Conservatives to boost local policing with 8,000 new fully warranted officers

The Conservatives are today (Monday 10^th June) launching a new neighbourhood policing programme to recruit 8,000 additional new police officers.

These new neighbourhood police officers will be embedded in their local communities using their presence on the streets to build relationships, gather intelligence, and cut crime where it counts by tackling crimes such as car thefts, domestic burglaries, anti-social behaviour and drug offences.   

This fully costed clear plan will be paid for in part by removing the student discount to the Immigration Health Surcharge and increasing all visa fees by 25%. 

They will all be fully warranted officers dedicated to neighbourhood policing. In addition to this programme, the Conservatives will give officers new powers and tools to catch criminals, including new technology like facial recognition and strengthened powers to seize knives and track down stolen property.  

Since 2019, we have recruited 20,000 police officers. Under the Conservatives, violent crime has fallen by 44 per cent since 2010 and neighbourhood crime is down 48 per cent.  Reoffending has fallen from over 30% in 2010 to 25%.  

We have a clear plan, taking bold action to protect our streets and our neighbourhoods, unlike Labour's empty pledges. Their promise to recruit more police officers would in fact only deliver 3,000 new police officers, far below the Conservatives' pledge. 

Commenting, Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister, said:

“Our new 20,000 new police officers since 2019 have made a huge difference, with neighbourhood crime down 48 per cent as a result. We will now go further by hiring 8,000 more police officers, each one dedicated to their local community.

“People deserve to feel safe in their neighbourhood. More bobbies on the beat and increased powers will give police forces the tools they need to drive down neighbourhood crime even further.

“Labour has no plan and no idea how to fund more police officers. Without a plan crime will only go up, as we've seen in areas with a Labour Police and Crime Commissioner. Our clear plan will create a more secure future for neighbourhoods up and down the country.”    

Commenting, James Cleverly, Home Secretary, said: 

“The Conservatives will always back our brave police and security services with the powers and resources needed to keep our country safe. 

“The new neighbourhood police programme we have announced today will make our streets safer. 

“The Conservatives will take bold action with a clear plan to build a more secure future for people up and down the country.  Unlike Keir Starmer's Labour Party who have no plan to keep the country safe.  You only have to look to London where crime has risen under Labour rule to see the real damage the Labour Party can do to your community.” 

ENDS 

For further information, please contact the Press Office on 020 7984 8121 or email us atpress@conservatives.com.  

Notes to Editors 

• Recruiting 8,000 new fully warranted police officers as part of a new neighbourhood policing uplift programme. We will build on the success of our Police Uplift Programme and recruit an additional 8,000 police officers over the next Parliament, reaching 8,000 in 2027/28 – that means an additional police officer for every ward in England and Wales. 

• Ensuring that these new officers are focused on their local neighbourhoods.These officers will work as part of existing neighbourhood teams, which will help make sure that, even with changing shift patterns and personnel absences, every neighbourhood will have genuine and more continuous police officer coverage. We will add conditions to the funding agreements for this plan which means abstraction away from neighbourhood policing duties for these additional officers will not be permitted unless in exceptional circumstances. We will require that forces do not offset these additional officers by diverting a commensurate number of police officers, already dedicated to neighbourhood duties, to other purposes. 

• Backing police with new powers to seize knives and track down stolen property. We will give the police more powers to seize and destroy bladed articles to remove them from circulation, and the power to drug test more suspects on arrest. We will increase the maximum penalty for sale of dangerous weapons to under 18s and create a criminal offence of possession of a bladed article with the intent to cause harm. We will clamp down on so-called “Zombie knives” and machetes, making them illegal to possess, sell, manufacture or transport. Police will have the power to enter a premises without a warrant to seize stolen goods, such as phones, based off GPS location tracking technology. And we will give the police greater access to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency database to identify criminals. These measures were set out in the Criminal Justice Bill. 

