The Home Office has published the provisional police funding settlement for 2019-20. This sets out the total amount of money going into policing next year, including how much each individual Police and Crime Commissioner in England and Wales will receive.
The Government is proposing a total settlement of up to £14 billion, which is an increase of up to £970 million compared to 2018/19.
This includes;
- Government grant funding for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs)
- Flexibility for PCCs to raise additional money locally from council tax
- Government funding for additional pension costs
- Funding for counter-terrorism policing
- Funding for national priorities, such as tackling serious and organised crime
Funding for local police forces
The majority of funding for PCCs comes directly from general Government grants and around a third comes from a share of council tax, known as the police precept.
In 2019/20, we are:
- Providing £7.8 billion next year in Government grants. This is £161 million more than the previous year and protects Government grant funding in real terms.
- Enabling PCCs in England to increase their police precept level for a typical (Band D) household by a maximum of £2 a month without holding a local referendum. If all PCCs in England and Wales increase precept by £24 a year, this will raise up to an additional £509 million based on current forecasts. This would take total precept funding up to around £4.1 billion.
- Providing £143m of pensions funding, which takes in increase in total funding to PCCs to up to £813m.
PCCs must consult their local electorate on police precept increases to ensure they explain how additional investment will help deliver a better police service. Council Tax policy in Wales is a matter for the Welsh Government and the referendum rules do not apply there.
Counter-terrorism policing
Counter-terrorism policing is a national priority and its funding is ringfenced.
As announced by the Chancellor in Budget 2018, funding for counter-terrorism policing will increase by £59 million in 2019/20 to £816 million, which is £160 million more than we planned at the last Spending Review.
The counter-terrorism funding total includes £24 million to boost the number of firearms officers, known as the firearms uplift, which is also part of the Police Transformation Fund.
National priorities
The Home Office also provides additional funding for national programmes and priorities.
In 2019/20, an extra £89 million will be provided, taking the total to £1 billion, excluding the firearms uplift (which is part of the counter-terrorism budget as set out above).
This funding will:
- Continue with existing top-ups to support the National Crime Agency and Regional Organised Crime Units
- Provide £495 million for police technology
- Provide a £175 million Police Transformation Fund, open to all police forces. This includes £24 million allocated to the firearms uplift, which is part of counter-terrorism budget (as set out above)
- Provide Special Grant funding of £73 million, which police forces can bid for to help cover costs of unexpected events and major investigations
- There is also £3.5 million for Police Now, a graduate recruitment and training programme
Serious and organised crime
- The national priorities funding (above) also includes a £90 million investment to build capabilities to tackle serious and organised crime at national, regional and local levels.
- This funding is separate from the funding for PCCs and for counter terrorism policing.
- The investment follows the publication of the Serious and Organised Crime Strategy in November.
- The money is taken from the pot of funding for national priorities.
Pensions
Following a revaluation of public sector pensions, police forces are facing increased pensions costs of around £330 million next year.
The Government is allocating £153 million to specifically help the police pay for these increased costs.
Of this, £143 million will go directly to PCCs and £10 million to counter-terrorism police and the National Crime Agency.
Provisional change in total resource funding 2019/20, compared to 2018/19
Please note that these figures use precept forecasts and are subject to change.
| PCC | Total resource funding including pensions grant in 2019/20* | ||
| 2018/19 | 2019/20 | Cash increase | |
| £m | |||
| Avon & Somerset | 281.7 | 302.9 | 21.2 |
| Bedfordshire | 104.6 | 112.7 | 8.0 |
| Cambridgeshire | 134.0 | 144.5 | 10.5 |
| Cheshire | 177.9 | 192.0 | 14.2 |
| City of London | 57.0 | 61.0 | 4.0 |
| Cleveland | 125.4 | 132.7 | 7.2 |
| Cumbria | 102.9 | 110.0 | 7.1 |
| Derbyshire | 167.2 | 179.6 | 12.4 |
| Devon & Cornwall | 291.3 | 314.1 | 22.8 |
| Dorset | 124.7 | 135.0 | 10.4 |
| Durham | 115.6 | 123.1 | 7.5 |
| Dyfed-Powys | 99.1 | 107.2 | 8.1 |
| Essex | 275.9 | 298.8 | 23.0 |
| Gloucestershire | 110.3 | 118.8 | 8.5 |
| Greater London Authority | 2,560.1 | 2,732.1 | 172.0 |
| Greater Manchester | 556.1 | 590.8 | 34.7 |
| Gwent | 123.5 | 132.0 | 8.5 |
| Hampshire | 314.2 | 339.2 | 25.0 |
| Hertfordshire | 188.9 | 204.9 | 16.0 |
| Humberside | 175.3 | 186.8 | 11.5 |
| Kent | 288.8 | 312.4 | 23.6 |
| Lancashire | 266.8 | 285.2 | 18.4 |
| Leicestershire | 175.5 | 188.2 | 12.7 |
| Lincolnshire | 113.9 | 122.4 | 8.6 |
| Merseyside | 312.6 | 330.9 | 18.2 |
| Norfolk | 153.6 | 164.8 | 11.2 |
| North Wales | 146.5 | 157.2 | 10.7 |
| North Yorkshire | 144.8 | 155.9 | 11.1 |
| Northamptonshire | 126.0 | 135.3 | 9.2 |
| Northumbria | 265.3 | 283.3 | 18.0 |
| Nottinghamshire | 195.1 | 208.2 | 13.1 |
| South Wales | 271.0 | 290.1 | 19.1 |
| South Yorkshire | 245.8 | 261.4 | 15.6 |
| Staffordshire | 182.7 | 195.9 | 13.3 |
| Suffolk | 116.2 | 125.3 | 9.2 |
| Surrey | 217.0 | 234.6 | 17.6 |
| Sussex | 264.9 | 287.2 | 22.3 |
| Thames Valley | 389.7 | 422.4 | 32.7 |
| Warwickshire | 94.1 | 101.5 | 7.4 |
| West Mercia | 205.8 | 221.9 | 16.2 |
| West Midlands | 534.3 | 568.6 | 34.2 |
| West Yorkshire | 418.1 | 446.6 | 28.5 |
| Wiltshire | 109.2 | 118.3 | 9.1 |
| Total England & Wales | 11,323.4 | 12,136.0 | 812.5 |
*Total resource funding consists of core grant funding, National and International Capital City (NICC) grants, Legacy Council Tax grants, Precept grant, Pensions grant and police precept. Allocations of individual grant streams are set out in tables 3 and 4. 2019/20 precept figures are calculated by assuming that PCCs in England and Wales increase their precept Band D level by £24, and Office for Budget Responsibility forecast tax base increases.
The overall annual increase in total police funding is up to £970m, which includes a £59m increase in counter-terrorism police funding (including firearms uplift), an £89m increase in funding for national priorities excluding firearms uplift (including £90m SOC funding), and £10m of pensions grant funding for counter-terrorism policing and the National Crime Agency.
Figures may not sum due to rounding.