Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Lord Hogan-Howe (Crossbench) on Wednesday, 30 October 2019, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 13 November 2019. It was answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank (Conservative) on Tuesday, 5 November 2019 on behalf of the Northern Ireland Office.

Police Service of Northern Ireland

Question

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of officers the Police Service of Northern Ireland needed to safely provide a police service for the people of Northern Ireland.

Answer

Policing is a devolved matter in Northern Ireland and operational capability is a matter for the Chief Constable. The PSNI’s main budget is allocated by the Department of Justice from the Northern Ireland block grant.

The UK Government has provided the PSNI with the additional security funding it has asked for and needs to ensure that they have the resource (including officers) to tackle the SEVERE threat from Northern Ireland related terrorism. This additional security funding boosts PSNI’s ability to tackle the terrorist threat while ensuring day-to-day policing isn’t compromised.

PSNI received £230m in additional security funding in the last Parliament and £160m in this one. In addition, the UK Government has, to date, provided PSNI with over £16.5m in EU Exit funding to help manage pressures and contingencies arising from ongoing EU exit preparations. This has enabled PSNI to recruit 206 additional officers this financial year.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL543
Session
2019-19
Subjects
Police Service of Northern Ireland
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk