Judicial review launched over calculations of police funding
Lincolnshire Police & Crime Commissioner Marc Jones (Conservative) has filed papers with the courts to launch a judicial review against the Home Office.
PCC Jones, recently re-elected for his third term, threatened legal action against the government body due to the outdated funding formula that determines how much each police force in England and Wales receives through government grants.
He claims that the current formula relies on outdated population statistics from 2013 and metrics such as pubs per square mile. He feels this is largely why Lincolnshire Police is among the lowest-funded forces in the country on a per-resident basis
“Following a meeting of the Lincolnshire Police & Crime Panel at the Lincolnshire County Council offices on Friday morning, Jones revealed that his judicial review is moving forward.
“The papers are lodged with the courts, and the Home Office has until August 12 to respond to the paperwork that I’ve submitted,” he stated.
“There are a number of outcomes that are possible from that, but I would hope that the whole process leads to the kind of debate we need to get the national funding formula reviewed.”
PCC Jones also highlighted that academic work is being undertaken to examine how the force spends money and to ensure it’s not ‘missing any tricks’ when trying to save.
“The reality is, over the next few years, the gap is just too big. If nothing changes, it will lead to a radical shift in the way policing is delivered in Lincolnshire.”
“This is nothing new,” he added. “When I started back in 2016, Chief Constable Neil Rhodes was saying the same thing, so we’ve made some progress.”
Marc Jones later estimated that the force needs an additional £20 million a year over the medium term to be sustainable, describing it as an “impossible hill to climb without massive changes to the way we do business.”
“I’ve got a new crop of MPs that I’ve got to engage with and make sure they understand the scenario, so they can take that fight to government,” he added.
“For us, we’ve got meetings that we’re requesting with the Chief Constable and I with ministers, so there’s a whole range of things that we will do to stand up for the people of Lincolnshire when it comes to the funding of their police service.”
The Home Office was approached for comment but declined, citing the ongoing legal proceedings.