Councillors and committees

Agenda item

BUDGET QUARTERLY UPDATE

The attached reports inform the Police & Crime Panel of the OPCC’s financial performance at Month 6 for the 2016/17 financial year and Surrey Police Group (i.e. Finances of both the PCC and Chief Constable) financial position up to Month 6 (September) for the 2016/17 financial year.

 

Minutes:

Key points raised during the discussion:

 

  1. The Chief Finance Officer introduced the report and informed the Panel the following updates were a representation of the financial performance and position up to month 6 for 2016/17 financial year.

 

  1. The Officer highlighted that the OPCC was forecasted to achieve an under spend of £455k at year end, as a result of the changes made by the PCC since his appointment. The PCC would decide what happened with this underspend in advance of setting his budget for 2017/18. 

 

  1. The Panel also noted that Surrey Police was also going to reach an under spend of £1.5M. The Officer advised that the main reason for this under spend was the turnover of Police Officers leaving the force at a faster rate than officers were being recruited.

 

  1. Members were briefed upon the strategic saving programme, noting that there would be a shortfall for this financial year. The Officer informed the Panel that the remaining 19% of budgeted savings that were not achieved will have to be included into the next financial year.

 

  1. A Member referred to the under spend figures and recommended that more needed to be done to increase recruitment and training opportunities. The PCC explained the problem was with retention and losing Officers to neighbouring authorities or out of the police service altogether. The PCC and Chief Constable’s main focus was on alleviating this problem and focusing on making Surrey a more attractive employer although it was recognised that retention would always be a problem, particularly with the high cost of living in Surrey.

 

  1. There was a discussion around the new joint finance service between Surrey and Sussex Police Forces and Members requested further information on this merger. The Officer advised that the merger involved two finance functions which would deal with a significant combined annual budget. The Officer stated that as this was a recent merger teething problems existed, although he was confident the actual spend figures to month 6 provided to Members in the reports was correct, he felt that the year-end forecasts provided in the report were not so reliable. In the future staff would require retraining on one computer system.

 

  1. A Member proposed whether some of the under spend could be put towards housing for Officers, making it more attractive for them to stay in the police service. The PCC noted this suggestion and assured Members that there were a number of measures the Police force were considering in tackling recruitment and retention issues.

 

  1. Members were concerned with the references made of Police Officers leaving the force and requested Officers to provide exact figures of recruitment and turnover for better understanding.

 

A Member referred to Annex A and noted the spend on Memberships was very high and sought more information regarding this. Officers explained that the funds that were spent in this area were for National Association membership costs. These associations were non-profit and allowed officers to do research and put forward joint responses to consultations. Going forward the Panel asked that under membership costs, each association along with the annual cost of this association was listed.

RESOLVED:

 

The Police and Crime Panel noted the financial performance of the Surrey Police Group and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey.

 

 

ACTIONS/FURTHER INFORMATION TO BE PROVIDED:

 

R15/16- For the PCC to provide the Panel with details of the number of Police officers recruited from 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017 (including the numbers that subsequently left during this period).

 

Supporting documents: