Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of police resources to tackle robbery in urban areas.

The Government is determined that robust action should be taken to prevent robbery from happening and ensure swift justice for perpetrators.

The central aim of our police reform agenda is to protect and revitalise neighbourhood policing. We are lifting national responsibilities off local forces, so they focus on tackling local issues.

The Government has already taken steps to boost the neighbourhood policing response, ensuring that every neighbourhood has named, contactable officers dedicated to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour locally, and forces have increased patrols in town centres and other key locations based on local demand and intelligence.

By the end of February 2026, forces had delivered more than 3,100 additional police officers and PCSOs into neighbourhood roles since March 2025, strengthening neighbourhood teams as part of our Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee to deliver 13,000 more by the end of this Parliament.

Total funding to police forces will be up to £18.4 billion, an increase of up to £834 million compared to the 2025-26 police funding settlement. This equates to a 4.7% cash increase and a 2.7% real terms increase in funding.

All forces will receive a real terms increase in funding this year.

Through the Knife-Enabled Robbery Group, we are working with Chief Constables to roll out proven-to-work interventions targeted in the places where knife crime is highest, including large urban areas. Through this Group we have turned a 14% rise in knife-enabled robbery in these places into 15% reductions overall.