The UK government should provide funding to bring the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) up to 7,500 officers as part of a strategy to tackle paramilitarism and organised crime, a Westminster committee has recommended.
The UK's Northern Ireland Affairs Committee has warned that budget cuts and the financial burden of data leaks is likely to see the force shrink to 6,193 officers by April of next year.
The New Decade, New Approach deal, which restored the Stormont powersharing institutions in 2020, made a commitment that the PSNI should have 7,500 officers.
The committee’s report follows a 22-month inquiry into the effect of paramilitary activity and organised crime.
The report said that the continued presence of paramilitary groups, 25 years on from the Good Friday Agreement, represents a “festering wound on society in Northern Ireland”.
During its evidence sessions, the PSNI told UK MPs that planned cuts are expected to lead to 75 fewer neighbourhood officers and 96 fewer serious crimes detectives, conceding that their responsiveness would be impacted.
The report said low prosecution rates of violent crime is an issue which discourages people from reporting crimes and allows paramilitary groups to “act with impunity”.
It has called on the UK government to work with Stormont to help improve clearance rates for paramilitary-style attacks.
It has also advocated Westminster supporting Stormont’s Department of Justice to take a “safeguarding approach” to the issue, opening the way to more convictions of those involved in paramilitary activity on the grounds of coercion, modern slavery and child criminal exploitation.
'Trauma-informed practice'
During its inquiry, MPs heard that among the driving forces for the continued existence of armed groups are deprivation, mental health issues and psychological trauma, while murals glorifying violence can retraumatise communities.
It has called on the UK government and the executive to commit to a new system of “trauma-informed practice”, and to address the socio-economic drivers of paramilitary activity such as deprivation.
It also wants the UK government to guarantee existing annual funding, and commit to longer-term investment, for the Executive’s Tackling Paramilitarism Programme.
Chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Sir Robert Buckland, said: “Investigation of crimes and intelligence gathering are in the bread and butter of tackling paramilitarism.
“With that in mind, it’s concerning that while police numbers in England and Wales are set to rise by 20,000, the PSNI’s workforce is in decline.
“This is a service depended upon for safety by communities still dealing with persistent paramilitarism.
“It faces a budgetary black hole, but it is one we can ill afford not to fill.”
Mr Buckland added: “A fully staffed PSNI would help investigations, but prosecution rates for violent crimes must also climb if we’re to weaken the coercive power paramilitary groups have over the communities they operate in and encourage people to report crimes.
“We need to change the criminal justice mindset and prosecute paramilitary groups for coercion, modern slavery and child criminal exploitation.
“However, without addressing the longer-term draws to such groups’ continued activity, we will not eradicate the scourge of paramilitarism.
“Deprivation needs to be tackled, with better access to universal credit, and we need a consistent approach to vetting the recipients of public funding, to ensure that taxpayers’ money goes to people who are genuinely committed to eradicating paramilitarism from Northern Ireland.
“Fortunately, with positive moves towards the restoration of the Executive, we could soon see the essential vehicle for tackling paramilitarism back up and running.”
