The National Audit Office reported that to demonstrate value for money in the longer term, the Department must show that the investment in additional officers has better enabled police forces to reduce crime and increase public confidence in policing. To date, the Department’s management of the Programme has largely focused on inputs (funding and officers recruited) and activity (supporting recruitment and office training) and the Department had not yet set out how it would evaluate the Programme’s impact on crime.48 We asked the Department about the expected impact of the Programme and the difference 41 Q 85 42 Committee of Public Accounts, Financial sustainability of police forces in England and Wales, HC 1513, Sixty- Seventh Report of Session 2017–19, 7 November 2018, para 6 43 Q 85, C&AG’s report, para 1.12 44 Q 85 45 C&AG’s report, para3.7 46 Qq 87, 89 47 Qq 75–77, 79 48 C&AG’s report, paras 13, 3.10 and 3.11 16 The Police Uplift Programme it would make to policing and to the public. The Department acknowledged that the Programme was narrowly scoped and focussed on inputs - recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers. We therefore asked the Department how it would judge the Programme in terms of outputs and outcomes and when taxpayers would begin to see benefits from the investment. The Department told us it was difficult to draw a direct link between extra police officers and reductions in crime as there are many variables involved and the ‘[link] is not very specific’.49