The next item is the debate on the police settlement 2019-20. And I call on the Minister for Housing and Local Government to move the motion. Julie James.

Motion NDM6960 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales, under Section 84H of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, approves the Local Government Finance Report (No. 2) 2019-20 (Final Settlement—Police and Crime Commissioners), which was laid in the Table Office on 24 January 2019.

Motion moved.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I am today presenting to the Assembly for its approval details of the Welsh Government's contribution to the core revenue funding for the four police and crime commissioners, or PCCs, in Wales for 2019-20. 

But before I do so, Deputy Presiding Officer, I'd like to pay tribute to all those who serve in our police forces for the work that is done by police forces across Wales keeping our communities safe, maintaining the highest standards of duty, dedication and, at times, bravery, in maintaining the community safety matters that are within the settlement for this place. 

Members will be aware that the core funding for the police in Wales is delivered through a three-way arrangement involving the Home Office, the Welsh Government and council tax. As policing policy and operational matters are non-devolved, the overall funding picture is determined and driven by the Home Office. The established approach to setting and distributing the Welsh Government component has therefore been based on a principle of ensuring consistency and fairness across England and Wales. 

As outlined in the final police settlement announcement on 24 January, the total unhypothecated revenue support for the police service in Wales for 2019-20 amounts to £357 million. The Welsh Government's contribution to this amount, through revenue support grant and redistributed non-domestic rates, is £143.4 million, and it is this funding you are being asked to approve today. 

As in previous years, the Home Office has decided to overlay it's needs-based formula with a floor mechanism. This means that for 2019-20 police and crime commissioners across England and Wales will all receive an increase in funding of 2.1 per cent when compared to 2018-19. The Home Office will provide top-up grant totalling £4.1 million to ensure that both Dyfed-Powys and North Wales Police meet the floor level.

As you will be aware, for 2019-20, PCCs will have the additional pressure of funding the increased costs of pensions. We've repeatedly called on the UK Government to fully fund the increased costs associated with changes to pensions, which are estimated to cost PCCs in England and Wales around £330 million. The Home Office has allocated an additional grant of £143 million specifically to help with these increased pension costs, and £7.3 million of this has been allocated to PCCs in Wales. This was above what was expected at the time of the UK budget in 2016.

PCCs also have the ability to raise additional funding through their council tax precept. The UK Government has doubled the precept flexibility to allow PCCs in England to raise their council tax precept by £24 in 2019-20, estimating this will raise an additional £500 million. Police and crime commissioners in Wales have the freedom to make their own decisions about council tax increases, and are not subject to the limits that apply in England. In settling their element of council tax, I expect each PCC to act in a reasonable manner and to take account of the pressures on hard-pressed households.

We appreciate that difficult decisions are necessary in developing plans for the coming years. The Welsh Government is committed to working with PCCs and chief constables to ensure funding challenges are managed in ways that minimise the impact on community safety in Wales. As part of this, the Welsh Government in its 2019-20 budget has made provision for a further year of funding for the 500 additional community support officers recruited under the previous programme for government commitment.

The Welsh Government has maintained the same level of funding for the delivery of this commitment as in 2018-19, with £16.8 million earmarked in the budget for next year. The full complement of officers has been deployed since October 2013, and they are making a positive contribution to public safety across Wales. One of the main drivers behind this project was to add visible police presence on our streets at a time when the UK Government is cutting back on police funding. The research suggests Wales has not seen the same decline in officer numbers that has been seen in England, and our additional officers are successfully dealing with low-level crime and anti-social behaviour.

Llywydd, the motion is to agree the local government finance report for police and crime commissioners that has been laid before the Assembly. If approved, this will allow the commissioners to confirm their budgets for the next financial year, and I therefore ask Assembly Members to support this motion today. 

All police forces in Wales will receive a real-terms increase in 2019-20, up 4.9 per cent in Gwent, 5 per cent in south Wales, 5.3 per cent in north Wales and 6.1 per cent in Dyfed-Powys. The UK Home Office, as we heard, is continuing to overlay its needs-based formula with a floor mechanism and all police forces in Wales and England can expect to receive the same 2.1 per cent increase in revenue support again, as we heard, with £357.3 million total Government revenue support for Welsh police forces in 2019-20, combining £213.9 million Home Office funding with the £143.4 million Welsh Government funding referred to by the Minister. 

