28 April 2014 – FOI Response 056/2014 – Freedom of information request

Request

1. Why did you increase the precept by 1.99% for 2014-15
2. For 2013-14 you received a grant of 5.7 million, which should have reduced tax payers’ bills (it did not) why.
3. Although you required less money from the collecting agents (York City 12.4m instead of previous 13.7 million(. Was this at your or some one else’s demand.
4. The Chief Constable stated in the press “December 2013”. He had saved 10 million, from where.

Response

Extent and Result of Searches

Searches were carried out within the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner. Some of the information you have requested is held by the OPCC, and I have explained further about this below.

Decision

Question 1

The Commissioner has identified a number of key priorities for the 2014/15 financial year to support the Police and Crime Plan:

• Protecting frontline service delivery
• Enable frontline services through investment in technology and estates
• Introduction of a new commissioning approach to reflect the broader remit for Community Safety
• Ensuring a sustainable service to the public

The budget and resource requirements to deliver the Police and Crime Plan goals and the priorities identified above, inform the Revenue budget.

The budget setting was in the overall context of significant public sector, Home Office and police funding reductions. Comparing all the funding streams for 2014/15 with those for 2013/14 (excluding the Precept and the Collection Fund Surplus) shows a reduction of 3.44m in funding. The increase of 1.99% in the Precept will raise £1.1m, so the funding available has reduced by some £2.3m.

In setting the budget for 2014/15, the Commissioner and the Chief Constable have identified savings and efficiencies to absorb this reduction, as well as all the unavoidable inflationary increases that have impacted on estimated costs.

Question 2

This grant is to compensate for the reduction in Council Taxbase and is roughly equivalent to the Precept lost. We will receive a Council Tax Support Grant of £5,727,621 in 2014/15. The actual reduction in Council Tax Base between 2012/13 and 2014/15 was 22,764, which would have generated Precept of £4,748,948 (at 2014/15 precept rate). The additional approximately £1m of this grant over and above the impact of the reduction in Council Taxbase has assisted us to maintain the required Precept increase at only 1.99%.

Question 3

This information is not held by the Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire. I would suggest you contact York City Council, who are the collecting agents, in respect of this information.

Question 4

I have linked this question to a web chat that the Chief Constable carried out on the 1st December 2014. I assume these are the comments you are referring to but please let me know if this is not correct.

I have obtained the relevant excerpt from the webchat, which is as follows:

5:03 Dave Jones: I have now been in post for nearly six months now and consider we have developed a mature and professional relationship. Between us we have identified areas of potential saving of up to £10 million by April 2016. Clearly we report on a regular basis how we are doing against financial targets – you can see monthly details here: https://www.northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk/news/scrutinising-police-performance/

As you can see, the Chief Constable did not state that £10 million has already been saved, but that potential savings of up to £10 million by April 2016 had been identified.

There is, therefore, no recorded information held specifically in answer to your question, but I hope this explains the Chief Constable’s comments for you.