Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to increase resources for (a) Thames Valley Police and (b) police officers in Slough.

The Government is proposing a total police funding settlement of up to £15.8 billion in 2021/22, an increase of up to £636 million compared to 2020/21. Of this, Thames Valley Police is set to receive up to £482.8m in 2021/22, an increase of up to £26.1m, assuming full take-up of precept flexibility.

We are increasing the number of police officers by 20,000 by March 2023. At 31 December 2020, 6,620 additional officers have been recruited as part of the Police Uplift Programme and forces have therefore met the first target of 6,000 additional officers by March 2021 ahead of schedule.

Thames Valley Police has recruited 258 additional officers as at 31 December 2020, and has therefore exceeded its year one allocation of 183 officers. Thames Valley Police’s officer Uplift recruitment target for 2021/22 is 171 officers, plus 8 officers to increase capacity to tackle organised crime. The deployment of these officers is an operational decision for Chief Constables.

Additionally, over 2019/20 and 2020/21 Thames Valley has been allocated £3.2m in Police Surge Funding to uplift Forces’ operational response to violent crime and £2.3m to develop a Violence Reduction Unit to tackle the root causes of violence