Scotland Yard is set to spend almost £17m on temporary agency staff according to new figures published by City Hall.
Last year the force was criticised for paying £27m on agency staff at the same time as it paid £44m to encourage 900 staff to leave the organisation and announced thousands of further jobs cuts.
The job losses were part of the Met’s plan to help it meet more than £500m of budget cuts which have also forced the closing of dozens front counters and the sale of “under-used” police stations.
In addition, the force has sold its world-famous HQ and will move to a smaller building from late 2016.
However new figures published by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOAPC) show that the force’s ongoing use of agency staff is undermining its savings and causing budget pressures.
A report presented to the London Assembly by the Mayor’s policing deputy, Stephen Greenhalgh, reveals the force has spent £8.4m on temporary workers and has overspent its staffing budget by £10.1m.
By the end of the financial year, total spending on agency staff is set to be £16.7m.
MOAPC say the Met’s management board have been asked to “review whether the number of temporary staff can be reduced more quickly so as to mitigate this pressure and if not whether daily rates can be reduced.”
The report also shows that the Met is facing a drastic shortfall in the number of PSCOs available to support frontline officers.
Planned staffing levels require the Met to have around 2,100 PCSOs across the year but numbers had fallen to 1,885 in October and are projected to fall further to below 1,850.
