More officers on the beat

Spending on the police will jump by £1.5 billion a year by 2005-6, a rise of 33 per cent compared with this year's funding level. Across the criminal justice system, spending will rise by five per cent a year after inflation. And there will be extra money for prisons, the probation service and youth justice, which currently share £3.1 billion a year - but it will fall far short of the £1 billion-a-year said to be needed to deal with record numbers of prisoners.

What it means

Mr Brown's spending review may deliver record numbers of police officers a year ahead of schedule, topping 130,000 officers numbers by next spring. But many people, including the Home Secretary, believe rehabilitation rather than prison is key to dealing with the underlying causes of crime.

Paul Cavadino of criminal justice charity Nacro warned: "If the prison population keeps going up, the pressure will grow to expand the system rather than improve it - that would be a serious misuse of resources."

There is nothing in the spending review to cut the prison population. And even on the question of London policing numbers, it falls far below the Home Secretary's long-term ambition. Scotland Yard has seen police strength rise to 26,768 officers from 25,430 this time last year, but this still falls short of their target of 35,000.

Some of the extra money does go to the front-line fight against crime and will be allocated directly to work in partnership with other local agencies like councils and community groups. And an extra £200 million a year will go on police pay, to meet overtime costs and bonuses for individual excellence as part of the Police Reform Bill. But in return police league tables will be published, linking funding and performance. Targets have been set to cut crime, including a 14 per cent reduction in street robbery by 2005.

Police chiefs in failing boroughs must still live with the threat of takeover by the Home Office's Police Standards Unit which is run by Kevin Bond, a former police officer and Yorkshire Water chief executive, who has been described as " acting like a chief constable" and undermining local police chiefs.

Assuming key sections of the Police Reform Bill survive the passage through Parliament, some of the cash will also go towards paying for new " auxiliary" patrols in London, a new breed of civilian beat bobbies.