Author and Job Role: Kelvin Menon – Treasurer
Protective Marking: OFFICIAL
Executive Summary:
The Financial Monitoring report for the half year to September 2023 shows that Surrey Police Group is estimated to be £1.3m under budget by the end of financial year based on performance so far. This is using an approved budget of £288.5m for the year. Capital is predicted to be £0.9m underspent due to the timing of various projects.
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 Forecast
The total budget for Surrey is £288.5m for 2023/24, against this the forecast outturn position is £287.2m resulting in an estimated underspend of £1.3m:
| Total 2023/24 Budget £m | Total 2023/24 Outturn £m | Variance £m | |
| 2023/24 Budget | 288.5 | 289.9 | 1.4 |
| Funding | (288.5) | (291.2) | (2.7) |
| Grand Total | (0.0) | (1.3) | (1.3) |
Given it is early in the year this is only an indication of the financial return and depends on the assumptions made in respect of inflation etc. This should become clearer as the year continues.
In the main the budget is overspent due to the 7% increase in Police pay, agreed by the pay review body, which was not budgeted for. In addition, overtime has been above budget due to vacancies. Funding is better than expected due to a receipt of a grant from Government to cover the pay increase, which in fact exceeds the cost. This is because the grant is for 12 months, but the cost incurred is only for 6. In future years there will be a shortfall of the costs against the additional grant provided. In addition, a further £0.5m was received as an incentive payment for the Force’s recruitment above its Uplift target.
At the 30th of September Police Officers numbers were above the Uplift target and so there was no clawback of uplift grant anticipated.
Capital Forecast
The capital plan is forecast to underspend by £0.9m against an agreed budget of £21m. However, only £4.7m has been spent so it is likely several projects may roll over into the following year.
Revenue Virements
Per financial regulations only virements over £500k need approval from the PCC. These are set out below for the period to September 2023:
| Revenue Virements | Period | Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey | People Services | Local Policing | Operations and Criminal Justice | Specialist Crime | Commercial and Finance Services | DDaT | Corporate Services | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Permanent Virements (up to £0.500m) | £’000 | £’000 | £’000 | £’000 | £’000 | £’000 | £’000 | £’000 | £’000 | |
| None | P5 | |||||||||
| Temporary Virements (up to £0.500m) | ||||||||||
| None | P5 | |||||||||
| Permanent Virements (over £0.500m) | ||||||||||
| Surrey Sussex Op Uplift 2022/23 officer posts centralised – perm. | P5 | (739) | (1752) | 2602 | (111) | |||||
| Temporary Virements (0ver £0.500m) | ||||||||||
| None | P5 |
Capital Virements
Per financial regulations only virements over £500k need approval from the PCC. These are set out below for the period to September 2023:
| Project | Month | Value £m |
| P69017 – Chertsey Roof | P5 | (1.012) |
| P84004 – Firing Range | P6 | (1,363) |
Recommendation:
That the Police and Crime Commissioner note the financial performance as of the 30th of September 2023 and approve the virements as set out above.
Police and Crime Commissioner approval
Signature: Police and Crime Commissioner Lisa Townsend (wet signed copy held at PCC office).
Date: 22 November 2023
All decisions must be added to the decision register.