Of course, the third element—the council tax police precept—is increasing by 6.99 per cent in Gwent, or 32 pence per week for the average household, which will help fund 40 new officers; by 7 per cent in north Wales, or 38p per week for the average household, which will enable the recruitment of 34 additional officers and six staff; by 10.3 per cent in south Wales, with promised investment in front-line policing; and by 10.7 per cent in Dyfed-Powys. The increases in south Wales and Dyfed-Powys mean a 46p per week rise for the average household. With the South Wales Police Federation stating, in 2016, that the council tax precept gap with the other Welsh forces has now been closed, we must ask why their increase this year is noticeably higher than Gwent and north Wales. When Dyfed-Powys previously imposed the highest increases in Wales, it blamed the preceding funding freeze there, although the outgoing Welsh Conservative police and crime commissioner had stated that he had delivered more officers on our rural beats for more time for less money.

The UK Government has, since 2015, raised its contribution to overall police funding in line with inflation, including specific areas such as cyber crime, counter-terrorism and tackling child sexual exploitation. Prior to then, it also had to contend with £545 million-worth of cuts to the police, inherited from Labour's final budget in 2010, to be made by 2014.

The crime survey for England and Wales provides the best overview of long-term changes, with the latest estimates showing no significant change in theft offences, and computer misuse crime down 33 per cent. For crime types thought to be well reported and accurately recorded, police-recorded crime data can help identify short-term changes, and the latest figures show a mixed picture—for example, an increase in robbery offences alongside a decrease in the number of offences involving firearms. 

Figures published last week show that although homicides in England and Wales increased 3 per cent in the year ending March 2018, trends in homicide are affected by the recording of exceptional incidents with multiple victims, such as the terrorist attacks in London and Manchester, and the figure is still below the peak in March 2008.

The crime survey for England and Wales assessment found that the level of lower harm violent offences, for example, violence without injury and assault with minor injury, is stable. The latest Office for National Statistics release on crime in England and Wales, for the year ending September 2018, states that over recent decades we've seen continued falls in overall levels of crime, but in the last year there's been no change. As this states, the crime survey is the most reliable indicator for long-term trends, and police-recorded crime statistics do not always provide a reliable measure of levels and trends.

There has been no change in commonly occurring types of violent crime. Although assault admissions increased, they were still 33 per cent lower than in 2008. At last month's North Wales Police briefing, we heard that north Wales is still one of the safest places to live, that they were focused on prevention, but that crime is evolving to cyber, child sexual exploitation, modern slavery and domestic violence. They told us that they were having to detain too many people under the Mental Health Act 1983 because other devolved agencies were not there for the people concerned, and that ambulance availability and response times were resulting in them being used as a first point of triage, despite not being efficient paramedics.

There's also continuing concern about the Welsh Government's handling of the apprenticeship levy, with Welsh police forces denied access to the £2 million they contribute annually for training. Despite receiving more Treasury net funding than previously for this—an extra £600,000 Home Office funding for police training in 2018-19, and £400,000 promised for police training—the Welsh Government still has missing cash from previous years' contributions that should be addressing this gap.

The motion before the Senedd this afternoon seeking approval of the Government's financial police settlement to 2019-20 reminds us yet again, in a very practical sense, of the inadequacies of the current constitutional framework in terms of policing and justice. Overall policy and funding responsibilities lie with Westminster, but essential elements of police funding in relation to matters such as community safety, which would be the responsibility of the communities department in England, form part of the Welsh Government's responsibility to which it is accountable to this National Assembly. Yet justice, in its broadest sense, isn't the responsibility of this institution, and scrutiny arrangements are underdeveloped.

Turning to the settlement itself, this follows the overall direction of the funding settlement agreed in Westminster last month. As your predecessor's written statement reminded us back in December when the initial proposals were published, the whole formula is based on the principle of ensuring consistency and fairness across England and Wales. However, we know that if Welsh policing was funded on the basis of population, as is the case with other devolved services, police forces in Wales would be better off by over £20 million per year. I fail to see how the Welsh Government can stand by when the system ensures such unfairness for Wales and Welsh policing forces. So, I'd be grateful if you could tell us how this is consistent with the Welsh Government's position in favour of the devolution of policing and justice. Surely, the current arrangements are the opposite of fair and consistent.

Given the complexity surrounding where policy and funding responsibilities rest and, often, the false distinction in the separation of power and responsibility between Wales and Westminster, I'd be grateful, as well, if you could provide clarity on some detailed matters in your reply. In particular, funding for community support officers is half funded by the Welsh Government. Are you able, Minister, to provide assurances that this will continue, and, if so, for how long, as these officers are the bedrock of our community policing system? SchoolBeat officers are also funded by the Welsh Government. They provide school liaison and are very important for restorative justice. Will she provide assurances on future funding for those? Two billion pounds has been allocated to the NHS in England for mental health, with a particular emphasis on reducing the demand on policing. What assurances can she give us that this settlement will reduce similar pressures on Welsh police forces?

It has to be said that it cannot either be acceptable or sustainable for the funding for policing and community safety in its broadest sense to be split between two Parliaments and two Governments in this way. It makes absolutely no sense. It's disappointing to have to report to you, Minister, that your Labour colleagues in Rhondda Cynon Taf council just a few weeks ago voted down a Plaid Cymru amendment calling for the devolution of police to be able to overcome some of these anomalies. I wonder if the Minister has a view on her colleagues voting against Labour Party policy in this way. Surely, now the time has come for us all to agree that Wales's policing policy, like Scotland and Northern Ireland's, should be set here in our national Parliament, not in the capital city of another country, far removed from where police forces are actually carrying out their work. Would the Minister agree?

Thank you. Can I now call the Minister for Housing and Local Government to reply to the debate? 

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Well, a number of issues were raised there, two or three worthy, I think, of some continued discussion. The first is on the devolution of policing. I entirely agree with Leanne Wood: I think it makes no sense at all for a blue-light responder not to be devolved to Wales, and we've called repeatedly for the devolution of policing in and of itself as well as part of criminal justice transfers, but I think policing in and of itself should be devolved. There are a number of issues around the split responsibility; she highlighted several of them. It's a continued conversation and it's one that the PCCs in Wales are on board with as well, and I can't find anything to disagree with in what she said there.

We have continued to protect the funding for community safety because of the way the devolution settlement is at the moment. I said that we were continuing to fund the community support officers in this next budget. We are looking for a comprehensive spending review at the end of this year, but our intention is to continue to support the community support officers, although I'm not in a position to absolutely, categorically say we will until we see what the comprehensive spending review—if it ever happens—actually brings alongside it.

I think, in terms of Mark Isherwood's contribution, the only thing I really wanted to raise was to reiterate my remarks in my opening statement around—. If he's very concerned about the funding challenges that the PCCs are currently struggling with, then he should be lobbying hard to get the whole of the pension provision covered off in the settlement, which it certainly isn't at the moment, and which is the No. 1 problem for police forces, and indeed in a large number of other areas. The UK Government seems not able to comprehend that if you devolve terms and conditions for people then their pensions come with them, and that that funding ought to flow. So, like in all other devolution conversations, we welcome the devolution but we would also welcome the attached funding to go with it, which we certainly haven't had.

He mentioned in particular the apprenticeship levy, and that is, of course, a classic example of the UK Government not devolving the money to go with its policies—[Interruption.] It did not. It took the money out of a departmental budget and put it into a separate place. So, the overall amount that we got was pretty close to zero. [Interruption.]

Deputy Presiding Officer, I've set out, with previous ministerial hats on, the issue around apprenticeship levy funding: it's very plain that the UK Government did not provide additional funding for Wales to cover off apprenticeship levy funding for the police, or for any other devolved area, in fact. The figures are very plain for all to see. 

Deputy Presiding Officer, community safety is a top priority for this Government. While the settlement is better than some may have expected, it still presents challenges, as I've said, and we are committed to working with PCCs and chief constables to ensure these challenges are managed in ways that limit the impact on community safety and front-line policing in Wales. Continuing to work in partnership to identify and take forward opportunities is important, as is demonstrated by the successful deployment of our 500 community support officers. 

Given that no debate in these days is complete without a mention of Brexit, I should also like to take this opportunity to draw to Members' attention additional funding of almost £0.5 million for police work with partners through the local resilience fora for a possible 'no deal' Brexit. This comes from our £50 million EU transition fund, which we've used to support public sector bodies, voluntary sector bodies and businesses. We're not spending Welsh Government money to fund things that are properly the responsibility of the UK Government, but as we have always recognised, the police forces have an important role in preparing with partners for the implications of Brexit, and in particular the possibility of a 'no deal' Brexit. We are pleased to support them through the local resilience fora.

Deputy Presiding Officer, I commend this settlement to the Assembly. 

Thank you very much. The proposal is to agree the motion. Does any Member object? [Objection.] Therefore, we defer voting until voting time. 

Voting deferred until voting time.