Crawley police numbers have remained stable in recent years, but I welcome the Prime Minister’s pledge to recruit an additional 20,000 officers nationwide.

Strengthening police numbers is a priority for the Government, which is providing £750 million to support force recruitment in the first year of this scheme alone, thanks to the extra funding announced by the Chancellor in his recent Spending Review.

Sussex Police are set to gain an extra 129 officers in the first year of the Prime Minister’s initiative alone. Government funding for recruitment in 2020-21 will cover all associated costs, including training and kit.

Overall, Sussex Police are set to see some 379 new officers in the next three years.

I raised the importance of increasing police numbers directly with the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, on his first full day in office.

The Government are conducting an urgent review of sentencing to ensure the public are properly protected from the most dangerous criminals. This review will ensure violent and sexual offenders are serving the right sentences. Ministers are also extending the Unduly Lenient Sentence Scheme so more victims can appeal the sentences offenders receive, and are legislating to prevent the automatic release of the most serious violent and sexual offenders at the half way point of their sentence.

10,000 extra prison places are being created to hold the additional offenders who will be caught, charged and sentenced. Up to £2.5 billion will be spent on creating modern, efficient prisons to better reform criminals and keep the public safe, while an extra £100 million will aid the crackdown on crime within prisons.