Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the potential effect of the grant settlement and provisional settlements for police forces up to 2019-20 on the ratio of officers to members of the public.

The Government has protected overall police spending for the coming Spending Review period in real terms, when local income is taken into account. This is an increase of up to £900 million in cash terms by 2019/20. The public can be confident that over the next four years the police will have the resources they need to carry on cutting crime, fighting terrorism and keeping the people of this country safe.

The proportion of police officers in frontline roles in England and Wales has increased from 89% in March 2010 to 92% in March 2015. Ultimately, decisions on the size and composition of a police force’s workforce are for individual chief officers and Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs).