POLICE in Wiltshire have been ordered to make budget cuts within months to help tackle the national debt.

Policing Minister Nick Herbert said Wiltshire Police would lose more than £1m of the cash it had expected to spend in 2010/11.

Mr Herbert argued the cuts represented a “fair share” of the savings needed to reduce the budget deficit and “get the economy moving again”.

It will be up to police chiefs to decide how and where to make the cuts, but the minister claimed they could be achieved without doing serious damage to frontline policing.

In May, Wiltshire’s Chief Constable Brian Moore declared that no stone would be left unturned to find the £5.6m of cuts and savings over the next three years.

He said that nothing would be off limits in the rigorous cost cutting project but made a solemn vow that the public would not even notice the cutbacks and pledged that frontline policing would not be slashed.

He said: “It is for chief constables to use their expertise and decide what makes most sense for their force, but I am quite clear that this saving can be achieved by driving out wasteful spending on support functions, reducing bureaucracy and increasing efficiency in key functions.”

Wiltshire Police has been told its main grant – which is used to pay for police officers – will be slashed by £1m to £41.1m, and its capital grant – for buildings and equipment – by £100,000 to £1.2m.

Nationally, the revised funding allocations will cost police forces in England and Wales £125m. The savings will contribute to the £367m of cuts the Treasury has demanded from the Home Office.

Christopher Hoare, chairman of Wiltshire Police Authority, said: “We have only recently been made aware of the exact budgetary cuts that Wiltshire Police have to make, and we are working to establish exactly where those savings can be made.”

Cath Hollands, chairman of Wiltshire Police Federation, said there was a risk that the force could freeze officer recruitment.

She said: “We will do everything we can to persuade the Chief Constable to ensure that officer numbers are maintained sufficiently to deliver the top class quality of service that Wiltshire residents deserve.

“We have been told that the recruitment of officers is reviewed month by month but there is now a real danger that the extra cuts announced today will see the force take the easy option and imposing a freeze on recruitment.”

David Hanson, shadow police minister, said: “I am extremely concerned that the Tory-Lib Dem Government has made this decision to cut vital police funding. The funding cut will have a real impact on policing, crime and the fight against terrorism.”