The MPA budget factsheet

revised May 2008

The finances of the MPA are complex, partly due to its unique constitutional position within the GLA, and also due to its size, some £3 billion, and the diverse nature of its activities.

The MPA has two distinct budgets for different types of expenditure:

Revenue – the revenue budget meets all pay and running costs together with the costs of paying off loans.
Capital – the capital budget meets the cost of land, buildings and equipment with an expected life of more than 12 months and a value in excess of £5,000.

Who is involved in the budget process?

Metropolitan Police Authority

The MPA has overall responsibility for the budget of the MPS. The Authority scrutinises and considers each year’s budget, with reference to ‘affordability’ and how the budget fits with the Authority’s priorities and taking into account the Mayor’s priorities. It then recommends a budget submission to the Mayor; the submission highlights how the MPA budget fits with the Annual Policing Plan and Mayoral policies, priorities and strategies.

A key responsibility of the Authority is budgetary control – budget monitoring reports are submitted to the Authority on a regular basis as it is important that the Authority is aware of variations in actual or anticipated spend against the approved budget, together with proposals for remedial action if under or overspends are anticipated.

Metropolitan Police Service

the MPS draws up a detailed budget submission, drawing on the work undertaken for the medium term financial plan to identify future commitments, known savings or areas of reduction and highlighting new initiatives.

The Commissioner

responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the budget is delegated to the Commissioner by the Authority.

Mayor

The the Mayor submits the GLA Group budget, including the MPA budget, to the Assembly for consideration and approval. At the beginning of the budget setting process the Mayor indicates what will be taken into account in the calculation of the precept (level of council tax) and this, together with assumptions about the level of grants, is what the MPA budget submission calculations are based upon.

The Mayor is responsible for consulting with the community on the GLA Group budget before it is submitted to the Greater London Assembly.

GLA

Greater London Assembly – the Assembly scrutinises the Mayor’s budget submission and makes a final decision on the level of the budget, and therefore the level of the precept, for the GLA Group.

The budget process – who does what and when?

Who?	What?	When?
MPS	Review of the previous year’s actual expenditure	Apr – Jun
MPS	Review and roll forward of the medium term financial projection (assessment of expenditure over 4 years)	Apr – Jul
MPA	MPA scrutiny and consideration of the draft budget	Jun-early Nov

MPA	Approval of the draft budget for submission to the Mayor	early November
MPA	Submission of the MPA budget to the Mayor	mid November
Government	Announcement of revenue support grant distribution	Late Nov /early Dec
Mayor	Statutory consultation on the draft consolidated budget for the GLA Group	December
Mayor	Mayor submits initial proposals to the Assembly for consideration	January
Mayor	Mayor submits final proposals to the Assembly	Mid-February
GLA	Final Assembly consideration of the budget	Mid-February
MPA	The MPA makes decisions in relation to budget management	February
MPS	Allocation of budget to Business Groups and Boroughs	February
MPS	Publication of the MPA Budget Book	March
MPA	Monitoring of performance against the budget – to-date position and forecasted end of year position	Ongoing

How is the MPA revenue budget funded?

The main sources of funding are:

Specific Grant

The Home Office allocates specific grant. The Home Secretary, within the framework of central government spending plans, decides the overall size of the grant. The majority of grant, currently 95.4%, is allocated by way of the police funding formula.

Special Payment

This funding is for the MPA only and recognises its role in national and capital city functions.

Revenue Support Grant (RSG)

RSG is allocated by the Department for Communities and Local Government and, like specific grant, is distributed according to the police funding formula.

Non-Domestic Rates (NDR)

NDR is based on the rateable value of properties other than flats and houses. The rate at which NDR is charged is set by central government and can increase every year, but not by more than the retail price index for September. Income raised from this means is collected by local authorities, and paid into a national pool which Government then shares out among local and police authorities in proportion to their resident population.

For the first time in 2008-09 there was a three-year grant settlement covering 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11. The settlement covered formula grant for three years, with the latter two years being provisional.

In addition, there are grants allocated for specific purposes, for example, Counter Terrorism and Crime Fighting Fund, amongst others. The Crime Fighting Fund is funding designed to maintain / increase the number of police officers.

Council Tax

In general police authorities are able to raise additional funding through local council tax to meet their budget requirement. It is a little more complicated for the MPA – the MPA is not a precepting authority, this means that it does not set the level of its own council tax. It is the Greater London Assembly that decides the level of the precept for the MPA and the other functional bodies within the GLA Group.