Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment he has made of the extent of resource sharing across police forces; what assistance his Department provides to support that sharing of resources; and if he will make a statement.

Decisions on the deployment and sharing of resources are matters for Chief Constables and elected Police and Crime Commissioners.

The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 placed a duty on chief officers and policing bodies to keep collaboration opportunities under review and to collaborate where it is in the interests of the efficiency or effectiveness of their own and other police force areas.

Through the Police Transformation Fund the Home Office is supporting the National Police Chief’s Council’s Specialist Capabilities Programme which is developing new approaches for the provision of specialist capabilities across police forces.