Annual review of the schedule of fees and charges

Report: 09
Date: 19 March 2009
By: Director of Finance Services

Summary

This report sets out information on Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) fees and charges. It also provides details of charges for the special services of police. There is also an explanation in respect of the current status of charging for the detention of prisoners in MPS cell accommodation.

A. Recommendations

That

1. members review and approve the attached schedule of fees and charges; and
2. endorse the proposal to maintain the charges for the provision of copy documentation detailed at Table 1 within the body of this report at April 2008;

B. Supporting information

Background

1. Section 18 of the Police Act 1996 (Supply of Goods and Services) provides the MPS, as with other police forces, with the legislative tool to charge for the supply of goods and services other than police officers. Section 25 of the Police Act 1996 (Provision of Special Services) allows Forces to charge for special police services which they may provide in respect of the provision of police officers at the request of a third party.

2. The schedule of general fees and charges for the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) can be classified under a number of specific categories. They are:

•  MPS calculated fees and charges;
•  Fees as advised by other Agencies;
•  Fees and charges as detailed within statute or legislation.

ACPO guidance on charging for police services

3. The review of the schedule of general fees and charges work has been produced against the formal guidance produced by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Finance and Resources Business Area endorsed by ACPO Chief Constables’ Council in 2005. The guidance was promulgated to all Chief Officers of Police in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2005.

4. The purpose of the guidance is to provide Forces with sound and robust methodology for recovering costs and an approach to charging for their services that is both transparent and consistent.

5. An aspect of the ACPO guidance considered the common fees and charges passed on by Forces for services/products such as the provision of copy documentation, copy video tapes, interviews provided by police officers and staff etc.

6. ACPO’s reasoning for common charges across police forces was the inability of justifying to third parties, such as solicitors and insurance companies, widely varying costs for the provision of Road Traffic Information. This can create an overall problem for the police service, in terms of credibility to sections of the business or other communities.

7. ACPO believes a consistent approach across Forces would be invaluable in improving the credibility around the charges made for the copy information to third parties. This consistency would be achieved if Forces were prepared to align their fees and charges with those recommended by ACPO.

MPA Finance Committee of 20 January 2005

8. The MPA Finance Committee of the 20 January 2005 accepted the MPS recommendations to introduce the ACPO common charges which were higher than the MPS values such as charges for limited particulars (insurance details of other drivers in an accident) and maintain on a mark time basis those MPS charges that were higher than the ACPO recommended charges until such a time as the ACPO recommended charges were harmonised. The charges that were affected by this decision were principally in respect of the provision of copy documentation. These principles were applied for the first time from April 2005. The position of the MPS in marking time on specific charges was maintained for three years.

MPA Finance Committee of 21 February 2008

9. During 2007/08 MPS Finance Services completed a full review of the cost to the MPS of reproducing copy documentation with a view to identifying if the current MPS charges retain their currency. The review established that the charges that the MPS had applied since April 2005 needed to be increased significantly to ensure the actual cost of the service provision was recovered. MPS Finance Services advised ACPO on our decision to increase charges to an appropriate level.

10. The increases identified during the MPS review were implemented in full as recommended by the MPA Finance Committee of the 21st February 2008, for the financial year 2008/09. These charges were, in some cases, significantly higher than those recommended by ACPO. It was necessary for the MPS to increase those charges to ensure they were reflective of the general higher costs and overheads in London.

Schedule of fees and charges

11. The range of fees/charges under the category of MPS calculated fees/charges include charges for the provision of copy documents, photographs, videotapes etc. required for civil proceedings and the secondment fee of MPS employees to be passed on to external organisations.

12. There are a number of charges, which are advised by other agencies such as charges for the taking of fingerprints of the public in relation to visa applications as advised by the ACPO National Fingerprint Board.

13. Additionally, the Schedule includes charges set by statute or legislation such as the fee to be paid for the issue of a pedlars’ certificate as stated within the Pedlars’ Certificates (Variation of Fee) Order 1985.

14. Appendix 1 to this report provides a comprehensive list of the fees and charges as per the above categories. The charges will be effective from 1 April 2009 unless otherwise stated due to the impact of legislation.

