Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Department is taking to ensure rural police forces receive adequate funding to meet increasing demands in areas with low-population density.

The majority of public funding for police forces in England and Wales is provided by the Home Office and is agreed by the House of Commons on an annual basis at the police funding settlement. Each year the Home Office produces a Police Grant Report which is published and voted on by Parliament and contains grant funding allocations for the following year to be paid out under the Police Act 1996.

The funding formula used for distributing Home Office Police Main Grant divides funds between different activities that the police undertake. A portion of total funding is also distributed according to population sparsity, to address the specific needs of rural forces. A copy of the most recent Grant Report for 2024-25 has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses and can be found online:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65b913a1ee7d49000d9849d4/E03063051_-_Police_Grant_Report__England_and_Wales__24-25_Accessible.pdf

As announced at the Autumn budget 2024, the settlement will increase the core government grant for police forces in 2025-26 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.