West Yorkshire chief constable Sir Norman Bettison has told an influential committee of MPs the merger of police forces in England and Wales to create larger forces is "inevitable".

He believes one high profile mistake or error by a force could trigger renewed calls to resurrect the idea of larger strategic police forces.

Sir Norman, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) head of future developments, said: "The reason I say 'inevitable' is that I predict events will bring this back to the agenda.

"It will be the failing of a force to do what is required in the 21st Century that will cause people to ask whether it is suitably equipped, whether it has got capacity capability to meet the demands."

Merger plans were put forward in 2005 by former Home Secretary Charles Clarke, who planned to reduce the number of forces in England and Wales from 43 to around 24.

The aim was to create forces better able to tackle terrorism and organised crime.

Yorkshire's four forces were told they would have to merge to form one super-force. But only North Yorkshire chief constable Della Cannings conditionally supported the move.

The plans were largely unpopular across the country and Mr Clarke's successor John Reid axed them.

Sir Norman told MPs on the Home Affairs select committee it was becoming "more and more untenable" for each of the 43 forces "to be technologically equipped and ready to support a police service in the 21st century."

"A smaller number of strategically sized forces would be the best way of arranging ourselves against 21st century ills," he added.

He said the "tight fiscal environment" made it difficult for forces to collaborate effectively and smaller forces fear their resources will get "sucked" into urban areas if they work more closely with larger ones.


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