Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to increase the number of community policing teams in the West Midlands.

Decisions about how neighbourhood policing is delivered, including the deployment and composition of community policing teams, are for operationally independent Chief Constables. They are best placed to use their local knowledge and experience to serve local communities. Democratically elected PCCs are responsible for holding Chief Constables to account for the running of their force.

We are ensuring that policing has the resources it needs. As a result of the Police Uplift Programme there are now almost 150,000 officers in police forces across England and Wales - the highest number on record. As at 31 March 2023, West Midlands Police had recruited 1,376 additional officers against a total three-year uplift allocation of 1,218 officers.

The number of police officers within local policing roles in England and Wales is the highest since comparable data began. As at 31 March 2023, West Midlands Police had 3,629 full time equivalent police officers employed in local policing roles, a 4.2% increase on the previous year (3,483 FTE in March 2022).