from The Guardian, 13 February 2012
A government proposal to merge the UK's two nuclear police forces would be costly, messy and could create a conflict of interest between protecting British weapons and foreign-owned power stations, the Defence Police Federation has warned.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) have launched a "scoping study" into whether to amalgamate the MoD police, which looks after nuclear bomb bases and other military sites, and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC), which has responsibility for nuclear power plants.
But the idea has already run into fierce criticism from the staff association that represents the MoD police rank and file. And other critics have raised fears about the abuse of a merged force for political purposes.
A merger would be "an extremely expensive exercise that would be unlikely to generate any savings in the short or medium term, and would distract from more realistic ways of reducing the MoD's budget deficit," said Eamon Keating, national chairman of the Defence Police Federation.
He pointed out that the MoD police had a much wider role than the CNC, including the ability to carry out investigations, the maintenance of public order and marine activities. "This divergence in roles, training and responsibilities would make any kind of amalgamation rather messy," he told the Guardian.
Because the CNC was responsible for power stations run by the French company, EDF Energy, there "could be a conflict of interest with our responsibility to the MoD estate and the nuclear deterrent," Keating argued.
"A merger of our two organisations would be poorly timed, given that the amalgamation of the eight Scottish constabularies is already going ahead and there are lessons to be learned from that process."
The MoD police has nearly 3,500 officers based at 86 defence sites across the UK, including the bomb bases at Aldermaston in Berkshire and on the Clyde near Glasgow. In December the Guardian reported that it was facing up to 1,500 job cuts.
The CNC is a smaller force, with just under 1,000 officers at 17 civil nuclear sites, including Sellafield in Cumbria and EDF's eight nuclear power stations. Both forces differ from the normal police in that they usually carry guns.
Peter Burt, project director of the Nuclear Information Service, which monitors the nuclear weapons industry, is concerned that a merger would create a national private police force under the political control of a minister.
He said: "The conviction of senior EDF company executives in France for spying on Greenpeace and the Mark Kennedy case in this country, where an undercover police officer spied on climate campaigners, shows how power could easily be abused for political purposes under the new arrangements."
The Civil Nuclear Police Federation has also complained about being left out of early consultations. "Following discussion with Decc, the federation has been promised proper engagement on any possible merger," said the federation's general secretary, Nigel Dennis.
The MoD did not respond to questions about the proposed merger, referring inquiries to Decc, which pointed out that the two police forces were already working towards closer collaboration. "Any potential conflicts of interest will be given due consideration as part of the scoping study, which is now ongoing and is intended to identify whether a merger would bring net benefits," said a Decc spokesman.
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