§ Mr. CasaleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will announce funding allocations to police forces taking up Airwave in 2001–02. [140622]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeEarlier this year I announced that the Government were making provision of £500 million over three years to meet the costs of a new police radio service known as "Airwave". All police authorities which have signed their service contracts for the new service will benefit from this funding. This will relieve them of a significant burden that would otherwise have had to be met from their policing budgets.
Those forces which feature early in the roll-out programme and whose authorities have signed their service contracts will receive the following allocations in 2001–02. The remaining authorities which have signed their service contracts will receive their allocations in the subsequent two years.
Allocation of airwave grant for 2001–02 (year 1) £000 Force Capital Revenue Lancashire Constabulary 4,922 2,557 Greater Manchester Police (GMP) 10,259 5,329 North Yorkshire Police 2,109 1,096 West Mercia Constabulary 3,095 1,608 Gloucestershire Constabulary 1,684 875 Leicestershire Constabulary 2,796 1,453 Suffolk Constabulary 1,886 980 Devon and Cornwall Constabulary 4,755 2,470 Avon and Somerset Constabulary 4,597 2,388 Derbyshire Constabulary 2,789 1,449 Durham Constabulary 1— 1— Dorset Police 1,913 994 Humberside Police 3,101 1,611 Northumbria Police 5,771 2,998 Cumbria Constabulary 1,650 676 Wiltshire Constabulary 1,769 724 Cambridgeshire Constabulary 2,052 840 Thames Valley Police 6,138 2,514 Gwent Constabulary 1,885 772 Dyfed-Powys Police 1,408 0 Hertfordshire Constabulary 3,045 0 South Wales Constabulary 4,432 0 Total England and Wales 70,143 30,340 1Contracts not signed A further £2.226 million (capital) and £1,156 million (revenue) will be available for distribution in 2001–02 to the other police authority listed once it has signed its service contract.
Payment to BT for the core service will be made centrally.
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§ Mr. CasaleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action he will take in respect of funding police authorities for the execution of warrants during 2000–01.[140623]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeTransfer of responsibility for warrant enforcement, originally planned for 1 October 2000, has been rescheduled for 1 April 2001. I am arranging for the relevant funding, £4.34 million, to be allocated to police authorities according to police grant/Standard Spending Assessments levels for 2000–01.
The allocations are given in the table.
£ Police authority Spending assessment Avon and Somerset 104,455 Bedfordshire 38,645 Cambridgeshire 46,632 Cheshire 67,598 City of London 32,866 Cleveland 51,020 Cumbria 37,498 Derbyshire 63,384 Devon & Cornwall 108,050 Dorset 43,462 Durham 50,570 Dyfed-Powys 31,998 Essex 104,553 Gloucestershire 38,260 Greater Manchester 233,104 Gwent 42,826 Hampshire 122,464 Hertfordshire 69,195 Humberside 70,466 Kent 115,311 Lancashire 111,832 Leicestershire 63,541 Lincolnshire 39,380 Merseyside 145,987 Metropolitan Police 924,557 Norfolk 52,114 North Wales 46,797 North Yorkshire 47,933 Northamptonshire 40,817 Northumbria 131,131 Nottinghamshire 77,976 South Wales 100,716 South Yorkshire 106,677 Staffordshire 70,242 Suffolk 42,854 Surrey 62,768 Sussex 103,945 Thames Valley 139,461 Warwickshire 32,614 West Mercia 70,324 West Midlands 236,757 West Yorkshire 179.031 Wiltshire 40,189 4,340,000
§ Mr. CasaleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what provision will be made for police recruitment under the Crime Fighting Fund for 2001–02. [140635]
§ Mr. StrawThe total provision for police forces in 2001–02 for officers recruited under the Crime Fighting Fund (CFF) is likely to be £129 million. This includes funding for the continued employment of officers recruited during 2000–01 as well as funding for new recruits in 2001–02.
455WThe table provides an indicative breakdown of payments between forces, assuming that all forces recruit their full CFF allocation in 2000–01 and that they also recruit their full CFF allocations in 2001–02.
Bids from forces to accelerate or to defer CFF allocations between 2000–01 and 2001–02 are presently under consideration. CFF allocations for 2001–02 are therefore provisional and depend upon forces meeting the Continuation Criteria set out in the CFF bidding guide. Decisions on acceleration/deferral and on compliance with the continuation criteria may affect the amounts payable to forces in 2001–02.
