130 West Midlands Police staff go at cost of £1.8m
Nearly 130 backroom staff at West Midlands Police have been made redundant over the last year at a cost of £1.8 million, it was revealed today.
The money was spent on payouts and pension contributions for workers who have left their jobs.
The posts have gone as part of moves by the force to shed 2,500 officers and staff from its 13,500 workforce in the five years up to 2016 while making up to £150 million in savings. Latest figures show in the 2012/13 financial year a total of 129 staff were made redundant, costing the force £1.79m. Redundancy payments totalled £850,472 and the rest went on topping up pensions.
The average redundancy payout was £6,592, according to figures released by West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Bob Jones. Mr Jones today defended spending £1.79m and insisted the cutbacks were necessary after Government funding was slashed. He said: "I'm not happy about having to make very capable people redundant but the reality is we are facing a 25 per cent cut in funding over the next five years.
"When 85 per cent of costs relate to staff, no matter how many cars you get rid of and police stations you close, we would still have to make cuts to the number of staff.
"There is a requirement for us to pay into the pensions to match what has been contributed, so the figure is not made up just of redundancy payments."Officers cannot be made redundant due to recommendations by the chief inspector of constabulary for England and Wales Tom Winsor.
Instead they can only leave through the controversial A19 scheme which sees officers with 30 years or more experience forced to retire, and natural wastage.
Mr Jones said the force had been able to return 100 officers to the frontline under a new recruitment drive. After the spending review announced earlier this year, Mr Jones said the force had to be prepared for another 350 police officers and 250 back-room staff to go.
