Russ Foster, who has been in post for just over a year, says there are areas of financial risk including the large number of officers leaving over the issue of pay, according to Department of Home Affairs chief officer Dan Davies.
He said the social affairs policy review committee that last year was a challenging one financially for the department.
Mr Davies said: ‘I think it’s really important to say that the Chief Constable has told the department he sees a number of areas of financial risk in the way that the Constabulary budget is currently structured.
‘He says he cannot deliver the department’s policing plan as effectively as he wants to without additional funding.
‘He has repeatedly told us that police officer pay is leading to large numbers of police officers leaving. There’s a huge turnover rate.’
In February, the department had to ask for an extra £2.2m to cover its overspending in the 2023-24 financial year.
Mr Davies told the committee that the overspend was primarily down to inflationary pressures on fuel costs, which were estimated at 100% over budget. He said there had also been number of major incidents including the double fatality in the Southern 100 practice session and the plane crash on Bradda Head which clearly could not have been budgeted for and resulted in increased overtime costs.
‘As a demand-led service sometimes we were at the mercy of external events,’ he said.
‘There are lots of ways that the department’s budget comes under strain. The department has always prided itself on its financial discipline. Last year was a really challenging year for us.’
Mr Davies said the department runs an ‘incredibly tight budget’ an 89-90% of its budget is staffing costs so rising fuel costs can blow the budget. He said the change in legislation on drug driving had blown the department’s forensic budget in six months. He said the department was currently operation a recruitment freeze.
‘People are working really hard and getting burnt out,’ he said.
He said the DHA was trying to maintain financial discipline but at the same it was aware there are real strains in other areas.
Mr Davies cited as an example a succession issue in the Fire and Rescue Service which he said was likely to generation additional costs for the department.
He said: ‘We have a number of senior officers who are able to leave at relatively short notice.
‘Then the service is incredibly exposed from a risk perspective of having strategic incident cover.’