The purpose of this report is to inform the Police & Crime Panel of the Surrey Police Group (i.e. OPCC and Chief Constable combined) unaudited financial position as at the year-end 31March 2021. The report compares the Group financial results with the budgets approved by the previous PCC Mr David Munro in January 2020 for the financial year 2020/21.
Minutes:
Witnesses:
Kelvin Menon - Chief Finance Officer (OPCC)
Key points raised in the discussion:
1. The Chief Finance Officer (OPCC) highlighted that the accounts concerning 2020/21 were unaudited and noted that there could be some changes as a result of the audit that was underway.
2. The Chief Finance Officer (OPCC) provided a summary of key areas:
· Revenue budget - was predicted to have a £1.6 million underspend, representing 0.6% of the total Surrey Police Group budget, partly due to unanticipated Covid-19 grants including £750,000 received in January and the phasing of the recruitment of officers pushed back to later in the year.
· Increase in the number of Police Officers and Staff - the total increase from Operation Uplift and Precept investment was 156.5 individuals, with fewer Police Staff recruited from the Precept investment as at March 2021 - 38.5 compared to the investment provided of 52.5 - the target had since been reached.
· Covid-19 costs - the total cost was £6.7 million however the costs were not all additional costs as for example officers doing a particular task had been reassigned to Covid-19 tasks. £4.3 million of the total costs had been funded by the Government, primarily in relation to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and marshalling costs.
· Capital budget - as in previous years several projects had slipped into the current year which was in line with Surrey Police’s multi-year capital budgeting system, £6.74 million would be carried forward from 20/21 to 21/22.
· Reserves - increased slightly from £19.5 million to £19.6 million, highlighting the transfer of £750,000 Government surge funding into the Covid-19 reserves. Out of the Surrey Police Group’s overall budget of around £250 million, the reserve amount was small at around 3% which was at the lower end nationally.
3. A Panel member queried the earmarked and unearmarked reserves noting the low level for an organisation the size of Surrey Police and asked whether there were plans to increase the reserve levels.
- In response the Chief Finance Officer (OPCC) agreed that the level was low compared with nationally, noting that the only way to increase the level would be to impact on the delivery of services.
- The Chief Finance Officer (OPCC) highlighted the need to make substantial savings over the next three years, however Government funding if better than predicted could be used to increase reserves. Although the reserve level did not provide much flexibility for addressing shocks, if there was another large crisis the Government would step in with funding.
4. Referring to section 3 - Capital Financial Performance for the Year, a Panel member highlighted the notable underspend in the ICT Strategy as most organisations tended to overspend in that area and asked whether that was due to delays in projects because of Covid-19.
- In response the Chief Finance Officer (OPCC) explained that several ICT projects had been carried forward from the previous year due to capacity issues in relation to staffing and Covid-19 had been a factor. Surrey Police would look to have a more coherent ICT strategy going forward.
5. Referring to Appendix A - Detailed Capital Budget and Outturn for 2020/21, Commercial and Finance Services - Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) project, the Panel member noted the significant overspend.
- The Chief Finance Officer (OPCC) explained that a reason for the overspend was due to having more cameras put in place than had been budgeted.
6. The Chairman noted that the Panel had previously received a presentation on ANPR in which Surrey had a volume of such cameras due to its proximity to London, noting that a future presentation might be useful for new Panel members.
7. A Panel member highlighted the £3.3 million spent on Temporary or Agency Staff, he stressed the need to minimise that expenditure going forward.
- The Chief Finance Officer (OPCC) explained that such staff were recruited to cover gaps in staffing due to Covid-19 such as in the Contact Centre, support for the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP - Equip) system and ICT projects, as well as temporary investigative assistants to improve crime detection rates - he anticipated that the spend should be less in the coming year.
Councillor Bernie Spoor joined the meeting at 11.17 am, he noted his apologies for his late arrival
8. The Vice-Chairman commented on the Temporary or Agency Staff, noting the challenging recruitment market whereby Agency Staff had become more attractive to hire and commended the work on scrutinising overtime.
9. A Panel member referred to paragraphs on pages 39, 41 and 43 which highlighted the £3.7 million overspend in Capital financing in relation to the transfer from revenue to capital to fund the development of ICT initiatives, the ICT Strategy total slippage of £2.6 million and the delay in progress for a number of Capital projects, particularly those related to ICT. The Panel member requested the report concerning the review of a number of Surrey Police’s Capital projects - particularly ICT projects - which it looked to reduce in order to improve delivery.
10. The Chairman referred back to a Panel member’s query concerning item 6 - Public Questions, noting Surrey Police’s response to Hazel Watson’s question on acoustic noise cameras which stated that the static noise monitoring equipment was one of the projects being scrutinised by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accounting (CIPFA) and endorsed the above Panel member’s request that the CIPFA report on the Capital projects and their issues be provided.
RESOLVED:
The Panel noted the report.
Actions/further information to be provided:
R11/21 - The CIPFA report concerning the review of Surrey Police’s Capital projects, particularly ICT projects as well as the static acoustic cameras - see item 43/21, third paragraph - will be provided and the PCC would consider ways of moving the previous PCC’s commitment along regarding the static acoustic cameras.
Supporting documents: