Governance
On May 8 2021, Lisa Townsend won the PCC election and took office on 13 May 2021.
The PCC aims to cut crime and deliver an effective and efficient police service, providing stronger and more transparent accountability of the police. PCCs are elected by the public to hold the Chief Constable and the Force to account. They ensure community needs are met as effectively as possible, by working in partnership across a range of agencies, at a local and national level, to ensure there is a unified approach to prevent and reduce crime.
The PCC is not expected to run the police - the day-to-day direction and control will remain with the Chief Constable; the role of the PCC is to be the voice of the people.
Further information can be found on the website for the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey.
Financial Year 2023/24
For the 2023/24 financial year the Home Office agreed a slight increase to the Op Uplift programme (recruitment of 20,000 police officers nationwide) this equated to recruiting an additional 10 police officers meaning that recruitment was mostly maintaining officer numbers rather than the large scale growth seen in previous years.
The Force's outturn for 2023/24 is anticipated to be within 0.5% of its £293m budget. The Force continued driving efficiency and savings from its operating cost base to address the significant pressure from inflation in pay, services, and supplies, and will continue this strategy in 2024/25 and beyond in order to remain financially sustainable.
The outturn position was £1.1m underspent. This outturn position included transfers of £7.6m in-year to reserves to provide funding for capital and revenue expenditure that span multiple financial years, such as the cost of transformation programmes, digital infrastructure and estate capital requirements as well as contributions toward ongoing large-scale, predominantly historic, investigations.
The main reason for the underspend in 22/23 related to £0.8m of unplanned council tax income due to a prior year error at a borough council, and additional investment provided from the Home Office for Op Uplift equated to the growth of 104 Police Officers. While funding was provided for the whole year, Officer intakes were profiled throughout the year, the underspend relates to the timing of recruitment. Surrey Police achieved the Home Office milestones for Op Uplift. For Police Staff the force experienced an average vacancy rate of 11% over the year which was higher than planned, resulting in underspend.
In the published statement of accounts for 2022/23 a cash equivalent balance of £34.1m was held at 31 March 2023 which includes £32.83m held for investment by Surrey County Council. It should be noted that this isn’t simply additional, unused funding, rather it is part of standard treasury management as cash is drawn down for expenditure throughout the year.
The usable reserves published in the 2022/23 statement of accounts total £34.7m, this includes £21.9m of reserves allocated for specific expenditure such as the modernisation of the estate; capital programmes; transformation programmes to improve output and reduce operating cost; an insurance reserve; and a net zero reserve for future investment as part of the government commitment to reduce our carbon footprint.
Governance Documents
See more information on the PCC's management of Surrey Police's budget.