Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the current level of personnel in the PSNI; and what response he has made to the recent representations by the Police Federation for staffing levels to be increased.

Staffing levels in the Police Service of Northern Ireland are a matter for the Chief Constable and PSNI’s budget is provided by the Department of Justice. However, we will always give our fullest possible backing to the men and women of the PSNI who do such a superb job. That is partly why this Government has provided specific Additional Security Funding totalling £230million in the last parliament and committed a further £160m in the current parliament.