"Home Office Guilty Of Wasting Police Time" - Öpik

7.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 11th Sep 2006

The Home Office have no idea how much money they wasted on the proposed merger of the four Welsh police forces, which was abandoned earlier this year.

Lembit Öpik, MP for Montgomeryshire and Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, tabled a parliamentary question asking how much money had been spent to date on the Welsh merger, and the Home Office replied that they were unable to identify costs relating specifically to the Welsh merger.

Commenting, Lembit said:

"The botched merger of the four Welsh police forces was a farce from start to finish.

"The truth is that the Home Office have no idea how much money they have wasted in trying to force through an unpopular measure against the will of the Welsh people.

"Thousands of man hours must have been wasted, not only in the Home Office, but in the four forces themselves.

"The Home Office is guilty of wasting police time. Instead of fighting crime, our officers have been forced to battle with bureaucracy.

"The Government should focus on boosting police resources, not throwing money at misguided schemes like the abandoned merger and the ID Cards project."

Ends/diwedd

Notes to Editors:

Please find the text of the parliamentary question and answer below:

Lembit Öpik (Montgomeryshire): To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much money the Government has spent to date on the planned merger of the four Welsh police forces; and if he will make a statement?

Tony McNulty, (Minister for Police and Security): "With regard to Home Office costs, it is not possible to identify separately those relating specifically to the proposed merger of the Welsh police forces."