Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the potential effect of re-prioritising funding for counter-terror policing on (a) community policing and (b) other policing functions.

The Government is in regular dialogue with the police to ensure that the right powers, capabilities and resources are in place across all areas of policing.

The 2015 Spending Review protected overall police spending in real terms, and the 2017/18 police funding settlement maintained that protection. Since 2010, police forces have increased the proportion of officers working at the frontline and proven that you can continue to cut crime with a smaller, more agile workforce. Crimes traditionally measured by the independent Crime Survey for England and Wales have fallen by a third since 2010, to a record low.

Keeping families, communities and our country safe is this Government’s priority, so in addition, we have protected Counter-Terrorism police spend in real terms over the Spending Review period and invested in counter-terrorism policing to grow key capabilities, including providing £144m to increase armed policing capability. We remain committed to increasing cross-government spending on counter-terrorism by 30%, from £11.7 billion to £15.1 billion, including funding an additional 1,900 officers at our security and intelligence agencies.

We have also continued to protect investment in Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs), who deliver specialist capabilities to tackle serious and organised crime on behalf of police forces. The ROCUs play a crucial role in the law enforcement response to SOC, acting as the main interface between the National Crime Agency (NCA) and 43 police forces of England and Wales. Last year saw the largest collective financial investment by Police and Crime Commissioners in ROCUs since they were formed. This should be seen as a strong signal of both the government and policing’s continued commitment to tackling the serious harms caused by SOC to the most vulnerable members of our communities up and down the country.