Mark Pritchard – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Pritchard on 2016-01-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had on increasing the number of armed response (a) officers and (b) vehicles in the West Mercia police force area.

Mike Penning

It is for Chief Officers in conjunction with Police and Crime Commissioners to determine the number of armed response officers and vehicles in their areas based on a thorough assessment of threat and risk. As announced in the Police Grant Report for England and Wales Written Ministerial Statement on 17 December 2015, this Government will provide £34 million in 2016-17 to enable a national uplift in armed policing capability and capacity to respond more quickly and effectively to a firearms attack. Decisions over where this money will be distributed are yet to be made, however for reasons of national security we do not publically disclose the detailed allocation of funding for counter terrorism by force area or by capability.