Overtime report 2009/10 – quarter 3

Report: 6
Date: 1 March 2010
By: Director of Resources on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report provides analysis on the year to date and forecast position for Overtime earned by Police Officers, Police Staff and Police Community Support Officers as at quarter 3 (December 2009).

A. Recommendations

Members are invited to:

1. Note the quarter 3 (December) position for overtime costs of Police Officers, Police Staff and Police Community Support Officers.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. At the request of the MPA a report was presented to the Resources Sub Committee (8 October 2009) which provided information to give Members a better understanding of the use of Police Officer Overtime in the MPS and the actions being taken to control the level of expenditure. As a consequence of that paper Members asked for a quarterly paper to update them on the position on overtime expenditure for Police Officers, Police Staff and Police Community Support Officers. A commissioning brief for the information required was subsequently submitted by the Authority. This report provides a summary of the overtime position as at quarter 3 (December 2009). The exempt Appendices 1 to 3 provide additional analysis of overtime expenditure as explained in paragraphs 2 to 4 below.

2. It should be noted that expenditure on Police Officer Overtime has been controlled effectively in recent financial years and there has been no significant growth in expenditure despite a significant growth in officer numbers. Table 1 shows that the average cost of overtime per eligible police Officer (Sergeants and Constables) has fallen since 2005/06.

Table 1 - Average cost of overtime per eligible Police Officer

3. Exempt Appendix 1(A) breaks down the year to date actual expenditure on Police Officer overtime by Business Group as at period 9 (December 2009). It further breaks down the expenditure by apportioning the costs over the various Operational Policing Measure (OPM) assignment codes for each eligible officer (Constables and Sergeants) as a proxy for the analysis sought by the Authority as to the reason for the overtime incurred. This is based on the assumption that the reason for overtime worked is in direct proportion to the assigned OPM codes. Exempt Appendix 1(B) provides a breakdown by operational Command Unit of the number of Police Officers on each OPM assignment code. Similar information is also provided in this appendix for Police Staff and Police Community Support Officers.

4. Exempt Appendix 2 shows a bar chart which provides details of numbers of Police Officers claiming overtime against hours claimed for the 9 months to end of December 2009. The chart shows the number of officers in various ranges of overtime hours paid from 0 to 100 and one additional bar for all those claiming over 100 hours. The Appendix also shows similar ranges of officers for the average number of hours claimed per month. Similar information is also provided in this appendix for Police Staff and Police Community Support Officers.

5. Exempt Appendix 3 provides an analysis of the number of Police Officers by Business Group who were paid at least 100 hours in any month in quarter 3. Analysis is provided for each month within the quarter. Similar information is also provided in this appendix for Police Staff but no Police Community Support Officers have claimed over 100 hours in any one month. In considering this analysis it should be noted that overtime claims are paid one month in arrears and can be for any number of months.

6. It should be noted that there are a number of benefits to be gained by the use of overtime. In particular it is an effective tool to:

• Cover spikes in operational demand, sickness, secondments, aid deployments and other absences, in a flexible way without the need to recruit additional officers;
• Gain additional manpower, often at short notice;
• Maintain the evidential process and carry out ongoing investigations to ensure continuity;
• Maintain agreed minimum staffing levels; and
•  Ensure that relevant specialist skills are available when required.

7. However, Management Board recognise the need to focus on both controlling and reducing overall costs and the other risks associated with the use of overtime which include:

•  Potential impact on work / life balance and Police Officer and Staff safety;
•  Officers and Staff can become reliant on the additional income and it can become institutionalised;
•  Increased administration effort and costs;
•  Potential for lack of management control and fraudulent claims; and
•  Potential to “hang out” enquiries in order to obtain overtime.

Police Officer overtime

8. Table 2 provides a summary of Police Officer Overtime expenditure compared to budget by Business Group. This shows that there is an overall forecast year end overspend of £15.6m (+12.4%).

Table 2 - Summary of Police Officer Overtime by Business Group

9. The main forecast overspends are within Territorial Policing (£6.9m), Central Operations (£4.4m), Specialist Crime Directorate (£2.6m) and Special Operations (£2m). Explanations are summarised below for each business group overspend.

10. Territorial Policing is not fully compensated for overtime incurred, when requested by Central Operations to police significant unbudgeted/unplanned public order events such as the G20 Protest, Tamil Ceasefire and Climate Camp demonstrations (from the CO11 aid fund budget). It is now recognised that funding of the net overspends on these events will not be sourced, thus resulting in Territorial Policing bearing the majority of the overtime costs from its own resources. In addition Territorial Policing provides most of the Licensed Search Officers (LSOs) whose deployment is managed by Police Search Advisors (PoLSA) based within the Counter Terrorism Command. Although having no management control over LSOs it is Territorial Policing that incurs the resulting overtime costs. Other operational commitments/initiatives (such as Operation Bumblebee) have had an impact on the overtime costs within this business group. It should be noted that since the introduction of compliance measures by Territorial Policing in 2006 there has been improved control over overtime costs and no financial penalties have needed to be imposed since 2006/07 (see paragraph 17 for more details).

