Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the distribution of Police Uplift Programme funding on the safety of poorer communities in the West Midlands.

West Midlands Police was allocated a total of £2,547.1m during the period covered by the previous Government’s Police Uplift Programme.

By the end of the Police Uplift Programme West Midlands Police recruited 1,376 additional uplift officers (headcount) against a total three-year allocation of 1,218 officers.

Forces are operationally independent, and it is for Chief Constables and directly elected PCCs, and Mayors with PCC functions to make operational decisions on how best to use their available resources to meet local needs.