NPCC statement on police funding settlement

Responding to today's announcement on police funding, National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Finance, Chief Constable Paul Sanford, said:

“The funding settlement announced today presents real challenges for policing, with forces facing an estimated £1.3bn gap in finances over the next two years. This will inevitability lead to cuts across forces.

“Investment in neighbourhood policing is welcome, as is the Government’s ambition to support and deliver the wide-scale reform our service needs in order to better protect the public in the long term.

“However, by ringfencing funding for neighbourhood police officers, forces are unable to invest in other specialist areas of policing that are critical to our service.

“Crime is evolving at a rapid pace and becoming more and more complex in nature. At a time when community needs have never been greater, we cannot afford to cut back our resources.

“We are fully committed to achieving the Government’s ambition of making our streets safer and reducing violence against women and girls. To do that, we need to focus on recruiting the right people with the right skills, supported by the best technology, and not measure our effectiveness alone through officer numbers.

“Our current funding model is outdated and means that the funding announced today will not be evenly shared across forces, resulting in some forces facing significant deficits. As part of wider police reform, we have long called for a new funding model that would help forces to plan for the future and improve financial resilience.

“We continue to work with government to drive greater productivity and efficiency in our police service, however, without proper funding and investment, and with no resilience left in police budgets, efficiencies can only take us so far to meet these challenges.

“We reaffirm our commitment to work closely with government to improve policing, including through the forthcoming spending review.”