Written Statement: Provisional Police Settlement 2021-22

Today, I am publishing proposals for the Welsh Government’s component of funding to Police and Crime Commissioners in Wales for 2021-22. These include the provisional allocations of core revenue funding for each of the four Police and Crime Commissioners in Wales.

Whilst policing policy is not devolved, funding for the Welsh police forces is delivered through a three-way arrangement involving the Home Office, the Welsh Government and council tax.

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 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 funding of 6.3% for 2021-22 when compared on a like-for-like basis with 2020-21.

The total support for police forces in Wales will be £408.2 million. Within this, I propose to set the Welsh Government’s contribution to police funding for 2021-22 at £143.4 million. The floor funding is provided by the Home Office. The figures are summarised in tables 1 to 3 of this statement. Today’s announcement marks the start of a consultation period which will end on 14 January 2021. Following this, allocations may be revised for the Final Settlement.

Police settlement: provisional 2021 to 2022

Police Revenue Funding

Table 1: Aggregate External Finance (RSG+NNDR, £m)

Table 2: Police Grant and Floor Funding (£m)

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.

Table 3: Total Central Support (£m)