This consultation has now closed.
Message from Police and Crime Commissioner Caroline Henry
As Police and Crime Commissioner for Nottinghamshire, my role includes setting the annual budget for Nottinghamshire Police. You may be aware that the majority of our funding, around two thirds, comes from government grant funding settlement, but we also have to use local policing precept to make up the required budget for the year in order to properly fund our police force and help victims of crime.
The grant funding settlement for Nottinghamshire has been lower than it should be for many years. To remedy this, since I was elected into office, I have been lobbying the Home Office for a fairer grant formula and we expect further information on this to be published this year.
Our precept is one of lowest in the country, but we are reliant on it because it makes up around one third of Nottinghamshire Police’s annual budget. For this reason, I have pressed Nottinghamshire Police to be as efficient as possible, so that public purse monies are put to best effect. I am pleased that they have made savings within corporate services, transport, the policing estate, IT services and procurement. They have also generated more income too.
When I set the precept last year, I promised residents investment in our police force and initiatives to tackle crime. As a result of your contributions, this is what we have delivered in the last year:
- Recruitment and training of 226 new police officers, the majority of whom have been deployed in visible front-line roles.
- Increasing the capacity of our Operation Reacher teams in all 12 neighbourhood policing areas across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
- Increasing police officers and staff to tackle knife crime, cyber-crime, county lines, serious organised crime, violence against women and girls and rural crime. We also increased our mental health safeguarding and response to road traffic collisions.
- Increasing the capacity in our support and recovery services, including those that support victims and survivors of violence and abuse and other crimes.
- Awarding grants to each of our local authority and community safety partnerships for security improvements in homes and communities, including window and door locks, CCTV and lighting.
- Investing in resources to help improve prosecution files, following stringent changes from Ministry of Justice.
- Investing in automatic number plate recognition cameras to increase protection to our residents and improve our capability to catch criminals.
The work of our police force and victim support services should not be taken for granted. They work hard every day across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, doing often unseen dangerous and complex work to prevent crime, tackle criminals and safeguard vulnerable people. I am proud of Nottinghamshire Police - it is an improving police force and with more investment and support, it could become one of the most efficient and effective in England and Wales.
In this coming year, I have asked Nottinghamshire Police to continue their work to prevent crime, pursue criminals and protect our residents. However, we need to maintain our funding in order to deliver the services that so many people rely on.
To do this, we need to increase the police precept by £15 (for Band D property) – or just 29p per week - this year. This will help us to properly fund our police service and to help our victims of crime. If we are not able to do this, our police and victims services will face very severe pressures, and we may need to make difficult decisions about which services we can provide to our communities.
I am very aware that many of our residents are facing pressures with cost of living and do not want to add to the local taxation burden. However, we cannot afford to lose policing and victim services, particularly in the face of increased economic pressures affecting our communities and households. The precept increase I am proposing is a small increase that will help secure good policing and help for victims in our area over the next year.
The table below shows what those changes would mean to households living in different council tax band properties.
| Council Tax Band | Current Police council tax per year | Our proposed annual increase | Proposed Police council tax for 2023/24 | % increase | You would pay... |
|---|
| A |
£169.50 |
£10.00 |
£179.50 |
5.9% |
19p extra per week |
| B |
£197.75 |
£11.67 |
£209.42 |
5.9% |
22p extra per week |
| C |
£226.00 |
£13.33 |
£239.33 |
5.9% |
26p extra per week |
| D |
£254.25 |
£15.00 |
£269.25 |
5.9% |
29p extra per week |
| E |
£310.75 |
£18.33 |
£329.08 |
5.9% |
35p extra per week |
| F |
£367.25 |
£21.67 |
£388.92 |
5.9% |
42p extra per week |
| G |
£423.75 |
£25.00 |
£448.75 |
5.9% |
48p extra per week |
| H |
£508.50 |
£30.00 |
£538.50 |
5.9% |
58p extra per week |
We need your input on this proposed increase – please use this survey to let us know your view
Thank you for your time – we appreciate it.
Best wishes,
Caroline Henry
Police and Crime Commissioner for Nottinghamshire
This consultation has now closed.
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** This consultation will run until midnight on Sunday 5 February 2023. **
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