One of the UK’s most senior police officers has warned that police cuts expected to be announced next week will reduce very significantly the country's ability to respond to a Paris-style attack.

 The advisory came in a restricted document prepared for Home Secretary Theresa May.

It says the ability to mobilize large numbers of officers would "reduce very significantly across the country".

The Home Office said it would not comment on the leaked document.

According to the state-funded BBC, the document suggests further cuts to police budgets would affect the authorities' ability to respond to multiple attacks.

Chancellor George Osborne is set to announce cuts to the police budget of more than 20% when he addresses Parliament on Wednesday.

The Home Office budget is one of the departments in Whitehall that is not protected from the overall cuts.

But the concerns in the document go beyond this specific budget.

As BBC said, they are outlined in a letter to the home secretary dated 15 November and copied to the Treasury, Number 10 and the security services.

"It would be remiss of me not to highlight the impact further reductions in police force numbers would have on our ability to manage terrorist incidents of this magnitude, particularly if spread simultaneously across a number of geographical locations….police forces across England and Wales have already seen a reduction of 40,000 officers and further losses will severely impact our surge capacity, which is heavily geared and will reduce very significantly across the country unless a different funding settlement is found,” it says.

 Osborne and May met on Thursday to try to finalize spending plans for the Home Office.