Witnesses:
Lisa
Townsend, Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC)
Kelvin
Menon, Chief Financial Officer, Office of the Police and Crime
Commissioner (OPCC)
Key points raised during the
discussion:
- A
member asked what lessons had been learnt from the revenue and
capital underspends detailed in the report for 2022/23 (£8.7M
& £6.6M respectively). How would these feed into budget
profiling for 2024/25? The CFO
explained that revenue underspend was due to phasing of uplift
recruitment and staff vacancies which had been higher than
anticipated. The vacancy margin for 2023/24 had been increased to
reduce the risk of underspend in the 23/24 budget. On capital, the
plan was to move to a two-year capital programme rather than
expecting all the capital to be spent in one year. The CFO was asked about overtime costs which had
increased on the previous year (£8.1M to
£8.9M). This was due to vacancies
which had increased overtime particularly in the contact centre.
Staff were now less willing to do overtime and the Force was
looking to reduce the overtime budget to £7.4million. An
overtime Working Group looked regularly at the issue including from
a staff wellbeing point of view. The
Chairman asked about the practice of banking overtime and taking
time off in lieu. The CFO agreed to come back to the Chairman on
whether this remained a practice. (Action iii)
- A
member asked about the overspend in Digital Forensics, Professional
Standards Department and legal costs. What was the reason for the
rising demand in these areas and how much overspend was
attributable to outsourcing? On digital
forensics the CFO explained that most crimes now had an electronic
element which meant significant demand for digital forensics
services. Staff were trained to do this
within the Force, but costs were rising due to volume. On legal
costs, improved mechanisms for reporting concerns to the
professional standards department had increased the volume of
incidents to be investigated and associated legal costs for
disciplinary procedures. The CFO agreed to revert with further
detail on the question of outsourcing Digital Forensics work.
(Action iv)
- A
Member noted that OPCC Operational costs represented around 0.5% of
net total group expenditure and asked how this compared to other
Force areas. The CFO explained that
comparative data was not readily available. Many Forces do not
separate OPCC figures out in their budget. The Chairman supported
the Commissioner’s transparency in providing these figures
when others chose not to. The
Commissioner explained that most PCCs aimed to keep the figure at
around 1% or below of total group expenditure on which basis 0.5%
for the Surrey OPCC seemed a reasonable amount. The use of reserves
to cover business as usual costs was raised.
- Asked about the government’s uplift target for officers
and discrepancies between different figures provided the CFO
explained that the government’s officer target was for
headcount (2,253) whereas the Force budgeted on the basis of FTE.
This can cause discrepancies due to the numbers of part time staff.
As at 30 September the Force was on target to meet the baseline
government target for headcount in 2024.
- A
member queried IT slippage which accounted for a £3.7M
underspend and asked whether the IT strategy was fit for purpose.
The CFO responded that in the past the strategy was lacking. A new
CDIO Anthony Croxford was now in place and working to restructure
and upskill the workforce to ensure it was fit for the future. The
difficulties of attracting staff with the necessary IT skills were
highlighted in a highly competitive jobs market. A member pressed
the CFO on the timing for IT transformation. When would the IT
improvements required to achieve more efficient ways of working and
associated savings be delivered; and what was the timeline for
moving from physical IT servers to the Cloud? The CFO responded
that there were many hundred IT applications some of which were not
suitable to put into the cloud. Each one needed to be reviewed and
rationalised. There were also security implications. It was a
complex area, but progress had been made. Officers were now well equipped with laptops and
personal devices and could work remotely. Surrey was ahead of most
neighbouring Forces in this area, including the Met. The Chairman
accepted the PCCs offer and asked for CDIO Croxford to come and
talk to the Panel about Force IT.
RESOLVED: The Panel
noted the report.
Actions/Further information requested:
i)
The CFO to respond to the Chairman’s question
regarding the practice of banking overtime and taking time off in
lieu and whether this remained a practice.
ii)
The CFO to revert with further detail on the
question of outsourcing Digital Forensics work - how much of the
Digital Forensics spend is attributable to outsourcing and are we
spending more because we are having to spend on suppliers not
staff?