Policing to receive up to £1.1bn extra to cut crime

Home Secretary Priti Patel has announced that policing will receive a funding boost of up to £1.1 billion next year to drive down crime and deliver safer streets for all.

The 2022/23 funding package represents an inflation-busting seven per cent cash increase on last year and means policing will receive up to £16.9 billion in total in 2022/23.

The boost in resources will help support the delivery of the Beating Crime Plan, which set out the government’s mission to deliver fewer victims, safer neighbourhoods, and a more secure country. In particular, the plan focuses on driving down homicide, serious violence and neighbourhood crime – to ensure that everyone can benefit from the security that a safe home, street and country provides.

Within the total package, forces will also be given £550 million more from government grants, including funding for hiring the 20,000 extra officers promised by the government by the end of March 2023. The successful recruitment campaign has already seen more than 11,000 additional police officers join up and make a difference in communities across England and Wales.

Patel said: “Crimes including theft, burglary and knife crime are down, we’ve got an additional 11,053 police officers on our streets, and we’ve shut down 1,500 drugs lines which exploit the young and the vulnerable.

“But we must go further and faster to make our communities even safer, so today I am giving our excellent police forces and law enforcement agencies more funding to do just that, in line with our Beating Crime Plan. Reducing crime is a top priority for this government and I will continue working with police leaders to ensure this unprecedented investment results in less crime and fewer victims.”