Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of the level of the 2018-2019 policing budget on police numbers in Northumbria for (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21.

The 2018/19 police funding settlement provided additional flexibility for forces to increase funding through council tax precept and protected Government grant funding to Police and Crime Commissioners in cash terms. The Northumbria PCC used this flexibility and saw an increase in direct resource funding of £5.2m this year.

The size and composition of the police workforce is a local decision for PCCs and Chief Constables.