§ Sir Nicholas Bonsorasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what will be the total cost to public funds of the Metropolitan Police in 1985–86; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. BrittanAs police authority for the metropolis, I have approved estimates which provide for net revenue expenditure (as currently defined) by the Metropolitan police of £747.641 million in 1985–86, an increase of 5 per cent. on the cash limit of £711.8 million which I set for 1984–85.
I have decided, however, that an accounting change should be made to the Metropolitan police estimates to bring them into line with the Supply Estimates presented to Parliament. In future, the net revenue expenditure figure in the Metropolitan police estimates, which is the basis of the cash limit, will be calculated without reference to certain Government grants, which in 1985–86 amount to £15.543 million. Accordingly, the cash limit for 1985–86 will be set at £763.184 million. This is a purely technical adjustment to secure consistency between the two sets of estimates: it has no effect on the force's level of expenditure or on the level of precept levied on the boroughs and districts in the Metropolitan police district.