Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner has threatened the Home Office with legal action over the force’s lack of funding. Marc Jones, who was re-elected to the position in the recent local elections, is demanding that the Home Office introduces a new funding formula to assess how much each police force in England and Wales receives through a government grant.
He claims that the current formula uses old population statistics from 2013 and outdated metrics like pubs per square mile. If the Home Office does not apply a new formula for the next spending review at the end of 2024 then Mr Jones says he will seek a judicial review, which is estimated to cost around £20,000 to £50,000.
Mr Jones said: “Lincolnshire Police has been struggling under the pressure of historic underfunding for years and, though prudent financial management has softened the blow, I simply cannot continue to sit back and watch Lincolnshire unfairly disadvantaged. A new funding formula is desperately needed.
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“The current one is old, uses outdated methods and statistics and penalises the communities of Lincolnshire. It is urgent for the new Government to address this as a matter of urgency when they take office.
“I have done everything I can to pursue this through the normal channels and have been frustrated at every turn. Enough is enough. If I have to address this through the courts then I will.”
Mr Jones sent a letter to the Home Secretary and the Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Fire on April 26 this year. The letter reads: “The formula relies entirely on historical allocations and data sets, failing (either adequately or at all) to account for contemporary police needs, demographic shifts and evolving crime patterns.
“Not only has the data used for the current iterations not been updated in over 10 years, the factors for allocation themselves have not been refreshed. Consequently, Lincolnshire Police is operating under a funding model that is unfair, ineffective and ill-suited to address the challenges they face in maintaining public safety and security.
“The outdated formula, and the continued reliance on decade-old factual inputs which do not reflect current circumstances, hampers the ability of Lincolnshire Police to effectively deploy resources where they are most needed, hindering efforts to address emerging threats and prevent crime.”
The Lincolnshire PCC says a Home Office response is expected to be issued in early June.
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