Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 15
15
Accepted
Officer maintenance grant incentivises inefficient deployment of police officers in staff roles.
Conclusion
A number of stakeholders identified that the officer maintenance grant has led to police forces increasingly using officers in staff roles (that do not require a warranted police officer) – an expensive and inefficient practice.34 In written evidence, Leapwise estimated that this practice is costing policing at least £55 million a year.35 We were concerned that this approach to funding police officers may be incentivising practices that deliver poor value for money. The Home Office acknowledged that successive governments 28 Q 60 29 Q 59 30 Letter from the College of Policing, 8 December 2025 31 Q 59 32 C&AG’s Report, para 1.6; Q 52 33 Q 34 34 Sir Stephen House QPM (IPP0008); City of London Police IPP0010; Leapwise (IPP0013) 35 Leapwise (IPP0013) 11 have chosen to incentivise police forces to recruit officers through grant arrangements.36 We asked the Home Office whether it understood how skewed the deployment of police officers in staff roles is. It told us that it is for chief constables to decide the balance of police staff and officers, but it is seeking better quality data about how forces are using officers. However, the Home Office said that it had made £75 million available in 2025–26 for forces to spend on resourcing, whether on staff or on police community support officers and officers.37
Government Response Summary
The officer maintenance grant and the requirement to achieve officer headcount targets has been abolished from 1 April 2026, and has allocated £363 million of ringfenced funding to incentivise forces to grow neighbourhood policing teams towards the aim of 13,000 additional personnel in neighbourhood roles across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 3.2 The government has listened to policing’s concerns about the financial and operational impacts of requiring forces to maintain a centrally set number of officers; and have assessed that the Police Officer Maintenance Grant has become a barrier to visible policing, sometimes leading to warranted officers being placed in support functions. As a result, the officer maintenance grant and the requirement to achieve officer headcount targets has been abolished from 1 April 2026. 3.3 The 2026-27 police funding settlement provides forces with the investment needed to strengthen neighbourhood policing and modernise frontline capability. Overall funding for the policing system in England and Wales will be up to £21.0 billion, an increase of £1.3 billion compared to 2025-26. Of this, total funding to police forces will be up to £18.4 billion, an increase of up to £796 million. 3.4 As part of that settlement, the government is focused on what officers are doing rather than purely on officer numbers. For 2026-27, the Home Office is introducing a neighbourhood policing grant and has allocated £363 million of ringfenced funding to incentivise forces to grow neighbourhood policing teams towards the aim of 13,000 additional personnel in neighbourhood roles across England and Wales by the end of this Parliament. 3.5 The expectation is that forces will prioritise redeploying officers from roles where their warranted powers are not required, into neighbourhood policing teams in 2026-27. This moves away from setting total officer headcount targets. Prioritising neighbourhood policing may place some limitations on workforce flexibility which the Home Office will keep under review. 3.6 Ensuring that policing has the right people and skills to deliver an efficient modern service aligned to current and future demand is important as the Home Office moves forward with our police reforms. The Police Reform White Paper outlines proposals to improve leadership, professional development and create a new national workforce strategy which will support this aim.