Agenda item

The Panel considered the Commissioner’s report on the proposed police precept for 2020/21. The Panel was advised that it could make the decision to either approve, reject, or veto the proposed precept at the meeting and thereafter had to issue a report on its decision to the Commissioner. The decision to approve or reject could be made by a simple majority while a veto vote had to be supported by a two-third majority of the entire Panel membership. This would imply that ten Panel Members present at the meeting would have to support the veto. It was further advised that, if the Panel chose to veto, the Commissioner would not be able to issue the proposed precept and would have to publish a response to the Panel’s report, indicating a different proposed precept, by the 21^st February 2020. The Panel would not be able to veto the revised proposed precept but could only decide to approve or reject it.

Councillor Keith Evans (Panel Lead on Finance) provided a presentation on the Panel’s scrutiny of the 2020/21 precept proposal including the 2020/21 - 2025/25 Medium Term Financial Plan, Reserves Strategy and Capital Strategy.

He advised that the 2020/21 grant settlement for Dyfed-Powys Police was £56.617m with some grants being ring-fenced. The report highlighted some operational pressures but overall provided assurance that the Chief Constable was managing these adequately. Cllr. Evans further advised that the reduction of the capital grant and the reliance on reserves for investments into estate and critical IT and fleet infrastructure put increasing pressure on the revenue budget, with a predicted reduction of usable reserves to £6.642m by 2024/25.

Cllr. Evans advised that he commended the report, which proposed a precept increase of £1 per month on a Band D property equating to a 4.83% increase on the previous year. He thanked the Commissioner and Chief Constable for organising a finance seminar that supported scrutiny of the report.

The Commissioner advised that the proposed increase in precept would support workforce changes equating to 42 additional police officers FTEs and 24 extra members of support staff FTEs at a total budget impact of £2.571m. These workforce changes would support investments into contact with the public and fraud safeguarding initiatives.

The Panel thanked Cllr. Evans and the Commissioner for their detailed and informative reports.

In response to queries on workforce management, the Commissioner advised that support staff was used strategically to free up police officer time and increase their presence in local communities. He advised that the recruitment timeline for police officers involved planned intakes in March and September as well as transferee intakes in June, increasing police officer numbers to 1,180 by the end of 2020/21. He was reassured that the Force had sufficient capacity for training additional officers.

In response to a query, the Commissioner advised that Dyfed-Powys Police trained other forces to generate funding, however this was subject to demand and capacity and therefore not a funding stream the Force could depend on.

A query was raised regarding public engagement. The Commissioner advised that the implementation of a new rural crime strategy and the vulnerability desk had improved crime reporting and recording.

In response to a query on investments around climate change mitigation, the Commissioner advised that the underspent from last year’s budget had been put into a sustainability fund and the Force had recently acquired fourteen electric vehicles. The electric charging infrastructure would be supported by £350k investments over the next five years.

A query was raised asking why the Dyfed-Powys precept increase was higher than precept increases in England, which averaged £10 per year. The Commissioner advised that the decision was influenced by differences in council tax capping, pension contributions and the ambition for service improvement. He further advised that the proposed precept increase was the lowest in Wales.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the Commissioner’s proposal to increase the Dyfed-Powys Police’s precept by 4.83% for 2020/21 be endorsed.