Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential benefits and dis-benefits of transferring the Home Office UK Football Policing Unit to the National Police Chiefs' Council; and whether she has plans to do that.

There are strong strategic reasons for locating the UK Football Policing Unit (UKFPU) within policing, rather than as a central Government body. UKFPU’s current set-up as a civil service outfit constrains its ability to direct operational policing teams and unambiguously contribute to, and shape, the national football policing strategy.

Locating UKFPU in policing – rather than the Home Office – would bring it closer to its customer base, helping to provide a better service to the police and do more on the frontline to tackle football disorder.

It would also streamline and strengthen accountability, making clear that the police are responsible to the public for decisions that are made about policing, and preventing, football disorder on the ground. For these reasons I have asked my officials to take the work forward, in order to move the UKFPU into the NPCC later this year.