Police Funding

Unmesh Desai AM moved, and Jennette Arnold OBE AM seconded the following budget related motion:

"This Assembly notes and supports the Commissioner’s call for London to be allocated funding for 6,000 of the new 20,000 national police officers which are to be hired by 2023.

The Assembly regrets that to date, central government has only allocated the Mayor £159.7m to hire 1,369 officers in the first tranche of funding (2020/21) and that £94.4m has been allocated in the second tranche of funding (2021/22); far short of the amount needed to reach 6,000 officers by 2023.

The Assembly notes that this comes on top of the £850m of cuts faced by the Metropolitan Police Service in the past decade.[2]

The Assembly and Mayor have consistently campaigned for London to receive its fair share of these police officers. We call on the Mayor and Chair of the Assembly to continue these efforts by writing a joint letter to the Home Secretary, expressing their unreserved support for the Commissioner’s call for London to receive 6,000 officers by 2023 and to seek a timeline for when they will deliver on this pledge."

Following debate and upon being put to a vote, the budget related motion was agreed (14 votes being cast in favour, and 10 abstentions)