§ Lord Harrisonasked Her Majesty's Government:
When they intend to announce the allocations of police grant for individual police authorities in England and Wales in 2000–01. [HL100]
§ Lord BachMy right honourable friend the Home Secretary today placed a copy of his proposals for the allocation of police grant for 2000–01 in the Library. My right honourable friend the Home Secretary intends to implement these proposals subject to consideration of any representations received about them, and to approval by the House.
My right honourable friend the Home Secretary is proposing to continue to allocate the greater part of police grant according to the police funding formula. My right honourable friend the Home Secretary announced on 2 November 1999 and in answer to the right honourable Member for East Devon (House of Commons, Official Report, col. 118) that he did not intend to make any changes to the funding formula in 2000–01.
My right honourable friend the Home Secretary is proposing that the Metropolitan Police Service should continue to receive additional funding in recognition of its distinct national and capital city functions. It has proved very difficult for the principal formula to take account of these special circumstances. As in previous years, therefore, a special payment or grant will be made to the Metropolitan Police Service over and above that available through the principal formula. My right honourable friend the Home Secretary has set the amount of this special payment at £182 million.
In addition, my right honourable friend the Home Secretary is proposing to make special payments of grant to the following police authorities in 2000–01 in recognition of the additional costs which will be incurred as a result of the changes to the Metropolitan Police District boundaries:
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Essex £1.25 million Hertfordshire £2.75 million Metropolitan Police £0.50 million Surrey £5.50 million Other police funding proposals within the local government finance system are being announced today by my right honourable friend the Minister of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Ms Armstrong) and by the National Assembly for Wales. These proposals and those of my right honourable friend the Home Secretary would increase Total Standard Spending on the police in England and Wales by 3 per cent, or around £212 million over 1999–2000.
My right honourable friend the Home Secretary has also announced that new money will be made available through the Crime Fighting Fund to recruit 5,000 more police officers over and above the number forces would otherwise have recruited over the next three years commencing in April 2000. £35 million will be ring-fenced for this purpose in year one with further sums being made available in years two and three. This money will be ring-fenced for front-line policing.
The settlement also takes account of the commitment of my right honourable friend the Home Secretary to improve police efficiency. My right honourable friend the Home Secretary has set a target of 2 per cent. efficiency gains year on year for the police service from 1999–2000. By achieving these targets in 2000–01, police authorities can re-invest the savings to help meet front-line policing priorities. Police grant allocations in 2001–02 will depend on police authorities meeting the 2 per cent efficiency targets which have been set. Authorities which fail to achieve the efficiency gain sought may be subject to an appropriate deduction from their resources.
My right honourable friend the Home Secretary expects police authorities in England to exercise restraint and sound financial management by setting budgets that are responsible, prudent and reasonable. My right honourable friend the Home Secretary will be monitoring the position very carefully. The National Assembly for Wales is responsible for exercising reserve powers to limit council tax increases in Wales.
The effect of the proposals of my right honourable friend the Home Secretary for each police authority for 2000–01 is set out in the table. It also shows the allocations approved by Parliament for 1999–2000.
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1999/2000 Allocation1 2000/2001 Allocation1 Police Authority £m £m English Shire forces Avon and Somerset 168.4 173.7 Bedfordshire 61.4 64.1 Cambridgeshire 74.8 77.2 Cheshire 109.0 111.9 Cleveland 81.7 84.7 Cumbria 60.1 62.2
1999/2000 Allocation1 2000/2001 Allocation1 Police Authority £m £m Derbyshire 102.1 105.4 Devon and Cornwall 174.3 178.9 Dorset 70.1 72.4 Durham 81.3 83.9 Essex4 163.0 174.8 Gloucestershire 62.4 63.5 Hampshire 194.5 202.7 Hertfordshire4 100.0 117.3 Humberside 113.0 116.9 Kent 183.1 191.2 Lancashire 178.2 185.3 Leicestershire 102.3 105.6 Lincolnshire 63.4 65.4 Norfolk 83.4 86.5 North Yorkshire 77.6 79.7 Northamptonshire 65.3 67.7 Nottinghamshire 126.3 130.0 Staffordshire 113.0 116.7 Suffolk 68.6 70.9 Surrey4 91.9 112.9 Sussex 166.4 172.5 Thames Valley 224.6 231.8 Warwickshire 52.2 54.3 West Mercia 113.0 117.2 Wiltshire 64.9 66.7 English Metropolitan forces Greater Manchester 375.7 386.0 Merseyside 236.3 242.2 Northumbria 213.0 218.4 South Yorkshire 171.3 177.2 West Midlands 380.6 392.7 West Yorkshire 286.3 297.1 London forces Metropolitan Police2, 4 1,743.9 1,732.2 City of London3 55.4 56.5 English Total 6,852.8 7,046.2 Welsh forces Dyfed-Powys 51.7 53.1 Gwent 69.7 71.9 North Wales 75.5 77.4 South Wales 163.8 167.6 Welsh Total 360.8 370.1 Total 7,213.6 7,416.3 Notes:
1 Rounded to the nearest £100,000. The Allocation is the sum of: Police Grant, Transitional Grant, Police SSA, Capital Finance SSA. SSA Reduction Grant and Central Support Protection Grant.
2 Figure for the Metropolitan Police does not include funding allocated to the Receiver under the Environmental, Protective and Cultural Services SSA for school crossing patrols, Magistrates' Courts and the Probation Service. It does include its Special Payment.
3 Figure for the City includes Police SSA, Grant and SSA Reduction Grant, but excludes other SSAs (eg Capital Financing) and Central Support Protection Grant. These are allocated to the Common Council of the City of London as a whole in respect of all its functions.
4 These authorities will be affected by the changes to police force boundaries around London on 1 April 2000. To provide comparison, indicative 1999/2000 totals for these authorities as on the new boundaries are Essex: £169.8m, Hertfordshire: £114.3m, Surrey: £113.6m and Metropolitan Police: £1,701.9m.