11. Within Central Operations there is an increased claim for compensation from the Aid Fund budget in relation to the G20 Protest, Tamil Ceasefire and Climate Camp demonstrations. Also, overtime is used to cover operational requirements within Public Order & Operations, Traffic, TSG and Firearms OCUs, all having an effect on the forecast overtime expenditure.

12. It should be noted that the Home Office has recently agreed specific grant of £3.8m to cover the cost of G20. This income is currently held centrally but offsets overtime spend in both TP and CO.

13. Within the Specialist Crime Directorate overtime is currently being used to cover operational requirements, which include increased activity around surveillance deployment. Furthermore, an increase in the number of gun-related crimes has increased the overtime costs within the Operation Trident OCU.

14. Within Special Operations overtime is currently being used to cover operational requirements as a result of vacancies caused by difficulties in recruitment to specialist roles. Additionally, increased requests for protection of the (extended) royal family, government ministers and overseas visiting dignitaries have all resulted in increased overtime incurred in the Palace of Westminster, Royalty Protection and Specialist Protection OCUs.

15. With the introduction of the three year officer deployment plan in 2008/09 for the 2008/11 Business Plan the Service monitors the officer salary and overtime budgets on a service-wide basis which recognises that:

•  TP are the point of entry into the Service
•  there may be delays in deploying officers from TP to the specialist business groups

At period nine, the forecast overspend on overtime of £15.6m is fully offset by a forecast underspend of £17.8m on officer salaries.

Audit Commission recommendations 2008

16. As part of the commissioning brief the MPA has requested a revised timetable which can be used to monitor progress in addressing the Audit Commission’s recommendations. Appendix 4 provides an update of progress against their recommendations and revised target dates for implementing those recommendations that are still outstanding.

Financial penalties

17. As part of the commissioning brief the MPA has requested details of the financial penalties that have been imposed within Territorial Policing. Table 3 provides a summary of the penalties imposed on named BOCUs. The TP Financial Management Framework identifies which cost and income categories are included within the Devolved Bottom Line (DBL) budget and budget holders are required to manage within the constraints of their DBL budget. Budget holders are liable to sanction if they overspend against their DBL budget. The outturn position for TP and for each borough is reviewed each year and a decision made about whether the imposition of financial penalties is appropriate. Account is taken of the level of overspend and whether it has been caused by events that are outside the control of the boroughs. Details of the most recent sanctions being imposed relate to 2006/07 are provided in Table 3. The table shows the amount of budget that was transferred out from the BOCU and into the corporate TP cost centre. The outturn is reviewed each year but it has not been appropriate to impose penalties every year. When such penalties have been imposed, it has been the case that the following year, the boroughs spend is much more in line with their budget. This reflects the success of the compliance measures implemented by Territorial Policing as it has not been necessary to impose financial penalties since 2006/07.

Table 3 - Summary of penalties imposed within Territorial Policing

Police Staff overtime

18. Table 4 provides a summary of Police Staff Overtime expenditure compared to budget by Business Group. This shows that there is an overall forecast year end overspend of £1.4m (+4.2%).

Table 4 - Summary of Police Staff Overtime by Business Group

19. The main forecast overspends are within Territorial Policing (£0.7m) and Specialist Crime Directorate (£1.1m). These are partially offset by underspends in Central Operations (£0.4m) and Human Resources (£0.4m). Explanations are summarised below for each business group overspend.

20. Within Territorial Policing the overspend is principally due to increased levels of Police Staff support required for operational activities, mainly for local Operation Blunt initiatives (knives and serious youth violence). There is also additional overtime within the Central Communications Command to maintain adequate cover in order to manage the high levels of activity.

21. Within Specialist Crime the main overspends are in Forensic Services (£533k) and Operational Information Services (OIS) (£191k) where there has been an increase in the level of operational activity. The overspend in OIS is offset by an over recovery in income. The Met Intelligence Bureau has an overspend of £400k which is mainly due to covering vacancies.

Police Community Support Officers

22. Table 5 provides a summary of PCSO Overtime expenditure compared to budget by Business Group. This shows that there is an overall forecast year end variance overspend of £0.4m (+35.2%).

Table 5 - Summary of PCSO Overtime by Business Group

23. The overspend is within Territorial Policing and is due to the need for PCSO support to Police Officers in an increasing number of operational activities including Operation Blunt.

C. Race and equality impact

1. There are none specific to this report.

D. Financial implications

1. The financial implications are those set out in this report.

E. Legal implications

1. . There are no legal implications arising from this report.

F. Background papers

None

G. Contact details

Report authors: Nicholas Rogers, Director of Group Finance, Finance Services, MPS

For more information contact:

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

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