Memorandum submitted by the Home Office
INTRODUCTION
The Government is committed to a well-resourced
and efficient police force which is able to provide community
based neighbourhood policing across the country as well as having
the capability to deal with more serious crimes.
To achieve this, the Government has provided
a substantial and sustained increase in funding for the police
in recent years. Under the terms of the settlement for 2007-08
agreed by Parliament on 31 January 2007, Government funding for
the police will have increased by 77% in cash terms and by 39%
in real terms between 1997-98 and 2007-08.
The settlement for 2007-08 provides that general
police grant will increase by 3.6%—as compared to a 3.1%
increase in 2006-07—and overall Government spending on the
police will increase by 3.1%.
BACKGROUND
The vast majority of funding for the police
takes the form of police formula grant which is provided jointly
by the Home Office and the Department for Communities and Local
Government (and by the Welsh Assembly Government for Welsh police
forces). In 2007-08 police formula grant will amount to £7.6
billion which represents about 70% of total central Government
funding for the police and 55% of total police expenditure.
Police formula grant is unhypothecated. The
money is distributed using a formula based on relative needs though
application of the formula has been subjected to a damping mechanism
to promote stability and planning by ensuring that each police
authority receives a minimum percentage increase over the previous
year. The formula was drawn up jointly with the Association of
Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the Association of Police Authorities
(APA) and the Welsh Assembly Government.
In addition, in 2007-08 police authorities and
police forces will receive approximately £1.7 billion in
specific grants, special formula grant and funding for pensions
and security. Specific grants may be subject to conditions as
to how they are used though some are no longer ring fenced.
NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICING
The Government is committed to the roll-out
of neighbourhood policing across England and Wales. Funding for
police community support officers (PCSOs) began in 2002-03. In
the main, it has provided a percentage (varying from 50% to 100%)
of the costs to police authorities of employing a set number of
PCSOs. This number followed a bidding process until 2005. Since
then the bulk of the funding has been allocated in the same proportions
as the main formula grant.
Current targets are for Neighbourhood Policing
to reach every community in England and Wales by 30 April 2007
— this includes a target of 16,000 PCSOs—and a neighbourhood
policing team in every area by April 2008. Following advice from
the police service that neighbourhood policing coverage could
be completed with fewer PCSOs than anticipated, the settlement
for 2007-08 no longer provides for additional recruitment. The
ACPO-led Neighbourhood Policing Programme Team are monitoring
progress and assess that POSO numbers exceeded 10,000 in December
2006 (though this number has not yet been validated by the Home
Office).
Overall funding for neighbourhood policing in
2007-08 will be £31 5 million, an increase of 41% over 2006-07.
FLEXIBILITY
As noted above, the vast majority of central
Government funding for the police takes the form of unhypothecated
grant.
The Crime Fighting Fund was established in 2000
to provide additional funding to enable police forces to employ
additional police officers. On 21 December 2006, in response to
ACPO/APA requests to focus on outcomes rather than inputs, the
Government announced that the penalties that had previously been
attached to the Crime Fighting Fund (by which forces were penalised
if their police officer numbers fell below a specified point)
would be suspended.
This will give police authorities and police
forces greater flexibility to modernise their workforce mix and
ensure that resources are used in the most cost effective and
efficient way possible. The Government has reserved the right
to re-impose penalties if performance drops and this can be linked
to a drop in officer numbers.
PROTECTIVE SERVICES
The Home Office is working closely with police
forces and authorities to explore new ways to address the gap
in protective services identified by HMIC's 2005 report Closing
the Gap. The Government is committed to improving protective
services through more efficient, collaborative ways of working
and forces are developing proposals for doing so.
The strategy will focus on collaborative solutions,
based on proposals put forward by forces. It will concentrate
attention in the first instance on the areas and services where
there is the greatest need for improvement, with targets to bring
the remaining areas and services up to a minimum standard on a
more gradual timescale.
COUNTER TERRORISM
The Government is committed to ensuring that
the Police Service is adequately resourced to meet its Counter
Terrorism Commitments. In 2006-07 the provision for Counter Terrorism
Funding was removed from the General Police grant and allocated
to the police as a Counter Terrorism Specific grant. Previous
funding streams for counter terrorism and other national priorities
such as domestic extremism were a confusing mix of specific grants
and general grant. This blurred accountability and made it difficult
to measure the financial effort put into Counter Terrorism and
other key national priorities and the outcomes delivered.
In 2006 the provision for Counter Terrorism
funding to the police was increased by £93 million taking
it to more than £460 million. This provision will increase
further to £507 million in 2007-08 and will help the police
to increase intelligence gathering and investigative capability.
POLICE FUNDING—THE
FUTURE
The decision to move to a two year settlement
for the years 2006-07 and 2007-08 was widely welcomed by the police
service as providing greater certainty and facilitating medium
term planning. The Government intends to operate a three year
settlement to cover the period of the next comprehensive spending
review (CSR)—2008-09/2010-11.
No decisions have been taken on funding of the
police for the three CSR years. The Home Office as a whole will
receive no increase in real terms over the period but it has not
yet been decided how the money will be allocated between the various
services which the Home Office supports.
Decisions will be taken in the light of information
from ACPO and APA. The Government welcomes the document Sustainable
Policing which has been produced jointly by ACPO and APA which
represents a useful starting point. The Government looks forward
to discussing with ACPO and APA their funding needs for the years
ahead and priorities, The National Policing Board, which was established
in Autumn 2006, is chaired by the Home Secretary and has ACPO
and APA representatives on it and provides the ideal forum for
such discussions.
Given the overall Home Office funding position,
the Government has told the police that it is unlikely that they
can continue to receive above inflation funding increases. The
financial climate has become tighter and the provision that has
been made for the police in recent years has laid a firm foundation
on which the service can build.
EFFICIENCY
The police service has a record of exceeding
efficiency targets in recent years but there is scope to do more,
particularly through more flexible workforce practices.
The Home Office as a whole will be expected
to make 3% cashable efficiency savings and the police service
will need to play its part in this. Any funding gap will have
to be bridged by efficiencies that release cash or increase capacity
from which additional demand can be met.
POLICE PRECEPT
Besides funding from central Government, the
other major source of police funding is the police precept which
is levied by police authorities through the council tax. In 2006-07,
the police precept raised £2.6 billion, which equates to
26% of police authority expenditure.
The level of council tax police precepts for
2007-08 is a matter for Police Authorities though the Government
has made it clear to police authorities in England that it expects
to see average increases of less than 5% and that it will be prepared
to use capping powers if that becomes necessary. As noted above,
the Government have provided police authorities with a very good,
above inflation, settlement for next year and it sees no reason
why there should be any need for excessive increases in council
tax. Council tax policy in Wales is a matter for the Welsh Assembly
Government.
29 January 2007
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