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Crime fighting fund provision 2001–02: indicative breakdown by force Forces CFF year 1 allocation 2000–01 Continuation cost of year 1 allocation in 2001–021.2(£000) CFF year 2 allocation 1 2001–023 Cost of year 2 recruitment in 2001–022.3(£000) Total(£000 Avon and Somerset 67 1,691 51 706 2,397 Bedfordshire 28 707 31 424 1,131 Cambridgeshire 37 934 23 296 1,230 Cheshire 47 1,186 50 704 1,890 City of London 8 253 15 222 475 Cleveland 20 505 27 353 858 Cumbria 25 631 23 296 927 Derbyshire 49 1,237 55 742 1,979 Devon and Cornwall 77 1,943 79 1,125 3,068 Dorset 29 732 26 335 1,067 Durham 36 908 23 296 1,204 Dyfed-Powys 25 631 38 515 1,145 Essex 70 1,766 62 851 2,618 Gloucestershire 29 732 35 460 1,192 Greater Manchester 186 4,694 201 2.818 7,512 Gwent 31 782 18 275 1,058 Hampshire 82 2,069 77 1,057 3,127 Hertfordshire 40 1,009 30 422 1,432 Humberside 47 1,186 41 565 1,751 Kent 82 2,069 92 1,274 3,343 Lancashire 75 1,893 77 1,057 2,950 Leicestershire 46 1,161 56 758 1,918 Lincolnshire 29 732 18 275 1,007 Merseyside 105 2,650 112 1,555 4,205 Metropolitan4.5 663 20,999 699 17,094 38,093 Norfolk 35 883 47 635 1,518 North Wales 34 858 32 429 1,287 North Yorkshire 20 505 23 296 801 Northamptonshire 32 808 32 429 1,236 Northumbria 85 2,145 87 1,198 3,343 Nottinghamshire 52 1,312 54 729 2,041 South Wales 59 1,489 49 679 2,167 South Yorkshire 67 1,691 61 847 2,538 Staffordshire 49 1,237 51 706 1,943 Suffolk 31 782 21 284 1,066 Surrey 46 1,161 48 655 1,816 Sussex 69 1,741 64 870 2,611 Thames Valley 111 2,801 108 1,500 4,301 Warwickshire 21 530 14 228 758 West Mercia 50 1,262 59 819 2,081 West Midlands 173 4,366 179 2,509 6,875 West Yorkshire 107 2,700 91 1,269 3,970 Wiltshire 26 656 21 284 940 Totals 3,000 80,025 3,000 48,844 128,869 NPT6 16,100 Contingencies7 6,031 Grand Total 151,000 1 Assumes that all forces recruit their full CFF allocation in 2000–01 2Costs include 3 per cent. increase over 2000–01 provision for pay related costs 3Assumes that all forces will recruit their full CFF allocations in 2001–02 and that recruitment will be spread evenly over the year 4The cost of the increase in London Allowance implemented in 2000 for new recruits to the Metropolitan police service (MPS) and City of London police has been included in the calculations for CFF recruits to the MPS and City (including an element for employers NIC) 5Training costs of £7,000 per officer for new MPS recruits has been included in the calculation for MPS 6 NPT training costs of £16.1 million are based on a cost of £7k per officer for forces, except the MPS 7A contingency is required to cover additional costs that may arise, including possible additional costs for CFF recruits from implementation of an Outer London Allowance Payments to forces for individual CFF recruits are made pro rata from the point at which the CFF officers are recruited. Payments due will change to reflect the actual pattern of recruitment, if it is different from the even distribution assumed for the purposes of the table.
In addition to payments direct to forces, National Police Training (NPT) will receive funding to train new recruits to provincial forces. The total CFF provision also includes a contingency to cover, for example, costs arising from any new allowances that may be introduced which affect CFF recruits.
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§ Mr. HopeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will announce the allocations of police grant for individual police authorities in England and Wales for 2001–02. [140629]
§ Mr. StrawI have today put a copy of my proposals for the allocation of police grant for 2001–02 in the Library. I intend to implement these proposals subject to
2000–01(£ million) 2001–02(£ million) Increase(£ million) Percentage increase (a) Total Standard Spending 7,354 7,732 377 5.13 (b) Special police grants and central support services 219 531 312 — (c) Police Authority capital 144 232 88 — Total 7,718 8,495 777 10.06 Note:
All figures rounded to nearest £ million
458Wconsideration of any representations I receive about them, and to approval by the House.
