The Minister for Crime and Policing (Kit Malthouse)
My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has today laid before the House the “Police Grant Report (England and Wales) 2021/22” (HC 1162). The report sets out the Home Secretary’s determination for 2021-22 of the aggregate amount of grants that she proposes to pay under section 46(2) of the Police Act 1996. Copies of the report are available from the Vote Office.
The allocations that have been laid before the House today are as set out in my statement and provisional police grant report of 17 December 2020.
Available funding to police and crime commissioners (PCCs) is made up of Government grants and police precept. The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government has today set out the council tax referendum principles that will apply to the police precept, for approval by the House of Commons.
Council tax levels are a local decision and elected PCCs will rightly want to consider what they are asking people to pay to fulfil their strong desire to keep our streets safe.
The council tax referendum principles are not a cap, nor do they force local authorities to set taxes at the threshold level. Rather they are an additional local democratic check to prevent excessive increases. The forthcoming PCC elections also provide an opportunity for local taxpayers to have their say on the spending decisions of their elected representatives.
In 2021-22, the overall funding settlement for the policing system will total up to £15.8 billion, a £636 million increase on the 2020-21 funding settlement.
Depending on local decisions, available funding to PCCs could increase next year by up to an additional £703 million. This would represent an increase to PCC funding of up to 5.4% in cash terms on the 2020-21 police funding settlement. If the public were asked to approve greater increases via a local referendum, and voted for such changes, precept funding would increase accordingly.
The table, available as an online attachment, documents funding to PCCs for 2021-22, including capital grant and precept.
Attachments can be viewed at:
http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2021-02-04/HCWS758/.
[HCWS758]