Asked by: Margaret Mullane (Labour - Dagenham and Rainham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if it remains her policy to move to a multi-year police settlement model.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government recognises the importance of funding certainty to enable policing to deliver for their communities and is committed to giving police the resources they need to tackle crime. That is why the Chancellor has announced a real terms increase in police spending power over the next three years.
As with previous years, more detail on force funding allocations for 2026-27 will be set out at the forthcoming police funding settlement.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Freedom of Information Act response with reference FOI2025/22431, published on 18 September 2025, what estimates his Department made of the revenue from the (a) town and parish council, (b) police, (c) the Greater London Authority and (d) combined authority precept in gross cash terms (i) in the Spending Review 2025 and (ii) in financial planning since the publication of the Spending Review annually from 2024-25 to 2029-29.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Core Spending Power estimates produced at the 2025 Spending Review use the same methodology as the previous government: starting with Council Tax Requirement (CTR) figures from the 2025-26 Local Government Finance Settlement; forecasting growth in the tax base using the average growth in the tax-setting tax base in each local authority over the previous five-year period (also from published CTR figures); and then assuming councils increase their council tax levels by the maximum allowable before triggering a council tax referendum. This is 5% for social care authorities, the greater of 3% or £5 for shire districts, £5 for fire authorities and £14 for the police element of the Greater London Authority.
These estimates do not therefore include the following precepting authorities: town and parish councils; police and crime commissioner authorities; and the non-fire element of mayoral combined authorities, as they are not in scope of the Local Government Finance Settlement.
Further detail on local government Core Spending Power will be published at the upcoming multi year Local Government Finance Settlement later this year.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to update data used to construct indicators for the calculation of Police Main Grant.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is committed to ensuring that policing has the resources it needs and the allocation of funding to police forces remains an important consideration.
The Chancellor has announced a real terms increase in police spending power over the next three years. As with previous years, decisions on police force funding allocations for 2026-27, including the police main grant, will be set out at the forthcoming police funding settlement.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's guidance entitled Community Recovery Fund: Guidance, published on 18 September 2024, whether councils report to his Department on how the Police Special Grant was spent.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Councils do not report to this Department on how the Police Special Grant is spent. The Police Special Grant is for police and crime commissioners to apply for and is administered by the Home Office.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 11 September 2025 to Question 71489 on Police: Finance, what the estimated cash value of council tax receipts for policing in England is in (a) 2026-27, (b) 2027-28 and (c) 2028-29.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
As set out in the Spending Review 2025 document, police spending power is projected to increase by an average 1.7% per year in real terms. Police spending power includes projected spending from additional income, including estimated funding from the police council tax precept.
The cash value of council tax receipts for policing in England will be subject to individual decisions from directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC) as part of their annual budget setting process. To inform those decisions, the 2026-27 police precept referendum limit for PCCs in England will be confirmed as part of the forthcoming police funding settlement later this year.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Llanfaes (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to reviewing the funding formula for policing.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is committed to ensuring that policing has the resources it needs and the allocation of funding to police forces remains an important consideration.
The Chancellor has announced a real terms increase in police spending power over the next three years. As with previous years, decisions on police force funding allocations for 2026-27 will be set out at the forthcoming police funding settlement.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to review funding allocations to police forces to ensure that rural areas receive sufficient resources to maintain (a) police stations and (b) community policing.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The funding formula used for distributing Home Office Police Main Grant to police forces in England and Wales as part of the annual police settlement divides funds between different activities that the police undertake. A portion of total funding is also distributed according to population sparsity, to address the specific needs of rural forces.
The Chancellor has announced a real terms increase in police spending power over the next three years. The allocation of funding to police forces remains an important consideration and as with previous years, more details on force funding allocations for 2026-27, including decisions on police force funding allocations, will be made via the provisional police funding settlement later in the year.
It is the responsibility of Chief Constables and locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), including Mayors who exercise PCC or equivalent functions, to take decisions around their resourcing and estates. They are best placed to make decisions with their communities based on their local knowledge and experience.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that rural areas receive adequate police funding to maintain (a) visible and (b) accessible policing.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The funding formula used for distributing Home Office Police Main Grant to police forces in England and Wales as part of the annual police settlement divides funds between different activities that the police undertake. A portion of total funding is also distributed according to population sparsity, to address the specific needs of rural forces.
The Chancellor has announced a real terms increase in police spending power over the next three years. The allocation of funding to police forces remains an important consideration and as with previous years, more details on force funding allocations for 2026-27, including decisions on police force funding allocations, will be made via the provisional police funding settlement later in the year.
It is the responsibility of Chief Constables and locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), including Mayors who exercise PCC or equivalent functions, to take decisions around their resourcing and estates. They are best placed to make decisions with their communities based on their local knowledge and experience.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what consideration she has given to reviewing the funding formula for policing.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
This Government is committed to ensuring that policing has the resources it needs and the allocation of funding to police forces remains an important consideration.
The Chancellor has announced a real terms increase in police spending power over the next three years. As with previous years, decisions on police force funding allocations for 2026-27 will be set out at the forthcoming police funding settlement.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what representations her Department has received from sending banks under the authorised push payment reimbursement arrangements in relation to (a) claims and (b) complaints by 79th Group investors; and what guidance UK Finance has provided to those banks on handling such claims.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Treasury Ministers have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at the link below.
All payment services providers, including banks, are required to comply with the Payment Systems Regulator’s authorised push payment (APP) scam reimbursement regime, which came into force on 7 October 2024. This requires firms to reimburse victims for qualifying APP scams which took place from 7 October 2024 and over the Faster Payments System up to the value of £85,000. For APP scams which took place before this, these may be eligible for reimbursement under the Contingent Reimbursement Model Code, which applied from May 2019 and was signed by the UK’s largest banks and building societies.
The 79th group are currently subject to an ongoing investigation by The City of London Police. As such the Government is unable to comment on the specifics of the case.
The FCA and PSR have recently written to financial services firms setting out their expectation that firms should determine whether any claims, or parts of claims, are a qualifying APP scam, on an individual basis.