Malta’s expenditure on public order and safety is the third-lowest in Europe as a ratio of the island’s GDP.

Data published this week by Eurostat, the European statistics office, shows that, in 2015, Malta spent 1.2 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product – or about €113 million – to finance the police, fire protection services, the law courts and the prison.

On average, €507 per inhabitant goes into public order and safety within the European Union.

The highest share of the expense throughout the EU was on police services

According to the data, the average for all member states stood at 1.8 per cent of GDP, with highest ratio to GDP being in Bulgaria (2.8 per cent), Slovakia (2.3 per cent) and Croatia and Poland (both 2.2 per cent).

On the other end of the scale, Denmark and Luxembourg spent the least – one per cent of their GDP – followed by Ireland (1.1 per cent), Malta and Finland.

The highest share of the expense throughout the European Union was on police services, attracting an average of one per cent.

In the period under review, Malta spent 0.7 per cent of its GDP on the police, the third-lowest across the EU.

Despite the expenditure in general being low in Malta, the figures showed this was not the case in terms of money spent to finance the law courts which, at 0.3 per cent of GDP, was in line with the EU average.

The Eurostat data also showed that, in Malta, a mere 0.1 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product was spent on fire-protection services while another 0.1 per cent was allotted to the prison.