Police officers are spending no more time on the beat now than they were two years ago, despite a series of initiatives intended to get them out of stations, the Government’s adviser on cutting red tape said yesterday.

Jan Berry undermined the introduction of a Home Office White Paper on the future of policing by highlighting continuing problems with attempts to cut red tape and make efficiency savings.

As the Government announced proposals to overhaul policing, including standard uniforms across England and Wales and officers patrolling alone in town centres, Ms Berry pointed to problems with Home Office efforts to change working practices.

Many of the 27,000 portable hand-held computers given to officers in an attempt to keep them away from their desks are ineffective because they lack the right programs, she said.

Pilot schemes that give officers the discretion to use their judgment when handling minor crimes were not being adopted more widely because senior officers feared it would affect targets on clear up rates, she said.

Ms Berry said it was not possible to answer with absolute certainty if officers were spending more time on patrol now than two years ago. “But if you talk to police officers they would say it has remained the same or got slightly worse, which is quite worrying.” Ms Berry’s blunt assessment that “progress had been slow” on reducing red tape, came as Sir Hugh Orde, the leader of the country’s chief constables, dismissed the White Paper as a “second best solution” to the difficulties facing British policing.

Sir Hugh, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, told The Times that the White Paper was a “second best solution” to the problems facing policing and warned that there “wasn’t much fat in the system”.

He said that if big spending cuts were required then politicians would have to tell the police which services they did not want forces to provide.

“Chiefs are already working flat out to see where they can combine services and deliver savings, but that is a second best solution,” Sir Hugh said.

“It could lead to different approaches across the country, which will see some savings but will not produce what we could save by a more fundamental review of policing which would give us consistency across the country.

“We have to address the issue of amalgamations, but there is a lack of political leadership there. There is no political enthusiasm whatsoever to raise this even at a discussion level.”

Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, admitted that the White Paper was about consolidating work begun by his predecessor, Jacqui Smith, rather than a restructuring of the 43 forces in England and Wales that many senior officers now believe is essential.

Instead, he is to look for 5 per cent efficiency savings from the police’s £9 billion annual budget by 2014 through reductions in overtime, more efficient purchasing of equipment and rationalisation of back-room services.

The helicopter fleet will be reduced by a fifth from 33 to 26, and savings of £70 million a year made on the overtime bill within four years.

Officers patrolling alone in places such as town centres and the use of special constables at weekends were also recommended as a means of producing savings. A standard national uniform will be introduced by 2012. There will also be a standard patrol car for all forces and common procurement for body armour, mobile phones, BlackBerrys, translators and interpreters.

A common approach to purchasing IT would produce estimated savings of at least £400 million a year by 2014, the White Paper said. Ms Berry pointed to the failure of previous attempts to ensure IT compatability across all 43 forces. “Vested interests, the operational independence of chief officers, and, on occasion, the ‘not invented here’ mentality can all result in forces going their own way,” she said.

Ministers hope that the efficiency measures will produce overall savings of £545 million a year by 2014. Despite fears that the savings will eventually lead to reductions in police numbers, Mr Johnson denied that the drive would dilute the Government’s crime-fighting agenda.

“Cuts don’t come into this. Record levels of funding for this year and next year are guaranteed,” he said. “Our absolute priority is to maintain frontline policing numbers.”

He said that forces could save money by working together to buy computer systems and day-to-day equipment, rather than ordering them separately. “Police forces are collaborating to find ways to jointly procure, whether that is on uniforms, whether that is on cars, whether that’s on air support services,” he said. “There are always opportunities to do more.”

Sir Hugh warned that demands to reduce overtime by £70 million could be difficult to meet. He said: “Overtime reflects the realities of modern policing, including its unpredictability.

“Chief officers and police authorities look at overtime budgets very carefully and ... should always be carefully monitored for cost-effectiveness.

“The police service is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week organisation and has to be able to respond flexibly to any event or crime at any time.”

Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation, representing rank and file officers, said that the cuts envisaged “should not impinge on frontline policing services or public safety”. He added: “It is time that someone tackled this piecemeal approach to changes to policing.To that end, in order that we have considered change and not just change for change’s sake and after ten years of asking, we reiterate our longstanding call for a royal commission.”

Ian Johnston, president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, said: “The service needs to know just what Home Office officials consider to be ‘back office’ and at what stage police officer numbers and significant numbers of police staff jobs will be threatened in order to achieve such swingeing cuts.”

The centre-left think-tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research, described the proposals as “timid and unimaginative”. Rick Muir, a senior research fellow at the Institute, said: “There is scope for greater efficiency, but if cuts are not to hit frontline services, fundamental structural reform of the police needs to take place.”

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