Speaking about the Justice Minister, Naomi Long’s departmental Budget Plan, Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said:
“I warmly welcome the Justice Minister’s announcement which means the Police Service’s full funding gap will be met. I am very grateful to the Justice Minister for her decision to prioritise support for policing. This is great news for the Police Service - it provides financial certainty this year and will allow us to stabilise and maintain Service levels to the public. However, we need to see the security of sufficient, sustainable funding continued into next year as we enter a much needed period of recovery for the PSNI. We will continue to work with the Department of Justice to develop a business case to recover officer and staff numbers to 7,000 and 2,572 respectively over the next three years. I am particularly pleased that this announcement will enable progress to be made on this year’s pay award for officers.”