BLACKBURN MP Jack Straw has expressed concern that transferring cash from Lancashire Constabulary to the Independent Police Complaints Commission so it can have greater powers to investigate misconduct could undermine the force’s own efforts to maintain profession standards.

He told Home Secretary Theresa May in the Commons: “I am concerned about the relationship between the professional standards units of individual forces and the IPCC. I understand that at a time of limited resources, money has to come from somewhere and that some transfer is sensible.

“However, will you have a care to ensure that professional standards units in individual forces are not so denuded that they cannot do their crucial initial work of identifying early possible bad police officers?”

Mrs May replied:”Work will be transferring from professional standards departments to the IPCC, so it therefore makes sense to transfer resources.

“We are not talking about not having professional standards departments at all.”