Official Statistics

Police funding for England and Wales 2015 to 2024

Published 28 July 2023

Applies to England and Wales

Frequency of release: Annual

Forthcoming releases: Home Office statistics release calendar

Home Office responsible statistician: Jodie Hargreaves

Press enquiries: pressoffice@homeoffice.gov.uk

Telephone: 0300 123 3535

Public enquiries: policingstatistics@homeoffice.gov.uk

Introduction

This release contains information on agreed funding for policing in England and Wales between the financial years ending 31 March 2016 and March 2024. Chapter 3 also contains high level information on funding back to the financial year ending 31 March 2011. The majority of the information contained in this release relates to funding that has previously been announced publicly through a range of Government announcements, ministerial statements and Official Statistics. This publication intends to bring this information together into a single coherent statistical release.

Key Findings

For the financial year ending 31 March 2024:

• up to £17,613 million in funding for policing in England and Wales has been agreed
• overall funding will increase by up to £556 million (3.3%) compared with the previous financial year, in nominal terms
• when considering total funding for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) (including Government funding and Council Tax precept), funding will increase in nominal terms by up to £810 million (5.5%) in the year ending 31 March 2024, when compared with the previous financial year
• overall funding will increase by up to 0.7% in real terms
• funding has grown in real terms for the last 9 consecutive years, following a decline between the financial years ending March 2011 and 2015

Note: Separate to these annual statistics, the Home Office typically makes year-on-year comparisons between each annual police funding settlement. Due to a difference in scope, such as the inclusion of funding outside of the police funding settlement in these statistics (for example, in year pay award funding), figures will not match the police funding settlement exactly. The police funding settlement (announced in December 2022) showed that in the financial year ending 31 March 2024, funding would increase by up to £287 million compared with the previous year, bringing total funding up to £17,195 million. More information on how to reconcile between figures in these statistics and the latest police funding settlement can be found in Annex A of this bulletin.

1. Introduction

1.1 Introduction

The overall sum of Government funding for policing is set at Spending Reviews (where the Government determines how it will fund public services over several years), whilst the detail is outlined and agreed annually. The majority of public funding for police forces in England and Wales is provided by the Home Office and is agreed by the House of Commons on an annual basis at the police funding settlement.

Each year the Home Office produces a Police Grant Report which is published and voted on by Parliament and contains grant funding allocations for the following year to be paid out under the Police Act 1996. The Home Office accompanies publication of the Police Grant Report with a Written Ministerial Statement (WMS), providing context and further information on funding not set out through the Police Grant Report, such as Council Tax precept and direct funding for national policing priorities.

The funding set out in the WMS and the Police Grant Report is collectively referred to as the police funding settlement. A collection of previous WMS and Police Grant Reports can be found on the GOV.UK website.

In addition to central Government funding, PCCs set a local police precept which is part of Council Tax, based on principles set out in England by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) (see chapter 2.2 for more information). Police precept accounts for around 34% of the funding PCCs receive via the settlement and is paid directly by local taxpayers.

This statistical release contains analysis of published figures from the police funding settlement, in-year funding agreed outside of the settlement, and Council Tax precept figures by the DLUHC (for English forces) and the Welsh Government (for Welsh forces). Figures are presented in both nominal terms (not adjusted for inflation) and real terms (adjusted for inflation using published GDP deflators).

This bulletin is focused on the main elements of funding for policing as set out to the House of Commons each year as part of the annual police settlement process, plus any significant in-year funding announced after the settlement has been agreed. Therefore, the funding considered here does not constitute the whole budget for policing either in a particular Police Force Area, policing body or overall.

The figures in this publication reflect the amount of funding budgeted, and therefore do not reflect the actual amount of money spent by the Government on policing, or by a particular police force, in any given financial year. For example, since the year ending 31 March 2020, the Government has provided a ring-fenced grant to support the recruitment and maintenance of an additional 20,000 police officers, with PCCs able to access this as they demonstrate progress towards annual recruitment targets. These statistics reflect the total funding committed by the Government, providing each police force meets the conditions to qualify for their full ring-fenced grant. The term “up to” is therefore used when referring to Government funding to PCCs to reflect that this is the maximum amount that PCCs will receive. Further information about the ringfenced grant is included in chapter 2.2.

