Police numbers to rise - but Blunkett warned over jails

A relieved David Blunkett yesterday heralded the "good news" that he had been handed an extra £6.1bn over three years to push ahead with his ambitious programme of reforms.

Acknowledging that the Chancellor was facing a "tight year financially", the Home Secretary was clearly thankful for a handout that will see the annual Home Office budget rise from £10.8bn this year to £13.5bn by 2005-06.

The Home Office windfall follows the allocation of £180m from the Budget and will allow Mr Blunkett to pursue his plans to expand the police service and overhaul the asylum and criminal justice systems.

But commentators warned that the money would be wasted if it was spent on jailing more prisoners and not on addressing the causes of crime by investing in schemes for rehabilitating offenders.

Paul Cavadino, chief executive of the crime reduction charity Nacro, said: "If nothing is done to stem the rise in the prison population then a disproportionate amount of the extra resources could be soaked up by locking people up and expanding rather than improving the prison system."

Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said the extra funding in the spending review was "welcome" but said he was disappointed by "the silence thus far on the need to spend on rehabilitation of prisoners".

The Home Office said that its total spending over the six years from 1999-00 to 2005-06 would have increased by 50 per cent in real terms.

A significant part of the new money will be devoted to the extensive overhaul of the asylum system, with plans for a network of reception, accommodation and removal centres across the country. The Home Secretary said the extra funding would help to reduce the number of unfounded applications and maintain a "robust and cost effective" system. He said the spending settlement would also ease the modernisation of the migration system, which would open up routes for skilled workers to come to Britain.

Mr Blunkett said: "The settlement is a clear recognition that we are working hard to control and bring down the cost of managing the asylum system."

It was also made clear that spending on police reforms and crime fighting will be bolstered by money confiscated from organised criminals and placed in the Recovered Assets Fund being established by the Proceeds of Crime Bill.

Mr Blunkett said the package of funding gave "the green light" to what he called the "historic reform of police pay and conditions", thrashed out with police representatives earlier this year.