This in from the Police and Crime Commissioner, Michael Lane. Ed
Having just heard the Policing Minister’s announcement in the House of Commons, I wanted immediately to welcome the Police Funding Settlement for next year – 2019/20 – announced by the Government in parliament today.
It recognises today’s challenges faced by policing:
- increasing demands,
- greater complexity
- and changes in criminal activity.
And the settlement makes this clear; first by its additional funding through the core grant and secondly by allowing for an increase in local council tax precept of up £2 per month or £24 per year for a Band D property.
I want to start, as Police and Crime Commissioner, by addressing my prime local responsibilities in relation to local safety and for raising local tax.
£2 per month rise
In welcoming the option to raise local precept, I should be immediately clear that there is only one option that I can recommend to the people I serve, with the intention to keep them safer.
That is to take full advantage of the settlement to protect current police services and use the additional £2 per month option to deliver local safety, through plans devised by the Chief Constable as the operational expert.
If you (the council taxpayer) support me in this recommendation,
This £2 per month will:
- ensure that locally communities will have the same level of policing support – configured by the Chief Constable and her Team to meet current threats.
200 new police officers
This funding will:
- protect recruiting and training for the workforce of the order of 200 new police officers,
- some 60 Police Staff Investigators
- and a course for new PCSOs.
I will be looking urgently at the detail in the Government’s announcement and will make a further statement later.
And I will be launching later today a consultation survey to capture public opinion.
In a joint statement, Hampshire Constabulary Chief Constable Olivia Pinkney and Alex Charge, the Hampshire Police Federation Chair, commented:
“We very much welcome today’s announcement that our Police and Crime Commissioner is recommending the maximum investment for policing in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and that this would all be used on policing services.
“The challenges of funding faced by the constabulary are well documented, and this would give us the opportunity to protect the service we can offer to our local communities.”
