The Home Office does not understand how wider policy changes affect the demand on police resources. Police forces face growing demands as they take on additional responsibilities and tackle increasing volumes of more complex crimes, for example, the number of fraud crimes, sexual offences, and stalking and harassment offences, which require specialist expertise, has increased from 768,000 in 2014–15 (18% of police recorded crime) to 2.1 million in 2024–25 (32%). Despite this, the Home Office ...

The Home Office does not understand how wider policy changes affect the demand on police resources. Police forces face growing demands as they take on additional responsibilities and tackle increasing volumes of more complex crimes, for example, the number of fraud crimes, sexual offences, and stalking and harassment offences, which require specialist expertise, has increased from 768,000 in 2014–15 (18% of police recorded crime) to 2.1 million in 2024–25 (32%). Despite this, the Home Office and policing do not fully understand the implications of changing demands. 2 Reforms to the criminal justice system, such as the sentencing review and pr Type: recommendation | Number: 2 | Response status: accepted Government response: The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented The Police Reform White Paper sets out a bold and ambitious reform programme to improve the quality, consistency and efficiency of policing. As part of those reforms the Home Offi