Funding for Northumbria Police
20869 We have received a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for the following: Information relating to all/any requests made…
Details
20869
We have received a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for the following:
Information relating to all/any requests made by Northumbria Police for emergency and/or additional funding, grants or any other payments/funding to the Home Office, HMG and/or all/any other Government departments over and above the funding which is allocated to Northumbria Police by the Home Office each year, including following;
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How many times have Northumbria Police requested or received emergency and/or additional funding, grants or any other payments/funding from above parties during the past 12 years.
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Details of all emergency and/or additional funding, grants or any other payments/funding paid to Northumbria Police by any of above parties during the last 12 years.
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Details and reason/s for Northumbria Police’s requesting and/or being allocated such emergency and/or additional funding, grants or any other payments/funding from above parties during past 12 years.
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Information and documents regarding criteria used and/or required by all of above parties before emergency and/or additional funding, grants or any other payments/funding are awarded and/or paid to Police forces in the UK.
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Details, information and supply documents of different types of emergency funding, grant/s and/or all/any other additional funding that is available to UK Police Forces over and above the standard funding paid to each Police Force annually.
We released the following information on 20 December 2011.
During the last 12 years, Northumbria Police have, on three occasions, requested emergency and/or additional funding from the Home Office. Details of each request are presented in Table 1 below.
**Table 1
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**Description
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**Amount Requested
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**Date Requested
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**Granted or Declined
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- Costs to policing the Labour Party Conference
£1.44m
February 2005
Granted in full
- Costs of policing the European Justice Ministers’ Conference.
£970k
September 2005
Declined
- The Raoul Moat operation.
£2.5m
Financial year 2010/11
Granted £449,000
For information relating to the criteria used in assessing requests for additional funding, please see the document below entitled ‘Special Grant to Police Authorities: Terms and Conditions of Grant’.
SPECIAL GRANT TO POLICE AUTHORITIES
TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF GRANT
Police Authorities are expected to make reasonable provision for normal expenditure and to set aside provisions and/or reserves for exceptional items. There should be no presumption that financial assistance will be available additional to general and specific grants.
Ministers may pay special grant to police authorities under the terms of the Police Act 1996 Section 48:
The Secretary of State may make grants in respect of expenditure incurred (or to be incurred) for police purposes by police authorities in connection with safeguarding national security. Grants under this section may be made either unconditionally or subject to conditions. The Secretary of State shall exercise these powers under this section only with the approval of the Treasury.
And the Local Government Act 2003, Section 31:
A Minister of the Crown may pay a grant to a local authority towards expenditure incurred or to be incurred by it. The amount of the grant and the manner of the payment are to be such as the person paying it may determine. A grant under this section may be paid on such conditions as the person paying it may determine. Conditions, in particular, include provision as to the use of the grant and the circumstances in which the whole or part of the grant must be repaid. The powers under this section are exercisable with the consent of the Treasury.
As a general guide, ministers will only consider requests for special grant in exceptional circumstances to help meet costs where necessary additional expenditure incurred by an Authority would otherwise create a serious threat to the Authority’s financial stability ie would threaten seriously to compromise the Authority/Force capacity to deliver normal policing.
Where special and unforeseen circumstances do require an Authority/Force to incur significant additional expenditure, grant will be considered where force additional costs exceed a minimum of 1% of the Force annual budget. The Police Authority would be expected to have made provision for a minimum of the initial 1% of additional expenditure.
Where significant costs are incurred over several years either for several linked events, or for a single extended issue, police authorities may make a case for them being treated as a single event, subject to a single year’s 1% excess.
This document is issued as general guidance to police forces and authorities. They do not fetter the power of Ministers to make or decline to make grants in these or other circumstances.
All the above is subject to the availability of funding within the Home Office for such payments and to the independent audit of the grant claim.
The Process
An Authority/Force should make an initial request to Police Finance Team, Crime and Policing Group Finance Unit, 6th Floor, Fry Building, The Home Office, 2 Marsham St., London SW1P 4DF. A request should set out the circumstances of the expenditure and explain why special grant is seen to be essential in the context of the Authority’s financial position. HMIC will be invited to assess the reasonableness and operational necessity of the expenditure. Advice will then be put to ministers, who take all decisions on special grant.