Warning over 'two-year wait' for new armed anti-terror police

Some UK police forces could be forced to wait up to two years for new firearms officers aimed at preventing terror attacks to appear on the streets, a police group have warned.

Londoners have been promised an extra 600 officers to help keep the capital safe in the wake of a severe threat of terrorism in the UK.

Despite the first of the Met Police’s new recruits starting today, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales Steve White said the "best case scenario" would be 24 months to recruit the additional 1,500 marksmen needed nationwide to prevent terror attacks.

The delay comes as some forces struggle to find the right quality of volunteers to make it through the rigorous selection and training process.

Mr White said: "Some forces are getting volunteers coming forward, but they are not always being selected because they don't meet the criteria. It is vitally important that standards are maintained. The best case scenario is two years in terms of recruiting an extra 1,500 officers.

"If there is an attack it is unlikely to be an isolated incident. We've got to have the resources around the country because it might happen in multiple places at the same time."

The number of armed officers dropped by eight across the UK between January and March, Home Office Figures show.

However, police chiefs have insisted that forces are on track to get the extra marksmen in place over the next 18 months.

Plans to boost the number of armed police were put in place in the wake of last year’s terror attacks in Paris, when 130 people were killed.

Mr White also expressed concern about cuts to neighbourhood police teams after Britain's most senior police officer Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe hailed neighbourhood policing as a “major weapon" in the fight against terrorism.

The Federation chief added: "Chief constables are having to make very difficult decisions in terms of managing their budgets and managing the competing priorities that they have.

"With counter-terrorism there is the top-sliced money and the extra money for firearms officers, but that is once we're having an attack.

"Over the last few years in some force areas they have had to take resources out of neighbourhood policing just to keep the wheels on in terms of reacting to incidents.

"You can't fix this overnight. The resources that have been taken out over the last couple of years is stark."