WEST Yorkshire’s policing budget for the upcoming year has been published by the Government, with the county getting the fourth highest funding in the country.

The report, published by Home Secretary Priti Patel, sets out the grants given to each police force across the country, and totals more than £9 billion.

The funding, trailed in December but now rubber stamped, is intended to try and tackle the rising crime rate in the UK, which between September 2019 and September 2021 rose by 14 per cent.

In West Yorkshire, there were 4.8 per cent fewer victims of crime in the 12 months to June 2021.

The funding comprises of the Police Core Settlement, formula funding from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, legacy Council Tax grants and precept grants.

While it makes up the bulk of funding for police, it is not the totality of central Government funding for police forces, with more available for protecting national security or pension grants.

An additional £135 million is being made available to forces to recruit 8,000 new police officers by the end of March 2023.

In West Yorkshire, the police force will receive at least £383 million from the Government covering the financial year 2022/23 to police the county.

This includes £210,833,479 in the main police grant, plus £155,617,409 of formula funding, and £16,692,905 in legacy Council Tax grants, for a total of £383,143,793.

The coming year’s funding is an increase of almost £21 million from the current financial year, when the budget for West Yorkshire stood at £362.7m, and is £41.5m higher than in the year 2020/21.

West Yorkshire’s funding is the fourth largest cash sum in the country, with the Metropolitan Police in London unsurprisingly has the biggest budget, at more than £2 billion.

West Midlands Police gets the second largest grant of over £544 million, followed by Greater Manchester Police which will receive almost £523m.

In West Yorkshire, this works out at about £165 per person, compared to £224 in London, and about £186 in both the West Midlands and Greater Manchester.

With crime on the rise in the UK since Boris Johnson became Prime Minister, the Home Secretary Priti Patel said it’s important more funding is provided.

She said: “We must go further and faster to make our communities safer, so I am giving our excellent police forces and law enforcement agencies more funding to do just that, in line with our Beating Crime Plan.

“Reducing crime is a top priority for this government and I will continue working with police leaders to ensure this unprecedented investment results in less crime and fewer victims.”