Cambridgeshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner has welcomed the Home Office announcement that a bid for almost £2million in extra funding has been successful.

The police and crime commissioners and chief constables of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire put in a bid for a £1.95m slice of the Innovation Fund and were told this week that they will receive the full amount.

The money will support Programme Metis, a programme aimed at using technology to increase the time officers spend out in their communities, to be delivered across all three forces.

Sir Graham Bright said: “This money will be used to modernise and transform the way police services are delivered, ultimately protecting the frontline.

““The money will be invested to help us find technological solutions that maximise the time officers spend out in their communities and enable the public to contact us in different ways.

“It will help us to provide an efficient, value for money service that keeps our public at its heart while saving money.”

And Cambridgeshire’s Chief Constable Simon Parr, added: “Programme Metis was launched to modernise the way Cambridgeshire police do business, to keep officers on the frontline for longer and improve our service to the public.

“Part of this work includes the publicised roll out of slates to frontline officers. Early results show this is allowing each of them to spend an extra hour per day on the frontline.

“We are extremely pleased to have been successful in this bid. This funding will enable us to transform our forces in a way that commercial businesses have been doing for many years.”

The Home Office has made a total fund of £20 million available during 2013/2014 and a further £50 million available during 2014/2015 to finance bids made to further collaboration and innovation.

Beds, Cambs and Herts submitted a bid for £1.95m in the current year 2013/14 and a further £6.17m bid for 2014/15, for which confirmation is awaited.