The GSD has issued a statement regarding the Government’s recent comments on investment in the RGP.

A statement from the GSD follows below:

The Government’s latest claims on 20 January of their “record investment” into the RGP are, as usual, overstated and involve an exercise of presenting numbers in a complete vacuum and without the relevant context, which would show that they have in fact underfunded the RGP during their time in office.

A stance which is supported by the annual police reports in recent years, as well as by the current Commissioner in a recent interview with GBC.

The position that the GSD takes in respect of spending is that there is no financial prudence under this Government, which seems to give priority to vanity projects and the few people at the top, and in doing so, sacrifice the more pressing needs of the many. Funding of the RGP is one such sacrifice.

Shadow Minister for Justice, Joelle Ladislaus, said: “When it becomes necessary for a Government to rely on unfounded statements implying that the GSD would return to 2011 levels of funding for the RGP as a means of refuting claims of underfunding, it becomes very clear that they have nowhere left to hide from the issue. The simplistic comparison of the RGP’s funding in 2011, which was £10.5m vs the RGP’s current funding of £17m to conclude that the Government can claim “record investment” is absurd at best and misleading at worst and made worse by the fact that funding hasn’t changed in the past 5 years. Accounting for inflation, the spend in 2011 would in fact equal £15.5m as of October 2025. The increase in spend from 2011 to date therefore doesn’t equate to more than £1.5m, which in real terms is no more than a 10% increase in funding from 2011 to date and not the fantastical 70% increase claimed by the Government.

The population of Gibraltar was 32,000 in 2011 and 38,000 in 2022. In 2010/2011, there were 7.93 police officers per 1,000 people in Gibraltar and today there are 7.57. So, the ratio of police officers to the number of people resident in Gibraltar has actually decreased from 2011 to date, and that doesn’t even consider that the last census was carried out in 2022, and the population of Gibraltar is likely even higher than 38,000.

If we then consider that the RGP have had:

(i) (ii) significantly increased pressure on resources in recent years; increased demands of modern policing due to the evolution of digital crimes and the way criminals operate; and (iii) increasing expectations of policing in preparation for the introduction of a Brexit Treaty, and it is easy to see why the RGP may feel there is a need for more funding.

Looking forward means increasing the resources that the RGP has at its disposal and not continuing to brush the issue under the carpet. What the public must ask themselves is whether the Government are spending money wisely so that they have enough to provide essential services, like the RGP, with more or if instead they are/have been spending frivolously and to the detriment of those services? The most recent Principal Auditor’s Reports suggest the latter.”