Contents

This page contains briefing paper ps/09/06 on the MPS tasking budget 2005/06.

Warning: This is archived material and may be out of date. The Metropolitan Police Authority has been replaced by the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (MOPC).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

The MPS tasking budget 2005/06

ps/09/06
20 February 2006
MPA briefing paper

Author: DAC Richard Bryan, MPS

This briefing paper has been prepared to inform members and staff. It is not a committee report and no decisions are required.

Background

At its meeting on 23 June 2005 the MPA approved the use of £4m of the 2004/05 MPS underspend to create a tasking budget for the Director of Tasking. This briefing note provides a financial analysis of how this money has been utilised by the MPS.

The £4m Tasking budget is used to cover police overtime (and related Employer’s national insurance contribution) and supports the idea that if a borough or OCU makes a bid for a taskable resource then this resource should be provided at nil extra cost.

Tasking continues to be an essential element of Capital City Policing allowing the deployment of extra specialist resources to support Territorial Policing and other Business Groups. The process continues to be reviewed to refine and improve the system. It is closely linked into the Met Modernisation Programme and is the subject of a paper to Management Board in early February.

Allocation

As at 31 December 2005, approximately £1.9m of the Tasking budget has been spent according to MPS priorities. There follow three tables detailing the breakdown of this expenditure by:

  • Operation type
  • Taskable resource
  • Borough receiving the resource

Table 1 – Tasking by operation type

Offence type Total expenditure to 31 Dec 05 (£)
Drugs 24,392
Gun 239,933
Other 52,372
Specific operations 16,818
Street Crime 1,574,697
Total 1,908,212


Table 2 – Allocation by taskable resource

Resource Total expenditure to 31 Dec 05 (£)
ANPR (Traffic) 20,808
Force Firearms Unit 5,208
Combined operations 186,216
Operational Support 40,370
Public Order 15,061
Specialist Crime Directorate 11,056
Transport OCU 10,904
Traffic 60,455
Territorial Support Group 1,558,134
Total 1,908,212

Table 3 – Boroughs receiving the taskable resource

Borough or OCU Total expenditure to 31 Dec 05 (£)
Bexley 3,196
Brent 113,736
Camden 3,632
Croydon 26,991
Ealing 99,102
Enfield 1,267
Greenwich 58,964
Hammersmith & Fulham 9,121
Haringey 174,004
Haringey Camden 3,765
Havering 10,541
Islington 47,789
Islington/Camden Combined 4,845
Kensington & Chelsea 6,348
Lambeth 302,064
Lewisham 129,993
Newham 149,627
Pan London 12,409
Redbridge 17,796
SCD6 (Westminster) 5,217
Southwark 367,642
Waltham Forest 103,451
Wandsworth 106,052
Westminster 150,659
Total 1,908,212

Table 4 - Tasking Days and Number of officers

The following table indicates the daily deployment of taskable resources through the Tasking system and where these officers have been deployed.

B/OCU Traffic TOCU TSG Mounted Dogs support CO19 Others Total
Barking & Dagenham 0 420 0 0 0 0 0 420
Barnet 384 0 0 0 8 0 0 392
Bexley 0 140 98 0 0 0 0 238
Brent 790 350 3,241 80 16 0 0 4,477
Camden 448 140 1,155 0 0 0 0 1,743
Croydon 194 470 1,344 230 6 9 0 2,253
Ealing 896 0 5,810 0 8 0 0 6,714
Enfield 8 140 0 0 10 0 35 193
Greenwich 560 140 1,372 0 0 0 0 2,072
Hackney 16 0 525 0 8 18 0 567
Hackney/Haringey (Combined) 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 2
Hammersmith & Fulham 766 830 56 60 36 0 0 1,748
Hammersmith/Kensington (Combined) 336 0 0 0 0 0 0 336
Haringey 784 0 5,593 50 112 72 0 6,611
Haringey/Camden (Combined) 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 4
Haringey/Newham (Combined) 140 0 0 0 0 0 0 140
Harrow 0 0 21 0 0 0 0 21
Havering 0 140 392 0 0 0 0 532
Hounslow 80 190 0 70 18 0 0 358
Islington 280 0 2,051 0 0 0 0 2,331
Islington/Camden (Combined) 0 0 21 100 0 0 0 121
Kensington & Chelsea 812 0 588 0 0 0 0 1,400
Kingston upon Thames 212 100 0 0 20 0 0 332
Lambeth 2,212 140 6,573 0 400 18 0 9,343
Lewisham 128 0 2,639 0 14 18 0 2,799
Merton 0 140 0 0 0 0 0 140
Newham 1,876 140 7,091 70 270 9 470 9,926
Redbridge 0 0 294 140 0 0 0 434
Southwark 3,677 380 6,776 250 478 27 0 11,588
Southwark Lewisham (Combined) 32 0 0 0 2 0 0 34
Tower Hamlets 48 210 392 0 22 0 0 672
Tower Hamlets/Newham (Combined) 0 140 0 0 2 0 0 142
Waltham Forest 304 560 3,458 280 80 27 336 5,045
Wandsworth 1,488 1,150 3,430 70 64 0 0 6,202
Westminster 136 560 6,475 50 310 0 0 7,531
Sub (days) 16,607 6,480 59,395 1,450 1,890 198 841 86,861
Other MPS Directorates 16 0 343 0 14 0 0 373
Total (days) 16,623 6,480 59,738 1,450 1,904 198 841 87,234

Average deployment per day - 346 Officers per day

Commentary

The tables show that as at 31 December 2005, £1.9m has been paid out from the Tasking Fund. This is on a cash basis, not an accruals basis, and there is a time delay between the cessation of an operation and a closure form being submitted to the Tasking Unit. This can result in money being allocated a number of weeks after the operation date. At present approximately £840k has been allocated by the Director of Tasking for which closing forms are awaited. Once received a proportion of this allocation will be paid out to taskable OCUs.

This £1.9m represents the additional costs of tasking, i.e. it covers only the overtime and ERNIC costs of tasked resources. The actual cost of tasking is far greater as it includes the salary costs of the officers tasked. Using the Tasking budget in this manner creates flexibility and continuity of deployment allowing taskable units to be deployed on borough for a full working day without the borough or taskable unit having to support the additional overtime costs (often inevitable when travel is involved). In the past 3 years, these additional costs have been funded by the Safer Streets funding from the Home Office, this funding ceased in 2005/06.

It should be noted that not every taskable deployment results in additional expenditure over and above the standard pay costs of the officers involved.

Table 4 shows clearly that the TSG is the taskable resource utilised most often. Unlike other OCUs, which have specific core responsibilities outside of the Tasking process, the vast majority of the deployments of the TSG are task based through the Tasking process.

Issues

Clearly, the events of 7/7 and 21/7 and subsequent related activity had an impact on the level of ‘normal’ Tasking activity where taskable OCUs were deployed outside of the usual Tasking process.

Within the Central Operations modernisation process practices and policies are being examined to ensure that resources are deployed in the most efficient and effective manner.

Resource implications

The Tasking Process is directed by DAC Richard Bryan supported by a Superintendent (part time), an Inspector, a PC and a member of Police Staff. A review of Tasking is currently being undertaken

Equalities implications

There are no direct equalities implications linked to this paper

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