Lincolnshire Police to get £7m extra funding to recruit officers and fight crime

As part of the Government’s ongoing commitment to increase numbers in the ranks of forces around the country, the UK’s polices will receive a funding boost of up to £1.1 billion next year to drive down crime and deliver safer streets for all, according to Home Secretary Priti Patel.

The Home secretary said today (Thursday) the 2022/23 funding package represents an inflation-busting seven per cent cash increase on last year and means policing will receive up to £16.9 billion in total in 2022/23.

More money will be delivered to support delivery of 20,000 extra police officers and of this £16.9 billion, £1.4 billion is earmarked for tackling national priorities – including murder, serious violence, neighbourhood crime, taking down county lines, child sexual abuse and exploitation, fraud and modern slavery.

The boost in resources will help support the delivery of the Beating Crime Plan. In particular, the Plan focuses on driving down homicide, serious violence and neighbourhood crime.

The additional funding will allow police forces to continue the work already being done to target criminals.

In Lincolnshire total funding for 2021/22 came to £138.8 million. That will rise by £7 million to £145.8 million in 2022/23.

So far the recruitment drive funding has seen an additional 129 officers join the county’s ranks up to September 30, 2021.

The UK funding campaign has seen a 14 per cent fall in overall crime (excluding fraud and computer misuse) between June 2019 and June 2021, with 11,053 additional officers hired across England and Wales – 55 per cent of the target of 20,000 extra police officers by March 2023.

Over 1,500 county lines have been closed, over 7,400 arrests, £4.3m in drugs seized and more than 4,000 vulnerable people safeguarded, thanks to investment in shutting down county lines since 2021.

Almost 16,000 knives and other dangerous weapons have been removed from the UK’s streets last year thanks to police use of stop and search powers.

And 300,000 at risk young people have been reached through Violence Reduction Units, set up across the country thanks to £105.5m in funding. This forms part of the £242m invested since 2019 to zone in on serious violence and homicide hotspots.

Within the total package, forces will also be given £550 million more from government grants, including funding for hiring the 20,000 extra officers promised by the Government by the end of March 2023.

the Home Secretary commented: “Crimes including theft, burglary and knife crime are down, we’ve got an additional 11,053 police officers on our streets, and we’ve shut down 1,500 drugs lines which exploit the young and the vulnerable.

“But we must go further and faster to make our communities even safer, so today I am giving our excellent police forces and law enforcement agencies more funding to do just that, in line with our Beating Crime Plan.

“Reducing crime is a top priority for this Government and I will continue working with police leaders to ensure this unprecedented investment results in less crime and fewer victims.”

Police and Crime Minister Kit Malthouse said: “Police officers in the East Midlands are doing great work pursuing drug gangs, protecting vulnerable people from harm and tackling neighbourhood crimes such as theft. This cash injection means that can clamp down on the crimes that really matter to people with even more determination.

“Police forces in the East Midlands have already benefitted from extra officers being out on the streets after more than 11,000 have been hired to forces across England and Wales over the last two years, helping to drive crime down.

“This increase in funding will see even more officers hired to tackle crime, continue to remove weapons from our streets and support communities to feel safer.”

Lincolnshire Chief Constable Chris Haward said: “It’s good news that policing will receive a cash boost because it should provide some certainty for the future and means we should be able to continue to invest in priority areas in Lincolnshire to ensure the county is the safest place to live, work and visit. We are working through the exact details of what the announcement will mean for us here in Lincolnshire but remain cautiously optimistic.

“This should enable us to further focus on areas that really impact on our communities, including violence against women and girls, drugs gangs and issues, serious violent crime, and neighbourhood crime.

“Historically Lincolnshire hasn’t been given a particularly fair deal when it comes to being allocated funding from the central government funding package but our officers and staff have continued to do an exceptional job in keeping our communities safe, even when faced with the unprecedented demand we’ve seen recently. I know that we’ll continue to police to that high standard and I, along with the Police and Crime Commissioner and Chief Officer colleagues, will continue to petition government to ensure our allocation of the funding formula allows our officers and staff the means to provide policing to Lincolnshire that keeps people safe and protects them from harm.”

Funding to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) is increasing by up to an additional £796 million, assuming full take-up of precept flexibility. PCCs will have up to £10 of precept flexibility per Band D property in each of the next three years to use according to their local needs.

The settlement includes more money to enable the police to tackle Serious Organised Crime, support rape victims and protect our national security, with Counter Terrorism police funding increasing to over £1 billion for the first time.

From the total settlement, £1.4 billion will be spent to deliver on national priorities, including taking down more county lines, reducing violent crime, child sexual abuse and exploitation, fraud and modern slavery.

Next year will see:

* More officers to specifically tackle serious organised crime.

* The creation of a National Crime Laboratory to drive the use of innovative data science techniques to prevent and reduce crime.

* Increase testing of innovative ways for the police and CPS to investigate rape cases.

* Delivering on a commitment to ensure that no victim of rape and serious sexual assault is left without a mobile phone for more than 24 hours.

* Improvements in local police performance, including measuring responsiveness to 101 and 999 calls.

* Further investment in law enforcement intelligence and investigations to tackle economic crime.

* More investment in tackling fraud and improving the way in which intelligence on firearms is collected and managed.

* Investment in major law enforcement programmes, and other critical national police and law enforcement IT capabilities.

National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for Finance, Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, said: “We welcome the certainty provided to policing by the recent multi-year settlement, and investment in additional officers.

“The confirmation of funding announced today will allow forces to focus additional resources into tackling priority crime areas for the public, such as targeting those that perpetrate violence against women and girls, county lines drug gangs and serious violent crime.”

Chief Constable Andy Marsh, the chief executive of the College of Policing, said: “More funding to support policing is welcome as the service continues to work relentlessly to prevent crime and protect the public.

“The additional police officers coming into the service will strengthen the existing workforce and allow forces to make decisions on how best to use this resource to keep the public safe.

“The demands and complexity of policing are changing and it is important that forces have the resource to continue tackling traditional crime types such as burglary, while also listening to the public and renewing our focus to better protect women and girls, improve diversity and build trust.”

The publication of the provisional funding settlement opens a period of consultation. The final police funding settlement will be debated in Parliament ahead of the new financial year.