The Police and Crime Commissioner has a number of other commitments and responsibilities, as detailed in the Police and Crime Plan:
This plan has been developed with the Chief Constable and his leadership team. He has given his support to the plan and a commitment to meeting the priorities set out within it. I don’t believe in having a raft of targets, but there are some key outcomes that I will expect to see delivered over the next four years around improved answering of the 101 non-emergency number, good treatment of victims, responding to concerns of residents in rural and town centre areas and making savings to invest into frontline policing. These are summarised within this plan and I will report on progress. I will regularly hold the Chief Constable and partners to account on the delivery of the priorities. This plan will be underpinned by a Surrey Police delivery plan.
Of the total funding, £2.1m is retained by the Commissioner of which £0.7m is set aside for commissioning community safety services. The Commissioner’s office budget is currently set at £1.4m and I have already made savings on this amount.
Surrey Police’s budget is funded from a combination of a central government grant of £91.4m and council tax of £107.2m. In terms of council tax that people in Surrey pay for policing, Band D properties pay £220.19 for policing in 2016/17, an increase of 1.99% on the previous year. In future I will campaign for Surrey Police to get its fair share of Government Grant and will robustly scrutinise future financial savings and plans.
The remainder of the fund of just less than £1m is spent on specialist victim services through the award of grants. Recipients in 2016/17 will include domestic abuse outreach services, support services for victims of rape and sexual offences, women’s refuges and services to support child abuse victims. I will review this funding so that it is directed towards meeting the priorities set out in this plan, with the aim of placing longer-term contracts with those organisations who demonstrate that they can produce the goods.
In 2016/17, £700k has been set aside from the overall PCC’s budget for funding community safety projects. I will commit this year to continuing this fund and will review the amount in the fund for future years. I will review the criteria for awarding funds and seek to award three year funding for where appropriate to allow longer term planning for those seeking to reduce crime and disorder. Funds that Surrey Police receives back from the government after seizing money and assets from criminals will be directed to frontline services.
Details of the criteria for awarding grants and how to apply for a grant from the PCC’s Victim Support Fund and Community Safety Fund can be found on the Surrey PCC website.
A Strategic Policing Requirement (SPR) has been produced by the Home Office in consultation with the Association of Chief Police Officers. It describes the main national threats for England and Wales and requires each Police and Crime Commissioner and Chief Constable to provide enough resources from their local areas to collectively meet the national threats of: terrorism; civil emergencies, serious and organised crime; public disorder; large-scale cyber incidents and child sexual abuse.
Commissioners and Chief Constables need to collaborate with others to ensure there is sufficient capacity to deal with national threats. I will work with the Chief Constable to make sure that Surrey balances its requirement to meet national issues with protecting Surrey locally. I have outlined my key priority to help protect Surrey from terrorism and by working locally and with others we can help the national effort.