Meeting documents

To consider a report by the Police and Crime Commissioner. 

Members of the Panel are asked to review the performance of the Police and Crime Commissioner against objectives in the Police and Crime Plan.

The Panel considered a report by the PCC which informed members of the progress against the Police and Crime Plan and Priorities 2013-17 for Quarter 3 2016-17. The PCC highlighted elements of performance against the Plan during this quarter. 

The PCC provided commentary for members on a few key areas of activity and highlighted the priorities in the Plan. 

Members of the Panel asked the following questions and received the responses below:

1.               Paragraph 2.1.1 identified particular areas where Dorset’s crime figures feature in the higher benchmarked statistics when compared to others (e.g. non-dwelling burglary; drug offences; theft of pedal cycles and theft from the person).  Can the PCC provide some insight as to any specific local ‘causes and forces’ that contribute to drive these and what actions are being taken to focus upon them to reduce occurrence?

The Chief Constable advised that non dwelling burglaries were those away from properties and featured in seaside shed/dwellings. Dorset were 33^rd nationally in reporting these type of break ins some Forces didn’t report on this. With regard to pedal cycles this could be that a high number of people had confidence in reporting these type of issues.

2.               Paragraph 2.1.6 – Anti Social Behaviour incidents have increased by 13% - What action is the Commissioner taking to better understand what is driving this increase?

The Chief Constable noted that the areas seen to increase tended to be in areas where population was highest and that a lot of the success was around good partnership working.  The member from North Dorset District Council highlighted that it was also the duty of the relevant Local Authority to deal with anti-social behaviour through their community safety partnerships.

Following a comment from the Chairman regarding victim satisfaction and the frustration of people being able to hand things into and contact the police, the Chief Constable advised that online capability was growing. Information was available online to tell members of the public what to do in relation to lost property etc and was an opportunity for people to make better contact with the Police.  In respect of lost property the Treasurer undertook to advise members outside of the meeting of the amount collected through the sale of lost property.

3.               Paragraphs 2.2.8, 2.2.10 & 2.2.11 of the report – The data shows that Domestic Abuse, Child Sexual Exploitation & Serious Sexual Offences are all increasing.  Does the Commissioner agree that these are all useful areas for focused scrutiny work?   

The Chief Executive to the PCC advised that there would be an opportunity in the next report to focus on the wider work.

4.               Can the Commissioner outline why the Support Services spend to date for Q2 was £2.9m, yet for Q3 it is shown as £436k?  There is no reflection of this change in the virements table.

Spend to date figures are always a snapshot at a point in time of expenditure incurred to date. In the case of support services figures reported in Q2 the timing of these meant that known adjustments had not yet occurred, including recharging of some actual costs to Devon and Cornwall for Strategic Alliance and movement of expenditure from support services to the more appropriate operational area to which the expenditure related. Members will note that the projected outturn in Q2 was £280k, as our forecasting allowed for the forthcoming adjustments at that point in time.

5.               Can the Commissioner explain why the budgeted figure for FTE Police officers is 1,200, yet para 3.7 of the report (p61) states that the force is forecast to have 1,236 FTE officers?

Workforce planning was based on three-year forecasting between the Force’s Human Resources and Finance departments.  Finance budgeted for a predicted turnover of 100 officers at all ranks for financial year 16/17.  Of course, this can vary year-to-year and turnover has, however, been lower than anticipated with a predicted 82 leaving officers at the end of this financial year. With the increased recruitment levels, the establishment as at 5 January 2017 stood at 1232.56 FTE against an organisational design of 1200.

It was anticipated that this would align in the future.

6.               We note that a commitment was previously made, as part of the 2017/18 precept proposal, to a further review of the capital programme. Can the Panel be informed as to when they will receive the outcome of this review?

The PCC advised that during the next financial year he had asked the Force to work with his Treasurer to review the capital programme and its funding and to present him with a range of options.

Members will have note that the PCC has sufficient funding to meet the requirements for the next two years.  The review will revisit both the detail of the programme and potential funding sources.  Such issues he would expect to see would be forecast capital receipts, options for revenue funding, partnership working together with any funding issues arising from investment decisions to support the Strategic Alliance.

Once this has been completed and reviewed, the outcome would be incorporated into the Medium Term Financial Strategy.

Noted