§ Dr. Cunninghamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment why he considers that the Government's grant-related expenditure assessment method used for local authorities outside the metropolitan area would be meaningless and misleading if applied to the Metropolitan police.
§ Mr. Patrick JenkinThe police GRE formula used in the 1984–85 settlement was derived using only information about areas lying outside the Metropolitan Police District. Furthermore, it would not be appropriate to use the local authority method to calculate the Metropolitan police GRE, because the receiver is not a local authority.
§ Dr. Cunninghamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in detail the statistical basis of the calculation of the grant-related expenditure assessment for the Metropolitan police in 1984–85, explaining how this differs from (a) the method employed in 1983–84 and (b) the method used for other police authorities in 1984–85.
§ Mr. Patrick JenkinThe GRE for the Metropolitan police in 1984–85 has, as in 1983–84, been set equal to their budgeted expenditure (net of police specific grant) as approved by the Home Secretary, as police authority for the Metropolitan police district. The method of calculating 277W GREs for other police authorities is clearly set out in grant related expenditure 1983–84 (The "Blue Book"). I hope shortly to publish the 1984–85 version and copies will, as usual, be placed in the Library.