See the accompanying user guide for more information about the scope of this publication, definitions, and quality considerations.

1.2 National Statistics status

This publication was labelled as National Statistics by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) in July 2021. This means these statistics comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics. Designation was given shortly after the publication of Police Funding: England and Wales 2015 to 2022, in July 2021, whereby the OSR wrote to the Home Office confirming their designation of National Statistics.

1.3 User engagement survey

To expand on the work started as part of the OSR assessment of these statistics, we have launched a user engagement survey to help shape future publications of these statistics.

We want to identify further current users and uses of the data as well as provide a chance for users to give their suggestions on how the publication can better meet their needs. Whilst the survey will be anonymous by default, we encourage regular users who are interested in establishing an ongoing dialogue with the Home Office to provide their contact details when prompted, as this will help develop the statistics and our user engagement plan. For more information on user engagement see chapter 4 of the user guide.

2. Overall funding for policing since financial year ending 31 March 2016

2.1 Overall funding for policing in the financial year ending 31 March 2024

For the financial year ending 31 March 2024, an allocation of up to £17,613 million has been agreed in funding for policing in England and Wales. This represents an increase of up to £556 million (3.3%) compared with the previous year, in nominal terms.

This total consists of both police resource and capital funding. Resource funding includes Government funding to PCCs; police precept; funding for national priorities (including Serious Violence funding from the year ending 31 March 2020); and counter-terrorism police funding. Capital funding includes further funding for national priorities, including Technology programmes, and up until the financial year ending 31 March 2022 it also included a capital grant for PCCs. Figure 2.1 below shows the funding for each of these areas for the financial year ending 31 March 2024.

Figure 2.1: Overall annual funding for policing, financial year ending 31 March 2024

Source: Table 1a

Notes:

1. Numbers (1) to (5) in the chart correspond to lines marked (1) to (5) in Table 1a, indicating how the different elements of funding sum to the overall total. Table 1a provides a further, more detailed breakdown of these funding streams. For full definitions of each funding stream included, please refer to the glossary in the accompanying user guide.

Of the 5 main funding areas, Council Tax precept will see the largest growth in percentage terms, increasing by up to 7.6% (£376 million) against the financial year ending 31 March 2023. Government funding to PCCs and counter terrorism funding will also see increases in funding in nominal terms, whilst funding for National Priorities (including Serious Violence) and capital funding will decrease.

2.2 Funding for PCCs in the financial year ending 31 March 2024

When considering total funding for PCCs (Government funding and Council Tax precept), funding will increase in nominal terms by up to £810 million (5.5%) in the year ending 31 March 2024 when compared with the previous financial year.

Council Tax referendum principles are set each year for PCCs in England by DLUHC. These set a level above which an increase in Band D bill level triggers a local referendum. The principles for the latest financial year were that an increase above £15 for an equivalent Band D property would trigger a local referendum. Most PCCs chose to increase their precept level by £15 this year. Council Tax in Wales is a devolved matter, with local authorities responsible for the setting, collection and enforcement of Council Tax. PCCs in Wales are therefore not subject to the referendum principles which apply in England, when setting their Council Tax Band D bill levels.

As a result of this £15 increase, funding from Council Tax precept will see the largest year-on-year percentage increase (of up to 7.6%) since the year ending 31 March 2020 (when there was an increase of 14.1%, driven by a £24 precept increase limit).

Government funding to PCCs, which makes up the largest proportion of the funding settlement, will see up to an additional £434 million (4.5%) increase in nominal terms compared with the last financial year. This is driven by a nominal increase of up to £290 million (3.3%) in core grant funding to PCCs and an increase of £140 million to the ringfenced Police Uplift Programme Grant.

In 2019, the Government made a manifesto commitment to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales by 31 March 2023. Between the years ending 31 March 2019 and March 2023, up to £432 million of funding was provided through a ring-fenced grant, with PCCs able to access this as they progressed towards annual recruitment targets.

This Police Uplift Programme Grant however does not represent the full extent of the funding for the Police Uplift Programme. The majority of funding for the Police Uplift Programme is included within core grant funding to PCCs, whilst a proportion is ring-fenced outside of the core grant. The nominal size of the ringfence has varied each year of the programme, reflecting the different stages of delivery, though the proportion remained relatively stable between the years ending March 2021 and 2023.

