Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood has called for a review of the highest salaries within the police force before frontline officer numbers are cut.
The AM for South Wales Central made the point during questions to First Minister Carwyn Jones in the Senedd this week following news that 45 officers in the UK are paid more than £142,500 – the salary of the Prime Minister.
In response, Mr Jones said he “would not support reducing the pay of anybody in the public sector, certainly at the moment.”
Police forces throughout the UK are preparing to implement wholesale cuts to their workforce due to the austerity measures of the new Westminster Government. Earlier this month, Sussex Police announced plans to cut up to 1,050 police officers and staff over the next five years as a result of spending cuts.
Ms Wood said: “In the news this week, we have seen evidence of a growing elite within the public sector. As bad a job as he may be doing, I find it very difficult to believe that UK-wide, more than 9,000 people in the public sector are being paid more than the Prime Minister, and that 45 of those are police officers.
“While I recognise that policing is not a devolved matter, will you be prepared to make representations to ensure that the pay of top police officers is frozen, or indeed cut, before the numbers of front-line officers take a hit during these cuts?”
She added: “Furthermore, with the police forces in Wales about to have these unprecedented cuts imposed upon them by the Tories and their Liberal Democrat friends, do you agree that the devolution of the criminal justice system to Wales, including the control of police officers, is an issue that now needs looking at as a matter of urgency?”
In reply, Mr Jones said: “It is a ‘One Wales’ commitment to examine the evidence for the devolution of criminal justice and that is something that we are still examining. It is made difficult by the fact that, with reducing budgets in the criminal justice system, it becomes more of a burden, but we still examine the evidence, as is stated in the ‘One Wales’ commitment.”
He added: “I would not support reducing the pay of anybody in the public sector, certainly at the moment.”
