Agenda item

The PFCC presented the proposed Police precept and budget for 2022/23, which were based on an increase in the precept of £10 per year for Band D Council Tax. The PFCC highlighted the following points:

·         The proposed precept and budget had been developed against the background of significant financial uncertainty.

·         The 2021 Spending Review had provided a three-year funding settlement and the flexibility to increase the Police precept by £10 in each year to 2024/25. At the same time, public bodies faced pressures resulting from increases in the cost of living and the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

·         This situation added to the importance of consulting Northamptonshire residents on the proposed precept. In this case, 50.3 per cent of those replying to public consultation indicated that they would be prepared to pay a £10 increase; 42.9 per cent of those replying thought that Northamptonshire Police was doing a good or excellent job.

·         He needed to strike the right balance between competing demands when setting the precept. He considered that the proposed precept did this and that it represented the best deal for Northamptonshire.

·         The proposed precept and budget for 2022/23 would support a further increase in the number of police officers in the county to 1,500; provide investment in early intervention; and would include ring-fenced funding for other action to support the delivery of his Police, Fire & Crime Plan priorities.

·         The proposed precept and budget would provide funding for the capital programme and for reserves to meet unforeseen demand.

·         Medium term savings would still need to be made but the proposed precept would enable him to set a balanced budget over three years for the first time.

·         Funding for policing in Northamptonshire had not kept pace with local growth and he would continue to press for the police funding formula to be updated, as well as working with his counterparts on the response to other national challenges such as future pension costs.

·         He commended the proposed precept as a robust proposal that would produce a balanced budget over the next three years and that would support his strategic priorities.

Ms Shirley Jones addressed the meeting and made the following points:

·         She had recently been in contact with Northamptonshire Police as a service-user. The force was very stretched and in her case it had not fulfilled its statutory duties: it had not been able to download CCTV footage within six months, which had meant that a case was not able to proceed.

·         The small budget for the Office of the Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner (OPFCC) showed in the standard of service provided at times. She thought that correspondence and complaints could be dealt with better.

·         The Northamptonshire Police Professional Standards Department (PSD) had taken over eight weeks to acknowledge a complaint that she had made and would not respond to related queries. The police complaints process should treat complainants fairly.

·         She believed that her experiences reflected that Northamptonshire Police was funded poorly.

The Democratic Services Assistant Manager read out the address by Mr Aaron Preston, which made the following points:

·         Mr Preston thought that the increases in the Police and Fire precepts proposed by the PFCC could have been higher, given the need for the two services to have adequate equipment and personnel to support and protect local communities. However, he welcomed that the increases would provide additional resources to help to meet current policing challenges and to improve the financial position of Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue Service (NFRS).

·         Mr Preston raised the need for more information to be provided to local communities about planned activity to support crime prevention and community safety in the county. He was the Police Liaison Representative (PLR) for Far Cotton and Delapre. It was more difficult to get residents to engage with the force and to provide local intelligence if there was a lack of information about how best to support the force and about initiatives underway. Residents also needed to understand how crime was going to be reduced and how success in this would be measured

·         Mr Preston questioned how the success of the Safer Nights Out (SNO) van trial project would be judged and what the project aimed to achieve.  

·         Mr Preston highlighted that beat officers still had to spend a significant amount of time on paperwork, which reduced their visibility in the community. He questioned whether there was a plan to address this situation, including making more use of automated systems and civilian staff. 

The PFCC thanked the speakers for taking the time to attend the meeting.

The PFCC made the following points in response to Ms Jones’ address:

·         He agreed that Northamptonshire Police should receive higher funding and he encouraged members of the public to lobby their MP on this matter.

·         He apologised that Ms Jones’ experience of making a complaint to the OPFCC had not been better. The capacity of the Complaints Team had recently been reduced due to the need to fill a vacancy that had arisen.

The PFCC advised that he would provide a written response to Mr Preston following the meeting and made the following points:

·         The PLR scheme had been launched in April 2021. PLRs were supposed to receive a welcome back and regular information from the force. It did not appear that Mr Preston was receiving this and the situation could be checked.

·         Current investment in neighbourhood policing reflected the importance of community intelligence. More accessible services would encourage residents to share information.

·         The SNOvan had operated for less than eight weeks so far. The project was intended to provide support to vulnerable people in the night-time economy
in Northampton, not to reduce crime or anti-social behaviour. He thanked the Northampton Guardian volunteers who operated the SNOvan.

·         The force faced additional demands relating to paperwork as a result of requirements set out in the latest guidance on charging produced by the Director of Public Prosecutions. However, increasing the numbers of officers, the Qlik data-sharing system and the joint-service IT function would produce a benefit.

The PFCC provided additional information in response to further questions as follows:

·         As PFCC he was subject to a statutory obligation to publish performance data. Members of the public would see the OPFCC publish more information over the coming year.

·         Northamptonshire Police had been a struggling force and was still not where he wanted it to be but was now making real progress. Recent reports by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) demonstrated this.

·         Perceptions of the performance of PSD needed to take into account that it carried out complex and sensitive work. It also received a significant number of spurious complaints that wasted time. The PFCC had taken a greater role in overseeing the complaints process to help to address this situation. He was also considering what could be done to increase PSD resources.

The Panel considered the proposed Police precept.

