Jayne Bryant MS, Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government
I am today laying before the Senedd the Local Government Finance Report (No.2) 2025-26 (Final Settlement – Police and Crime Commissioners). This sets out the Welsh Government’s component of the Final Police Settlement for police forces in Wales for 2025-26. Today, the Home Office published the final Police Grant allocations for policing bodies in England and Wales to ensure Police and Crime Commissioners can set precepts by the 1st of March.
Policing policy is not devolved and funding for the four Welsh police forces is delivered through a three-way arrangement involving the Home Office, the Welsh Government and council tax. For 2025-26 the total core support for police forces in Wales will be £476.8million.
A common needs-based formula, operated by the Home Office, is used to distribute funding across English and Welsh police forces, and the approach to setting and distributing the Welsh Government’s component of police funding provision is based on a principle of ensuring consistency and fairness across England and Wales.
As in previous years, the Home Office has overlaid its needs-based formula with a floor mechanism. This ensures all police forces in England and Wales can expect to receive an increase in core funding of 3.705% for 2025-26. I encourage the four Police and Crime Commissioners in Wales to consult with their local communities in considering the level of local funding for 2025-2026. They will need to consider carefully the balance between impacts from increases in police precepts and on services to their communities.
Following consultation, the funding for the Final Police Settlement remain as I set out in my statement on the 17th of December on the Provisional Police Settlement. I propose to set the Welsh Government’s contribution to police funding for 2025-26 at £113.47 million. The floor funding is provided by the Home Office. The figures are summarised in Tables 1 to 3 of this Statement.
The Local Government Finance Report (No.2) 2025-26 is scheduled for debate in the Senedd on the 4th March.
This information is also published on the Welsh Government’s website at: Final Police Settlement 2025-26