered and uninterrupted way.  The direction of travel will cause the entire process to collapse. A programme of work should be funded to digitise these records and for their direct access to be facilitated to the Commission. It is not for the PSNI to work out what each document represents. Such an approach would galvanise trust and confidence of victims and reduce the huge and unworkable demands the draft Bill places on the PSNI.

“As for recruitment challenges, we are working to build a Police Service which is representative of all communities in Northern Ireland.

“Moving through this anniversary year, we must have a debate about barriers to joining policing and explore how to collectively increase the number of applicants from all of those groups currently under represented in the PSNI.  We in the PSNI need to do more, I have readily acknowledged that, and we are introducing various measures to seek to attract more recruit applications from across all communities.

“Many people will have watched Peelers – The PSNI for Real, and that is just one example of showing the real people behind the uniform. We hope the next series will be released later this year and will be a recruiting tool along with other activities to attract people from across communities to join this brilliant organisation. But we cannot do this alone. This is going to require community and political support and leadership. The Patten report, which remains the template for today’s policing model, makes clear that we all share a responsibility to do this.

“Policing is a difficult and dangerous job, made more so by the ever present threat of violence from a small number of dissident republican cowards who have yet to realise that Northern Ireland has moved on and left them in the past. They should think of the next generations not of themselves.

“Partnership working is an imperative element in our pursuit to tackle this kind of criminality, which we know still creates fear in local communities. This will not be tolerated and we will continue to ensure that robust enforcement is at the forefront of our approach to dealing with paramilitaries.

“I thank the committee for its examination of the remarkable transformation of policing in Northern Ireland and we will look closely at the recommendations made within this report to build, in partnership, on our progress.

“This organisation will seek to continually improve and put things right that we get wrong, but we need the funding for officers and capital investment for technology to provide the policing that people deserve. Please let this report be the turning point that causes PSNI funding to be addressed.”

Police Federation for Northern Ireland chair Liam Kelly

“This report adds weight to the case we’ve been making on the need for proper funding for the Service.

“In this the 25th anniversary of the PSNI, it is quite shocking that the Government has walked away from its responsibilities by maintaining that resources are a matter for Stormont.

“This position is arrant nonsense and I’m delighted the NIAC recognises that more needs to be done to see that funding is adequate for the ‘unique policing and security challenges’ we have to face.

“I welcome the repeated call for a dedicated, ring-fenced funding stream to deal with legacy instead of it being an intolerable financial burden on the Service.

“The report makes the case for an independent analysis to determine the most appropriate level of officers. We have the answer initially provided to Chief Constable Boutcher by Leapwise in 2024. For a population our size, the requirement is for at least 8,000 officers which is about 1,700 more than we currently have in service.

“I, too, would like to see more Catholics joining the PSNI. The suggestion of a cadet-style scheme might possibly go some way towards addressing the issue. However, until there’s unequivocal support from nationalist communities, politicians, civic, Church and sporting leaders, we will face an uphill struggle to boost numbers. There must also be a specific recognition of the risk that continues to be posed by republican terrorists as we saw with attacks on Dunmurry and Lurgan stations.

“The response to this report by the Secretary of State will be interesting, particularly on the question as to why Northern Ireland with its persisting threat from terrorism and paramilitary activity, is unable to access counter-terrorism funding that’s provided in England and Wales.”

Northern Ireland Policing Board chair Brendan Mullan

“The publication of the NI Affairs Committee Inquiry Report brings further scrutiny to the current and future challenges facing policing here, and emphasises the areas where focus and refocus is required, particularly in respect of service resourcing and representativeness. Issues which the Board articulated in both its written and oral evidence to the Inquiry.

“Whilst the Board will wish to consider the findings, conclusions and recommendations in detail and in discussion with the chief constable, it is without doubt welcome that the Committee clearly acknowledges and calls for the cost of legacy to be removed, ring-fenced and resourced by the Westminster Government.

“This is an issue which the Board has raised directly with the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and we would now hope that this report will prompt an appropriate response from him.

It is clear to everyone that the PSNI is being damaged financially and reputationally by the failure of the Westminster Government to provide funding for this ‘exceptional’ cost.”