The Home Office will “consider” contributing to the cost of policing the Pope’s visit to Birmingham, Ministers have promised. But they refused to promise any financial support for West Midlands Police, which is faced with bills of millions of pounds to pay for security when the Pope visits Cofton Park near Longbridge in September.
Birmingham MP Steve McCabe (Lab Selly Oak) raised concerns about the visit in the House of Commons after West Midlands Police was told it might have to foot the bill from reserves.
The Home Office would usually provide a special grant to cover the cost of security at major one-off events but Chris Sims, the force’s chief constable, warned in a paper presented to West Midlands police authority that the force had been told funding was “very uncertain” because of the national budget deficit.
Mr McCabe said: “The West Midlands police are very concerned that the Government have indicated that they are not likely to give them a special grant, as is the normal custom, to cover the security costs of the Pope’s visit.
“Perhaps the Minister will want to say something about that at some stage, but as well as having our budget cut, we will incur extra costs, which a Government would normally partly support with an additional grant. That is what happened when the Labour party was in power.”
He said the Labour government had ensured police forces received extra cash when they provided security for the G8 summit of world leaders, which was held in Birmingham in 1998 and Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005.
Home Office Minister Nick Herbert told him: “I understand that a bid is expected from Warwickshire police, whose region the Pope will visit, and from other forces, such as the West Midlands, and they will be considered under the special grant.”
Pope Benedict XVI is due to hold one of the key ceremonies of his visit, the beatification of Cardinal Newman, at Longbridge.
The event was originally to be held at Coventry Airport, which is covered by Warwickshire Police, but the change of venue means West Midlands Police is responsible for security.
In the same debate, Mr McCabe raised concerns about the Home Office’s decision to make West Midlands Police pay 20 per cent of the cost of policing the Conservative Party Conference at the International Convention Centre in October from its own budget.
Again, this would normally be paid for by the Home Office, but this year the force will need to pay £800,000 itself.
West Midlands Police has already announced a series of cuts after the Government cut its budget by £7 million.
They include freezing recruitment, cutting overtime by £200,000 and cutting bonus payments by £400,000.
One result will be that fewer officers will be available for late night patrols in Broad Street, the force has warned.
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