In April 2023, the Home Office announced that the recruitment target of an additional 20,000 police officers had been successfully met nationally. For the financial year ending 31 March 2024, a ring-fenced Police Uplift Programme Grant of £275 million has been allocated to PCCs, where funding can be accessed upon demonstration that their officer headcount has been maintained in line with the targets set.

In addition to funding announced in the annual police funding settlement, core grant funding to PCCs also includes additional in-year funding provided for the financial years ending 31 March 2023 and 31 March 2024. Recent funding announced outside of the usual policing funding settlement cycle have contributed to increases in Government funding to PCCs.

In July 2022, the Government announced £70 million in additional funding for PCCs for the year ending 31 March 2023, to support an agreed pay award recommended by the Police Remuneration Review Body. A further £140 million for the financial year ending 31 March 2024 was also announced and was incorporated in the police funding settlement for the year ending 31 March 2024 (published in December 2022).

In-year funding has also been confirmed for the year ending 31 March 2024 following a Government announcement in July 2023, providing a further £330 million for PCCs for the year ending 31 March 2024 for the police pay award.

2.3 Other funding in the financial year ending 31 March 2024

In addition to funding provided to PCCs for territorial policing, the Government funds an additional grant for counter terrorism policing. In the year ending 31 March 2024 this grant will total £1,002 million, an increase of 2.4% on the previous year.

National Priorities funding includes direct Government investment at a national level not distributed to PCCs through the usual police funding formula. In the financial year ending 31 March 2024, funding for National Priorities (including Serious Violence) will decrease by 15% when compared with the previous year (from £1,266 million to £1,071 million in nominal terms).

A full breakdown of national priorities funding is included in Table 3 (for the financial years from the year ending 31 March 2023 onwards) and Table 6 (for previous financial years) of the accompanying data tables.

National Priorities funding is intended to support implementing key policies and projects within policing and therefore the structure of this funding can change substantially each year. Final amounts spent in any given year may be more or less than the numbers stated here due to changes during the year. Funding allocations for individual national priorities can therefore not be compared between the year ending 31 March 2023 and previous years.

From the financial year ending 31 March 2023 onwards, PCCs will receive all core funding as resource, providing maximum flexibility whilst still providing options for investing in critical infrastructure. Capital funding is therefore solely provided to national policing programmes and projects from the year ending 31 March 2023 onwards. In the year ending 31 March 2024, £105 million in capital funding will be provided, compared with £188 million in the previous year.

2.4 Overall funding for policing since the financial year ending 31 March 2016

Since the financial year ending 31 March 2016, overall funding for policing has increased nominally by up to £5,553 million (46%). In real terms, funding has increased by up to £2,548 million (16.9%) over this period. Figure 2.2 below shows the overall total funding for policing each year in nominal terms.

Figure 2.2: Overall annual funding for policing since financial year ending 31 March 2016 (nominal)

Source: Table 1a

Notes:

1. Numbers (1) to (5) in the chart correspond to lines marked (1) to (5) in Table 1a, indicating how the different elements of funding sum to the overall total. Table 1a provides a further, more detailed breakdown of these funding streams. For full definitions of each funding stream included, please refer to the glossary in the accompanying user guide.

Overall funding for policing (including funding for PCCs and national priorities) will have increased nominally every financial year since the year ending 31 March 2016.

Over this period, Council Tax precept will see the largest nominal growth, increasing from £3,105 million to up to £5,309 million (an increase of 71%).

Government funding to PCCs remained fairly stable between the financial years ending 31 March 2016 and March 2019. Since then, Government funding to PCCs will have increased year on year, driven by investment in the Police Uplift Programme (further information can be found in chapter 2.2) as well as the introduction of pension grants from April 2019 and additional in-year funding provided in the latest 2 financial years in response to police pay awards. In the year ending 31 March 2024, Government funding to PCCs will have increased by 29% in nominal terms (from £7,822 million to up to £10,127 million) when compared with the year ending 31 March 2016.

