Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of how many full-time equivalent police officers including long term absentees will be serving in Merseyside Police in each of the next five years.

The Home Office has not made an estimate of future police officer numbers in Merseyside for the next five years. The size and composition of the police workforce is a local decision for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners

In the 2018/19 funding settlement, the Government enabled PCCs to increase the amount of direct funding they could raise locally through Council Tax. This year, Merseyside is seeing an increase in funding of £5.1m following the PCC’s decision to use their flexibility to increase precept. The PCC has stated that the force will recruit officers to help tackle serious and organised crime in the area

Decisions on Government spending beyond 2019/20 will be taken at the Spending Review.