Home Office failure costing Welsh police

9.47.38am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 31st Oct 2006

Welsh Liberal Democrat AM for Brecon and Radnorshire, Kirsty Williams, has expressed her concern at the Home Office's decision to cap the amount to be repaid to police forces, following the failure of its merger plans.

Dyfed Powys police force submitted a claim of £225,891 to cover the cost of preparing for the abandoned mergers, but will only receive £100,000.

Ms Williams said: "Plans to merge the four Welsh police forces should never have got off the ground in the first place. Instead, they were pushed by the Home Office to such an advanced stage that it has ended up costing Welsh police forces half a million pounds.

"This huge sum of money, that could otherwise have been spent on improving local policing, has now been wasted, and it is local people who are losing out. The Labour Government has always claimed it is 'tough on crime', but its willingness to squander valuable police resources will not easily be forgotten."

Notes:

· The Home Office has said it will share a total of £4m among police forces in England and Wales, to go towards the costs of preparing for the mergers, which would have seen the four Welsh police forces merged into one. Gwent police force will receive the £96,467 that it claimed for, but the other Welsh police forces (in common with many in England) will lose out (Dyfed-Powys claimed £225,891; North Wales £245,020; and South Wales £326,944).