Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of additional police recruits announced by the Government will be assigned to (a) territorial forces and (b) national policing priorities.

We are committed to recruiting 20,000 officers over the next three years.

Our priority for the first year of recruitment is to ensure we meet the public’s expectation of increased officer numbers in their communities. That’s why all of the 6,000 additional officers to be recruited in 2020/21 have been allocated between the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales.

Longer term decisions will be taken in due course on the allocation of officers in future years.