Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether (a) the local police service or (b) the Exchequer benefits from the sale of former police buildings.

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.

Under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, PCCs have a functional power to do anything which is calculated to facilitate, or is conducive or incidental to, the exercise of their functions including the acquisition or disposal of property (including land). Capital receipts from the sale of capital assets are retained by the PCC and can be used to repay loan debt or to finance new capital expenditure.