A DAMNING National Audit Office (NAO) report lays bare the government’s “wilful indifference” to the police funding crisis, Labour said today.

Whitehall’s spending watchdog warned that overall funding to forces has fallen by 19 per cent in real terms since 2010-11 while police confront rising levels of recorded “high-harm” crimes and a heightened terrorist threat.

The NAO added that the Home Office’s “light touch” approach meant it did not know whether the police system was financially sustainable.

Labour’s London Assembly spokesperson for policing and crime Unmesh Desai called the report “yet more incontrovertible proof of the government’s wilful indifference towards calls for the police to be adequately funded.”
 
He said the government needed to “urgently wake up and take notice” of the police’s need for “sufficient investment and resources.”

Shadow policing minister Louise Haigh added: “As violent crime surges and police resources are stretched to the limit, the Home Office has been relying on guesswork.”