Leicestershire Police granted almost £1.3m to help cover costs of unrest last year

Almost £1.3 million has been granted to Leicestershire Police towards the cost of policing the unrest that broke out in the city last year.

The force was left facing a bill expected to total in excess of £1.5 million after the unrest between communities in east Leicester last September.

A number of local officers were deployed to help cover the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II at the time and while some were recalled, extra officers had to be drafted in from other forces to help.

Rupert Matthews, the Police and Crime Commissioner said this led to huge costs.

Chief constable, Rob Nixon, previously said the force has already faced a shortfall of millions of pounds over the past few years, with more challenges expected down the line.

But Special Grant Funding from the Home Office will offer financial help in relation to the ongoing investigation into last year's events.

A total of £1.275 million will recoup 85% of the costs spent on the wide-scale policing operation.

Mr Matthews, who applied for the funding, said the operation was one of the largest and most complex in the force's history, adding that he was "delighted" the funding was granted and could be "reinvested into frontline policing priorities".

A number of arrests have been made by police investigating incidents of 'serious disorder', which saw clashes between groups of young men from Muslim and Hindu communities in Leicester.

The cause of the unrest remains unclear, although community leaders have pointed to the 2022 Asia Cup match between Pakistan and India on 28 August.

Police have arrested dozens of people since then in connection with the disorder.

A spokeswoman for the force said: "Leicestershire Police would like to thank all those who’ve come forward, given information and helped us bring together all this information.

"The disorder and unrest we saw in the city wasn’t what we want for our communities or what the communities want either.

"We will continue to work together with our partners to try to ensure we won’t see anything like this again on our streets.

"The investigation has been conducted  without fear or favour and has had a system of checks and balances put in place to ensure this is the case."

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