You are in:

Contents

Report 04 for the 10 Jul 00 meeting of the MPA Committee and discusses the MPA budget for 2000/01 and currently identified budgetary pressures.

Warning: This is archived material and may be out of date. The Metropolitan Police Authority has been replaced by the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPC).

See the MOPC website for further information.

Metropolitan Police Authority budget - 2000/01

Report: 4
Meeting: Metropolitan Police Authority
Date: 10 July 2000
By: Treasurer and Commissioner

Summary

This report seeks to inform Members of the 2000/2001 budget inherited by the Authority and of currently identified budgetary pressures.

A. Supporting information

1. The budget for the financial year 2000/2001 set by the Government Office for London and inherited by the Authority is set out in the tables at Appendix 1:

  • Summary of Cash Budget; and
  • Budget by Business Group.

Since the budget was set, a number of additional budget pressures and offsetting savings have been identified and agreed by the MPS Management Board.

Savings £000
Additional investment income 1,500
Revised estimate of commuted pensions requirement  1,500
Revised estimate of civil staff early retirement 500
Net 1999/2000 underspend carried forward 2,700
Arrears of NCIS/NCS administration charge 900
Not allocated in final budget setting process 2,900
Total 10,000

 

Pressures  £000
DNA and forensic submission 6,300
Costs of MPA (above original budget) 1,000
Best Value team 760
Strengthening of the MPS Secretariat and Commissioner's office 400
Residual realignment costs 150
Carry forward of unspent partnership funding for 1999/2000 400
Overtime for certain operations and murder review unit 990
Total £10,000

3. In addition, the following potential requirements to incur expenditure have not, to date, been provided for in the budget:

  • the London pay lead – the Home Office has indicated that they would expect the 2000/2001 cost of up to £3.5m to be met from the existing budget;
  • New Year 2000/2001 – the budget assumes a 'normal' New Year. If major events were to be staged significant additional expenditure (depending on the scale, location and duration of events) might be required;
  • character enquiries – the Police Act 1997 envisages a significant extension of criminal record and criminal intelligence checks for prospective employees. It is not clear whether fee income will cover the additional costs;
  • overtime – whilst budgetary provision for overtime reflects the proposals put forward by Territorial Policing and Specialist Crime, expenditure to date is running higher than anticipated reflecting uncertainty about eventual budgets by Units affected by the abolition of areas;
  • insurance – there is an earmarked reserve for compensation of £10m but no provision has been made for the costs of stop-loss or catastrophe insurance that it might be prudent to take out.

4. Reports on budgetary control which will be provided to the Finance, Planning and Best Value Committee on a regular basis will address these issues.

5. The Home Office has recently announced an additional allocation of £9 million funding for the MPS specifically for anti-robbery initiatives.

B. Recommendations

  1. That the 2000/2001 budget inherited by the Authority be noted.
  2. That the pressures and offsetting savings identified since the 2000/2001 budget was set be noted.
  3. That the potential calls on expenditure for which no budget provision exists be referred for consideration to the Finance, Planning and Best Value Committee.

C. Financial implications

There are potential but unspecified additional costs in 2000/2001 for which there is no specific budgetary provision and for which offsetting savings have not yet been identified.

D. Review arrangements

The budget will continue to be monitored closely by the Authority and its Finance, Planning and Best Value Committee.

E. Background papers

The following is a statutory list of background papers (under the Local Government Act 1972 S.100 D) which disclose facts or matters on which the report is based and which have been relied on to a material extent in preparing this report. They are available on request to either the contact officer listed above or to the Clerk to the Police Authority at the address indicated on the agenda.

F. Contact details

The author of this report is Colin Balkman, Deputy Treasurer.

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

Send an e-mail linking to this page

Feedback