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 the level of visibility of police officers in their communities.

Decisions about the deployment of police officers is an operational matter for Chief Constables.

The Beating Crime Plan sets out our expectations of police forces to tackle crime, including our approach for achieving greater visibility in community policing. The public should be able to contact their local police, know their names and how to reach them. The Government is clear that we expect police to be visible in their neighbourhood, confronting crime and making streets safer.

We are continuing work to increase the number of police officers in England and Wales. As at 30 June 2022, 13,790 additional officers have been recruited in England and Wales through the Police Uplift Programme. This is 69% of the target of 20,000 additional officers by March 2023.