The Resource and Estates Committee (Police) were scheduled to meet on Monday, 22 September 2025, to discuss the City of London Police's (CoLP) budget monitoring, an update from the Chief Finance Officer (CFO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO), and the CoLP's productivity action plan. The committee was also scheduled to receive updates on internal audits and workforce monitoring.

2025/26 Q1 Revenue and Capital Budget Monitoring

The committee was scheduled to review the City of London Police's revenue and capital budget monitoring for Quarter 1 (April-June) of 2025/26. According to the report, the police revenue budget was forecast to be overspent by £0.9 million, or 0.7%, against a net budget of £122.4 million. This overspend was attributed to a £1 million cost pressure from the revised implementation plan for the Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting and Analysis Service (FCCRAS). The report stated that this was an improved position compared to the £1.5 million budgetary pressure identified in the 25/26 budget setting report, but a further £0.5 million FCCRAS target saving remained within the Q1 forecast, which presented a further risk.

Other cost pressures identified at Q1 included agency staff costs, forensic services, premises costs, and an under-recovery of overheads from funded work, totaling £1.1 million. These were reportedly offset by unplanned staff vacancies and underspends in supplies and services. The report noted that as recruitment increased, the budget's ability to absorb such cost pressures would diminish.

The report also provided a breakdown of the Force's £4.4 million mitigation targets for 2025/26, noting that while this target was forecast to be achieved, it included a £1.5 million funding solution for the revised FCCRAS delivery approach, which may require recourse to additional internal loan funding or use of a specific Action Fraud Reserve.

The CoLP Capital Programme's total capital outturn for 2025/26 was forecast to be £15.185 million, compared to a budget of £13.565 million, representing an overspend of £1.620 million due to increased spending on the FCCRAS programme.

The report stated that accrued borrowing via an internal loan facility with the City of London Corporation as of 1 April 2025, was £0.922 million, and considering the additional FCCRAS programme spend across both revenue and capital, it was forecast that this may increase up to circa £10 million by the end of 2025/26, subject to confirmation of increased spending on FCCRAS, and potentially to circa £20 million by 27/28, subject to the final funding strategy for the new firing range.

The report included a slide pack providing variance analysis, a workforce summary, overtime analysis, and risks and opportunities impacting the Q1 forecast outturn. It also provided an outturn summary for each of the business areas, noting that while the Force was operating at headcount target levels, the development of student officers meant the allocation was heavily towards Local Policing, with compensating vacancies in other areas.

The report detailed the forecast outturn against the £1 million Police Authority Board Team budget for 2025/26 and delivery against the £1 million Hotspot Response grant¹. The PAB Team budget was forecast to be underspent by £89,000 at the end of 2025/26, mainly due to receipt of temporary grant funding for administering the Serious Violence Duty². In respect of the Hotspot Response grant, Q1 2025/26 was described as a transition period with plans rolled over from 2024/25, with several new initiatives being implemented from Q2.

City of London Police Productivity Action Plan

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the implementation of the City of London Police Productivity Action Plan. The plan supports the delivery of the new Policing Plan, which is looking to deliver productivity gains across its strategic priorities to maximise impact. The report stated that improving productivity is necessary in the context of rising demand, and is a government and City priority to ensure value for money and raise public outcomes in policing.

The report noted that the national financial and political context remained challenging, with the Home Office looking to forces for delivering efficiencies and for evidence of productivity. It also referenced the 2025 Force Management Statement, which predicted a further increase in crime over the coming years, requiring the police to make changes to be as effective and efficient as possible.

The report highlighted that HMICFRS's PEEL inspection, published in July 2025, supported the CoLP's productivity work, but noted that more needed to be done to improve productivity through digital, data and technology solutions, and that the force needed better processes to regularly review its strategic decisions, policies and processes to check they are effective.

The report quantified productivity gains in two areas:

• DocDefender: This tool, used to redact case files for the CPS³, was estimated to save between 1 and 4.5 minutes per page. The report stated that over the last 6 months, 53,376 pages have been redacted, saving the equivalent of 1,779 investigation officer hours.

  Using the same methodology as the national Policing Productivity Review, and based on current usage, DocDefender is currently providing benefits of 3,558 hours saved per year equivalent to 2 full-time detectives – and a very clear return on investment.

• Power BI dashboards: These dashboards have enabled estimated savings of:

  • 8 hours per month to support strategic level boards with analytical data reports.
  • 56 hours per month of analyst time saved by giving officers the ability to self-serve.
  • 8 hours per month per analyst saved by the ability to build off from data models in existence and use dashboards as a basis for strategic intelligence analysis support.
  • Approximately 200 hours of work related to the business planning process analysis of demand, performance and forecasting.

