Delayed police break-up costing force millions, report claims

West Mercia Police’s failure to break its alliance with Warwickshire is costing the force “£6million to £8million” a year, according to a commissioner’s report.

In October 2018, West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion announced he intended to pull the force out of the resource-sharing deal with its neighbours, calling the arrangement “unfair” and “one-sided”.

The split was due to take place last year, but Home Secretary Priti Patel MP ordered an extension.

A document prepared by the PCC’s office said the decision has “perpetuated this inability to realise savings”.

Councillor Kuldip Sahota, Labour’s candidate in May’s PCC election, says the break-up proposal is a mistake which has isolated Mr Campion.

The report, due to go before the West Mercia Police and Crime Panel, says: “The mandate to collaborate, issued by the Home Secretary, remains in place until April 8, 2020.

“Warwickshire Police have indicated they wish to continue with a collaboration arrangement in four service areas post-April: digital services, forensics, archive storage and transactional services.”

Draft agreements about the method for sharing these are “subject to ongoing negotiation”, it says.

“The current collaboration is a shared service model and has proved unworkable.

“In this model, investments and changes to services must be made jointly and without, shared agreement, investment and change cannot happen.

“Warwickshire are continuing to refuse to invest in shared infrastructure, thereby prohibiting West Mercia’s investment and implementation of necessary change.

“West Mercia has, therefore, expressed a clear preference, with detailed rationale, for hosted arrangements to both Warwickshire and the Home Office team.

“West Mercia have been unable to realise savings arising from transformation of business support functions because of Warwickshire’s actions, both through legal action and because of the governance mechanisms inherent in the current shared service collaboration model.

“This is costing West Mercia an estimated £6million to £8million per annum, depending upon the extent and efficacy of that transformation.

“This inability to realise savings has been perpetuated by the Home Secretary’s mandation.”

The West Mercia Police and Crime Panel, which scrutinises the PCC’s work, will discuss the report when it meets on Wednesday.

Councillor Sahota, a former Telford and Wrekin Council leader and two-time parliamentary candidate, said: “Our PCC has no idea what he got himself into.

“Everyone connected to West Mercia Police has disagreed with him. All he seems to be thinking about is the cost. He seems to knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Why doesn’t he admit he has made a mistake and start afresh?”

He said Warwickshire Police are “clearly prepared” to collaborate on the four areas, and Mr Campion should “get on with it”.