Review of charges for 2009-10

15. ACPO recommends that the nature and level of such charges should be re-assessed at three yearly intervals to review their continuing relevance. ACPO recommends that outside of the full review programme, Forces should apply inflation to the range of charges.

16. In the review of the proposed charges for common items from April 2009, set out in the MPA Finance and Resources Committee report in Appendix 1, the charging process was considered in light of the Audit Commission’s 1999 national report “The Price is Right? Charges for Council Services” and its later report “Positively Charged”.

17. The basic premise of the Audit Commission reports was that councils, as that was the target audience for these reports, needed to reconsider their approach to setting charges. Councils needed to acknowledge that charges had a significant role to play in meeting council objectives; had a central role to play in service delivery, raising income, funding investment and affecting user behaviour.

18. The Audit Commission wanted to encourage councils away from a narrow focus of an incremental approach to charging whereby they simply increased their charges year-on-year by inflation. Councils had to analyse their service delivery, where charges could be applied, to ensure that the level of charging recovered the cost of the service provided.

19. MPS Finance Services wanted to ensure that our approach was in keeping with the spirit of the Audit Commission reports in that there was due consideration given to the objectives of the MPA/MPS in recovering the full cost of the service delivery through identifying the actual processes involved rather than a basic inflation increase year on year.

20. In reviewing the fees and charges for 2009/10, MPS Finance Services has sought to reflect the changes in numbers of staff/working practice at the Territorial Policing Traffic Criminal Justice OCU, who have introduced an amalgamated Civil Action Report Section (CARS) in respect of charges for the reproduction of copy documentation for civil proceedings.

21. The introduction of the CARS has involved a review of staff numbers required to search for and copy requested documentation. This has currently resulted in a reduction in the number of staff previously employed on these duties, which has more than compensated the cost of inflation increase to the cost of reproducing the requested information. Accordingly it is recommended that the charges for the reproduction of copy documentation are held at April 2008 prices as they recover the cost of the service that is provided.

22. Table 1 provides a summary of the charges for copy documentation for 2009/10 as compared to charges in 2008/09 identified through the aforementioned review. ACPO have yet to determine the proposed rates for copy documentation etc. for 2009/10. Their decision in respect of 2009/10 rates has yet to be decided as at the date of this report.

Table 1 – Charges for common items – comparative figures

23. A recent MPA Internal Audit of the MPS annual review of fees and charges recommended that the cost of the administrative charge included within the charges made to host organisations for MPS seconded officers should be reviewed and updated. A revised charge of £390 per officer per month has been calculated, significantly higher than the charge of £268.50 per officer per month passed on in previous years. This charge had been maintained at this level for a number of years.

24. Photographic fees has been reviewed during this financial year and discussions with MPS Photographic Branch have identified adaptations to the processes originally applied in the production of photographic imagery as a result of improvements in the technology used. This has had an impact upon the range of photographic fees as there is a need to include references to situations where requested images need to be scanned onto the MPS imaging database. On these occasions there would be a need to include the cost of the scanning as part of the overall charge for a request for photographs. Appendix 1 to this report has been amended to reflect this change.

25. The charges in respect of interviews with police officers or a request for a police officer to write a statement for civil proceedings have been increased by inflation to acknowledge the pay rises that police officers receive.

Charges for special services of police

26. On many occasions, the MPS provide policing services within private premises, such as sporting stadia and also in the provision of assistance for activities including filmmaking and traffic surveys. These policing services fall within the remit of Section 25 of the Police Act 1996.

27. The MPS make charges for these special services, which are calculated to recover full costs. The charges include daily rates and hourly rates for police ranks up to and including Assistant Commissioner rank. There are additional charges in relation to other resources utilised on such events such as daily costs for police staff, including drivers, communication officers, daily costs for police horses, dogs and vehicle costs.

28. They incorporate a general administrative overhead recovery charge to recover non-pay and overhead costs and an overtime premium to reflect, in respect of Constables and Sergeants, that on many occasions, the policing resource is in addition to the normal duty time resource required to police the community. Charges for special services attract VAT.

