At the last general election, along with my colleagues, I stood on a pledge to recruit 20,000 police officers over a four-year period.

We started work right away and at the last count, 6,620 new officers have been hired - exceeding our first-year target three months ahead of time.

I also promised you that a good slug would come to Hampshire, and so far 220 new officers have joined our local force.

I have also published the final details of our police funding settlement for 2021/22 and this will provide up to £15.8 billion of funding for the policing system, an increase of £636 million on last year. Hampshire receives £387 million out of this, an increase of 5.7 per cent.

We know that crime is constantly evolving and in areas like Andover and Basingstoke, and our surrounding villages, one of our biggest threats is drug crime especially gangs exploiting vulnerable people. Boosting our ranks and resources at this time will help us catch these criminals.

While we’re talking about police numbers, I’d like to thank our officers for their hard work and dedication in keeping us safe - especially over the past few difficult months. We will continue to back them, and I hope policing will be a very rewarding career for the brave men and women who have signed up to join the police.

Year One may be done, but there’s plenty more to come.