Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown welcomes news that the Government is well on the way to recruiting its target of 20,000 extra police officers and highlights the impact of extra officers and the chances of a crime being investigated as an effective deterrent.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (The Cotswolds) (Con)
What steps her Department is taking to increase police funding. [904588]
The Minister for Crime and Policing (Kit Malthouse)
The Government are now spending over £15 billion on policing—an increase of £1 billion on last year, with £700 million being allocated to police and crime commissioners to recruit 6,000 additional officers by the end of March 2021. While there is no direct connection between police numbers and crime, this will give them the capacity to be much more agile in the face of changing crime.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown
Following the excellent announcement that my hon. Friend has given the House this afternoon, which goes a long way towards meeting our Conservative party pledge to recruit an extra 20,000 police officers, would he agree that the real importance of those police officers is that every criminal will know that it is much more likely their crime is going to be investigated and, if it is proved, will result in a prosecution?
Kit Malthouse
With his usual perspicacity, my hon. Friend puts his finger on the button. We know that the greatest deterrent of crime is the perception of the likelihood of being caught, and the fact that Gloucestershire police has now more than recruited its annual allocation of police officers—he will be pleased to hear—at 48, over 46, already so far this year, means that that is much more likely to be the case in his county.