Police Grant Announcement

The Home Office and the Welsh Assembly Government have confirmed the provisional Grant settlements for 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 that they announced on the 13th of December 2010. The Home Office has also given indicative summary figures for their element of the grant for 2013-2014 and 2014-2015.

Details of the actual figures are set out below together with the latest estimates of the base expenditure figures, and the cuts required at a Council Tax increase of 4%.

The cut to the total general grant is 5.1% in 2011-2012 and 6.7% in 2012-2013. This compares to cuts of 4% and 6% announced in the CSR. The same % cut has been applied to all Forces. A number of Specific Grants have been amalgamated into the main grant and the cut applied to the new total:

·         Crime Fighting Fund (£3.015m)

·         Rural Grant (1.537m)

·         DNA Support (0.670m)

·         Modernising of Probationer Training (£0.152m)

·         Special Priority Payment (£0.904m)

·         Basic Command Unit ‘BCU’ Grant (0.342m)

During 2010-2011 £1.148m has already been cut from these grants. Taking all the adjustments into account gives a new base Central Support Grant of £87.567m. The cut of 5.1% for 2011/12 has been applied to this giving a total settlement for the year of £83.101 which includes approx. £10m floor grant.

The budget has been reviewed in detail and the estimated inflationary requirement is now 8.4% over the 4 year period.

The Neighbourhood Policing Grant provides 75% of the cost of PCSOs and will continue as a Specific Grant in 2011-12 and 2012-2013. The Minister says “From 2013/14, the new directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners will have full discretion over this funding, recognising their accountability to the communities they serve”.

The Government's Comprehensive Spending Review included a planning assumption that Authorities would mitigate the reduction in central government grant by increasing the Council Tax. The implications of their planning assumptions are that we increase our precept by 4% each year in each of the next four years. In England, funding has been made available to help police authorities deliver a council tax freeze in 2011/12. These arrangements do not apply in Wales and North Wales Police Authority members have indicated that an annual increase of 4% in the Council Tax precept is the appropriate planning assumption.

The table below sets out the required cuts following the decision to increase the precept by 4%

The aim has to be to have achieved all the savings required in each year by the beginning of that year.   

Savings already identified for 2011/12 amount to £6.859m. These savings include a reduction of approximately 39 Police Officers and 60 Support Staff.

Savings in 2012-13 and 2013-14 will be achieved through further reductions in non-staffing budgets of £1.35m, the retirement of a further 69 police officers and 35 police staff.  It is hoped to keep compulsory redundancies to a minimum.

The number of people expected to leave the organisation over the period is therefore approximately 250 or 1 in 11 of the current total, with similar proportions of police officers and police staff. This compares to 1 in 7 if the council tax precept was frozen at the current level.

Where possible changes will be implemented at the earliest opportunity sooner in order to return the force to a stable position where we recruit new officers and employees to replace those who are leaving as soon as possible.

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