DISAPPOINTMENT was voiced by Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner Kevin Hurley after the force was rated as “requiring improvement” in the latest report into its operations.

Some police forces in England may not be able to withstand further cuts because they are not efficient enough, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) 2015 Police Efficiency Inspection report, warned this week.

Surrey Police have cut spending by 14 per cent since 2010, which is significantly lower than the England and Wales average. HMIC reported the force was “in transition” when it carried out its inspection, in April.

The report stated: “It recognises its current workforce model is not affordable and is reviewing part of its operating model through the ‘policing your neighbourhood ’ programme,”

“The force plans a new way of providing neighbourhood and emergency response policing by April 2016 and, to prepare for this, is maintaining high levels of vacancies in frontline posts.

“The existing operating model therefore, has to deliver the same level of services with significantly fewer staff.

“At the point of inspection, this approach was creating undue pressures on the organisation and on staff.

“HMIC found evidence of an adverse effect on the service to the public in some areas of policing.”

It reported that five years into the cutbacks programme, Surrey did not “properly match its resources to its demand” and a new IT system planned to help the problem was not in place.

HMIC found staff were not always effectively deployed to prioritise which non-emergency calls to attend and which officer was most suitable and nearest. In one case, a long-standing parking dispute was given higher priority than more important police calls.

Staff expressed concern at the lack of resources to respond to demand, which was seen by HMIC when visiting the control room.

Surrey is not meeting its aspiration to arrive at 82 per cent of emergency incidents within 15 minutes.

Its performance in April was 76.4 per cent. Answering routine 101 calls from the public within 60 seconds was only achieved 57 per cent of the time.

More victims of crime were satisfied with their force’s response at 85.7 per cent from March 2014-15, than nationally at 83.8 per cent.

HMIC found Surrey have successfully reduced spending over the last four years, while largely protecting its frontline services and crime had reduced by 20 per cent since 2010.

While Surrey was judged as requiring improvement overall, its financial position was rated good.

Business plans to make savings assessed at £9.5million have been approved, which is £1.2million more than the required target of £8.3million in the current financial year.

Mr Hurley said: “The inspection found that while the force did have a sustainable financial plan, it hadn’t, at the time, fully assessed and understood the changes in policing demand – or put plans in place to address that demand.

“While I am disappointed these plans weren’t in place for the HMIC inspection, I have in the last week received copies of plans Surrey are putting in place from April 2016, including a new neighbourhood policing model.

“These plans put Surrey Police in a much better position to meet budgetary constraints. However, we shouldn’t underestimate the challenge facing us over the next few years to continue to make savings while responding to increases in reports of complex crimes such as rape, domestic violence, child abuse and cybercrime.”