'Police, probation need more funds - and send foreign criminals home'

PCC'S WIDE-RANGING APPEAL IN LETTER TO HOME SECRETARY

- By STAFF REPORTER

THE new Home Secretary has been asked to address a funding shortfall affecting Leicestershire Police.

Rupert Matthews, the police and crime commissioner (PCC) for Leicestershire and Rutland, has written to Shabana Mahmood, who was appointed to the position in this month's Cabinet reshuffle, calling for urgency in addressing the issue of police funding.

In the letter, he also called for criminals who are not British to be sent back to their countries of origin to serve their sentences, to relieve the overstretched prison service, and for the Probation Service to be given more money.

Mr Matthews had previously contacted her predecessor, Yvette Cooper, to highlight Leicestershire Police's position as the seventh lowest-funded force in England and Wales, and the challenges it faces policing a population that has risen since the last census.