Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to increase police officer (a) recruitment and (b) retention within Greater London.

The Government is committed to ensuring police forces are supported to effectively tackle crime. We are clear that visible policing is essential to restoring public confidence in the police. As a result, our expectation is that officer numbers must be protected.

We expect the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to do all it can to halt the decline in officer numbers and prioritise frontline policing.

The Government is supporting the MPS by providing the force with £3.8 billion of funding in the 2025/26 police settlement. This is a £226.9 million increase when compared with the 2024/25 settlement, equating to a 6.4% cash increase and 3.9% real terms. In addition for 2025/26, we have transferred some ringfenced funding to the core grant, of which the MPS will receive its funding formula share.

We will work with the MPS and Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) to fully understand the force’s recruitment challenges. The MPS must ensure that they are taking every step available to put in place recruitment and retention plans that prevent further reductions in headcount and protect officer numbers.