Paul McKeever, Chairman, Police Federation of England and Wales appeared on BBC Breakfast this morning responding to comments made in an article in Police Review by Tim Brain, ACPO lead on finance, who spoke about cuts to policing in the future.

Mr McKeever pointed out that Mr Brain’s comments were at this stage purely speculative, that as yet no consultation or decisions had been made. He said that difficult and tough decisions will be taken but scaremongering ahead of the comprehensive spending review in autumn achieves nothing. No one as yet knows what cuts will happen.
¬police officers make a high level of personal contributions to the police pension scheme¬
This was reiterated by the Police Minister, Nick Herbert who also appeared alongside Paul.

Paul also made the point that clarification of what the front line actually is may be necessary if the government insist on saying frontline services will be protected. What does this mean to the public?

The issue of overtime was also raised and a solid defence put forward to explain that this is to meet the expectations and needs of the public. Also, an explanation that police officers make a high level of personal contributions to the police pension scheme. It's not all the public purse.