§ Nick HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 14 February,Official Report, column 622W, if his Department is planning to apply for a special grant to pay for additional police officers and other exceptional additional costs which could not be met from within existing budgets for the Queen's Golden Jubilee; what the procedure is for applying for such a grant; how much money the Department anticipates requesting; and if he will make a statement. [44570]
§ Mr. DenhamWhere it can be demonstrated that exceptional additional costs could not be met from existing police authority budgets or reserves it is open to forces to apply for a special grant. Any such application would be considered within existing Departmental provision for special grants.
In general terms we would expect police authorities to meet the additional costs of policing Golden Jubilee events from within their existing budgets or reserves. Criteria for consideration of a special grant application were agreed in 2000 between the Home Office, Association of Chief Police Officers and Association of Police Authorities. Under those criteria police authorities are normally expected to meet additional costs up to 1 per cent. of the force budget set by the policy authority. Grant would be considered in relation to the balance of cost above that 1 per cent.
§ Nick HarveyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much the Department has spent on the Queen's Jubilee in each of the past three years; how it has been allocated; and if he will make a statement. [44571]
563W
§ Angela EagleThere was no Home Office expenditure in connection with the Golden Jubilee in 1999–2000. In 2000–01, £72,375.15 was spent on the administrative costs of setting up the Golden Jubilee Unit, which is co-ordinating the arrangements for the Jubilee celebrations
Responsibility for the Golden Jubilee Unit was transferred to the Department of Culture, Media and Sport following the General Election. Funding had passed through the Home Office accounts in February 2002: up to that point £721,861.53 was spent by the Golden Jubilee Unit. This comprised £594,824 on the Unit's work in co-ordinating arrangements for the celebrations, £95,110 in grants and £31,927 on providing information about how to stage the jubilee events. Of the grant expenditure, the majority £50,000 was given to the "London String of Pearls" (as a contribution to the costs in opening up buildings to the public during Jubilee) and the rest to the Commonwealth Institute (to help towards the cost of its role in the planned national parade).