The Department recognised that the Formula was out of date but told us that, as there was no credible alternative available, it was confident that it was appropriate to use the existing formula to allocate the 20,000 officers.44 The National Audit Office, however, reported that because the Department has used the outdated formula to allocate officers to forces, it was likely the distribution of additional officers did not align to current or future policing needs. Police forces expressed concerns to the NAO about their ability to maintain a balanced workforce within likely future funding settlements.45 We challenged the Department on whether the use of the Formula reflected what police forces needed given the NAO’s finding that it did not give the Department a force-by-force picture of policing or the pressures being faced. The Department told us that Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners had agreed the approach and that it was as fair as it could have been. We asked if, once the new funding approach was in place, it showed that some police forces needed additional resource, whether this would be addressed. The Department told us that if this arose it would work with forces to ensure gaps were closed.46