Question
Asked by
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much the Home Office paid to each police authority, in each of the past five years for which information is available, to meet their annual pension costs (a) in cash terms, and (b) as a percentage of total payments made to each authority in the same year. [HL6002]
Police officers' pensions are governed by the Police Pension Scheme Regulations of 1987 and 2006. The present system of financing police pensions was introduced in April 2006. Each police authority pays employer and officers' pension contributions into a separate account, out of which pensions of retired officers are paid. Where the income into the police authority pensions account from contributions and other payments (such as inward transfer values) is insufficient to meet the cost of pensions in payment, it is topped up by Home Office grant on an annual basis.
The Home Office top-up grant to police authorities for police pensions is provided from annually managed expenditure; other payments come out of departmental expenditure limits. Information relating to the financing of police pensions before 2006-07 is not included here. That is the responsibility of individual police authorities and is included in the annual reports published by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), collected independently of the Home Office.
The information for 2006-07 to 2008-09 is given in the table below. “Total Payments” include the net general grant as well as specific grants.
Home Office Top up grant for Pensions Total Payments* Top up Pensions as a % of total payments Home Office Top up grant for Pensions Total Payments* Top up Pensions as a % of total payments Home Office Top up grant for Pensions Total Payments' Top up Pensions as a % of total payments Avon and Somerset 7,670,400 129,195,325 6% 11,592,000 138,011,585 8% 11,915,274 141,835,492 8% Bedfordshire 1,661,600 49,225,254 3% 1,081,800 50,858,043 2% 2,848,652 54,287,637 5% Cambridgeshire 3,376,347 58,519,861 6% 31,053 57,437,797 0% 7,759,423 66,618,737 12% Cheshire 3,271,200 80,184,511 4% 4,878,600 84,478,623 6% 8,225,836 88,299,992 9% City of London 4,870,400 42,832,177 11% 3,463,200 42,557,107 8% 7,963,961 45,003,780 18% Cleveland 2,799,200 59,025,628 5% 3,993,200 60,706,966 7% 5,597,237 63,581,621 9% Cumbria 2,243,200 39,782,621 6% 4,007,600 43,264,712 9% 7,207,777 47,316,460 15% Derbyshire 2,148,800 76,014,413 3% 6,740,000 82,917,195 8% 7,894,491 85,676,458 9% Devon and Cornwall 3,092,000 126,867,269 2% 7,814,200 137,475,113 6% 13,085,436 144,759,326 9% Dorset 5,143,200 53,383,389 10% 7,386,200 58,108,507 13% 6,396,378 57,563,717 11% Durham 3,252,000 56,066,167 6% 4,052,400 59,929,126 7% 6,205,963 61,500,800 10% Dyfed-Powys 2,649,600 43,596,156 6% 239,600 41,710,078 1% 6,480,459 47,843,615 14% Essex 5,450,400 129,072,409 4% 6,645,600 134,785,878 5% 10,412,327 143,650,893 7% Gloucestershire 3,025,864 48,253,295 6% 4,307,156 51,351,458 8% 5,960,734 53,398,887 11% Greater Manchester 9,643,200 283,871,056 3% 17,758,600 301,674,260 6% 29,978,417 321,891,598 9% Gwent 1,588,512 52,944,598 3% 0 53,101,482 0% 4,485,773 58,632,260 8% Hampshire 7,307,200 146,500,226 5% 8,547,400 153,421,556 6% 19,996,012 168,170,084 12% Hertfordshire 0 83,099,896 0% 755,200 87,373,349 1% 247,134 89,142,106 0% Humberside 3,020,000 79,319,778 4% 8,021,400 86,837,653 9% 7,498,618 89,838,629 8% Kent 3,483,200 145,725,083 2% 11,546,800 159,472,517 7% 7,117,384 159,812,394 4% Lancashire 9,053,600 135,098,093 7% 12,825,200 142,678,546 9% 13,384,664 147,492,713 9% Leicestershire 1,197,600 78,166,470 2% 2,346,000 81,305,567 3% 7,371,837 88,174,637 8% Lincolnshire 6,594,400 51,875,051 13% 10,320,951 57,418,699 18% 9,410,971 58,132,272 16% Merseyside 16,606,400 175,716,478 9% 24,624,600 188,030,942 13% 27,155,341 195,130,488 14% Metropolitan Police 13,116,800 1,525,301,687 1% 43,029,200 1,638,051,891 3% 47,658,961 1,682,306,879 3% Norfolk 4,148,800 65,425,073 6% 6,295,800 70,698,652 9% 8,723,094 74,029,314 12% North Wales 1,872,800 58,520,746 3% 5,119,600 63,520,687 8% 7,014,761 65,339,165 11% North Yorkshire 4,296,000 55,315,226 8% 4,886,200 57,741,623 8% 9,817,276 64,126,877 15% Northamptonshire 1,148,000 49,832,555 2% 2,019,000 52,721,813 4% 4,486,613 56,836,293 8% Northumbria 8,504,000 139,429,551 6% 10,534,000 145,849,208 7% 20,981,030 157,864,488 13% Nottinghamshire 3,332,800 88,870,805 4% 9,034,000 98,615,714 9% 11,043,443 104,027,860 11% South Wales 8,952,800 120,164,766 7% 17,646,800 133,235,014 13% 14,618,489 132,897,043 11% South Yorkshire 3,060,000 118,044,174 3% 8,653,400 129,749,569 7% 10,587,580 134,569,372 8% Staffordshire 4,860,800 82,445,051 6% 6,973,800 87,190,971 8% 11,664,788 94,321,706 12% Suffolk 2,782,400 50,828,801 5% 4,040,800 54,288,607 7% 4,282,824 55,873,031 8% Surrey 2,207,200 77,993,429 3% 1,083,000 80,071,487 1% 9,742,709 90,593,694 11% Sussex 6,086,400 123,892,450 5% 10,833,600 133,043,007 8% 16,074,403 140,989,626 11% Thames Valley 1,716,779 176,624,208 1% 1,100,367 181,164,385 1% 7,235,379 189,824,515 4% Warwickshire 2,956,000 40,827,249 7% 3,788,400 43,574,349 9% 3,808,717 44,100,085 9% West Mercia 3,104,000 83,230,795 4% 1,440,584 85,012,659 2% 11,180,425 96,549,242 12% West Midlands 5,348,800 298,748,312 2% 14,943,400 318,671,629 5% 14,901,496 327,187,994 5% West Yorkshire 11,413,600 214,903,088 5% 22,794,800 233,347,527 10% 27,443,059 245,865,831 11% Wiltshire 3,082,400 48,631,361 6% 2,831,600 50,043,098 6% 5,997,205 54,217,530 11%
Total payments in this case includes all payments from the Home Office to police forces. This includes: the Net General Grant from the Home Office as well as all specific grants paid by the Home Office. It does not include payments made by CLG, redistributed business rates or council tax precepts. The specific grants are as follows: the Crime Fighting Fund, the Basic Command Unit Fund, Community Support Officer/Neighbourhood Policing Fund, the Pensions Deficit Grant, the Counter Terrorism Fund, Rule 2 Grants, Capital Grants, Grants for dedicated security posts and the Metropolitan Police Service Specific Grant.