We now move on to item 8, which is a debate on the police settlement of 2020-21, and I call on the Minister for Housing and Local Government to move the motion—Julie James.

Motion NDM7291 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) 2020-21 (Final Settlement—Police and Crime Commissioners), which was laid in the Table Office on 23 January 2020.

Motion moved.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I am today presenting to the Senedd 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 2020-21.

Before I do so, Presiding Officer, particularly given the recent events, I'd like to record my gratitude to all of the Welsh emergency services for their resilience and fortitude, and I'm sure these comments will be echoed in this Chamber and across the residents of Wales. Those who serve in our police forces across Wales not only keep our communities safe, they maintain the highest standards of duty, dedication and, at times, bravery. This was demonstrated most recently when they worked with others to protect and save some of our communities from the recent storms. I recognise the importance of the Welsh police forces and their vital role in protecting and serving our communities here. The police service in Wales is a positive example of how devolved and non-devolved services can work effectively together.

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 and 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.

I would also like to thank PCCs for their patience this year. Due to the now, sadly, normalised chaos and uncertainty from Westminster, the PCCs did not have a provisional police settlement this year. With delay after delay to the UK budget, due to the general election, exiting the European Union, and now a new Chancellor to add to the ongoing uncertainty, this year's PCCs have had to notify their police and crime panels of the proposed change in precept fewer than two weeks after being informed of their funding allocations. Still the UK Government has not published its 2020-21 budget, leading to continuing uncertainty for our public services, businesses and individuals. 

As outlined in the final police settlement announcement on 22 January, the total unhypothecated revenue support for the police service in Wales for 2020-21 amounts to £384 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 its needs-based formula with a floor mechanism. This means that, for 2020-21, police and crime commissioners across England and Wales will all receive an increase of funding of 7.5 per cent when compared with 2019-20. The Home Office will provide a top-up grant totalling £14.4 million to ensure both Dyfed-Powys Police and North Wales Police meet the floor level.

The Home Office advises that this settlement includes the funding to recruit an additional 6,000 police officers shared amongst the 43 forces in England and Wales. The Welsh Government is determined to strengthen the economy and create employment opportunities across the country. I welcome the opportunity for people across Wales to consider a career in the police forces. The Prime Minister has committed to a target of 20,000 new officers over the next three years. However, for this to happen, I urge the UK Government to pledge to provide the associated funding to our police and crime commissioners for future years.

As in 2019-20, the Home Office will continue to provide a specific grant to PCCs in 2020-21 to fund the additional pressure as a result of the UK Government's changes to the pension contribution rates. The Home Office has kept the grant value at £143 million in 2020-21, with £7.3 million of this allocated to PCCs in Wales. PCCs also have the ability to raise additional funding through their council tax precept. The UK Government has set the upper precept limit for PCCs in England to £10 in 2020-21, estimating this will raise an additional £250 million. Unlike the limits that apply in England, Welsh police and crime commissioners have the freedom to make their own decisions about council tax increases. Setting the precept is a key part of the police and crime commissioner's role, which demonstrates accountability to the local electorate.

We appreciate that difficult decisions are necessary in developing plans for the coming years with only a one-year budget. 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 2020-21 budget has continued to fund the 500 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 2019-20, with £16.8 million agreed in the budget for next year. 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 full complement of officers has been deployed since October 2013, and they are making a positive contribution to public safety across Wales. They will continue to work with local communities and partners to improve outcomes for those affected by crime and anti-social behaviour.

Returning to the purpose of today's debate, 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. I therefore ask Assembly Members to support this motion today. Diolch.

Labour's March 2010 UK budget statement revised down the growth forecast, reduced borrowing, and stated that the scale of the deficit meant the UK didn't have enough money. In consequence, it also announced £545 million of cuts to the police to be made by 2014. Since 2015, UK Government has 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. The UK Government has now announced a £1.12 billion increase in 2020-21, taking the total settlement for policing to £15.2 billion. This includes £700 million for 6,000 additional officers by the end of March 2021. As the Minister indicated, the UK Government aims to recruit 20,000 total new officers across the UK.