The total provision for policing in 2001–02 is £8,495 million. This is an increase of 10.1 per cent. over the initial provision for this year. I propose to distribute the police settlement as follows.
(a) Total Standard Spending
Police funding proposals within the local government finance system are being announced today by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Local Government and the Regions and by the National Assembly for Wales. These proposals and mine would provide Total Standard Spending on the police in England and Wales of £7,731.774 million, an increase of around £377.4 million or 5.1 per cent. over the comparable provision for 2000–01.
The overall increase is 5.1 per cent., but increases for individual police authorities vary. The formula used to determine the distribution of grant/Standard Spending Assessment (SSA) is unchanged for 2001–02. The main reasons for differences between police authorities result from changes in the data applied from one year to the next. These include changes in population, unemployment, projected pensions commitments and the Area Cost Adjustment.
I propose 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 of grant will be made to the Metropolitan police service over and above that available through the principal formula. I have set the amount of this special payment at £191 million, which is included in the total provision.
I am proposing to make special payments of grant to the following police authorities in 2001–02 in recognition of the additional costs which will be incurred as a result of the changes to the Metropolitan police district boundaries as follows:
£ Essex 14,000 Hertfordshire 627,000 Surrey 1,609,000 My proposed allocations, compared with those for last year, are given in the table as follows. The table also includes provisional allocations for capital financing SSA and for SSA Protection Grant and Central Support Protection Grant where appropriate.
(b) Special Police Grants and Central Support Services
The substantial increase since the last settlement provides the opportunity to develop a number of specific ring fenced initiatives.
Crime Fighting Fund—(£151 million, of which up to £129 million will be targeted grants) for the estimated cost in 2001–02 of police officers recruited this year and next, over and above forces' existing recruitment plans. The overall cost includes recruitment and training. Targets agreed with each force for recruitment, and performance against them, will be reviewed regularly. Actual payments to police authorities will be based on performance.
Rural Policing Fund—(£30 million) to help address the particular pressures of policing rural areas. The payment follows an allocation of £15 million made this year. I shall expect police authorities to demonstrate how they have used the added investment to reduce crime and the fear of crime in more rural areas.
Airwave—(£49 million) for introduction of the public safety radio communication system. The total includes up to £32.488 million grants to police authorities for start-up costs for introduction of Airwave. Grants will be paid to forces taking Airwave in 2001–02. Similar arrangements will apply in future in the year each force joins the system. I shall also provide centrally for payment centrally of the core service charge to the contractor. I envisage that the total provision in the years 2001–02 to 2003–04 (for start up, capital and core costs) will reach £500 million.
Basic Command Unit Fund—(£5 million) to support and encourage initiatives to prevent crime and the fear of crime at the policing level closest to the general public and to extend inspection to BCU performance. Details of the scheme are being developed.
DNA Expansion Project—(£63 million) for processing samples, scientific support, training and evidential casework. Work on how most effectively to target this money is in hand.
National Strategy for Police Information Systems—(£12 million) to support information system developments by forces on behalf of the service.
459W(c) Capital
I intend to increase the provision of grant and supplementary credit approvals from £144.43 million this year to £157.43 million next year. Allocations will reflect any remaining outstanding undertakings given to support particular capital projects and will otherwise be guided as in previous years by the grant/SSA formula. In addition, capital grants for the introduction of Airwave (up to £75 million) will be made available to those police authorities taking up the service in 2001–02. Grants will be made in future years to those taking up the service subsequently.
I will inform the House of any significant allocations of grant to police authorities for these initiatives.
Several projects to be carried forward next year were launched or increased with new money this year, in addition to that in the settlement for 2000–01. The original targets in the Crime Fighting Fund were accelerated (£24 million), the Rural Policing fund was introduced (£15 million), provision was made for special initiatives to counter robbery in metropolitan areas (£20 million) and a central programme of recruitment advertising to support local police authority initiatives was launched (£7 million).
The settlement continues to take account of my commitment to improve police efficiency. For the third year running, I have set a target of 2 per cent. efficiency gains year on year for the police service from 2001–02. As in previous years, police authorities may invest the savings to help meet front line policing priorities. Police grant allocations for 2002–03 will be considered in the light of police authorities meeting the 2 per cent. efficiency targets. Authorities which fail to achieve the efficiency gain sought may be subject to an appropriate deduction from their resources. I am pleased that performance this year is such that it has not been necessary to apply this sanction to the grant allocations for 2001–02.
