Home secretary tells police to cut IT spend and focus on policing

Theresa May says police forces must make cuts to back office, procurement and IT provision

Home secretary Theresa May has told police forces to cut down on the costs of their IT infrastructures and focus on policing, rather than IT.

"We have been absolutely clear about the need for forces to ensure that the cuts are made to the back office, procurement, IT provision and so forth," said May in a House of Commons debate on Monday.

"Forces must focus, in line with what chief constables up and down the country are saying, on front-line policing and visible community work which is of benefit not only to forces in terms of catching criminals, but of course to local communities."

The statement was made in response to Labour MP for North East Derbyshire Natascha Engel, who argued that community support officers are more important in communities such as North East Derbyshire that are rural and isolated, and asked what impact the budget cuts to Derbyshire police force will have on community policing in her constituency.

As part of its Comprehensive Spending Review in October, the government revealed that the police budget will be cut by eight per cent in 2013, six per cent in 2014 and four per cent in each of the following two years.