The Home Office has published the police funding settlement for 2020-21. 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.
Headlines
The Government is proposing a total settlement for the policing system of up to £15.2 billion in 2020/21, which is an increase of up to £1,121 million compared to 2019/20. This includes:
- Government grants to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) (including police core grant, counter-terrorism funding and pensions grant)
- Flexibility for PCCs increase local funding by taking full advantage in setting the police precept
- Funding for national priorities, such as tackling serious and organised crime
This includes £700m for the recruitment of 6,000 additional officers by the end of March 2021, which represents an almost 10% increase on the core grant provided to forces last year.
Assuming full take up of precept flexibility, overall funding available to PCCs will increase by 7.5% next year.
Precept
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 2020/21, we are giving PCCs in England flexibility to increase local funding in England by setting the council tax referendum limit to £10 for a typical (Band D) property. If all PCCs in England and Wales choose to take advantage of the precept flexibility, then this will raise up to an additional £248 million based on current forecasts. This would take total precept funding up to around £4.4 billion.
PCCs must consult their local electorate on setting precept 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.
Funding for counter-terrorism policing will increase by £90 million in 2020/21 to £906 million. This includes an allocation of £10m from pensions grant funding that was announced at the 2019/20 Police Funding Settlement and is not included in the total increase in police funding.
The counter-terrorism funding total includes £24 million to boost the number of firearms officers, known as the firearms uplift.
National priorities
The Home Office also provides additional funding for national policing programmes and priorities.
In 2020/21, an extra £126 million will be provided on 2019/20 levels, taking the total to £1.2 billion.
This funding will:
- Provide £516 million for police technology (including £18m of capital funding)
- Provide a £61 million for National Capability Programmes (previously funded by the Police Transformation Fund), to fully realise the benefits of ongoing programmes.
- Provide Special Grant funding of £81 million, which police forces can bid for to help cover costs of unexpected events and major investigations
- Allocate £50m of new funding to support the recruitment of 20,000 new police officers. This includes £6m for a national advertising campaign and £7 million for Police Now, a graduate recruitment and training programme.
Serious and organised crime
The national priorities funding (above) also includes a £150 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 and is funded from the national priorities pot.
Serious violence
The Government will to focus on tackling serious violence and crime and this will be backed with £39m from the Settlement.
Of this funding, the Government will allocate £33m of new money to combat serious violent crime, including new funding dedicated to the fight against county lines drug trafficking.
Indeed, as part of this Government’s commitment to tackle neighbourhood crime, £10m will be allocated towards the Safer Streets Fund. The fund will support areas in England and Wales that are persistently and disproportionately affected by acquisitive crimes such as burglary and theft to invest in well evidenced prevention initiatives such as home security and street lighting.
£20m will also be allocated to fight County Lines drug dealing and £1.5m for a Serious Violence Social Media Hub.
Pensions
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 funding 2020/21, compared to 2019/20
Please note that these figures use precept forecasts and assume maximum take up of the flexibility, and are therefore subject to change.
| Police Force Area | Total funding in 2020/21 | ||
| 2019/20 | 2020/21 | Cash increase | |
|
£m |
|||
| Avon & Somerset | 304.2 | 326.9 | 22.6 |
| Bedfordshire | 113.3 | 122.1 | 8.7 |
| Cambridgeshire | 145.2 | 155.8 | 10.6 |
| Cheshire | 193.0 | 207.8 | 14.8 |
| City of London | 61.4 | 67.0 | 5.6 |
| Cleveland | 133.2 | 143.3 | 10.1 |
| Cumbria | 110.2 | 118.1 | 7.9 |
| Derbyshire | 180.1 | 193.7 | 13.5 |
| Devon & Cornwall | 315.2 | 338.6 | 23.4 |
| Dorset | 135.5 | 144.8 | 9.3 |
| Durham | 123.5 | 133.3 | 9.7 |
| Dyfed-Powys | 107.2 | 114.6 | 7.4 |
| Essex | 299.9 | 323.0 | 23.1 |
| Gloucestershire | 119.6 | 127.8 | 8.2 |
| Metropolitan Police Service | 2,746.9 | 2,938.1 | 191.2 |
| Greater Manchester | 594.2 | 642.5 | 48.3 |
| Gwent | 130.8 | 140.3 | 9.5 |
| Hampshire | 340.4 | 366.5 | 26.1 |
| Hertfordshire | 205.4 | 221.3 | 15.9 |
| Humberside | 187.7 | 202.0 | 14.3 |
| Kent | 313.7 | 338.0 | 24.3 |
| Lancashire | 286.2 | 308.8 | 22.6 |
| Leicestershire | 189.3 | 203.4 | 14.1 |
| Lincolnshire | 122.9 | 131.5 | 8.6 |
| Merseyside | 332.4 | 359.4 | 27.1 |
| Norfolk | 165.7 | 177.1 | 11.4 |
| North Wales | 156.3 | 166.8 | 10.4 |
| North Yorkshire | 156.0 | 166.5 | 10.6 |
| Northamptonshire | 136.3 | 145.9 | 9.6 |
| Northumbria | 284.6 | 309.9 | 25.3 |
| Nottinghamshire | 208.9 | 225.0 | 16.1 |
| South Wales | 291.3 | 312.4 | 21.1 |
| South Yorkshire | 262.9 | 284.3 | 21.4 |
| Staffordshire | 196.7 | 211.2 | 14.5 |
| Suffolk | 125.7 | 134.9 | 9.2 |
| Surrey | 234.4 | 249.8 | 15.4 |
| Sussex | 287.9 | 310.1 | 22.2 |
| Thames Valley | 424.2 | 456.1 | 31.9 |
| Warwickshire | 102.5 | 109.7 | 7.2 |
| West Mercia | 220.7 | 236.8 | 16.1 |
| West Midlands | 571.3 | 620.8 | 49.6 |
| West Yorkshire | 448.5 | 485.2 | 36.7 |
| Wiltshire | 119.0 | 127.8 | 8.8 |
| Total England & Wales | 12,184.2 | 13,099.0 | 914.7 |
*Total resource funding consists of core grant funding, National and International Capital City (NICC) grants, Legacy Council Tax grants, funding from the Welsh Government, precept grant, pensions grant, police precept, ring fenced grant and capital grant. 2020/21 precept figures are calculated by assuming that PCCs in England and Wales increase their precept Band D level by £10, and Office for Budget Responsibility forecast tax base increases.
The overall annual increase in total police funding is up to £1,131m, which includes a £90m increase in counter-terrorism police funding (including firearms uplift), an £92m increase in funding for national priorities excluding firearms uplift (including £55m SOC funding).
Figures may not sum due to rounding.