You probably should have checked if the police needed that money for their crime-fighting stuff, National Audit Office tells Tories
What it means: The National Audit Office (NAO) is a non-political organisation whose job is to look at what the government is doing and see if it’s spending its money sensibly. (It also looks out for any dodgy business like lying to the public or stealing taxpayers money). The NAO just released a report about the cuts the Conservative government made to the police budget after it came to power in 2010. It can basically be summarised as ‘mate, wtf?’
The NAO says the government didn’t bother to figure out what getting rid of 44,000 police officers might do to the country’s crime rate (spoiler alert: it went up) and that its spending plans for the police have been ‘ineffective’. Many police officers agree. The boss of the Met Police, Cressida Dick, says her officers are having to work ‘longer and harder’ and face ‘unprecedented challenges’.
The government replied that, actually, it totally had done research on whether the police are facing extra pressures or not. Perhaps they just misplaced that file when the NAO called.
