The Metropolitan Police have requested additional funding from the Home Office to continue the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. More than £11 million has been spent on Operation Grange since the three-year-old went missing from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.
Funding for the operation, established in 2011 at the request of the then Prime Minister David Cameron following a plea from Madeleine's parents, is reviewed regularly. The last extension of £154,000 was granted in September 2017. A team of four detectives currently works on the case, supported by special Home Office funding.
A Home Office spokesperson stated: 'The Home Office has provided funding to the Metropolitan police for Operation Grange and the resources required are reviewed regularly with careful consideration given before any new funding is allocated.'
On the 10th anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance in May 2017, police reported that over 600 individuals had been investigated and 40,000 documents reviewed. Four people were identified as suspects in 2013 and interviewed by Portuguese and English officers in Faro, but no further action was taken. The number of officers on the operation was reduced from 29 to four in October 2015.
Kate and Gerry McCann have said they will never give up hope of finding their daughter. The Met Police stated last year: 'Right now we are committed to taking the current inquiry as far as we possibly can and we are confident that will happen.'