As a proportion of funding to PCCs (Government funding and Council Tax precept funding), Council Tax precept has increased from accounting for 28% of funding to PCCs in the year ending 31 March 2016 to accounting for 34% of funding to PCCs in the year ending 31 March 2024. These proportions can vary by Police Fore Area (PFA), for detailed breakdowns of funding by PFA, see tables 4a and 4b of the accompanying data tables.

Home Office funding for National Priorities (including Serious Violence funding) will have more than doubled since the year ending 31 March 2016, from £449 million to £1,071 million. Since the year ending 31 March 2019, this has included new Serious Violence funding and County Lines funding, totalling £138 million in the latest year.

3. Funding for policing before the financial year ending 31 March 2016 and real terms changes in funding

3.1 Introduction

The Government regularly reviews how it will fund public services in the years ahead in exercises known as Spending Reviews. Between Spending Reviews, the structure of funding for policing can change significantly with specific programmes or policing bodies moving between being funded from within or outside the police funding settlement announced each year to Parliament.

It is therefore difficult to make direct comparisons between current policing funding figures, and those in the years prior to the financial year ending 31 March 2016, due to a number of significant changes in the structure of policing funding and policing over the period.

Figure 3.1, however, provides a high-level overview of total annual funding since the financial year ending 31 March 2011. Whilst effort has been made to maximise comparability, consideration should be given to the changes in funding structure detailed in annex B of the user guide.

Figures include funding for National Priorities agreed in the annual police settlement, counter-terrorism funding and capital funding as well as Government and precept funding for PCCs. Breakdowns of each of these individual funding streams prior to the financial year ending 31 March 2016 are however not included in this publication. This is because the changes to the structure of policing and policing funding previously mentioned mean that definitions of these funding streams would not be consistent prior to the financial year ending 31 March 2016.

Figure 3.1: Overall annual funding for policing since financial year ending 31 March 2011 (nominal and real terms)

Source: Table 4

Notes:

1. Figures have been converted to real terms using the latest GDP deflators available at time of publication (published June 2023). As these statistics are forward looking, GDP deflators have been derived from forecast changes in GDP. During times of economic instability (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) there is increased uncertainty in OBR’s GDP deflator forecasts. This publication will not be updated periodically to reflect any ongoing changes to this forecast. For further information, please refer to chapter 6 of the user guide.

Following a nominal decline in funding for policing between the financial years ending 31 March 2011 and March 2015, funding has grown steadily each year since as explained in chapter 2. This has driven an overall nominal increase of up to 36.6% in police funding since year ending 31 March 2011.

3.2 Real terms comparisons

When compared with the previous year, overall funding for policing (including any in-year adjustments) for the financial year ending 31 March 2024 will increase by up to 0.7% in real terms. This will be the ninth consecutive year in which policing funding has increased in real terms. This increase has been primarily driven by real terms increases in Government funding to PCCs (increase of up to 1.9%) and increases in Council Tax precept funding to PCCs (increase of up to 5.0%). As a result, funding to PCCs will increase by up to 2.9% overall.

However, funding for National Priorities (including Serious Violence), counter terrorism policing and capital funding will see real terms falls in funding compared with March 2023.

Compared with the financial year ending 31 March 2016, overall funding for policing will have increased by up to 16.9% in real terms.

Figure 3.2: Overall annual funding for policing since financial year ending 31 March 2016, real terms (financial year ending 31 March 2024 prices)

Source: Table 1B

Notes:

1. Numbers (1) to (5) in the chart correspond to lines marked (1) to (5) in Table 1a, indicating how the different elements of funding sum to the overall total. Table 1a provides a further, more detailed breakdown of these funding streams. For full definitions of each funding stream included, please refer to the glossary in the accompanying user guide.

Figure 3.3 shows the overall total funding for policing each year, by funding stream, in real terms. Although there will be year-on-year real terms decreases in the latest year, compared with the year ending 31 March 2016 there is strong real terms growth in National Priorities (up 91%) and counter terrorism funding (up 42%).

Over this same period a strong increase in Council Tax precept funding can be seen (up to 37%) whilst Government funding to PCCs has also grown in real terms over this period by up to 4%, leading to an overall real terms increase in funding to PCCs of up to 13%. Whilst all 43 of the territorial police forces in England and Wales have seen a real terms increase in funding over this period, the scale of change varies by Police Force Area. For detailed breakdowns of funding by Police Force Area, see tables 4a and 4b of the accompanying data tables.