The majority of funding for police and crime commissioners comes directly from general Government grants, as we heard—London and Cardiff—and around a third comes from the council tax police precept, which is increasing this year by 6.82 per cent, £273 per annum, in Gwent; 5.9 per cent, £273 per annum, in south Wales; 4.83 per cent, £261 per annum, in Dyfed Powys; and 4.5 per cent, £291 per annum, in north Wales. Although the South Wales Police Federation stated in 2016 that the council tax precept gap with the other Welsh forces had now been closed, it's apparent that, although north Wales has the lowest percentage increase, council tax payers there are still paying more than the Welsh regions facing the biggest percentage increases.

Following a long-term reduction, levels of crime have remained broadly stable in recent years. While in the latest year there's been no change in overall levels of crime, this hides variations seen in individual crime types. Excepting fraud, the latest figures from the crime survey for England and Wales show all main crime types showed no change. As the Office for National Statistics has said:

'Although the number of offences involving a knife has continued to increase, there is a mixed picture across police forces and overall levels of violence remain steady'.

The budget increases in north Wales will fund 10 more officers for the major crime unit, 20 new auxiliary police staff, 16 additional response officers, and five more community safety officers, including three for the rural crime team. This weekend, the Home Secretary and Secretary of State for Wales joined the North Wales Police to see how they're tackling the county lines drug problem in the region. As well as announcing their plans to recruit new police officers, the Home Office also confirmed that they'll be providing North Wales Police with nearly £150,000 to invest in 167 new taser devices, part of £576,000 across the four Wales police forces. This comes as part of a UK-wide uplift that will see £6.5 million divided between 41 police forces. Speaking in north Wales, the Home Secretary said:

'I'm committed to providing forces across Wales with the powers, resources and tools they need to keep themselves and the public safe.'

She also said that she was consulting on a UK Government's police covenant, called for by the police federation, recognising police officers' service and sacrifice, and enshrining their rights in law. Other steps recently taken by the Home Office were highlighted, including expanding stop-and-search powers, and plans to increase the maximum sentence for assaulting emergency service workers.

In January, I visited Titan, the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit, to receive a useful presentation on their role and their capabilities to prevent and protect, dealing with matters such as serious and organised crime, the control of drugs, county lines, economic crime and cyber crime. Titan was established in 2009 as a collaboration between the six police forces in north Wales, Cheshire, Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Cumbria, to tackle serious organised crime that crosses county borders in the region. They told me that an estimated 95 per cent or more of crime in north Wales operates on a cross-border, east-west basis, and almost none on an all-Wales basis, and the north Wales police representative present also confirmed that all their north Wales emergency planning is done with their partner forces in north-west England, and they have no significant operations working with the other police forces in Wales.

Labour and Plaid Cymru, of course, propose the devolution and Cardiff control of justice and policing, while a Welsh Conservative Government would instead work with the UK Government to deliver policing and offender management services in Wales that reflect our devolved responsibilities. We would back the law-abiding, hardworking silent majority; not give a vote to prisoners convicted of sexual and racist crimes, as Labour and Plaid Cymru propose. Diolch yn fawr.

The British Government seem to have recognised the damage that they've done with 10 years of cuts to policing. However, one year, or even two budget increases will go nowhere near far enough to reverse the damage that's been done. So, this increase in funding must be the first step in addressing the chronic lack of funding that still exists. To address the chronic problems that Welsh police forces face, the funding formula, we believe, must be reformed. 

The current formula discriminates against council tax payers in Wales. The formula doesn't adapt to urban and rural needs, and the potential for recruitment from the apprenticeship levy is not being utilised. The plans to fund 20,000 police officers doesn't cover what has been lost since 2010. Plaid Cymru therefore wants to see a funding formula for Welsh police forces that is based on population and need, rather than the UK Government's flawed formula. The Welsh Government also has a part to play to ensure that funding to tackle the root causes of crime is addressed. Youth services in Wales have had their funding cut by 38 per cent, which equates to a loss of £19 million since 2010, inevitably making police officers' work much more difficult. Proper and adequate funding of other services, like, for example, mental health support, would also be very helpful to the police. 

