Metropolitan Police boss Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has welcomed George Osborne's announcement he will not cut police budgets any further in his next budget.

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Two weeks after the Paris terrorist attacks, the Chancellor said in his autumn statement that "there will be real-terms protection for police funding. The police protect us and we are going to protect the police."

London's police force had been facing an £800m budget cut on top of £600m imposed by the previous coalition government. But the capital's top cop warned there was still room to be "more efficient".

Sir Bernard said: "We welcome that clear statement as we continue discussions with the Home Office next year over a new funding formula to allocate resources to different police forces and to recognize the costs of policing a capital city.

"The Met is highly effective at protecting the public, but we can still be more efficient and reduce our costs. We have a big task to modernise our technology to support digital transformation. So there will still be some tough choices to come."

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