The report stated that there was scope to drive up productivity gains further, and that the Change Portfolio Office would be taking this forward in the coming months.

Internal Audit Update

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on internal audit activity. The report stated that final audit reports had been issued in relation to two reviews, with a further four audits to be delivered in the remainder of the year.

The completed work included:

• Income – Cost Recovery and Income Collection (Part 2): This audit provided substantial assurance as to the adequacy and effectiveness of controls in place to maximise recovery of costs from policing services provided and ensure the effective collection of associated income.
• Information and Data Handling: This audit provided moderate assurance, with control mechanisms found to be in operation in all areas examined, but with some opportunities identified for enhancement. Recommendations were made to support maintenance of a positive information security culture and to further mitigate the risk of information / data loss incidents due to human failure.

The remaining audit plan included reviews of IT Service Delivery and Service Management, Workforce Planning, Risk Management, Pensions Administration (Police Scheme), and Productivity Measurement (growth tracking).

The report also noted that follow-up work had resulted in the closure of 4 Internal Audit Recommendations for the City of London Police, but that there were currently 18 recommendations open, the target implementation dates for which had recently passed, and their status would be reviewed in September.

Q1 Workforce Monitoring Report

The committee was scheduled to receive the Q1 Workforce Monitoring Report, which set out the City of London Police's Human Resources monitoring data for Q1 2025/26 (1 April – 30 June).

The report included the following summaries:

• Officer Workforce Strength: Focused recruitment activity in 2025/26 was designed to enable CoLP to meet the officer uplift requirements to continue to secure £2.6 million in ringfenced funding. In 2025/26, CoLP had also been allocated £1.5 million (14 FTE) in funding related to the Neighbourhood Policing uplift, allocated to Dedicated Ward Officers (DWO) and Cycle teams. The report stated that the CoLP was confident it would meet both targets in September 2025.
• Staff Workforce Strength: Focused recruitment had enabled CoLP to reduce staff vacancies against establishment, achieving 90.1% of staff establishment as at 30 June.
• Strategic Workforce Plan (SWP): Progress was being made across many of the priority areas and within force-wide initiatives, including increasing Firearms and detective strength, short- and long-term succession planning signed off for Custody, professionalisation of Intelligence Analysts, and the official launch of the Police Leadership Programme.
• Sickness: The average working days lost for Officers was 1.8 days and 2.1 days for staff (April–June 2025). 60-64% of sickness days lost was related to long term cases.
• Occupational Health (OH) SLA: Some SLAs were being met or improved on. A new OH Advisor was scheduled to join in September and should improve resources in this area. OH resource was being reviewed against demand.
• Assaults: The report stated that CoLP had proactive measures in place to mitigate risks from Op Hampshire assaults, including training, policies/procedures, information, and support, monitoring numbers and identifying learning.

The report also included data on establishment, recruitment, retention, strategic workforce planning, sickness, occupational health, and assaults.

CFO and COO Update

The committee was scheduled to receive a brief update from the Chief Finance Officer and Chief Operating Officer on the main corporate services issues and areas of development from the last quarter. The update covered finances, police reform, and business planning.

The update noted that the Q1 revenue and capital monitoring report was on the public agenda for the meeting, and that a paper setting out the key Medium-Term Financial Plan (MTFP) strategic considerations had been included on the non-public agenda.

The update also noted that Steven Reynolds, Deputy CFO, had retired at the end of August, and that Deputy CFO remits had been realigned between 'Corporate Finance' and 'National Lead Force', with the latter role having a priority focus on supporting NLF work to design and build consensus on the future operating model for fraud, economic and cyber-crime, linked to the Police Reform agenda.

The update stated that a White Paper on police reform was due in Autumn, and that police reform included workstreams on commercial efficiencies, including exploration of national purchasing schemes, commercial framework consolidation and contract re-negotiation with major suppliers.

Finally, the update noted that annual business planning had commenced, which would help the CoLP understand its current and projected demand profile, assess corresponding capacity and capability requirements, and make plans to address any gaps and risks.

Other Matters

The agenda for the meeting also included:

• Approval of the public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 19 May 2025.
• A joint report of the Town Clerk and Commissioner of the City of London Police outlining the public outstanding references.
• Questions on matters relating to the work of the committee.
• Any other business that the Chair considers urgent.
• Exclusion of the public for the non-public agenda items.