Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much funding they have provided in each year since 2012–13 to enable citizens to send the police photo, video and audio evidence of crimes they have captured on their smartphones.

The Home Office is running an ambitious portfolio of programmes to improve the national technology capabilities available to policing. This includes: the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) providing a single platform for critical voice and data; Home Office Biometrics provides a single platform for fingerprint, facial recognition and DNA; The National Law Enforcement Data Programme provides access across policing to national police information as well as sharing intelligence across forces; The National ANPR Service will unite all local ANPR systems into a single national system; and the Home Office continues to enhance the capabilities of the national Child Abuse Image Database.

These programmes are replacing aging and obsolete technology, as well as introducing new capabilities, and we are working with policing across this portfolio to support maximisation of the benefits these offer: cash savings, productivity opportunities and better outcomes for the public.