APPENDIX 5

Police Funding Allocation Overview

The Police Allocation Formula was first introduced in 1995-96 to distribute Formula Grant and Police Grant.  The Formula distributes police funding between forces based on their relative needs compared to each other. It allocates a basic amount plus 11 top-ups for various aspects of policing workload. Indicators of workload were calculated using socio-economic and demographic indicators that were well correlated to the workload category. This correlation was found using regression analysis.

The police allocation formula (PAF) is essentially a calculation that uses various data sources (such as population density) to share money between police authorities in England and Wales. It is not a calculation of absolute needs, that is, it does not estimate how much each force needs independently of other forces. Instead, it shares out the amount of money designated for police funding between forces based on their relative needs compared to each other.

The PAF is used to divide the majority of the money available for total police funding between forces. The results of the PAF have a significant impact on how much money a force will receive in order to police its local area. The PAF allocates funding to forces based on their relative need.

Since 2011-12 the distribution of police funding has been frozen, and forces have simply received a flat annual change in funding. As a result, actual allocations have not moved towards funding determined by the PAF.

How the PAF distributes funding

The first step of the PAF is to divide everything the police service has to do to police the country - the total police workload - into 11 categories. Seven of these relate to reducing/investigating different types of crime.

The 7 crime types are:

· more serious violence/sexual offences

· less serious violence

· robbery

· vehicle crime

· domestic burglary

· other crime (high cost)

· other crime (low cost)

The other 4 are as follows:

· providing reassurance to the public

· providing assistance at or reducing road traffic accidents

· providing assistance with non-crime incidents

· policing special events such as protest marches or football matches