Forces to be granted £15.8bn police funding package amid drive for new officers

Policing is set to see a boost in funding that’s millons of times bigger than last year 
PA

A £15.8 billion funding package for policing is set to be granted to forces over the coming year.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the money will be used for the ongoing drive to recruit 20,000 new officers by 2023, and tackling terrorism.

The package is up to £636 million more than last year's fund.

Some £400 million will be used to hire the extra officers, following the employment of 6,000 more police through the initiative so far.

There were 129,110 officers employed by the UK's 43 forces as of March 2020, according to the latest ONS figures.

The Home Office has said the money will also enable police to tackle serious violence. It will increase the number of specialist officers for counter-terrorism and serious organised crime including child sexual abuse and drug trafficking, the department added.

Ms Patel said the Government aims to "build back safer from the pandemic”. She said: "We have asked more of the police than ever before during the coronavirus pandemic - the British people and I are extremely grateful for their dedication.

"I am absolutely committed to giving the police the resources they need - this funding package delivers on that."

Some £914 million of the fund will be used for counter-terrorism policing, with an extra £32 million to establish a new Counter-Terrorism Operations Centre.

The Home Office said this year £30 million was spent on Covid-19 enforcement, and officers were reimbursed for all PPE as recognition for their service.

The final police funding settlement will be debated in Parliament ahead of the new financial year. 

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in