Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much of the total police budget was used to tackle (a) fraud and (b) online abuse in each of the last five years.

The Government protected overall police spending in the 2015 Spending Review, and the 2017/18 police funding settlement maintains that commitment.

Every Police & Crime Commissioner who maximised their local precept income in 2016/17 and 2017/18 will receive at least the same direct resource funding in cash that they received in 2015/16.

Ministers make decisions on police funding to benefit policing as a whole. It is a matter for Chief Constables, working with their Police and Crime Commissioners, to manage their available resources according to local priorities. The Government does not assess police spending on each area of demand. However, I can confirm that we have provided over £2.5m to the City of London Police in respect of their lead force role in tackling fraud.

In its commentary on crime statistics the independent Office for National Statistics points to improved crime recording practice by police forces as an important factor in explaining increases in police recorded crime, which we welcome. HMIC’s rolling programme of crime data integrity inspections will keep the spotlight on forces to improve the accuracy of their crime recording.