Policing gets biggest funding boost in decade to put more bobbies on the beat

Today (Wednesday 22 January) the government has announced the biggest increase in funding for the police system in a decade.

The amount of funding available to the policing system for 2020 to 2021 will increase by more than £1.1 billion, totalling £15.2 billion, if Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) take full advantage of flexibility to set the police precept.

This represents an almost 10% increase on the core (resource) grant provided to forces last year, enabling the police to cut crime and deliver on the people’s priorities.

It builds on a number of existing government commitments to bear down on the criminals who seek to do our communities and our country harm. It will enable forces to recruit 6,000 of the 20,000 additional police officers by the end of March 2021.

It will provide £150 million in funding to fight organised crime and continue to crack down on online child abuse. Tackling serious violence will be also backed with £39 million, which includes £20 million for county lines drug dealing, which is seeing abhorrent gangs terrorising our towns.

As announced by the Home Secretary on Tuesday 21 January, funding for counter-terrorism policing will total £906 million in 2020 to 2021, a year-on-year increase of £90 million.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said:

This government is delivering on the people’s priorities by giving policing the biggest funding increase in a decade.

It will mean more officers tackling the crime blighting our streets, so people can feel safe in their communities.

The police must now make full use of this significant investment to deliver for the public.

PCCs will have access to:

• £8,702 million in government grants, which is £667 million more than the previous year
• flexibility to increase local funding in England by setting the council tax referendum limit to £10 for a typical (Band D) property.
• if all PCCs in England maximise this flexibility and ask average households to contribute less than 20 pence per week, this would generate around £248 million in additional funding for forces in England next year.

The settlement includes the £750 million announced by the Chancellor last year to enable forces to meet their officer recruitment targets.

The bulk will go directly to PCCs (£700 million). The remainder will be spent nationally on capabilities and infrastructure to support the recruitment drive.

This includes investments to improve the recruitment process including training and specialist schemes to ensure the right officers end up in the right roles.