Despite their various constraints, Plaid Cymru's police and crime commissioners have launched a three-year early intervention fund worth £800,000 to address adverse childhood experiences, as part of an attempt to tackle the underlying causes of crime. The National Farmers' Union have used north Wales as a case study for tackling rural crime. Dyfed Powys Police have created schemes such as Farmwatch to provide crime prevention advice, and they've launched Checkpoint Cymru, which diverts low-level offenders away from the criminal justice system. These principles can be applied elsewhere. Imagine what those police and crime commissioners could do with secure funding that isn't tied to Westminster's agenda. Diolch. 

Thank you, Deputy Llywydd. When Mark Isherwood was making his speech, it reminded me a little bit of some of those Soviet economic reports you used to get—the last five-year plan was absolutely fantastic, but not as good as the next five-year plan. I'm afraid there's a real danger when you start being so selective in terms of the figures that you actually use. And I think we need to look at where we are. When we debated this last time, the state of play was an 18 per cent increase in violent crime, a 14 per cent increase in knife crime in south Wales, a 25 per cent increase in Wales, 84,000 crimes unsolved, and, since 2010, we now have—well, we then had 682 fewer police officers. Now, those figures go together. What is the situation now? The situation now is that we actually have around 762 fewer police officers than we had in 2010. Crime and serious violent crime is increasing. We've become very dependent on the additional 500 police and community support officers that are funded by Welsh Government out of our own funds—not money that should be allocated by UK Government for that. And in fact, when we look at the PCSO figures across the UK, we've actually lost in the region of 6,680 police and community support officers across the UK, with, obviously, the consequential effect within Wales, which is why the Welsh funding on this is so absolutely important.

And Leanne is absolutely right to raise the issue of those areas of funding for the work that the police do that is not just about catching criminals, but is engaging within society, whether it be mental health, drug and alcohol funding, rehabilitation, and so on—all those things that are partnership, which have an impact on policing and have an impact on the social stability of our society and the well-being of our communities. And the fact of the matter is that, with the fact that we have a modest increase in real terms this year, it doesn't get over the fact that, in actual fact, over the next five years, we actually need—if we're going to restore the Tory cuts since 2010—to recruit 53,000 police officers, when you take into account the retirements. Now, this is the same—. Mark is guilty of the same manipulation of figures that we had over nurse numbers, and so on—that when you're actually taking in recruitments, and the need for ongoing recruitment, the picture presented is very much different.

Now, for anyone who speaks to the Police Federation, to police and community support officers and to the police and crime commissioners, you get a number of very important points coming to the fore, one of which is that, even with the recruitment of those police numbers—if we were able to achieve that—what we have actually lost, which will take a decade to replace, are the skills and the quality of policing that has been achieved. Because we have been losing some of the most well-qualified and experienced police officers. And the other point they make is that not only will it take a long time to repair the Tory damage to policing, at the moment, not much has changed. And that's the best you can say about the Tory record on policing—not much has changed, the damage they wrought since 2010 is still there, and it will take decades to recover. The modest settlement we have is only a very, very small start, scratching the surface.

I'd like to start by echoing the Minister's thanks to police officers across the country for the work they do in keeping us safe in our communities. They've been under enormous pressures over the last few weeks and months, and I think all of us would want to join together and recognise how they've responded to those pressures. And they've done so having suffered year-on-year cuts over the last decade. Austerity has not been kind to our police forces. In fact, the UK Government—the Home Office—is spending less in cash terms this year than they were spending a decade ago. And whilst we hear from the Tories that they want to put more resources into the police, what I would say to them is, 'Why don't you start with where you started back in 2010, when you started attacking the police force?' And we need to ensure that we do have the resources in place to ensure that our police are able to keep us safe.

But not only have the Tories cut back on the total amount of spending that the police have available to them, they've also transferred funding from the police. Mark Isherwood said that a third of funding comes from the council tax. In fact, in 2010-11, 33 per cent—he was right, 33 per cent—of funding came from council tax. Today, this year, that figure is 47 per cent—it's nearly half funded through council tax. And the Home Office funding, which was 40 per cent in 2010-11, is 32 per cent today. So, there's been a real transfer of responsibility for funding the police from the Home Office, from the United Kingdom Government to Wales, to the Welsh Government and to council tax payers. The vast majority of funding from the police today is raised here in Wales. Nearly 70 per cent of all police funding in Wales today comes from sources within Wales, and that means that we also need the structures available to us, not simply the budgets, but the structures as well.

