13/05/2010
Spending on police overtime in England and Wales has increased by 90 per cent in the past decade, according to the latest figures.
Officers in some police forces are now claiming an average of £4,500 a year in overtime, even though the size of the police service overall has grown by almost a third.
The report by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) criticised the growing bill as "counter intuitive" because more staff should mean workers are less stretched, and therefore not required to work as many extra hours.
The bill for police overtime increased from £247.5 million in 1998/99 to £466.5 million in 2008/09, according to the CCJS.
The bill just for police officers, excluding other staff, increased by 90 per cent from £209 million to £398 million.
Over the same period, police officer strength increased by 12 per cent to 142,151 and all police numbers, including civilian staff increased by 30 per cent to 239,607.
Co-author Roger Grimshaw, research director at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, said: "Central government has favoured increased recruitment of police officers, but at the same time civilian staff have grown even more.
"When chief constables query the value of police officer recruitment, how can we be sure about the right balance of spending on employees?”
Richard Garside, director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies said: “Spending has gone up by nearly a half but the value of this huge increase is much harder to pin down. We now have the largest police service ever. Yet there seems to be no clear rationale behind this incremental growth, nor a clear measure of its success.
“Now more than ever we need a public debate about priorities and choices.”
Earlier this year, before the change of government, the Home Office announced that it had a plan to cut overtime by £70m a year.
With Theresa May appointed the new home secretary only on Wednesday, there will now be period of consultation before any decisions are made about future policy.
