South Yorkshire Police underspends by £3.5m

The council tax precept which funds the force was raised by £15 for a Band D property last year.

A budget monitoring report for 2023 to 2024 was discussed at December’s meeting of the Police and Crime Panel.

The South Yorkshire Police’s Chief Constable’s budget came to a £3.5m underspend, which has been put down to lower utility bills than expected; extra Home Office funding for pay increases; and ‘effective contract management of IT licences’.

In total, the force has made savings of £6.5m, but will spend £3.2m of that on unforeseen expenses such as Raac (crumbling concrete) at Doncaster Station and vehicle replacements.

Around £110,000 was saved by the force after the Home Office agreed a higher pay rise than expected.

The PCC and Chief Constable set a pay award of three per cent, but the Home Office granted an additional £8.3m to bring the pay award up to seven per cent.

A total of £800,000 has also been saved on IT licences and subscriptions.

A temporary underspend of £1.6m has been put down to an ‘ongoing review’ of an IT collaboration between SYP and Humberside Police.

The report adds: “Other reasons are changes in planned officer expansion following extensive review. ensuring that front-line policing numbers are protected.”

The savings mean that the force can fund other demands without having to use reserves.

Some £27,000 has been set aside for repairs at Doncaster Police Station after Raac (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete) was identified in October.

A ‘body-worn camera video data recovery project’ will cost £400,000, to recover data of body-worn video footage recorded by officers between July 2020 and May 2023, which affected up to 69 cases.

A further £22,000 will cover an increase in the number of dogs being held in kennels, following changes to dangerous dog legislation last year.

The report adds that legacy costs associated with Hillsborough, the Stovewood Enquiry and CSE civil claims are currently projected to ‘spend in full’.

“The force is also looking at other opportunities to bring forward work that will reduce the pressure on next year’s budget,” the report said.