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Council Tax Questions to the CommissionerPublished 03/04/2017
In March, the Police and Crime Commissioner wrote to every council tax payer in Hertfordshire explaining where their money goes.
As a result, several people have asked similar questions:
Why is the police element of my Council Tax going up from April 2017?
The Police and Crime Commissioner, David Lloyd, has made an increase of 3.4%, which is equivalent to £5 a year for the average household in order to keep local policing teams in place.
Lower than expected funding from government, an increase in costs relating to safeguarding vulnerable people and a delay to a collaborated IT project have led to the rise.
This is the first time the Commissioner has raised the police element of the council tax precept in his two terms of office.
You can read the Commissioner’s open letter to residents and see the full budget report on this website.
Why is the amount spent on your office going up?
The Policing and Crime Bill Act places additional mandatory responsibilities on the PCC in relation to complaints. In order to meet these new requirements, and to provide the enhanced customer service experience outlined in the Commissioner’s Community Safety and Criminal Justice Plan, a new Customer Service Unit comprised of three and half a full time equivalent posts is being created to act as first point of contact for all complaints coming in to the Constabulary. The aim of the Unit is to provide a prompt and effective service which aims to improve levels of customer satisfaction and reduce the flow of low level complaints in to the tri-force Professional Standards Department.
The government has indicated its intention to devolve various aspects of the wider criminal justice system to PCCs and the 2017 Act enables Commissioners to explore further blue light collaboration, particularly in relation to governance of Fire and Rescue services. In order to provide additional support and resilience to the Policy Development team to pursue these areas, a Policy Support Manager and Head of Criminal Justice have been appointed.
Communication support for the PCC’s office has, until now, been provided from within the Constabulary. As the role of the PCC has expanded, the need for independent media and communications support based within the OPCC’s office became increasingly apparent and the equivalent of two full time posts were transferred from the Constabulary budget to the OPCC, so this shows an increase in the OPCC budget but does not increase the cost to taxpayers.
Full details of the Commissioner’s budget can be found in this report.
As a result, several people have asked similar questions:
Why is the police element of my Council Tax going up from April 2017?
The Police and Crime Commissioner, David Lloyd, has made an increase of 3.4%, which is equivalent to £5 a year for the average household in order to keep local policing teams in place.
Lower than expected funding from government, an increase in costs relating to safeguarding vulnerable people and a delay to a collaborated IT project have led to the rise.
This is the first time the Commissioner has raised the police element of the council tax precept in his two terms of office.
You can read the Commissioner’s open letter to residents and see the full budget report on this website.
Why is the amount spent on your office going up?
The Policing and Crime Bill Act places additional mandatory responsibilities on the PCC in relation to complaints. In order to meet these new requirements, and to provide the enhanced customer service experience outlined in the Commissioner’s Community Safety and Criminal Justice Plan, a new Customer Service Unit comprised of three and half a full time equivalent posts is being created to act as first point of contact for all complaints coming in to the Constabulary. The aim of the Unit is to provide a prompt and effective service which aims to improve levels of customer satisfaction and reduce the flow of low level complaints in to the tri-force Professional Standards Department.
The government has indicated its intention to devolve various aspects of the wider criminal justice system to PCCs and the 2017 Act enables Commissioners to explore further blue light collaboration, particularly in relation to governance of Fire and Rescue services. In order to provide additional support and resilience to the Policy Development team to pursue these areas, a Policy Support Manager and Head of Criminal Justice have been appointed.
Communication support for the PCC’s office has, until now, been provided from within the Constabulary. As the role of the PCC has expanded, the need for independent media and communications support based within the OPCC’s office became increasingly apparent and the equivalent of two full time posts were transferred from the Constabulary budget to the OPCC, so this shows an increase in the OPCC budget but does not increase the cost to taxpayers.
Full details of the Commissioner’s budget can be found in this report.