I expect police authorities in England to exercise restraint and sound financial management by setting budgets that are responsible, prudent and reasonable. We shall be monitoring the position very carefully. The National Assembly for Wales is responsible for exercising reserve powers to limit council tax increases in Wales.
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Police authority 2000–01 allocation1(£ million) 2001–02 allocation1(£ million) Percentage change English Shire forces Avon and Somerset 173.7 181.5 4.4 Bedfordshire 64.1 68.0 6.2 Cambridgeshire 77.2 81.3 5.4 Cheshire 111.9 118.6 5.9 Cleveland 84.7 88.8 4.8 Cumbria 62.2 64.8 4.2 Derbyshire 105.4 111.1 5.4 Devon and Cornwall 178.9 187.9 5.0 Dorset 72.4 75.0 3.7 Durham 83.9 87.5 4.3 Essex 174.8 185.3 6.1 Gloucestershire 63.5 67.0 5.5 Hampshire 202.7 213.9 5.5 Hertfordshire 117.2 122.9 4.8 Humberside 116.9 121.1 3.6 Kent 191.2 204.4 6.9 Lancashire 185.3 193.0 4.2
Police authority 2000–01 allocation1(£ million) 2001–02 allocation1(£ million) Percentage change Leicestershire 105.6 110.8 4.9 Lincolnshire 65.4 68.6 4.9 Norfolk 86.5 91.5 5.8 North Yorkshire 79.7 84.0 5.4 Northamptonshire 67.7 70.9 4.8 Nottinghamshire 130.0 136.1 4.6 Staffordshire 116.8 121.7 4.2 Suffolk 70.9 75.0 5.8 Surrey 112.8 111.0 -1.6 Sussex 172.4 181.8 5.4 Thames Valley 231.7 245.2 5.8 Warwickshrie 54.3 57.0 5.0 West Mercia 117.2 124.4 6.1 Wiltshire 66.7 69.5 4.2 English Metropolitan forces Greater Manchester 386.1 404.6 4.8 Merseyside 242.3 252.7 4.3 Northumbria 218.4 227.7 4.2 South Yorkshire 177.2 184.8 4.3 West Midlands 392.7 409.8 4.3 West Yorkshire 297.1 310.7 4.6 London forces Metropolitan police2 1,731.2 1,823.3 5.3 City of London3 56.4 57.4 1.8 English Total 7,045.1 7,390.5 4.9 Welsh forces Dyfed-Powys 53.2 56.3 6.0 Gwent 71.9 75.1 4.4 North Wales 77.5 82.2 6.1 South Wales 167.6 176.1 5.0 Welsh Total 370.2 389.8 5.3 Total 7,415.3 7,780.3 4.9 1Rounded 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. Figures for Capital Finance SSA are provisional. 2Figure for the Metropolitan police includes its Special Payment. 3Figure 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.
§ Mr. HopeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how he will allocate the money provided to enhance rural policing for 2001–02. [140628]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeSpending Review 2000 made provision for the allocation of £30 million for rural policing in each year of the settlement period. The sums for 2001–02 have been apportioned on the basis of population weighted by a sparsity score. The allocations for 2001–02 are given in the table.
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Police Authority £ Avon and Somerset 992,875 Bedfordshire 163,540 Cambridgeshire 1,125,169 Cheshire 228,487 City of London 0 Cleveland 0 Cumbria 1,370,910 Derbyshire 416,190 Devon and Cornwall 3,114,489 Dorset 442,209 Durham 246,803 Dyfed-Powys 2,588,337 Essex 503,710
Police Authority £ Gloucestershire 776,548 Greater Manchester 0 Gwent 204,476 Hampshire 220,430 Hertfordshire 0 Humberside 710,250 Kent 599,342 Lancashire 64,054 Leicestershire 433,988 Lincolnshire 1,978,690 Merseyside 0 Metropolitan Police 0 Norfolk 2,078,830 Northamptonshire 704,141 Northumbria 0 North Wales 1,533,723 North Yorkshire 2,013,806 Nottinghamshire 0 South Wales 0 South Yorkshire 0 Staffordhire 275,072 Suffolk 1,422,627 Surrey 11,048 Sussex 550,563 Thames Valley 1,262,860 Warwickshire 562,546 West Mercia 2,311,653 West Midlands 0 West Yorkshire 0 Wiltshire 1,092,634 Total 30,000,000.00