Autumn Spending Review 2021 – Law and Order

Law and order is very important to all of us.  With a rare but shocking multiple stabbing in north Norwich only this week, people want to feel safe on their streets, while at the same time knowing that an effective justice system is at hand. The Autumn Spending Review delivered by the Chancellor today is a clear indication that the Government understand this.

The Government is already delivering on its manifesto promise of an extra 20,000 police officers by 2023, with over 140 having already started in Norfolk. To help increase this, the Government are committing an extra £540 million by 2024-25 to complete recruitment of the final 8,000 officers, taking the total to 148,000 officers by 2023. This will be a 16% increase compared to 2019.

Additionally, £42 million is being made available for new programmes that reduce crime and drugs misuse, on top of £108 million to continue existing programmes. This brings total investment to £150 million a year to continue and expand programmes that prevent crime and keep our communities safe, including continuing the Safer Streets Fund and more enforcement to tackle drug misuse, including through the County Lines programme and Project ADDER. These are all schemes that have benefited us in Norwich, and I am pleased to see these receive further funding.

And there's more.

It is important to ensure that the justice system is equipped to respond to the impact of COVID-19 and to rising demand over the next three years, and that transformational reform programmes will continue to make justice more efficient and effective. That’s why I am pleased to see the Ministry of Justice receiving a £3.2 billion cash increase over this Parliament.

This Spending Review will allow for expand capacity across the criminal justice system to meet increased demand from the recruitment of 20,000 extra police officers. It will also provide an additional £644 million a year by 2024-25 across courts, prisons and probation services to manage more offenders being brought to justice.

To ensure swift access to justice, the government is investing over £1 billion over the Spending Review period to increase capacity and efficiency across the court estate and recover from the impacts of COVID-19. This includes:

• £477 million to fund the criminal justice system’s recovery from COVID-19. This funding will help to improve waiting times for victims of crime and start to reduce Crown Court backlogs caused by the pandemic from 60,000 today down to 53,000.
   
• £324 million to increase capacity in the civil, family and tribunal jurisdictions to continue tackling backlogs and improve timeliness.
   
• Over £200 million to complete the department’s flagship £1.3 billion court reform programme by 2024-25, delivering a more modern and efficient justice system for users.

Finally, to protect the public from serious offenders, the Government will continue the biggest prison building programme in more than a century. Building on the government’s commitment in 2020, the Chancellor's spending review has confirmed an additional £3.8 billion of investment across England and Wales over three years to deliver 20,000 additional prison places by the mid-2020s. This includes further refurbishment work at HMP/YOI Norwich.

I hope you find this information helpful.  The Government’ is committed to law and order, and so am I for us in Norwich.  If I can help constituents with any matter, please do email me on chloe@chloesmith.org.uk or ring my constituency office on 01603 414756.