Response to the Policing Draft Budget and Precept 2019/20

Report of the Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel (‘The Panel’) 

to the 

Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire (’The PFCC’) 

With regard to: 

The Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire’s Draft Policing Service Budget and Precept 2019/20 

Under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 the Panel is required to report formally to you on their consideration of, and decision on, your proposed Policing Service Budget /Precept for 2019/20. That legislation gives us the power to veto your Precept if we consider it to be too low or too high, and sets out the procedures to be followed both by the Panel and yourself in the event of the veto being exercised. 

The Panel met on Monday 28 January 2019. You attended, accompanied by your Chief of Staff and your Director of Finance. 

The Panel received your report on the proposed budget/Precept which showed a total budget of £196.994million for 2019/20.  Your report included details of Home Office and other central grant allocations for 2019/20, the former showing an increased amount of £107.139million (compared to £104.936 million for 2018/19). You submitted that this was effectively a cash flat allocation as it included funding towards the unforeseen additional contributions which you were being required to make to the Police Pensions Fund. You explained that this funding contribution resulted from lobbying Central Government on the need for assistance with those costs. 

Your report also detailed other funding streams including the Precept. You referred to Governments announcement that for 2019/20 the referendum limit for the Police Precept had been raised to £24 per household, per annum.  In 2018/19 this figure had been £12 per household, per annum and had originally been expected to continue at that level for 2019/20). We had previously taken part in a consultation workshop on your budget options for 2019/20. At that time you had given assurances that you would require robust evidence on the need for, and use of, the additional £24 before going forward with that as a proposal. 

Your draft budget/Precept for 2019/20 proposed the £24 per household, per annum increase which would give an additional £9.299million.  Of that you proposed the allocation of approximately £3.588 million to improve the capacity and capability of the Force. The remainder of the additional funding would be used to address base budget pressures. You reported that a public consultation exercise had shown public support for increased investment in policing. 

We discussed the recruitment of additional officers and the progress of your commitment last year to appoint an additional 69 officers over the 2 year 2018/20 period.  We queried the total Police establishment and the rate of retirements and transfers which affected that figure.  We felt that clearer information was needed on the actual number of officers employed and on their deployment and that the public should have evidence of the additional resource which they supported funding for. It was agreed that we’d hold a separate workshop with you to look at this in detail. 

We queried the proposal to reduce the establishment number of PCSOs from 240 to 215. You reported that 215 was the actual number in employment and that the Chief Constable deemed this to be the appropriate operating level and wished to reallocate the additional funding to other areas of the service. 

The Chief Constable was reported to be finalising proposals for the use of the £3,588million additional funding and key performance indicators would be developed to monitor the effectiveness of the spend. 

Other budget issues  discussed by us included the allocation of £200,000 of the additional funding to address Business Crime, the increased funding pressures of the non-statutory services commissioned by you (e.g. Drug and Alcohol Support Services) and the proposed withdrawal of funding for the SPACE scheme as you felt that sufficient commitment existed amongst other agencies to enable the scheme to continue. 

The level of General Reserve Fund held by Staffordshire Police had been recorded as the lowest of Forces in England and Wales, sitting at around 1% of the net revenue budget. A level of 3% was generally considered necessary to ensure that a Force has the capability to respond to unforeseen major incidents.  Whilst maintaining your previously expressed view that this Reserve should be kept to a minimum as funds should be allocated to front line service delivery, you acknowledged the need to increase the level of Reserve. You therefore proposed to increase the General Reserve to 3% at the beginning of each financial year and to maintain a minimum 2% throughout the year. We noted that separate ‘Earmarked Reserves’ exist. 

Along with your budget report you submitted a series of supporting policies/strategies namely, the Policing Treasury Management Strategy, the Reserves Strategy and the Capital Strategy and Minimum Revenue Provision Policy. We supported those documents. 

Your report to the Panel concluded with a statement by your Director of Finance on the robustness of the budget and adequacy of the proposed financial reserves. That Statement was noted. 

At the conclusion of our discussions on your proposal we resolved to support your Precept and Revenue Budget for 2019/20. However we felt that the plans for investment, including the number of police officers is unclear. Therefore we welcome your offer to provide further information regarding investment plans so that we can undertake a monitoring role during the next financial year. 

In addition we wish to impress upon you the importance of directly communicating with, and demonstrating to, the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent communities, the need for, and use of, the additional £24 per household, per annum Precept in 2019/20.                   

S. Sweeney 

Chairman

Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel 

On behalf of the Staffordshire Police, Fire and Crime Panel.