| answer text |
<p>The Government is in regular dialogue with the police to ensure that the right
powers, capabilities and resources are in place across all areas of policing.</p><p>The
2015 Spending Review protected overall police spending in real terms, and the 2017/18
police funding settlement maintained that protection. Since 2010, police forces have
increased the proportion of officers working at the frontline and proven that you
can continue to cut crime with a smaller, more agile workforce. Crimes traditionally
measured by the independent Crime Survey for England and Wales have fallen by a third
since 2010, to a record low.</p><p>Keeping families, communities and our country safe
is this Government’s priority, so in addition, we have protected Counter-Terrorism
police spend in real terms over the Spending Review period and invested in counter-terrorism
policing to grow key capabilities, including providing £144m to increase armed policing
capability. We remain committed to increasing cross-government spending on counter-terrorism
by 30%, from £11.7 billion to £15.1 billion, including funding an additional 1,900
officers at our security and intelligence agencies.</p><p>We have also continued to
protect investment in Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs), who deliver specialist
capabilities to tackle serious and organised crime on behalf of police forces. The
ROCUs play a crucial role in the law enforcement response to SOC, acting as the main
interface between the National Crime Agency (NCA) and 43 police forces of England
and Wales. Last year saw the largest collective financial investment by Police and
Crime Commissioners in ROCUs since they were formed. This should be seen as a strong
signal of both the government and policing’s continued commitment to tackling the
serious harms caused by SOC to the most vulnerable members of our communities up and
down the country.</p>
|
|
