Agenda item

Report of the Commissioner.

Members considered a report of the Commissioner regarding Q1 Budget Monitoring 2020/21 and the following points were made.

·         The Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer (COFO) noted that the report had already been submitted to the City of London Police Authority Board. The headline of the report was that the Force was anticipating a £4m underspend in the current financial year. Work to finalise Q2 figures was ongoing, and it was likely that the underspend would rise to £5m. This was due to the Force receiving more Home Office funding than had been anticipated, and as well as the Force generating more income than had been forecast. At present, the figures within the report were the COFO’s best assessment of year-end.

·         The COFO continued, noting that the Force had significantly reduced overtime spend and was on track to be within overtime budget at the end Q2. The report provided a directorate breakdown of financial position, with more forecasting detail being provided in future quarterly reports and the Medium Term Financial Plan.

·         The COFO noted that there were at present no variances within the capital programme at end Q1, but that this was likely due to it being so early in the financial year. The capital programme would be looked at in greater detail at Q2 but it was likely that a clearer picture would only be available from Q3.

·         The COFO noted that there had been a significant improvement in transactional finance, largely due to a staff appointment that had been effective in dealing with a legacy transactional finance position.

·         The COFO concluded by noting that an appendix set out a savings tracker for the Force, with savings being monitored monthly in-Force which gave the COFO a high degree of confidence that the £5.7m savings target would be met, although perhaps not on a line-by-line basis as some savings would be achieved in other areas, such as the delay in the National Enabling Programme roll-out.

·         In response to a comment, the Assistant Commissioner noted that the Police Accommodation Programme had a number of delays built into it which had meant some savings had yet to be realised e.g. the delay in moving out of Wood Street Police Station. The Force was reviewing savings across its estate but ultimately was reliant on the Accommodation Programme being delivered.

·         A Member raised a number of queries, noting that staff numbers had been provided up until June 2020 but not thereafter, presumably due to lead-in times around between vetting and appointment. He was concerned regarding the human as well as financial impact of the scale of accrued holiday. Finally, noting that the workforce plan was on the non-public side of the agenda, the Member queried whether pay varied across ranks and trained skills-sets and noted that he would welcome more robust linking between people, pay and budget.

·         The Assistant Commissioner was heard in reply, noting that the figures were true as at end Q1. The Assistant Commissioner received weekly recruitment updates and moreover the issue of recruitment was reviewed at strategic workforce planning meetings. Currently the Force had 829 officers and 477.5 staff on strength. On the question of accrued rest days, the Assistant Commissioner emphasised these were rest days rather than holidays, and the total accrual had stood at nearly 7000 days, which could be correlated with the Force’s overtime spend. The accruals were in areas where the Force struggled to recruit to, including Firearms and Public Order. There were little variations in pay on trained skills-sets but rather on service bandwiths e.g. probationers who were currently on lower pay bands.

·         The Assistant Commissioner concluded by noting that the Committee would likely see the workforce plan earlier in future as the Force was conducting a further Strategic Threat and Risk Assessment (STRA) to ensure it was meeting Corporate Plan ambitions. The STRA would also likely be influenced by COVID and result in strengthened capability in different areas than at present e.g. Economic Crime Directorate. The report on the new STRA would be available within six months.

·         In response to Member concerns around the human impact of accrued rest days, the Assistant Commissioner replied that there was a newly appointed welfare lead who held Chief Superintendent rank, whose brief was to oversee the delivery of a rolling programme of support. Individuals with a disproportionate entitlement to accrued rest days were being supported, and the issue was expected to decline in line with the financial uplift that was allowing the Force to recruit and upskill staff. The Chairman noted that he had attended a meeting with the Force that week that had demonstrated the Force was engaged with relevant national welfare programmes.  

·         A Member commented on the presentation of data within the report as there was varying use of red text and brackets. Moreover there was a lack of narrative to explain variances within a given table, and it was difficult to gain a read-across between tables e.g. how actual and forecast workforce numbers at table 5 tallied with figures at table 2.

·         A Member supported these comments noting that it would be useful to have definitions of what RAG ratings in quarterly reporting equated to. Moreover it would be useful to have an aggregate of RAG savings.

·         The COFO replied, noting that generally red text in brackets equated to credit. That said, quarterly reporting was reliant on the import of data from spreadsheets which sometimes resulted in errors. In terms of narrative, the COFO noted that the report was already lengthy and she was concerned that further narrative would obscure the core purpose of the report. Definitions of RAG ratings would be provided in future quarterly reporting and for the time being, Green represented savings that had been achieved, Amber where there was a high level of confidence they would be achieved, and Red where it was known that they would not be achieved e.g. the delayed National Enabling Programme. An aggregation of savings could be provided in future reporting.

·         On the issue of difficulty reading across data between tables within the report, the Member clarified her query, asking whether the projected numbers of FTE by year end in table 5 were reflected in table 2 i.e. were all posts funded and what impact did that have on projected savings within the Medium-Term Financial Plan. The COFO replied, noting that it was difficult to predict staffing numbers given, as a crude example, 20 persons appointed on the same date could take up their appointments on widely different dates within the forthcoming year due to factors such as vetting etc. The COFO had tried to give an idea of forecasted numbers within the report alongside this caveat, and so would revisit this issue at Q2. Members were asked to note that there were no vacancies in Uniformed Policing as there were a number of probationers who had yet to take up establishment posts.

·         A Member queried whether international training that had been paused due to COVID could be delivered via alternative means i.e. virtually. Secondly, he voiced caution over the fact that the City was obligated to collect the Late Night Levy from city venues despite their widespread closure/reduced operation due to COVID. This could be a reputational issue for the Force. The COFO noted that virtual training had been adopted and some training could be delivered in person in COVID secure settings in London.

·         The COFO highlighted the Force’s range of memorabilia which was selling well online. The Town Clerk agreed to provide Members with the link.

·         A Member commented that he had requested greater focus on non-pay items and would therefore welcome more narrative in the Q2 report around table 2 and the narrative provided at 1.5. He would welcome greater liaison between Force and Authority, in particular in the area of Human Resources, to ensure Force headcount was accurately reflected in the Medium Term Financial Plan. Moreover it was important that the costs of the Next Generation Service Action Know Fraud procurement were not lost sight of.

·         In closing, the Member requested numbers and commentary around risk and opportunity e.g. more around section 12.1 in the report and separate columns or risk and opportunity in the existing table, alongside commentary on how they would be managed. As an example, it would be useful to have a couple of lines around how deferred leave was being mitigated, recognising that it would be difficult to provide this level of detail in areas such as Events Policing. Consideration could be given to using red and green text to aid presentation. Lastly, national policing was being asked to make submissions to the Home Office around loss of income and he was keen that the whole Force engaged in this exercise, not just the Economic Crime Directorate. The COFO agreed to incorporate the comments made into the Q2 report, although any figures submitted to the Home Office would be reported at Q3.

RESOLVED, that the report be received.