• And new powers to tackle serious crime. We are banning articles that are used to commit serious and organised crime, like templates for 3D printed firearm components, pill presses and signal jammers used in vehicle theft. We are strengthening the operation of Serious Crime Prevention Orders to make it easier for police and other law enforcement agencies to place restrictions on offenders or suspected offenders and stop them from participating in further crime. These measures were set out in the Criminal Justice Bill. 

• Backing the police with new facial recognition technology. Backed by a £55.5 million investment over the next 4 years, the police will be able to further roll this new technology. This will include £4 million for bespoke mobile units that can be deployed to high streets across the country with live facial recognition used in crowded areas to identify people wanted by the police – including repeat shoplifters. The mobile units will take live footage of crowds in towns and on high streets, comparing images to specific people wanted by the police or banned from that location. Police in the area will then be alerted so they can track down these offenders (PMO, Press Release, 10 April 24, link). 

• Rolling out Hotspot Policing to all police forces to cut anti-social behaviour.We will roll out our successful hotspot policing programme across the whole of England and Wales over the next Parliament. This will ensure that an additional 3-4.5m hours of patrolling can take place in hundreds of hotspots, proving further protection against anti-social behaviour and serious violence. Anti-social behaviour is also down by nearly 50 percent in some hotspot areas (Home Office, Press Release, 15 February 2024, link).  

• Labour would only recruit 3000 new fully warranted full time police officers. Yvette Cooper has said Labour would put ‘13,000 more [police] boots on the ground.' However this includes 3,000 existing police constables redeployed to neighbourhood teams, only 3,000 additional police constables, 4,000 additional PCSOs and 3,000 additional Special Constables.¹ Unlike police officers, PCSOs are not able to make arrests. Special Constables generously volunteer their time, which means they are unable to provide the same full-time coverage as police officers.²  

• Building on our record of cutting crime by 55 per cent since 2010, excluding fraud, and recruiting 20,000 more police officers. Overall crime (excluding fraud and computer misuse) has declined since 2010 by 55 per cent, violent crime has fallen by 44 per cent and neighbourhood crime is down 48 per cent (ONS, Crime Survey for England and Wales, 25 April 2024, link; Conservative Research Department, Internal Analysis, 25 April 2024, archived). Reoffending has fallen from over 30% in 2010 to 25% (Alex Chalk, Written Ministerial Statement, 11 March 2024, link). We have delivered a record £18 billion funding for the police and delivered on our commitment to recruit 20,000 additional police officers. There are now over 149,000 officers in England and Wales, the highest number since comparable records began and more than in March 2010 (Home Office, Police Officer Uplift, 26 April 2023, link). 

• Recruiting 8,000 police officers will cost £818 million in 2029/30. Of the 8,000 total officers, 2,000 will be recruited in 2024/25, 2,000 in 2025/26 and 2,000 in 2026/7, reaching 8,000 in 2027/28. This policy has been costed using the same assumptions on the pay and non-pay (such as training and recruitment) costs of police officers (not PCSO or Special Constable costs) as those used in HMT's Opposition costing (HMT,Opposition Costing, link). 

• We will pay for this in part by removing the student discount to the Immigration Health Surcharge and increasing all visa fees by 25%. The surcharge to students will rise from £776 to £1,035 and we will increase all visa fees by 25%. We will legislate to ensure that the additional funds raised from the IHS increase can be used to defray wider costs and to increase the visa fee maximas set out in the Immigration and Nationality Fees (Order) 2016. The amount of funding currently raised by the IHS will remain dedicated to the health service. We will change s.68(9) Immigration Act 2014 so the additional revenue raised by these increases can be used to pay for public services. This would raise approx £600m in 2024/25. 

• Labour claims they would introduce 13,000 new officers when in fact it would only end up with 3,000 full-time new officers. It would involve the redeployment of 3,000 existing police constables, the recruiting of 4,000 PCSOs (without powers of arrest) and training 3,000 new Special Constable volunteers.