Press Release

More police, but more overtime
6-2-2007   AM001

Police overtime has gone up in recent years despite the Metropolitan Police employing more than 8,000 new officers since 2000. The Met is forecast to spend a staggering £135 million on overtime payments in 2006-07, more than the money to be raised by the London Mayor's increase in next year's council tax bill. Overtime payments will have increased from £112m in 2002/03 to £135m this year. Jenny Jones, a Green Party member of the London Assembly, said:

"It is extraordinary that an organisation which has expanded its workforce by over a thousand officers a year for the last six years, should still be spending more on overtime than the entire wages bill for policing four large London boroughs."

"I'm all in favour of safer neighbourhoods, but Londoners don't want to pay extra council tax so that the police can earn overtime for doing a night time swoop on Brian Haw's collection of placards."

"I'm also fed up with the Metropolitan Police telling me that they haven't the resources to deal with road crime to save lives, whilst planning to spend at least four million pounds policing the arms fair at the Excel Centre in East London. We all want a safer city, but the police seem to be making it safer for arms manufacturers, rather than pedestrians knocked over by hit and run drivers."

Notes to Editors

1. When the Mayor was elected, police numbers stood at 25,430 but by the end of October 2006 police numbers had increased by 21 per cent to 33,670. The sustained investment in policing has led to a steady drop in crime in London.  Between April and October of this year there was a seven per cent reduction in the total number of crimes reported in comparison with the same period last year.
2. Next year’s increase in the GLA precept will raise £50m. 70% of the council tax raised by the London Mayor goes on policing.
3. Metropolitan police overtime
   Question No: 72 / 2007
   Jenny Jones
   Can you give the figures for Met police overtime for the last five years?
   
   Ken Livingstone replied:
   I have been informed that the amount of work required to calculate the actual collective number of hours spent on overtime makes the task impractical. However, please find Police Officer overtime spend for the last five years in the table below. It should be noted that outturns also include expenditure incurred on national and international incidents.
   
   

   	Budget (£k)	Outturn (£k)	Variance (£k)
   2002-03	108,441	112,228	3,787
   2003-04	114,680	128,513	13,833
   2004-05	119,600	135,717	16,117
   2005-06	119,079	150,333	31,254
   2006-07	121,766	135,309	*13,543

* Forecast for financial year

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