Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on improving neighbourhood policing in (a) Beckenham and Penge constituency and (b) the UK.

The Government is committed to strong neighbourhood policing for everyone in England and Wales, no matter where they live.

As the Prime Minister announced on 10 April, by July, every community will have named, and contactable officers dedicated to addressing the issues facing their communities as part of the Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee.

We are providing £200 million to police forces in financial year 2025/26 to support the first steps of delivering 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel.

The Metropolitan Police has been allocated £45,639,456 from the £200 million fund for 2025/26. Based on their funding allocation, the projected growth for neighbourhood officers in the Metropolitan Police over 2025/26 will be 420 (FTE) police officers and 50 (FTE) Police Community Support Officers.