Today’s Home Office stories include coverage of the police funding settlement and the release of Prevent & Channel statistics.
Police funding settlement
There is widespread coverage of the police funding settlement in this morning’s papers.
The Times and Telegraph lead on the fact the increase will be partly funded by a rise in council tax.
The Mirror and Independent both report the settlement as a blow for “hard-up families” who face “tax hikes” just before Christmas.
The Home Secretary’s op-ed in the Telegraph is carried as a page lead, calling for police to match the Government funding increase with improvements to policing.
The Express reported that the Government had “finally confronted the crisis on the frontline” with its “£1billion boost for policing”.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said:
Since becoming Home Secretary I have been clear I would prioritise police funding, and today I have delivered on that promise.
This is a significant funding settlement that provides the most substantial police funding increase since 2010, with more money for local police forces, counter terrorism and tackling serious and organised crime.
It will enable the police to recruit more officers and be better placed to respond to the increasingly complex crimes they face.
Far-right extremism referrals
A "sharp" increase in the number of far-right referrals to the Prevent counter-extremism programme is widely reported in the papers.
The Telegraph reports that Home Office Prevent figures show a 36 per cent increase to “record-high” levels. It adds that Islamic extremism referrals have dropped 14 per cent year-on-year.
The Times, Mail, Guardian and Express also carry coverage of the increase.
The Security Minister’s comments are widely carried.
Security Minister, Ben Wallace, said:
Prevent plays a vital role in stopping vulnerable people being drawn into all forms of terrorism and safeguarding is at the heart of Prevent.
Since 2012, the Prevent programme has stopped potentially 1,267 people from going on to become terrorists and harming our society.
The figures released today show Prevent is tackling the threat from radicalisation wherever it is found, including from the rise in the right wing extremism.
Through the Prevent and Channel programme, people who are vulnerable to radicalisation have received the support they need to turn their lives around which has also helped keep our communities safe.