Funding formula will be delayed for another year
A NEW Government consultation on the formula for police funding appears to have been delayed for at least a year while chiefs prepare a report on the service’s specialist capabilities.
A revision of the formula was due to have taken place already, but the process was discarded after an error in the Home Office’s calculations was spotted by a member of staff from the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner’s office.
Police Minister Mike Penning, who apologised for the mistake last November, has told MPs that work on the new formula will not be re-started until a report on force capabilities is completed by the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
The report aims to determine which specialist capabilities – such as public order policing, armed policing and cyber investigations – need to be delivered by every force and which are best delivered nationally or collaboratively.
It is understood that the NPCC did not realise the government would rely on this review in order to revise the funding formula and the first phase of the work is not expected to be finished for around a year.
Mr Penning has already said the current formula, which determines how much money each police force receives from the government, is out of date and does not take into account demographic changes in local areas. It currently assesses population size, social and economic factors, crime rates and other data.
Speaking to MPs, the Police Minister said: “Could I start a new consultation tomorrow? Yes I could, but I would not have the information within my grasp to do that. I have not got a date from Sara Thornton [Chair of the NPCC] for that report.”
He added that it is “enormously difficult” to get 43 police chiefs to agree where they will place their capabilities.
Keith Vaz, Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, has said: “Police forces need to know what is going to happen… Following the glaring errors last year, it is self-evident that the Home Office should redouble its efforts to create a fairer funding model, and it is clear that the funding review should be restarted as swiftly as possible.”