Government announces new police funding

THE Police Funding Grants from Government have been published – with most forces across England and Wales down by around £1 million year on year.

With Chancellor George Osborne announcing that there would be no cuts to policing budgets in November’s budget, it will now fall on Police and Crime Commissioners to ensure that is the case via council tax rises. In South Yorkshire, the funding settlement for 2016/17 is £188,922,146. That is £1.07 million less than the previous year.

The biggest year-on-year change sees £670 million funding to the counter-terrorism budget, which is up from £564 million last year.

It includes £34 million for an increase in firearms capacity and an unspecified amount to tackle cybercrime.

Forces will be able to maintain their budgets if their PCCs increase their tax by the maximum amount allowed.

The announcement for the 2016/17 funding follows both the “shambles” around proposed changes the police funding formula.

You can see the full report here https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/486447/2015_12_16_provisional_police_grant_report_2016-17_final.pdf