£17m paid out in police overtime pay in Wales

There was a large police presence in Cardiff and Newport for the Nato summit

Nearly £17m was paid out as overtime to police officers and staff across Wales last year.

The overtime bill rose by £4.9m over the year with policing of the Nato summit being cited as the reason.

Overall, the four Welsh forces spent £16.9m in 2014-15, up from almost £12m in 2013-14. One speed camera unit supervisor at Gwent Police received £23,024 in payments.

BBC Radio 5 Live obtained the figures using Freedom of Information requests.

A total of 39 forces responded to the request and of those, South Wales Police reported the biggest percentage increase for overtime spending in the last year, from £5.2m in 2013-14 to £8.4m in 2014-15.

A force spokesman said 1,500 of its officers were among the 9,500 from across the UK involved in looking after the security of world leaders last September.

The extra cost was recovered from the Home Office.

The force said further overtime costs were due to special events, such as rugby and football matches, which could also be recovered from event organisers.

Gwent Police, which was involved with policing the Nato events at the Celtic Manor, saw its overtime costs increase by 40% to a bill of £2.7m, up from £1.9m.

But it said the £23,000 bill for a speed camera unit supervisor would fall to the GoSafe camera partnership - not the force.

In a statement, Gwent Police officials said: "Overtime working must meet specific criteria which demonstrates necessity and value for money.

"In some operational circumstances this is the most cost effective and flexible use of resources."

Barack Obama and David Cameron joined other world leaders in Newport for the Nato summit

Dyfed-Powys Police saw overtime costs increase by 33% to a total of £2.4m, up £600,000.

One police constable in the force received overtime payments of £21,327 in 2014-15.

The force said the increased costs were due to an additional Bank Holiday, Nato summit obligations and covering staff vacancies.

Police and crime commissioner, Christopher Salmon, said he raised the individual constable's overtime with the chief constable.

He said he "was satisfied that this payment was justified due to exceptional operational requirements".

"I continue to scrutinise overtime payments by Dyfed-Powys Police," he added.

North Wales Police spent an additional £350,000, a rise of 12%, to £3.2m compared to 2013-14.

Police put up a cordon at a big anti-Nato demonstration in Newport