Police budget settlement
Responding to today’s announcement from the Home Office on provisional financial allocations for police forces, Paddy Tipping, Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner and chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners finance group said:
“This funding will be welcome news for many police forces across the country. Combined with our local sources of funding it provides relative security for police forces for the next year.
“While there is a small reduction in government grant funding and inflation must be taken into account, this is a better settlement than many anticipated. However, forces will need to make further savings which may include reducing the number of officers and PCSOs. The savings that need to be made will vary across the country.
“Elected Police and Crime Commissioners will keep up their work with chief constables and other senior police leaders to run a financially efficient service that still delivers for the communities we serve. We look forward to working with government on how this can be achieved.”
“We will need to look carefully at the detail provided in the coming days. We welcome the flexibility to raise additional money through council tax and we call on the government to make this freedom available to all PCCs.”