29. Table 2 and Table 3 provide a comparison between current hourly charges for special services of police for Sergeants and Constables and proposed charges from 1 April 2009 (net of VAT) under specific circumstances.

Table 2 – Charges for special services of police – Constable

Table 3 – Charges for special services of police – Sergeant

Special Constabulary

30. It should be noted that the charges for special services now include special constables. The inclusion of such a charge is to align with a recommendation from the ACPO Guidance on Charging for Police Services.

31. Specials are generally deployed at “small event” policing or to augment policing at larger events. They incur a range of costs for uniform / equipment, travel and subsistence, training and the use of police vehicles and control equipment. There are no direct employable costs.

32. In order to recognise that although a special constable has the powers of a constable, the actual cost base for specials is demonstrably lower than regular officers. To reflect this, the charge for special services for a special constable is 50% of that for the equivalent rank for regular officers.

Dogs and horses

33. MPS Finance Services intend to undertake a review of the cost of the provision of special services by horses and dogs during 2009/10 to establish the full current costs as part of the normal three year review cycle. The outcome of this review will feature in the papers for MPA Finance and Resources Committee next year.

34. Appendix 2 to this report details the full schedule of charges for the special services of police to be introduced on the 1 April 2009 subject to the approval of the MPA Finance and Resources Committee on 19 February 2009.

Charges for detention of prisoners in MPS cell accommodation

35. There are currently a number of bases for charges for the detention of prisoners in MPS cell accommodation. These include long standing arrangements in place to deal with the cost recovery in respect of the use by the Prison Service of MPS cell accommodation namely:

•  ACPO Police/Prison Service Overnight Accommodation protocol (lockouts [1])
•  Home Office Circular xx/2006 - Reimbursement of Costs of Holding Prisoners in Police Cells [2]

36. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) requires the use of MPS cell accommodation. The use of MPS cell accommodation features as part of more wide-ranging discussions that Specialist Crime Directorate have had with SOCA to develop a protocol dealing with the relationship between the MPS and SOCA to be adapted into a Memorandum of Understanding. It had been reported to Finance Committee on 21 February 2008 that there was an expectation that the work to develop the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) would be concluded during 2008/09.

37. The issue of charging SOCA for the use of MPS cell accommodation has been discussed with the MPS lead on SOCA liaison. MPS Finance Services have been advised that an agreement had been reached between the Commissioner and the Director of SOCA that there would be no cross charging for the provision of services between the MPS and SOCA.

38. In respect of the arrangements for charging the United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) (previously Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND)) for the use of cell accommodation, it was reported in the annual review of the schedule of fees and charges report to Finance Committee on the 21 February 2008 that ACPO had been working with UKBA to develop a national protocol for the use of police cells by UKBA.

39. ACPO’s proposals with reference to above arrangements with UKBA were to have a non-bureaucratic charging structure based upon a flat rate recharge with the benefits of being simple to administer and pragmatic in its approach. The intention was to avoid the complex formulae that are currently used in many Forces and to encourage UKBA to manage their detainees more efficiently. Forces would retain the flexibility to charge above and beyond the flat rate recharge where there is demonstrable additionality in respect of a specific operation to that Force.

40. In light of these protracted discussions, the MPS had maintained current charges upon UKBA, effective from 1 April 2004. The use of MPS cell accommodation by UKBA had been overshadowed by the significant use of police cell accommodation under the invocation of Operation Safeguard since November 2006. Operation Safeguard was stood down in October 2008 and at a debrief following the stand down, there was general agreement in ACPO, Home Office etc. that the cost recovery process needs to be simplified moving to a position where there is a flat rate charge per prisoner/detainee place in a police cell.

41. Significantly, the view has been taken that the flat rate charge should be utilised across the use of police cell accommodation by a number of agencies including UKBA. There are discussions currently taking place to progress this proposal involving representatives from ACPO, Prison Service and UKBA.

