To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research his Department has undertaken into the relationship between levels of spending on police and crime rates; and if he will make a statement. (324137)

The Home Office has supported a number of research projects concerning the impact of police resourcing and deployment on crime rates. These have included the impact of police force funding, undertaken in collaboration with Professor Ben Vollaard of the university of Tilburg (Tilburg Law and Economics Centre Discussion Paper DP 2009-012), the impact of the Street Crime Initiative, undertaken by Professor Steve Machin (and Olivier Marie) of the London School of Economics (LSE Centre for Economic Performance Discussion Paper No. 680), and the effect of police redeployment following the 7/7 terror attacks, also by Professor Machin (and colleagues) (LSE Centre for Economic Performance Discussion Paper No. 852). These research projects have found that increases in police resources, both generally and targeted, have been associated with reductions in crime rates, in line with the recent international academic literature on the topic.