Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of local police station closures on (a) response times and (b) public confidence in policing.

It is for Chief Constables and directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners (or equivalents) to make decisions on local resourcing and estates, including police stations. They are best placed to make these decisions based on their knowledge of local need and their experience. Police stations are just one of the ways in which people can access their local police, including reporting online and by phone 24/7 via 999 for emergencies and 101 for non-emergency calls.

A key part of the Government’s Safer Streets Mission is focused on restoring neighbourhood policing. As part of this, we have introduced the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, which will ensure that by July, every community will have named and contactable officers dedicated to addressing the issues facing their communities. We have also provided £200 million in FY 2025/26 to support the first steps of delivering 13,000 more neighbourhood policing personnel across England and Wales by the end of the Parliament. This increase in neighbourhood policing, alongside the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, will strengthen the connections between the police and the communities they serve.