Agenda item

The Chairman welcomed Kevin Wilson, the Chief Finance Officer at the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner to the meeting.  Mr Evison and Mr Wilson had been invited to the meeting to discuss with the Panel the Police Precept for 2022-23 and Medium Term Resource Strategy (MTRS) 2022-23 to 2026-27.

The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) informed the meeting that the MTRS for 2022-23 to 2026-27 that was attached to report as an appendix included the Commissioner’s income and expenditure plans for the next five years.

The MTRS had been updated to take account of budget pressures, savings proposals and the recent provisional Police Finance Settlement that was issued on 16 December 2021.  The capital programme and the projections for the Commissioner’s reserves were also included.

The MTRS sets out a sustainable financial position over the medium-term and included the following key elements:-

Ø  An underspend for the current financial year (2021/22) of £0.06m;

Ø  Financing included in the MTRS for a capital programme of circa £48.01M over the period 2022/23 to 2026/27;

Ø  Impact of the 2022/23 Police Finance Settlement including funding for 129 additional officers as part of year 3 of the national Operation Uplift;

Ø  Savings requirement over the period 2022/23 to 2026/27 of circa £7.5m;

Ø  Total Reserves of £13.2M by 1 April 2027;

The MTRS included a council tax precept increase of £9.99 a year on a Band D property for 2022/23.

The Police and Crime Commissioner informed the Panel that he had a duty to consult the public in regard to the intention to increase the policing precept.  The proposed rate should then be considered by the Police and Crime Panel.

The Commissioner issued a Funding Survey and Council Tax Police Precept consultation which asked for views on increasing the Council Tax Precept by –

Ø  No change;

Ø  £4.99;

Ø  £9.99;

Ø  £14.99.

The results showed strong support of 73.2% for an increase of £9.99 or above on a band D property.  The referendum threshold set by Government for 2022-23 was any increase above £10 on a Band D property.  The key headlines from the consultation were as follows:-

Ø  Total of 1,209 respondents;

Ø  80% of respondents in favour of an increase in precept (45% in favour of £14.99; 28% in favour of £9.99; 6% in favour of £4.99);

Ø  People responded from every Humberside postcode area;

Ø  Of the 80% of respondents in favour of a precept increase; Neighbourhood Policing, 999 Response Patrol and Serious & Organised Crime were the top three areas of policing teams the public felt were most important to them;

Ø  Of the 20% of respondents not in favour of a precept increase; Roads Policing, Armed Response and Neighbourhood Policing were the top three areas the public felt of least importance;

Ø  80% of respondents were aged over 45, of these, 40% were over 65 years;

Ø  The 18-24 years bracket had the least engagement; 0.9% of the sample;

Ø  11% of the sample were non-White British or preferred not to say;

Ø  20% of the sample considered themselves to have a disability.

The PCC acknowledged that there were 28% fewer survey responses this year than for the previous survey, the reasons for which would be explored furthered.

Following the Commissioners verbal update, the Chairman facilitated a discussion between Panel Members and Mr Evison and Mr Wilson on the Commissioners proposed precept increase of 4.10%.  The financial implications for residents were that the Band D Council Tax amount would increase to £263.19 for 2022-23, an increase of £9.99.

Resolved – That having considered the evidence submitted by the Police and Crime Commissioner and Mr Wilson, Chief Finance Officer at the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, and their responses to questions from members, it was unanimously agreed that the Humberside Police and Crime Panel support the precept without qualification or comment.