Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of funding levels for Kent Police.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is committed to ensuring that the police have the resources they need to tackle crime effectively.
Kent Police’s funding will be up to £431.5m in 2024-25. This is in addition to £4m provided for the 2024-25 pay award which has been allocated outside of the police funding settlement.
As announced at the Autumn Budget 2024, the settlement will increase the core government grant for police forces and help support frontline policing levels across the country.
Force level funding allocations for the financial year 2025-26 will be confirmed at the forthcoming police funding settlement. Funding for future years beyond 2025-26 will be set out in phase 2 of the Spending Review.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) funding her Department is providing and (b) steps her Department is taking to help prevent crime in (i) Ashford constituency and (ii) Kent.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The 2024-25 police funding settlement provides funding of up to £18.5 billion for the policing system in England and Wales. Kent Police’s funding will be up to £431.5m in 2024-25. This is in addition to £4m provided for the 2024-25 pay award which has been allocated outside of the police funding settlement.
Across all rounds of the Safer Streets Fund, and the Safety of Women at Night Fund, the Kent police force area has received just under £3.5 million, supporting 12 projects. This includes just over £760,000 through the latest, fifth round of funding to deliver three projects across various locations, including in Folkestone, Chatham, Sittingbourne and Sheerness, which have a focus on preventing anti-social behaviour, violence against women and girls and neighbourhood crime.
The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) in Kent has been allocated £1,568,614 to deliver the Hotspot Response programme in 24-25. This programme is a combination of additional, high visibility patrols targeted to the exact locations where they are needed most (‘hotspots’), and funding of problem-oriented policing tactics. Problem oriented policing aims to tackle the underlying drivers of crime using a comprehensive menu of policing interventions.
More broadly, this Government will treat tackling violence against women and girls as a national emergency and we will use every tool to target perpetrators and address the root causes of violence.
As part of the Government’s Safer Streets mission, the Home Secretary has made a clear commitment to strengthen neighbourhood policing through the introduction of a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, which includes getting thousands of neighbourhood police personnel back on the beat, giving local people a names officer who they can turn to when things go wrong, and cracking down on the street crime, shop theft and anti-social behaviour which makes communities feel less safe.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of levels of neighbourhood policing in (a) Ashford constituency and (b) Kent.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The 2024-25 police funding settlement provides funding of up to £18.5 billion for the policing system in England and Wales. Kent Police’s funding will be up to £431.5m in 2024-25. This is in addition to £4m provided for the 2024-25 pay award which has been allocated outside of the police funding settlement.
Across all rounds of the Safer Streets Fund, and the Safety of Women at Night Fund, the Kent police force area has received just under £3.5 million, supporting 12 projects. This includes just over £760,000 through the latest, fifth round of funding to deliver three projects across various locations, including in Folkestone, Chatham, Sittingbourne and Sheerness, which have a focus on preventing anti-social behaviour, violence against women and girls and neighbourhood crime.
The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) in Kent has been allocated £1,568,614 to deliver the Hotspot Response programme in 24-25. This programme is a combination of additional, high visibility patrols targeted to the exact locations where they are needed most (‘hotspots’), and funding of problem-oriented policing tactics. Problem oriented policing aims to tackle the underlying drivers of crime using a comprehensive menu of policing interventions.
More broadly, this Government will treat tackling violence against women and girls as a national emergency and we will use every tool to target perpetrators and address the root causes of violence.
As part of the Government’s Safer Streets mission, the Home Secretary has made a clear commitment to strengthen neighbourhood policing through the introduction of a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, which includes getting thousands of neighbourhood police personnel back on the beat, giving local people a names officer who they can turn to when things go wrong, and cracking down on the street crime, shop theft and anti-social behaviour which makes communities feel less safe.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to help tackle street crime against women and girls in (a) Ashford constituency and (b) Kent.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
The 2024-25 police funding settlement provides funding of up to £18.5 billion for the policing system in England and Wales. Kent Police’s funding will be up to £431.5m in 2024-25. This is in addition to £4m provided for the 2024-25 pay award which has been allocated outside of the police funding settlement.
Across all rounds of the Safer Streets Fund, and the Safety of Women at Night Fund, the Kent police force area has received just under £3.5 million, supporting 12 projects. This includes just over £760,000 through the latest, fifth round of funding to deliver three projects across various locations, including in Folkestone, Chatham, Sittingbourne and Sheerness, which have a focus on preventing anti-social behaviour, violence against women and girls and neighbourhood crime.
The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) in Kent has been allocated £1,568,614 to deliver the Hotspot Response programme in 24-25. This programme is a combination of additional, high visibility patrols targeted to the exact locations where they are needed most (‘hotspots’), and funding of problem-oriented policing tactics. Problem oriented policing aims to tackle the underlying drivers of crime using a comprehensive menu of policing interventions.
More broadly, this Government will treat tackling violence against women and girls as a national emergency and we will use every tool to target perpetrators and address the root causes of violence.
As part of the Government’s Safer Streets mission, the Home Secretary has made a clear commitment to strengthen neighbourhood policing through the introduction of a Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, which includes getting thousands of neighbourhood police personnel back on the beat, giving local people a names officer who they can turn to when things go wrong, and cracking down on the street crime, shop theft and anti-social behaviour which makes communities feel less safe.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to help tackle anti-social behaviour associated with the use of electric bikes and scooters in Ashford constituency.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for this Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission to take back our streets. The Government will give police the powers they need to take illegal, dangerous and antisocial vehicles off the streets for good and quickly destroy the vehicles they seize from offenders. We will set out more information in due course.
However, the use of those powers and the enforcement of road traffic law, including in relation to the anti-social use of electric bikes and electric scooters, remains an operational matter for Chief Officers who will decide how to deploy available resources, taking into account any specific local problems and demands.
Asked by: Sojan Joseph (Labour - Ashford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with police forces on the enforcement of the law governing the use of electric bikes and scooters.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for this Government, and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission to take back our streets. The Government will give police the powers they need to take illegal, dangerous and antisocial vehicles off the streets for good and quickly destroy the vehicles they seize from offenders. We will set out more information in due course.
However, the use of those powers and the enforcement of road traffic law, including in relation to the anti-social use of electric bikes and electric scooters, remains an operational matter for Chief Officers who will decide how to deploy available resources, taking into account any specific local problems and demands.