Report Summary
This report provides members of the Scottish Police Authority with an overview of the proposed 2024-25 revenue, capital and reform budgets.
To access the full document please open the PDF document above.
To view as accessible content please use the sections below. (Note that tables and some appendixes are not available as accessible content).
Meeting
The publication discussed was referenced in the meeting below
Meeting of the Scottish Police Authority - 21 March 2024
Date : 21 March 2024
Location : Caledonian Suite, COSLA, Verity House, 19 Haymarket Yards, Edinburgh, EH12 5BH
Further detail
The annual budget is a plan detailing how the organisation intends to allocate financial resources throughout the year to achieve operational and financial objectives. The budget is based on a number of assumptions which will be ratified with decisions being made through internal and external governance processes.
The Scottish Government’s budget confirmed the funding allocation for policing for 2024-25. Funding uplifts were received in core revenue (£75.7m) and core capital (£13.1m), whilst reform remained at £20.0m with an additional £5.0m transferred from core revenue. Additional capital baseline adjustments for IFRS 16 lease transactions have also been made.
The revenue uplift will allow us to restart officer recruitment to raise numbers from their current level; fund the additional cost of the 2023-24 pay award for officers and staff; and make a credible pay offer in 2024-25.
The budget allocation includes a core budget for a maximum of 16,600 officers (plus externally funded additionality eg Local Authorities) and the police staff baseline post the current VR/VER exercise. There will be a focus on protecting frontline policing, whilst modernising police staff roles to ensure an efficient and effective workforce directed towards the areas of greatest threat, harm and risk.
The £66.1m capital budget and £25.0m reform budget will allow us to deliver our rolling capital replacement programme and key digital capability including Body Worn Video.
The full budget report is attached at Appendix A.
The Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012 (sections 86 and 87), the Scottish Police Authority (Provision of Goods and Services) Order 2013 and other supporting legislation enables the Scottish Police Authority to both provide and charge for goods and services.
The charge out rates have been increased for 2024-25 in line with the budgeting assumptions outlined in Appendix A. Any changes to fees which are set by statue will be applied as they occur. The charges for other non-statutory services are proposed to be uplifted in line with the NPCC guidance and the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Details of the proposed charges for events and other services are included at Appendix B.
This paper was presented to the SPA Resources Committee on 13 March 2024 where members made a recommendation to the Authority to approve its contents.