Between the financial years ending 31 March 2011 and March 2015, overall policing funding fell in real terms each year. However, as a result of the recent real terms increases, overall policing funding (as described in these statistics) will be at the highest level since the financial year ending 31 March 2011, with an increase of up to 1.5% in real terms between the financial years ending 31 March 2011 and March 2024. This, however, is not necessarily reflective of total funding for policing over this period due to the reasons described at the beginning of this chapter. Neither is this increase necessarily reflective of funding received by individual PCCs due to strong real terms increases in funding streams not distributed directly to PCCs, as discussed in the paragraphs above.

Annex A: Reconciling between these statistics and the annual police funding settlement

The latest annual police funding settlement, published provisionally in December 2022 and finalised in January 2023, stated that in the financial year ending 31 March 2024, overall funding would total up to £17,195 million.

As explained in the user guide accompanying these statistics, there are a number of differences between these and the police funding settlement. Tables A1 and A2 below demonstrate exactly where these differences occur for the financial years ending 31 March 2024 and 31 March 2023 respectively.

Table A1: Funding for policing for the financial year ending 31 March 2024, as described in the ‘Police funding: England and Wales statistics’ and annual ‘Police funding settlement’

Funding stream	Police funding: England and Wales statistics(£m)	Police funding settlement (£m)
Total Government funding to PCCs	Up to £10,127	Up to £9,797
Of which: grant funding agreed at settlement	Up to £9,797	Up to £9,797
Of which: in-year pay award funding	£330	n/a
Council Tax precept	£5,309	Up to £5,282
National Priorities	£1,071	£1,009
Of which: National Priorities agreed at settlement	£1,009	£1,009
Of which: out of settlement Serious Violence funding	£62	n/a
Counter terrorism grant	£1,002	£1,002
Capital funding	£105	£105
Total	Up to £17,613	Up to £17,195

Table A2: Funding for policing for the financial year ending 31 March 2023, as described in the ‘Police funding: England and Wales statistics’ and annual ‘Police funding settlement’

Funding stream	Police funding: England and Wales statistics(£m)	Police funding settlement (£m)
Total Government funding to PCCs	Up to £9,692	Up to £9,622
Of which: grant funding agreed at settlement	Up to £9,622	Up to £9,622
Of which: in-year pay award funding	£70	n/a
Council Tax precept	£4,933	Up to £4,895
National Priorities	£1,266	£1,186
Of which: National Priorities agreed at settlement	£1,186	£1,186
Of which: out of settlement Serious Violence funding	£80	n/a
Counter terrorism grant	£979	£979
Capital funding	£188	£188
Total	Up to £17,057	Up to £16,870

As shown in Tables A1 and A2, at the time of publication of the annual police funding settlement, the exact figure for Council Tax precept is unknown. An upper bound estimate is therefore used based on Office for Budget Responsibility Council Tax base forecasts and DLUHC Council Tax principles. At the time of publication of these statistics, actual Council Tax decisions have been published by DLUHC and Welsh Government.

These statistics also include a number of funding streams agreed outside of the police funding settlement. The totals for National priorities funding in this publication include additional Serious Violence funding agreed outside of the funding settlement. For example, in the year ending 31 March 2024 there was £62 million agreed outside of the settlement (in addition to £45.6 million of Serious Violence funding and £30.0 million of County Lines funding included in the settlement).

In these statistics, Government funding to PCCs also includes additional in-year funding provided for the financial years ending 31 March 2023 and 31 March 2024, announced outside of the usual policing funding settlement cycle.

In July 2022, the Government announced £70 million in additional funding for PCCs for the year ending 31 March 2023, to support an agreed pay award recommended by the Police Remuneration Review Body. A further £140 million for the financial year ending 31 March 2024 was agreed and was later incorporated in the police funding settlement for the year ending 31 March 2024, published in December 2022.

In addition, in-year funding will again be provided in the year ending 31 March 2024 following a Government announcement in July 2023, providing a further £330 million for PCCs for the year ending 31 March 2024 for the police pay award.