Written Statement: Final Police Settlement 2023-24

I am today laying before the Senedd the Local Government Finance Report (No.2) 2023-24 (Final Settlement – Police and Crime Commissioners). This sets out the Welsh Government’s component of the Final Police Settlement for police forces in Wales for 2023-24. Today’s announcement made by the Home Office publishes the final Police Grant allocations for policing bodies in England and Wales, to ensure that Police and Crime Commissioners are able to set precepts by 1 March.

Policing policy is not devolved and funding for the four Welsh police forces is delivered through a three-way arrangement involving the Home Office, the Welsh Government and council tax. For 2023-24 the total core support for police forces in Wales will be £433.9 million.

A common needs-based formula, operated by the Home Office, is used to distribute funding across English and Welsh police forces, and the approach to setting and distributing the Welsh Government’s component of police funding provision is based on a principle of ensuring consistency and fairness across England and Wales.

As for 2022-23, the Home Office has transferred funding for Special Branch out of the Police Main Grant to the Counter-Terrorism Policing Grant for 2023-24. As the total amount being transferred remains unchanged for 2023-24, the transfer will have a zero net impact for police forces.

As in previous years, the Home Office has overlaid its needs-based formula with a floor mechanism. This ensures all police forces in England and Wales can expect to receive an increase in core funding of 0.3% for 2023-24, before the adjustment made for the transfer of Special Branch funding, when compared with 2022-23.

Following consultation, the figures for the final police settlement remain as I set out in my statement on 14 December on the provisional police settlement. I propose to set the Welsh Government’s contribution to police funding for 2023-24 at £113.47 million. The floor funding is provided by the Home Office. The figures are summarised in Tables 1 to 3 of this Statement.

The Local Government Finance Report (No.2) 2023-24 is scheduled for debate in the Senedd on 14 February.

This information is also published on the Welsh Government’s website at:

Final Police Settlement 2023-24

Police Revenue Funding

Table 1: Aggregate External Finance (Revenue Support Grant plus National Non Domestic Rates) (£ million) ¹

Table 2: Police Grant and Floor Funding (£ million) ^{1, 2, 3}

Table 3: Total Central Support (£ million) ³

Notes:

1. Following the 2015 Comprehensive Spending Review, the Home Office made an annual transfer of funding to the Welsh Government in order for the Welsh Government to deliver its agreed contribution to police funding in Wales. From 2022-23 onwards, this additional funding is no longer transferred and is instead delivered by the Home Office through the Police Grant and Top Up Grant. This resulted in the Welsh Government contribution to policing reducing by £29.93m last year and this is set for 2023-24 and subsequent years. This is purely an administrative change and does not result in any change in overall funding for any Police Force.

2. This is the amount of police grant set out in section 3 of the Police Grant Report which includes the allocation under 'Principal Formula' and 'Add Rule 1' (columns a and b) plus the amount 'floor funding' that the Home Office has made available.

3. Figures for 2023-24 are shown before the adjustment made for the transfer of Special Branch funding, as outlined in paragraph 4.8 of the Police Grant Report.