Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 28
28
Accepted in Part
Future funding plan for 13,000 extra neighbourhood policing personnel beyond 2025-26 remains uncertain.
Recommendation
We asked how the government’s commitment to put 13,000 extra personnel into neighbourhood policing roles by 2029 will be funded. The government provided £200 million in 2025–26 to recruit 3,000 additional neighbourhood 69 Q 115 70 Q 130 71 Q 67 72 Q 7; C&AG’s Report, para 1.12 73 C&AG’s Report, para 1.9 74 Q 78; C&AG’s Report, para 2.15 and 3.20 75 Qq 79, 118 76 Q 112 77 Qq 22, 114; C&AG’s Report, para 2.14 16 policing personnel (police officers and police community support officers) and the Home Office told us it is confident that forces will achieve this.78 However, forces do not yet know what funding will be provided from 2026–27 onwards and, in November 2025, the Home Office was still working to develop an affordable plan to deliver the government’s commitment. The Home Office said it was managing the neighbourhood policing grant on an annual basis and will announce arrangements for future years before the end of 2025, as part of the provisional police funding settlement.79
Government Response Summary
The government allocated £363 million of ringfenced funding to incentivise forces to grow neighbourhood policing teams, but prioritising neighbourhood policing may place some limitations on workforce flexibility which the Home Office will keep under review.
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
3. PAC conclusion: Police forces have limited flexibility to recruit people with the skills they need. 3. PAC recommendation: The Home Office should work with the National Police Chiefs’ Council to assess the implications of the existing focus on maintaining police officer numbers, including identifying the impact on personnel and the operational efficiency of forces. Within six months, the Home Office should write to the Committee with the results of this assessment, including the options to improve workforce flexibility and the potential benefits for policing. 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.