Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to reimburse police forces with funds commensurate with additional costs incurred as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

The Government has been clear that the Police will get the financial support they need to keep our communities safe through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Government took immediate steps to increase the availability of funding for forces to meet cashflow pressures caused by the pandemic. We flexed half of the £168 million Police Uplift ringfenced grant to include expenditure on COVID-19 related pressures for the first six months of the financial year. We also brought forward payment of the £142.6 million police pensions grant, which forces received in April this year.

The Home Office continues to gather evidence of forces’ additional Covid-19 related expenditures since the introduction of social distancing measures, developed in close consultation with policing sector finance leads. We will use this evidence base to inform cross-Government decisions on the police’s future funding needs.