Agenda item

The Panel considered a report of the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) which provided details of the performance of the 2013/14 revenue and capital budgets (for copy see file of Minutes).

Councillor Jones asked how many police officers were currently on military duty, and whether this was at any cost to the force.  The Assistant Chief Officer, Durham Constabulary replied that currently there were 9 officers on secondment and that the force received full cost recovery for this.

Ms Larkin-Bramley referred to the current austerity measures and asked how the budget process for the next year would be undertaken.  The Assistant Chief Officer replied that 2014/15 should have been the last year for austerity, however, austerity would now extend beyond this.  The force had tried to produce 2-year budgets for a degree of reassurance and managers in force had been asked to examine officer and staff levels.  Targets had been set for non-pay budgets such as estate, ICT and fleet.  However, budgeting beyond the next couple of years would be more difficult because of changes outside of the control of the force, for example, changes to National Insurance payments.  Ms Larkin-Bramley requested that the Panel be made aware if any budgetary concerns as they arose during the 2-year budget setting process.

The PCC informed the Panel that the budget process was made more difficult by the degrees of uncertainty, for example the projected underspend of £900,000 would be taken by the contribution to the IPCC budget.  The PCC informed the Panel that it was his intention to increase the precept for the next financial year.  Work was ongoing around collaborative projects and the PCC infirmed the Panel he was willing to give briefings on this outside of the meetings process.

Councillor Hopgood referred to the overspend in the revenue budget for legal fees and asked whether this was a one-off event or whether it had been an underestimation.  The Assistant Chief Officer replied that this was a one-off event and related to legal fees which the PCC paid during investigations of officers.  Such fees were difficult to plan and tended to be paid as and when they arose.

Resolved:

That the report be noted.