HC Deb 02 February 2001 vol 362 cc339-40W
Mr. Edwards

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to review the funding formula for allocating resources to police forces in England and Wales; and what weighting is given to social deprivation factors in the existing funding formula. [146918]

Mr. Charles Clarke

I will be considering the funding formula in the context of the review of local government finance, in relation to the police service.

Various indicators are used in the calculation of the police funding formula. These indicators include population, unemployment levels and other socio-economic factors, and show the type of data that influence funding distribution through the formula.

All the indicators used in the police funding formula are as listed:

  • Police establishment
  • Resident population
  • Daytime population
  • Households renting
  • Residents in terraced accommodation
  • Residents in lone parent families
  • Residents in overcrowded households
  • One-adult households
  • Striving population
  • Unemployment-related benefit claims
  • Long term unemployment-related benefit claimants
  • Young male unemployment-related benefit claimants
  • Population density
  • Population sparsity
  • Built-up road lengths
  • Motorway lengths
  • Police pensions
  • Security expenditure

Details of the indicators and their relative value in determining the allocation for individual forces are set out in the Police Grant Report (England and Wales) 2001–02. A copy has been placed in the Library.

The predicted workload for each force, over a range of different service elements or components, is estimated each year on the basis of these indicators and for Ms the basis for distribution of funding.