Author and Job Role: Kelvin Menon – Treasurer
Executive Summary:
The Financial Monitoring report for the full year 2023/24 shows an underspend of £0.2m. This is based on an approved budget of £292.8m for the year. Capital was £7.0m underspent due to the timing of various projects, of this £5.9m has been requested as slippage into 2024/25 which requires approval by the PCC.
Financial Regulations state that all budget virements over £0.5m must be approved by the PCC. These are included within this decision notice.
Background
Revenue Outturn
The total budget for Surrey approved by the PCC in in February 2024 was £288.5m this increased by £4.3m to £292.8m during the year due to the Police pay rise which was offset by an increased grant from Government.
| PCC Budget £m | Force Budget £m | Group Budget £m | Actual Outturn £m | Funding changes £m | Actual Variance £m |
| 3.4 | 289.4 | 292.8 | 291.0 | (1.6) | (0.2) |
Although the net outturn is only £0.2m increased staff vacancies and the proactive driving of in-year savings has enabled the Force to use in-year underspends to both offset a series of pressures and also avoid drawing from the cost of change reserve – meaning that the reserve can be used to deliver more technical change projects in future years.
The funding changes of £1.6m result from £2.2m budgeted for but not drawn down from the cost of change reserve offset by an additional grant of £0.5m for the recruitment of additional officers above the Uplift target.
More detail in respect of expenditure is given in the table below:
Grants and Income had the highest variance mainly due to income being received for the use of custody cells, mutual aid and a revaluation of business rates. Financing is overspent reflecting a transfer of funding from revenue to capital (extra interest earned in year) and transfer to reserves for the business rates refund, insurance and custody income. Supplies and Services is underspent in the main due to an underspend in central costs offset by additional costs in areas such as animal storage and forensics.
The underspend for the year of £0.2m has been allocated to reserves as follows:
Capital Outturn
The capital plan was underspent by £7.0m. Most of this was due to delays in the Surrey Estates Project, vehicle supply chain issues delaying delivery and change programs being deferred. All of these costs will be incurred in the future rather than being savings.
Revenue Virements
Per financial regulations only virements over £500k need approval from the PCC. These are set out below for quarter 4.
Police and Crime Commissioner Approval
I note the financial performance as at the 31st of March 2024 and approve the virements, capital slippage and reserve transfers for quarter 4 as set out above in the report.
Signature: Lisa Townsend
Date: July 4 2024
All decisions must be added to the decision register.
Areas of consideration
Consultation
None
Financial implications
These are set out in the paper
Legal
None
Risks
None
Equality and diversity
.
None
Risks to human rights
None