Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to employer National Insurance contributions on police recruitment.

The 2025-26 final police funding settlement provides funding of up to £19.6 billion for the policing system in England and Wales. This is an overall increase of up to £1.1 billion when compared to the 2024-25 and represents a 6% cash increase and 3.5% real terms increase in funding.

This includes an additional £230.3 million of funding for territorial police forces to cover the costs of the increases to National Insurance Contributions.

The Government is committed to ensuring police forces are supported to effectively tackle crime. That’s why we have committed £200 million to kickstart the recruitment of 13,000 additional neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs in communities across the country.