Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of (a) the level of funding for and (b) the number of police officers in the West Midlands.

The Government is committed to ensuring police forces are supported to tackle crime effectively and protect the communities they serve. Visible policing is essential to restoring public confidence in the police.

West Midlands will receive up to £846.9 million in funding in 2025-26, an increase of up to £56.6 million when compared to the 2024-25 funding settlement under the previous government. This represents a 7.2% cash increase and a 4.7% real terms increase in funding.

This includes a total of £30.7m to support the maintenance of 8,086 police officers.

The Government has also committed to boosting neighbourhood policing and is providing £200 million to police forces this financial year to support the first steps of delivering this commitment.

West Midlands Police has been allocated £12,210,903 from the £200 million fund for 2025/26. Based on their funding allocation, the projected growth for West Midlands Police over 2025/26 will be 289 police officers (FTE) and 20 Police Community Support Officers (FTE) in neighbourhood policing roles.