Police in Swindon & Wiltshire will be able to access a £9.1 million increase in funding next year, news which has been welcomed by North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson.
The Government will increase funding available to Police & Crime Commissioners (PCC) by up to £813m, if PCCs use their precept flexibility fully – the biggest annual increase since 2010 - and of this investment our local police will receive £9.1 million.
Both Justin and his South Swindon colleague Robert Buckland MP have shared the ideas & concerns of local police office & residents about the best ways of ensuring officers have the resources needed to fight crime. Justin recently joined Kier Pritchard, the Chief Constable of Wiltshire, on the beat across a wide area of North Swindon.
The provisional funding settlement for next year, announced today, builds on this year’s total increase in police funding of £460m. The funding includes:
- An increase in funding from central Government: The Government will increase the Government grant to PCCs by £161m, protecting the Government grants for every Police and Crime Commissioner in real terms. This is the first real term increase in the Government grant funding since 2010. On top of this the Government will provide £153m of specific funding to the policing system to assist with increased pensions costs.
- More money to spend locally: If PCCs ask households to contribute an extra £2 a month, this would generate around £510 million in additional funding for better policing. Overall, including precept flexibility, PCCs would see an increase of up to £813m in funding. The impact on your local force is set out in the annex.
- An enhanced response to serious and organised crime: The Government will invest £90m in the Serious and Organised Crime Strategy to enhance our capability to tackle the criminal networks driving economic crime, child sexual exploitation and cyber-crime.
- Additional investment in the vital work of our counter-terrorism officers: As the Chancellor announced at the Budget, funding for counter-terrorism policing will increase by £160m compared to the original Spending Review plan. Counter terrorism police will receive a £59m (8%) increase in like-for-like funding when compared to 2018/19.
The investment will enable forces to; continue recruiting, fill crucial capability gaps, meet genuine pressures, drive through efficiency programmes, and improve their effectiveness by preventing crime and delivering better outcomes for victims of crime.
To ensure this investment is well spent, the Government will work with the police on four key areas next year that drive efficiency and effectiveness: delivering on the police’s ambition to procure efficiently and share back office services; working more productively, including through digital mobile working; filling the major capability gaps the independent inspectorate has identified in detectives and investigations; and supporting coordinated work to tackle serious and organised crime.
Justin Tomlinson MP said: “We will always be on the side of the police, and we recognise the new challenges officers face. This funding will help ease some of those pressures and deliver additional resources to tackle all forms of crime. I am also pleased that the Government will be working with the police to improve efficiency and improve outcomes for victims of crime.”
