§ Sir Robert SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the real terms change in funding for the police, excluding expenditure on police pensions, in each of the last three years; and what is the expected real terms change in spending over the years of the comprehensive spending review(a) excluding pensions and (b) in total. [80040]
§ Mr. McLeishThe Secretary of State pays police specific grant at 51 per cent. of net eligible expenditure by police authorities. Overall expenditure is determined by the level of Grant Aided Expenditure set by the Secretary of State and subsequently by the budgets set by police authorities. The figures for police grant are shown in the following table. The figure for 1997–98 includes £3.5 million for policing the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
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Year Cash £000 Year-on-year percentage change Real terms £000 Year-on-year percentage change 1996–97 1259,165 — 280,049 — 1997–98 1287,633 10.98 302,932 8.17 1998–99 2337,500 — 345,938 —
Year Cash £000 Year-on-year percentage change Real terms£000 Year-on-year percentage change 1999–2000 2351,900 4.27 351,900 1.72 2000–01 2365,600 3.89 356,683 1.36 2001–02 2376,700 3.04 358,548 0.52 1Excludes expenditure on police pensions. 2Includes pensions expenditure which cannot be identified separately at this time. Note:
The cash figures have been recalculated to show equivalent real term figures at 1999–2000 prices.
From 1 July 1999, this will be a matter for the Scottish Parliament.