Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the effect of recommendation C of the NAO report entitled Financial sustainability of police forces in England and Wales 2018 on rural police forces in England and Wales.

After I engaged with all 43 police forces in England & Wales in 2017 about the demands on them, the Government decided that we should provide greater financial certainty for the police for 2018/29 and 2019/20. We are investing an additional £460m in the policing system this year, including around £280m of direct funding from council tax precept.

We will consider the issue of the police funding formula will be in the context of the next Spending Review.