Underspend of £2.5m to be reinvested

Final figures for 2012-13 show the constabulary recorded an overall underspend of £2.561m last year - £885,000 higher than expected.

Most of the underspend will be carried forward to the current financial year for policing expenditure while £377,959 will be allocated to the operational funding reserve to help mitigate the funding gap projected in future years and protect local policing. In addition, some will be fed back into local crime prevention projects via the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Crime Prevention Fund, which totals £750,000 in 2013-16. The remaining cash will be transferred to various force reserves to help prepare for unforeseen spending pressures in future years.

The force underspend, which was reported during a meeting of the Strategic Governance Board on Monday, has been achieved despite substantial budget cuts, increasing demands on policing resources and continuing economic pressures.

The force recorded a £527,000 underspend on police officer pay and allowances, including overtime, which was partly down to territorial divisions making savings on their overtime allocations.

Commissioner Charles said: “These savings show the efficiency work taking place to protect local policing services is working even better than we originally forecast. The figures alone are extremely encouraging but more so given that crime is continuing to fall in the county, public confidence and satisfaction is up and performance is still improving.”