Press Releases - 2002

27 June 2002

Bid to save Police Reserve

Axing officers may be a step too far, Federation chairman warns PM

Bid to save police reserve

Tony Blair faced new demands yesterday to save more than 2,000 Northern Ireland police officers' jobs from being axed.

A Police Federation delegation held talks with the Prime Minister's private secretary at Downing Street in a bid to keep the full-time reserves on duty.

Federation chairman, Irwin Montgomery, said: "It's both unfair and a nonsense that these officers' future should be in doubt. "It's absolutely clear that they are needed for the forseeable future."

Under the Patten programme of reform, the strength of the new police service has been cut from 13,000 to 7,500. But voluntary redundancy schemes and high sickness levels have seen manpower levels plunge below the 7,000 mark.

Nationalists pressing for more changes to the force have demanded the 2,200 full-time reserve must be scrapped. It has been speculated that they could be sacrificed in order to get Sinn Fein to endorse the new arrangements andtake its seats on the Policing Board.

But Mr Montgomery, who Federation represents around 10,000 officers up to the rank of chief inspector, warned that such a cut may be a step too far. "We stressed the need to sustain and build morale within the police service which is now dangerously low. "Keeping the full-time reserve is a key example of how that can be boosted."

Yesterday's 40-minute meeting was the first in a series organised over the next few days. The Federation has also arranged to lobby Westminster MPs and Irish and US ambassadors to the UK.