The National Police Air Service will have 23 aircraft at 20 bases. This will save £15m from the current total of £66m.

Police to share national air service
Policing minister will for the first time use powers to direct forces to collaborate, after one force objected to plan


Nick Herbert, the policing minister. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

A national police air service is to be launched to ensure all forces across England and Wales have 24-hour access to a helicopter.

The policing minister, Nick Herbert, has for the first time used powers to direct forces to collaborate with each other to create the service, after one police authority, South Yorkshire, launched a campaign to keep sole use of its helicopter.

The service will have 22 aircraft, mostly helicopters but also some fixed-wing planes, operating from 20 bases across the country.

Herbert, who will announce the move in a speech in London, will say that the collaborative move will save £15m a year out of the current £70m annual bill for keeping police helicopters in the air.

"The plan has the full support of chief constables and will give all forces access to helicopter support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year – in contrast to the current system which sees some force helicopters grounded for days at a time while they are being repaired," Herbert said.

He said the plan had the support of all 41 chief constables and the majority of police authorities, and to get the full benefits the whole of the police service in England and Wales had to take part.

"The time for talking about collaboration, and the era of police fiefdoms, is over," Herbert said. "In exceptional cases of last resort, I am prepared to mandate arrangements where a small minority of authorities or forces creates a barrier to more efficient or effective policing."

The order directing South Yorkshire to take part in the national air service is to be made under new powers in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011.

The decision to set up a national police air service followed a review by Bernard Hogan-Howe when he was chief constable of Merseyside in 2009. It found that in too many cases forces refused to allow their helicopters to be used over the border in a neighbouring force area, even if it was closer to the incident.

South Yorkshire police authority rejected the Home Office's invitation to take part, arguing it would mean the nearest helicopters for them would be based in Derbyshire, Humberside and West Yorkshire.

Charles Perryman its chairman, said last week: "We want a police helicopter to be based in South Yorkshire to maintain an effective and resilient air support for the county."

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NPAS FUNDING MODEL

Capital
5. Previous financial models have been based on transferring ownership of the helicopter asset to NPAS, with a complicated ‘capital credit’ and ‘capital contribution’ to reflect the loss of an asset and the cost of funding a replacement.

6. However, this is no longer the preferred option and the latest proposed funding model does not require transfer of ownership. The current proposal is to top slice capital grant at a national level and redirect capital grant directly to NPAS to fund asset purchase and replacement. There is currently £12m of capital grant allocated to NPAS, and this new approach would see an additional £22m of capital grant redirected out of force allocations to NPAS over the remaining three years of the CSR.

7. The impact on West Midlands of this top slice is that capital grant allocations are reduced by £1.15m over three years. This needs to be balanced against the removal of the previous ‘capital contribution’ of £0.95m over the three years. The net position therefore is that the top slice is £0.2m higher than the capital contribution would have been. Whilst not hugely material to the overall capital resources available to the Authority, it is worth noting that for 27 forces the top slice is less than the capital contribution would have been and hence they have gained from the change in approach.

8. As the asset will now not be transferred to NPAS the ‘capital credit’ mechanism will also not apply, however West Midlands Police will receive the proceeds from the disposal of the helicopter at the end of it’s life. This will provide a capital receipt and should not generate any cost.

Revenue
9. The underlying principle of NPAS is that every force will pay less for air support than
they currently do (based on 2009/10 figures). An update of revenue costs is expected in the first week of January and a verbal update will be provided at the meeting. However, the latest information we have is that the revenue cost of NPAS to West Midlands Police will be £1.8m compared to the existing budget of £1.9m, thus resulting in a saving of £0.1m.

“Nick Herbert (police minister) and his friends in the numerous ‘think tanks’ that come up with these ideas must be very proud. This is not the common room at a private school, this is the real world and changes in the way we police need careful consideration by people with an understanding of the dangerous job officers do on a daily basis.”