The Panel questioned the PFCC about the benefit that Northamptonshire residents would see from the proposed precept and budget. It was emphasised that the major commitments it was intended to support needed to be delivered in practice, particularly in ‘left behind’ areas. The PFCC made the following points:

·         The outcomes that the budget was intended to support could not be achieved immediately. The force currently had over 500 police officers who had been in the role for less than four years and needed time to become fully effective.

·         Performance data already showed that police officers were more visible in the community but that public engagement remained at the same level. This was part of the reason for ring-fencing funding in the budget to support neighbourhood policing.

·         The force was on an improvement journey and was making good progress but was not yet where it needed to be.

·         Funding for neighbourhood policing would be used across the county rather than focussed only on specific areas. However, it was part of his role as PFCC to hold to account the Chief Constable for the outcomes being achieved by the force. He expected that the expanded neighbourhood policing offer in Northamptonshire should produce a benefit for all areas.

The Panel noted that the PFCC had increased the Police precept by £13 at Band D in 2022/122 compared to the £10 increase proposed for 2022/23 and sought reassurance about the potential impact of setting a lower precept this year. The PFCC was further questioned about whether he would need to raise the precept in 2023/24 if the cost of increasing the force’s establishment to 1,500 officers would be covered in the latest budget.

The PFCC made the following points:

·         All Police & Crime commissioners had to work with the Council Tax referendum limit set by the government, which had been higher in 2021. He was comfortable that a £10 increase represented the best option at this point, whilst the force had also been tasked with delivering a 1 per cent annual efficiency saving.

·         The flexibility given to commissioners to increase the precept by £10 in each of the next three years would provide a clearer position over the near future.

·         The Police precept set for 2023/24 would take into account that there would still be a need for additional resources at that point. The cost of police pay would increase as officers progressed in the role and moved through a broad pay scale. The force would also need to be in a position to meet new demands, such as the significant cost of charging electric vehicles.

The Panel considered potential risks that could affect the delivery of the 2022/23 budget as proposed. Panel members made the following points:

·         Increased inflation, operating costs and new government priorities that did not come with funding attached could all contribute to pressures on resources in the near future.

·         Possible increases in employer pension contribution rates could produce a pressure of £6.4m per year by 2024/25. It would be a significant concern if the government did not provide funding to cover this demand and it fell on local taxpayers.

·         Budget pressures on partner organisations that affected their involvement in collaborative work could create additional demands on the force.

The Chief Finance Officer provided additional information in response to points raised by members during the course of discussion as follows:

·         Neither the range of potential increases in employer pension contribution rates nor the amount that might be covered by the government were yet known. The OPFCC was modelling an increase of 10 per cent with the government covering 75 per cent of the cost, which reflected previous experience.

·         It was unlikely that the government would expect public sector organisations to meet the full cost of potential increases in employer pension contribution rates but there was a risk in anticipating the final position. However, this risk had been appropriately identified in the Medium Term Financial Plan and would be dealt with as necessary.

The PFCC made the following points:

·         His approach to the question of future employer pension contribution rates was informed by the judgement that local taxpayers would not support an increase in the precept intended to build up a reserve now to deal with pension cost pressures that might arise in the future.

·         He did have concerns about the impact of changes in partnership working, in light of a recent issue regarding local authority funding for the Sunflower Centre. Northamptonshire was going through an unsettled period following local government reorganisation and other changes such as the creation of the  Children’s Trust. It was important that all partners acted in a way that supported the aim of making people safer.

The Panel sought reassurance that the level of reserves maintained by the PFCC was adequate. It also sought further information about the use of the earmarked reserve intended to support specific initiatives arising from the Police, Fire & Crime Plan, given that the Reserves Strategy identified the risk of initiatives not being adequately defined or delivered and producing poor value for money.

The Chief Finance Officer provided additional information in response to points raised by members during the course of discussion as follows:

·         General and earmarked reserves had been thoroughly analysed as part of the development of the budget.

·         The general reserve of £5m represented a suitable amount that made provision for issues that could arise, such as the local cost of responding to a major incident or meeting the external audit requirement to show a balanced budget over a three-year period.

·         The PFCC did not keep a significant sum in earmarked reserves.

The PFCC made the following points:

·         He judged that current reserves were adequate, which was supported by the Joint Independent Audit Committee.

·         The Reserves Strategy identified the risk of initiatives not being adequately defined or delivered and producing poor value for money to reflect the difficulty in some cases of proving that an intervention had produced better outcomes than would have occurred if no action had been taken. Initiatives funded from the reserve were still designed to be as effective as possible.

The Panel noted that the public consultation on the proposed precept had generated a better response than the consultation on the PFCC’s Police, Fire & Crime Plan in 2021. However, the PFCC was challenged about whether he was content with the number of responses received. The PFCC made the following points:

·         He was always looking to improve public engagement. The consultation on the proposed Police precept had used a range of methods and the number of responses received was statistically relevant.

·         The outcome of the Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner election in 2021 also represented a significant judgement on his priorities.

·         As the PFCC he was ultimately responsible for making a decision on the precept and he was comfortable doing so having considered all of the relevant factors.

The Chair welcomed the workshop session for Panel members on the Police and Fire budgets held ahead of the current meeting, which had been very useful. The PFCC was also invited to advise the Panel if it could assist in making the case for updating the current police funding formula.

The Chair invited the Panel to agree its conclusions on the proposed Police precept.

RESOLVED that: the Panel supports the Northamptonshire Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner’s proposed Police precept for 2022/23.