Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she last (a) conducted a review of the Police Allocation Formula (PAF) and (b) made an assessment of the impact of the PAF on the West Midlands; and if she will publish a breakdown of the effect of damping on police funding allocations to West Midlands Police in each of the last 10 years.

The government is currently conducting a review of the Police Funding Formula. We recognise that the current police funding formula is out of date and no longer accurately reflects demand on policing. We intend to introduce a new funding formula before the next General Election.

Floor damping was applied by the then Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG - now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) before DCLG funding for local policing bodies was transferred to the Home Office in 2013/14. Funding allocations were confirmed through the 2013/14 Police Grant Report, and the floor damping calculation for policing bodies was set out in “Calculating the 2013/14 Formula Funding‟ which accompanied the Provisional Local Government Finance Report (England) 2013/14.

The annual Police Grant Report published by the Home Office provides information on how allocations have been made from 2013/14 to 2022/23. Damping applied to funding for local policing bodies before 2013/14 by the then-DCLG is set out in the annual Local Government Finance settlements.