Police forces across the country are set to receive a 7 per cent increase in funding in 2022-23, bringing the total amount to £16.9 billion. As part of this, Sussex Police will receive a funding increase of up to £18.5 million next year, the Home Secretary has announced.
The increase will help to deliver on the Government’s Beating Crime Plan, which focuses on ending neighbourhood crime, making our streets safer, and driving down homicide rates. The boost will see Police and Crime Commissioners given an additional £796 million to use according to local needs, while Counter Terrorism policing has surpassed £1 billion for the first time.
Recent figures show that the Beating Crime Plan is already having a significant effect in taking dangerous offenders off our streets. Over 1,500 county drugs lines have been closed since 2019, with over 7,400 arrests and £4.3 million in drug seized. Almost 16,000 knives and dangerous weapons have also been removed, while 300,000 at risk young people have been supported through Violence Reduction Units.
The funding will further support the creation of a National Crime Laboratory – to drive the use of innovative data science in preventing crime – as well as improving 999 response times, investing in law enforcement intelligence, and upgrading critical IT infrastructure.
Gillian, regularly meets with Sussex Police, including Katy Bourne, Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner, Chief Constable Jo Shiner, and Jon Carter, District Commander for Chichester and Arun Districts. Gillian has been out with the local force on several occasions to look at specific crimes such as fly-tipping, speeding and their work tackling county lines. Once the funding uplift was announced she said:
“I work closely with our brilliant local police teams, they do an incredible job fighting crime and keeping us safe. Most of their work is unseen – and this money will help them continue to take on the huge range of crimes that you or I would ever expect to be occurring in parts of the country like ours.”
Home Secretary Priti Patel said:
“Crimes including theft, burglary and knife crime are down, we’ve got an additional 11,053 police officers on our streets, and we’ve shut down 1,500 drugs lines which exploit the young and the vulnerable.
“But we must go further and faster to make our communities even safer, so today I am giving our excellent police forces and law enforcement agencies more funding to do just that, in line with our Beating Crime Plan.
“Reducing crime is a top priority for this government and I will continue working with police leaders to ensure this unprecedented investment results in less crime and fewer victims.”
