Statement relating to Taxpayers Alliance report
August 10th, 2015
The Taxpayers Alliance recently published a report comparing the cost of the various Police and Crime Commissioner Offices from across the country.
In the report they claim that the cost of the Cambridgeshire Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for the financial year 2013/14 was £1,787,000 which represents the highest cost of any Commissioners office per 1000 members of the electorate.
This is incorrect.
The Taxpayers Alliance wanted to compare the cost of the old Police Authority with the Cost of the Police and Crime Commissioners that replaced them.
The following figures were provided to the Taxpayers Alliance in a Freedom of Information request they submitted.
Total Cambridgeshire Police Authority expenditure for 2010/11 was £836,000
The total net cost of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner in 2013/14 was £563,000
This is a decrease of £273,000 (not an increase of £951,000 as stated in the report)
The Taxpayers Alliance has used an expenditure figure of £1,787,000 which includes over £1.2 million of grants that were administered through the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner. These were not office costs. The money comes into the OPCC and goes straight out.
This can be seen on Page 57 (by page number at bottom of page) of our annual accounts for that year at
https://www.cambridgeshire-pcc.gov.uk/uploads/2013/03/2013-14-Statement-of-Accounts-PCC-final.pdf
The true calculation should be
Cost of OPCC Office £1,787,000 (includes £1.2 million grant money)
Deduct grant money -£1,223,000
NET Cost of OPCC Office £563,000
Population £599,894 (from 2012 electorate)
Cost per 1,000 population £938.50 (not £2,979 as claimed in the report)
The Grants issued were:
- Community Safety Grant 924,000
- Victims Commissioning Grant 244,000
- Restorative Justice Grant 55,000
TOTAL 1,223,000
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