The Resource, Risk & Estates (Police) Committee met to discuss the City of London Police's (CoLP) provisional revenue and capital budget outturn for 2024/25, receiving an update from the Chief Finance Officer (CFO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO), and reviewing the Q4 workforce monitoring report. The committee also considered the City of London Police Productivity Action Plan, aimed at improving efficiency and effectiveness within the force. Deputy Bethany Coombs was elected as Deputy Chair of the committee.

2024/25 Provisional Revenue and Capital Budget Outturn

The committee reviewed the City of London Police’s provisional revenue and capital outturn for 2024/25. The report (FINAL- Covering Report 24-25 Revenue Capital Outturn Report and RREC - 2024-25 Provision Revenue Capital Outturn Slide Pack FINAL) indicated a balanced revenue outturn of £116.3m against the latest approved budget, achieved after transferring £1.549m to reserves for managing timing differences in programme and project spending.

Several factors contributed to this balanced position:

• Mitigation of Financial Pressures: The report noted successful mitigation of financial pressures, including those related to the revised implementation plan for the Fraud & Cyber Crime Reporting & Analysis Service (FCCRAS).
• Unplanned Pay Savings: Continued unplanned pay savings helped offset some cost pressures.
• Additional Cost Recovery: Additional direct cost recovery for secondments, mutual aid, and services provided to other police forces also contributed to the balanced outturn.

The capital programme saw an underspend of £0.876m, with an outturn of £9.469m against a budget of £10.345m. This underspend was attributed to:

• Rephasing of FCCRAS Milestones: Rephasing of FCCRAS milestone payments from 2023/24 to 2024/25, and further rephasing into 2025/26.
• Underspends on Other Projects: Underspends on projects such as Command and Control and the Data Analytics Platform also contributed to the overall underspend.

The report also highlighted the outturn for the Police Authority Board Team budget, which showed an underspend of £0.22m due to an ongoing vacancy, unbudgeted government grant income, and underspends on supplies and services budgets.

City of London Police Productivity Action Plan

The committee considered the City of London Police Productivity Action Plan Cover Report and Productivity action plan for RREC, which aims to improve efficiency and effectiveness within the force. The plan consolidates existing change initiatives with new actions, focusing on areas such as:

• Retail Crime: Process improvements in reporting and investigating retail crime, with a focus on evidence provision and solvability.
• Response: Efficient and evidence-based allocation of resources to response activities.
• Neighbourhood Policing: Reducing non-policing demand on neighbourhood policing teams by building up partners’ response.
• Criminal Justice Effectiveness: Scoping and introducing innovation and best practice from other forces to improve criminal justice effectiveness.
• Investigation: Focusing investigative resources on areas where the potential for positive investigative outcomes is highest.
• Use of Tech/AI: Exploring and implementing technology and artificial intelligence solutions to support productivity.
• Attracting Talent: Improving recruitment and retention strategies to attract and retain skilled personnel.
• Supervision: Improving first- and second-line supervision to enhance performance.
• Data: Making better use of data to inform decision-making and improve resource allocation.
• Performance Framework: Establishing a clear performance framework to guide efforts and prioritize resources.
• Impact/Evaluations: Improving the quantification and measurement of benefits and efficiencies.
• Best Use of Workforce: Improving clarity on team workloads to optimize resource allocation.
• Processes Review: Streamlining prioritized functions or processes where blockages have been identified.

The plan includes timed milestones and named leads for each action, with the aim of driving implementation and improvements over the coming months. The committee noted that the plan is a live document that will be refreshed as new opportunities and challenges emerge.

CFO/COO Update

The committee received an update (RREC MAY 2025 CFO COO update_) from the Chief Finance Officer (CFO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) on various corporate services issues and areas of development. Key points included:

• 2025/26 Budget: The 2025/26 budget, approved by the Police Authority Board in February 2025, has provided increased funding to support the delivery of Policing Plan priorities.
• Neighbourhood Policing Uplift: The City of London Police have been allocated £1.5m for 2025/26 to increase the number of Dedicated Ward Officers (DWOs) and the cycle team.
• Freedom of Information Act Enforcement Notice: The City of London Police received an Enforcement Notice from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in November 2024 pertaining to non-compliance with response rates to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. A strategic action plan was submitted to the ICO, and the backlog of cases has now been fully eradicated.
• CoLP IT and DITS OLA: An independent review of the CoLP IT maturity and operating model was completed, with actions taken to develop a new Partnership Charter, a revised Service Catalogue, and a revised Operating Level Agreement (OLA).
• Pensions: 97% of Remedial Service Statements for the McCloud Remedy¹ were issued by the statutory deadline.

Q4 Workforce Monitoring Report

The committee reviewed the Q4 Workforce Monitoring Report (HR Monitoring Cover sheet RREC Q4 and HR Monitoring Report - Jan-Mar 25 FINAL) for 2024-25, which provided an overview of human resources data for the period between 1 January 2025 and 31 March 2025. Key highlights from the report included:

• Workforce Establishment: The City of London Police had an overall strength of 988 police officers against an agreed budgeted establishment of 985. The established strength of police staff was 486, with a total staff strength of 623 including those in temporary funded posts.
• Recruitment: The City of London Police welcomed its first cohort of 12 Police Now Fraud and Cyber detectives. A total of 17 police officers and 52 police staff joined the force during the reporting period.
• Leavers: 15 police officers and 11 police staff left the force during the reporting period. The overall leaver rate for 2024/25 was 7.2% for staff and 8.1% for officers.
• Sickness: The average working days lost due to sickness were 8.03 days for officers and 7.73 days for staff.
• Occupational Health: The City of London Occupational Health Service received 89 pre-employment requests, responding to 92% within their service level agreement (SLA). They also received 247 referrals, delivering 60% within the SLA.
• Health & Safety: There was an increase in the number of health and safety incident reports compared to previous years, with a slight drop in the number of assaults reported during the past quarter.
• Wellbeing: Wellbeing initiatives during the past 6 months included health checks, guided walks, stress awareness sessions, and subsidized acupressure chair massages.

Election of Deputy Chair

Deputy Bethany Coombs was elected as Deputy Chair of the committee.