'Remarkable' NI has any police at all due to budget pressures, says police chief (2025)

Northern Ireland’s police chief has said budget pressures on his force are so severe that it is “remarkable” the region has any police force left at all.

PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said the first job of government is to keep people safe, and that principle is not being applied in the same way to Northern Ireland as other areas.

Mr Boutcher was addressing the monthly public meeting of the Policing Board, the oversight body of the PSNI, where he said without additional investment and an uplift in officer numbers, his ability to protect the public would continue to “erode”.

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He was responding to a report published this week by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) which found that continued financial pressures facing the force are likely to continue to affect the service it provides if left unresolved.

HMICFRS said officers covering non-neighbourhood duties mean they cannot spend enough time carrying out visible patrols, working with local communities or doing preventative and problem-solving work.

The inspectorate also found that the child internet protection team does not have enough personnel to effectively manage its high workloads.

Mr Boutcher said: “Let me be clear. Having failed to secure the prioritisation of the PSNI recovery in the programme for government, without urgent investment, our ability to protect the public will continue to erode.

“Now more than ever we need decisive action and investment.

“Our ability to respond to this report and to implement the policing plan relies not just on our officers and staff, but far more at this moment in time on the support of this board, government, partners and communities to secure necessary funding and resources that we require.

“When I arrived as Chief Constable, seeing the position the organisation had been allowed to deteriorate to, as regards its numbers, I commissioned an independent group to assess what the police officer numbers should be.

“Had policing kept pace with the uplifts in policing in England and Wales, we would have expected the PSNI to have been 8,005 and 8,500 police officers. We barely have 6,300.

“A simple Google search asking the question, what is the first responsibility of government, will elicit the answer.

“The first judge of government is to keep citizens safe and the country secure.

“It is time that principle was applied here as it is everywhere else.”

Mr Boutcher said he understood the “wickedly challenging” financial issues faced by Stormont ministers, but pointed out they existed elsewhere in the UK.

He said since responsibility for policing was devolved to Stormont in 2010, the PSNI budget had reduced by 6%.

He said health and education budgets had risen sharply in the same time.

Mr Boutcher said: “Taking into account inflationary pressures it is remarkable you have any police service at all.

“Even a proportionally very small uplift over those years to policing, not anywhere near the uplifts provided to education or health, would have allowed communities in Northern Ireland to be much better served by its police service.”

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'Remarkable' NI has any police at all due to budget pressures, says police chief (2025)

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