Charges as advised by other agencies

42. MPS Finance Services have been advised that the ACPO Security Systems Group have proposed that the fee for intruder alarm registration is to increase to £47.58 (inclusive of VAT at 15%) with effect from 1 April 2009. The proposal has yet to be finalised although the decision is expected shortly. If the proposal is accepted, there would need to be a further adjustment as of 1 January 2010 to accommodate the return to a VAT rate of 17.5% or as advised at that time.

43. The charges for taking fingerprints for members of the public for a visa application etc. are increased with effect from 1 April 2009 to £63 for the first set of fingerprints and £32 for each subsequent set as advised by the ACPO National Fingerprint Board.

Charges that are set by statute or legislation

44. MPS Finance Services has approached the Home Office and other Government Departments to establish if the various fees/charges set by legislation are still current.

Pedlars Certificate

45. The charge for a Pedlars Certificate is one of longstanding, going back to 1985. The Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) have undertaken a research project seeking views on proposals to update the regulations regarding street trading and pedlary. It is anticipated that during the financial year 2009/10 these fees will change.

Overseas visitors registration fee

46. There are currently negotiations between the ACPO Foreign Nationals Registration Working Group (FNRWG) and UKBA, regarding the registration fee (of £34.00) as set by the Immigration (Registration with Police) (Amendment) Regulations 1995 to discuss the currency of this fee. MPS Finance Services will monitor the situation as to the progress of the negotiations.

Partnership & other cost sharing arrangements

47. The special arrangements re cost sharing in respect of partnerships on a case by case basis with local authorities, as allowed by Section 92 of the Police Act 1996 (Grants by Local Authorities), is not applicable to this specific paper, which is produced in order to achieve cost recovery. The proposed fees and charges for 2009/10 are achieved by identifying the actual fees and charges due to be charged to members of the public/external organisations, with reference to the actual services provided in accordance with ACPO/government agencies/statute or legislation.

Value added tax

48. The items listed under the schedule of fees and charges are always shown net of VAT unless indicated otherwise. VAT will be accounted for at the appropriate rate according to the tax point date.

Next steps

49. Once approved by the MPA Finance and Resource Committee, Finance Services will ensure the schedule of fees and charges is promulgated throughout the MPS using a range of media. An electronic version will be published via the MPS Intranet, on the MPS Website on the Publication Scheme.

50. The report was originally due for consideration and approval at Finance and Resources Committee meeting of the 19 February 2009. Approval at the February Committee would have allowed sufficient time to notify interested parties across the MPS and our external partners of the rates for 2009/10. In order to minimise the impact of the delay in the MPA approval of this paper MPS Finance Services have, with the agreement of the MPA Treasurer, put our external parties on notice of the rates for 2009/10 but made clear that these are still subject to MPA approval. Any further delay in approving the report will mean the revised rates cannot be charged from the 1 April with a consequent impact on income recovery and a need to notify our external partners that the rates have yet to be agreed.

C. Race and equality impact

There are no issues, which impact upon equality or diversity.

D. Financial implications

1. The estimated 2008/09 income generated from the fees and charges are fully reflected in Table 4 as advised by budget holders.

Table 4 – Income from Fees and Charges 2009/10

2. It should be noted that the income generated from the fees and charges may be higher or lower than the above estimates due to demand fluctuations as illustrated within the estimated income in respect of charges for the use of cell accommodation.

3. The cost recovery process in respect of Operation Safeguard allowed Forces to recover the expenditure incurred in looking after Home Office prisoners. The expenditure included the overtime and associated Employers National Insurance incurred by officers employed on Operation Safeguard duties in addition to the cost of meals, accommodation etc.

4. As a result of the cessation of Operation Safeguard, the expenditure the MPS was incurring in terms of overtime and associated Employers National Insurance etc. due to the need to house these prisoners ceased. Therefore in terms of the budgetary impact, the effect is neutral since the income received was to reimburse/recover the additional associated expenditure that was incurred.

5. The current indications are that there is unlikely to be an invocation of Operation Safeguard during 2009/10 and as such the only income to be recorded in respect of the use of MPS Cell Accommodation is the income received from the detention of detainees from the UKBA. The current estimated annual forecast for 2009/10 for this income is £3.4m.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author(s): Simon Hart, Acting Director of Finance Services, MPS

For more information contact:

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

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