Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take steps to encourage and promote community policing.

Visible policing in local neighbourhoods is central to the British model of policing by consent. It is important that police are accessible and accountable to communities and engage with them to build trust and understand community needs.

We are committed to delivering on the people’s priorities and ensuring that policing has the resources it needs; we have increased the police funding settlement by £1.1billion in 2022/23, and through the Police Uplift Programme, police forces in England and Wales have already recruited over 13,500 additional officers (as at 31 March 2022) and are on track to deliver 20,000 additional officers by March 2023.

Decisions about frontline policing, and how resources are best deployed, are for Chief Constables and democratically accountable Police and Crime Commissioners. They are best placed to make decisions with their communities based on their local knowledge and experience.