A parliamentary committee has called for establishing an independent panel to devise a new funding formula for police forces in England and Wales.

 The Home Affairs Select Committee expressed hope that the new panel will help remedy "the shambles we have seen so far".

A statistical error in October led some forces to wrongly assume they would be losing money for 2016-17, while others thought their budgets were to increase.

The Home Affairs Committee suggested a panel made up of auditors, accountants, statisticians and police policy experts assist the government to reach the new formula.

The Conservative government of British Prime Minister David Cameron said it would consider the recommendations carefully.

Media reports say, the amount of money each police force receives from the government is based on a funding formula, which assesses population size, social and economic factors, crime rates and other data.

Home Affairs Committee chairman Keith Vaz said the current police funding formula had become unfit for purpose, but the recent errors had "gravely damaged" the service's confidence in the creation of a new deal.

"Police forces found themselves on a rollercoaster, where at the stroke of a pen they saw their funding allocation plummet in some cases and rise meteorically in others, with nobody able to explain why," he added.

Earlier, Chancellor George Osborne said in the Autumn Statement there would be no cuts to the police budget in real terms, and Vaz said this gave the Home Office a "real opportunity".

The committee said funding for police needed to recognize the "full range" of demands on forces. It said this included specific local issues caused by policing airports and tourist areas; emerging offences such as cyber-crime, child exploitation and radicalization; and counter-terrorism resources for all forces across the country.

 "The current model for allocating police funding is complex, opaque and out-of-date. That was why we consulted on principles for reform of funding arrangements... We have always said that we will only be successful in achieving our aim of building a fit-for-purpose and sustainable model with considerable input from policing partners. The government notes the committee's report and will respond formally in due course," Policing minister Mike Penning said.