Agenda item

Report of the Commissioner of Police.

The Committee received a joint report of the Commissioner and the Chamberlain updating Members on the revenue budget to June 2017.

The Deputy Chairman queried one of the figures in Table 1, under the column for Q1 Actual, referring to the expenditure for ECD – Funded Units. (13)

The Commissioner explained that cash seizures referenced in paragraph 9 of the report led to additional costs to the Force as sums had to be repaid with interest.  Although this was a regrettable result, lessons had been learned from this example case. The Chairman emphasised that it was important for the Force to accept that mistakes will sometimes be made, and that these should be seen as opportunities to learn.

The Commissioner explained that the Criminal Finance Act was a positive for the Force, enabling improvements to be made.  He stated that as we have seen, following recent unforeseen events that have provided an additional challenge to the Force, making accurate predictions can be difficult.

The Chamberlain explained that the headline from the report was the end of year  budget balance but that the numbers were volatile, which limited the confidence we could have in the forecast at this stage.   The Chamberlain noted that paragraph 21 referenced a reserve of £3.4m that could then be utilised in the following year.

A Member noted that Risk Management appeared to have been well handled.  The Chamberlain explained that the distinction between what were perceived to be costs and what were perceived to be risks had now been clarified.

A Member asked for further information about the funding for investment in innovation.  The Commissioner explained that there was funding for 107 projects across policing as part of a large scale transformation.  He explained that in the future it was likely that a significant portion of funding would be used to fund big tech investment.

RESOLVED – That the report be received.