One of the biggest police forces in the UK is threatening court action against the British home secretary over revelation of Theresa May’s deep funding cuts, a report says.
The West Midlands police force is considering a lawsuit after May was said to be secretly planning a major switch in millions of police funding from city forces to county constabularies, the Guardian reported.
A leaked internal analysis by senior police finance officials seen by the Guardian modeling the impact of the home secretary’s proposed changes shows that the major urban forces, including the West Midlands, would face deep cuts in funding as a result.
Relations between the force and the home secretary became so strained over the issue that the police have been reduced to making an unusual Freedom of Information Act request to demand disclosure of the figures.
The figures from the Police and Crime Commissioners Treasurers’ Society (PACCTS) indicate that the Metropolitan police face a 43% reduction in their Whitehall grant in 2015-16 as a result of the funding formula changes under one likely scenario.