HC Deb 12 February 1986 vol 91 cc464-5W
Mr. Hargreaves

asked the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has any plans for increasing the rate support grant for local authority police spending in the coming financial year.

Mr. Kenneth Baker

I have decided, following my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary's decision to increase the rate of police grant for 1986–87 to 51 per cent., to increase the total of block grant available by £22 million. This would increase aggregate Exchequer grant in England by about £50 million. All police authorities in both shire and metropolitan areas, will gain grant, and the table shows how much. This recognises the priority which the Government give to improving the policing of our country. No other authorities will lose grant. All ratepayers will therefore benefit from the increased grant.

Estimated increase in Police grant Estimated increase in block grant Estimated increase in police and block grant
£ £ £
Greater Manchester Police Authority 1,650,000 1,440,000 3,090,000
Merseyside Police Authority 1,180,000 1,040,000 2,220,000
South Yorkshire Police Authority 720,000 410,000 1,130,000
Northumbria Police Authority 880,000 200,000 1,080,000
West Midlands Police Authority 1,640,000 1,110,000 2,750,000
West Yorkshire Police Authority 1,250,000 720,000 1,970,000
Metropolitan Police 8,050,000 8,870,000 16,920,000
Avon 450,000 270,000 720,000
Bedfordshire 270,000 210,000 480,000
Berkshire 330,000 350,000 680,000
Buckinghamshire 290,000 290,000 580,000
Cambridgeshire 280,000 200,000 480,000
Cheshire 480,000 320,000 800,000
Cleveland 340,000 260,000 600,000
Cornwall 200,000 70,000 270,000
Cumbria 240,000 60,000 300,000
Derbyshire 450,000 230,000 680,000
Devon 450,000 180,000 630,000
Dorset 260,000 170,000 430,000
Durham 300,000 30,000 330,000
East Sussex 290,000 220,000 510,000
Essex 690,000 550,000 1,240,000
Gloucestershire 230,000 120,000 350,000
Hampshire 690,000 440,000 1,130,000
Hereford and Worcester 300,000 190,000 490,000
Hertfordshire 470,000 430,000 900,000
Humberside 460,000 140,000 600,000
Isle of Wight 60,000 20,000 80,000
Kent 680,000 350,000 1,030,000
Lancashire 720,000 170,000 890,000
Leicestershire 430,000 240,000 670,000
Lincolnshire 270,000 90,000 360,000
Norfolk 310,000 190,000 500,000
Northamptonshire 270,000 170,000 440,000
North Yorkshire 330,000 100,000 430,000
Nottinghamshire 510,000 270,000 780,000
Oxfordshire 240,000 170,000 410,000
Shropshire 190,000 80,000 270,000
Somerset 200,000 80,000 280,000
Staffordshire 510,000 220,000 730,000
Suffolk 270,000 140,000 410,000
Surrey 440,000 380,000 820,000
Warwickshire 230,000 150,000 380,000
West Sussex 280,000 220,000 500,000
Wiltshire 250,000 100,000 350,000

These calculations assume that rate-limited authorities would have spent at rate limit and other authorities would have spent at the settlement assumption, and that the increase in police grant leads to no increase in expenditure. They assume that before the increase in the police grant police expenditure net of police grant accounted for 6.7 per cent. of shire counties' settlement spending assumption.