People in Blaenau Gwent are concerned about what they see all too often: the anti-social behaviour, whether it's stones thrown at buses or drugs being used on the streets. They want to feel safe in their homes and safe on our streets. But they also recognise and understand that the policing response to these challenges are only a part of the question, a part of the answer, because the police have to work alongside local government, the education services, health, particularly in terms of dealing with some of the huge issues around mental health and drugs facing us today. They have to work with social services; they have to work across the whole range of services to provide a holistic response to the challenges that we face in our communities. People understand that. I am at a loss why the United Kingdom Government doesn't understand that. 

I hope, Minister, in replying to this debate, that you will be able to confirm that you will be taking forward the work of the Thomas commission on devolving the police, so that we do have, in the future, not only a properly funded police force, where the police officers have the resources available to them to protect our communities, to protect our people, to keep us safe, so that they're not continually overstretched, under far too great a pressure as individual officers, but that they're also located and a part of the family of Welsh public services, working together within our communities for the benefit of the whole of our communities. I give way to the Member for Bridgend. 

I'm grateful to my colleague, Alun Davies. Does he share my bewilderment at the argument that, because crime is cross-border between England and Wales, as if that was a unique situation, it means that the larger country must therefore control the policing of the smaller country as well? Does that not mean that, sensibly then, the Republic of Ireland should be controlling policing across the whole of the island of Ireland? That is the logic of that argument. And does he also agree with me that, even though crime is cross-border, it is perfectly possible for policing co-operation to continue, as it does between the republic and the north, between England and Scotland, and there is no reason why the people of Wales cannot have control over their own police forces?

I do agree very much with what the Member for Bridgend has said. And, of course, what the Conservatives are confusing is the detection of crime and resolving the issues arising from crime and finding the answers to crime. And I listen to Conservative Ministers who are very happy to devolve responsibilities to parts of England, to Manchester and to London, of course, but Wales isn't good enough for the Tories. The Tories never think that we are capable of managing these matters ourselves. 

And the Member for Bridgend makes a very, very important point, and in looking at the wider issues of criminal justice, I cannot believe that any Welsh Government of any colour, of any stripe, would have allowed a situation to occur where there are no facilities for women in our criminal justice system in our country. That is a standing rebuke and a disgrace and something that the United Kingdom Government has to take responsibility for. 

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

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd like to thank Members for their interests and their contributions today and reiterate once more my thanks to the police service across Wales, particularly in the light of their efforts in the recent flooding events. 

I'm not too sure where the first contributor, Mark Isherwood, was going as he started, but it was quite obvious that he sought to lay the blame elsewhere for his Government's obviously poor choice in cutting funding to the police, a poor choice that reverberates still today, as all other contributors acknowledged. 

Community safety is a top priority for this Government and, whilst this settlement is better than some may have expected, we are under no illusion that one better settlement makes up for the previous 10 years under the UK Government's austerity agenda. Indeed, some police and crime commissioners have expressed concern that, whilst additional funding has been provided for some new officers, there is insufficient funding for the existing complement. This, of course, is a matter for the Home Office and we urge them to address it as an urgent priority. 

We are committed to working with PCCs and chief constables to ensure that these challenges are manged 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 as important, as is demonstrated by a successful deployment of the 500 community support officers.

We also, of course, continue to push for the devolution of criminal justice and policing in line with the Thomas commission's recommendation. I could not agree more with the comments of various contributors around the Chamber: it makes no sense at all that policing is not devolved when all other blue-light services are devolved, and it quite clearly would be better if we co-ordinated the thing entirely from a devolved point of view. I wholly endorse all the contributions on this point, and particularly Carwyn Jones's excellent summation of how idiotic the argument made the other way actually is.

Having endorsed that thoroughly, Deputy Presiding Officer, I commend this settlement to the Senedd.

Thank you. The proposal is to agree the motion. Does any Member object? No. Therefore, the motion is therefore agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

Motion agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.