Fair funding fight for county’s police force suffers delay

The man overseeing policing in Lincolnshire has repeated calls for a new funding formula for forces in England and Wales.
Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Hardwick visits Spalding and meets Michal Wojtowocz with Angelika Kryiak.  Photo by Tim Wilson.Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Hardwick visits Spalding and meets Michal Wojtowocz with Angelika Kryiak.  Photo by Tim Wilson.
Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Hardwick visits Spalding and meets Michal Wojtowocz with Angelika Kryiak. Photo by Tim Wilson.

Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Hardwick was responding to a statement from policing minister Mike Penning who admitted that proposed changes to the Government’s police funding formula would be delayed after officials made a serious mistake in their calculations.

Mr Penning had visited Lincolnshire in March to speak with Mr Hardwick and Chief Constable before a promise was made to send a Home Office task force to the county to help review how police funding was decided.

“Everyone agrees with me and the Chief Constable that the current formula is not fit for purpose,” Mr Hardwick said.

“In particular, Government Ministers have been very clear with us that Lincolnshire has not been treated fairly in the past.

“But there is also no doubt that, nationally, the police service can save money and Lincolnshire remains one of the lowest spending forces per head of population in the country.

“Many forces have much further to go to become as efficient as Lincolnshire, so the new funding arrangements need to incentivise those forces into action.

“However, we will continue to work constructively with the Government to inform the new arrangements.”

In response to a parliamentary question last Monday, Mr Penning apologised for the error in calculations after it was claimed that 31 out of the 43 police forces in England and Wales would have lost money as a result.

Mr Penning said: “We recognise this has caused a great deal of concern for police forces around the country and both I and the government regret this mistake.”