Cuts to officer numbers will severely affect the ability of the police to deal with a Paris-style attack, senior UK police chiefs have told the home secretary.

In a letter to Theresa May following the atrocities in France, senior officers said mainstream policing was crucial in tackling terrorism.

The letter was sent at the request of a government Cobra emergency committee and, although it will be seen as part of the growing row over spending cuts, its leak shows the fears among police officers about the impact on security of planned cuts.

The letter is said to accept cuts of 10% as extremely difficult but manageable, adding anything beyond that would risk security in the UK.

The letter states: “Police forces across England and Wales have already seen a reduction of 40,000 officers and further losses will severely impact on our surge capacity.”

Andy Burnham, the shadow home secretary, referred to the letter on BBC1’s Question Time and has urged May to repel demands for further cuts from the chancellor, George Osborne.

Damian Green, the former Home Office minister, said in the last parliament that the number of community officers had increased by 3,700 and the counter-terrorism budget was protected. He said it should be possible for the police to reorganise themselves to make further savings.

But Burnham has said that savings above 10% would be “dangerous and put public safety at risk”.

In a letter to May, Burnham said: “Given the events in Paris last weekend we repeat our belief that it would be unwise to ask the police to deliver further difficult savings above 5% over the next five years.”

He added: “Reductions in mainstream policing will not only significantly impact on the ‘surge’ ability of the police to provide the additional support required at an emergency incident, but cuts to neighbourhood policing will have a detrimental effect on local intelligence-gathering and countering terrorism.”

The senior police officers’ letter to May states: “It would be remiss of me not to highlight the impact further reductions in police force numbers would have on our ability to manage terrorist incidents of this magnitude, particularly if spread simultaneously across a number of geographical locations.

“Police forces across England and Wales have already seen a reduction of 40,000 officers and further losses will severely impact our surge capacity, which is heavily geared and will reduce very significantly across the country unless a different funding settlement is found.”

The letter says the position of different police forces varies, but “the overarching concerns are the same”.

It adds: “These considerations are of course in addition to the need to sustain neighbourhood policing to maintain local trust and intelligence flows.”

A spokeswoman for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said: “Following the tragic terrorist attack in Paris last week, we have been reviewing our ability to respond to a well-organised, multi-sited terrorist in the UK. Our officers are well-trained and equipped and we are constantly evolving to meet the threat from terrorism.

“As you would expect, we are discussing our capacity to respond to an attack like the one in Paris with the government. These discussions include assessments of the number of officers we have to counter terrorism and the impact of future funding cuts.

“We do not comment on leaked documents, which form part of these important discussions.”

The prime minister’s spokeswoman said: “I recognise that there’s speculation [on possible cuts to the policing budget], but the decisions on police funding will be set out in the spending review next week. Since 2010 we have protected the counter-terrorism policing budget.”



She added: “We are absolutely clear that we’ll do everything necessary to keep our people safe. You’ve already seen the measures that we have taken on the counter terrorism budget and looking at what additional support we can provide the security and intelligence agencies as part of that.”

Kevin Hurley, police and crime commissioner for Surrey and former head of counter-terrorism for the City of London police, described the cuts as “negligent” and compared the situation for police officers facing Paris-style terrorist attacks to soldiers during the first world war.

Speaking to the BBC, he said: “Equipment we give to armed response units is below the standard needed to take on people with AK-47s. What we are aiming to do is the same thing we did in the first world war, which is send single-shot riflemen against machine guns. We don’t learn the lesson.

“The thing that concerns me is this government will not listen to its own senior Conservative crime commissioners who are telling them these cuts cannot go on, when I am saying, in the most Conservative area in the country, stop risking the safety of the public.

“The Paris police used military grenade launchers to take down those terrorists. We are nowhere near that capable, even in London. The counties around the country have got hardly any armed officers available at any one time to protect them.

“Something like what happened in Paris could happen in any of our towns, any of our cities up and down the country. It’s negligent and it’s unacceptable.”

Aside from armed response units, Hurley stressed that one of the key issues was cuts to the number of police community support officers being recruited.

He said: “So far police have lost 30,000 civilian employees, nearly 20,000 sworn police officers, with a similar number on the line to come. They are our key link for our intelligence about what’s going on. The public don’t know how bad it’s getting.”

Since the Paris attacks, at least three police chiefs have written to the home secretary with concerns. Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, commissioner of the Metropolitan police, and Sara Thornton, president of the NPCC, which represents top officers from across England and Wales, wrote to May. The NPCC runs a special unit that would send officers from across the country in the event of an emergency.

The third letter was from Mark Rowley, who leads on counter-terrorism for the police nationally as well as being an assistant commissioner in charge of Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command.

The areas of concern in the various letters include the ability to get firearms officers quickly enough, and in sufficient numbers, to confront gunmen behind a Paris-style attack.



Another area raised was cuts to neighbourhood officers who build relations with communities and in turn gain intelligence that may identify plotters and terrorism supporters.

On Wednesday, asked about Rowley’s letter, the Met said he had regular contact with the home secretary, but refused to give details of any letter.

The portion of the leaked letter contains one big error, claiming incorrectly that 40,000 police officers have been lost in cuts inflicted already on the police. That figure includes the number of civilian staff lost; the number of police officers is down by about 17,000.

