AC 3.3 - Limitations: Finance Flashcards
How are the Police funded? (3 points)
- Around 2/3s comes from central government
- Most of the rest comes from council tax
- Small amount from charging for services such as policing football games
What has happened to the Police budget? And how has this affected them? (2 points)
- 2010 to 2018, it fell by 19%
- This led to a fall of 20,000 police officers
Has there been any improvement in Police budget recent years? (1 point)
- The Home Office published the provisional police funding settlement for 2021/22 - detailed total police funding to be up to £15.8 billion - £415 million will go to new recruit
How has limitations with the Police’s budget impacted them? (4 points)
- More than 99% of rape reported do not end in a conviction
- On average, cases take 817 days to reach court, & 63% of cases are closed due to the victim withdrawing & giving up
- Rape cases are complex, and there is a lack of specialist knowledge within the police
- Police are not investigating minor offences such as car crime & retail theft, due to lack of funding
How are the CPS funded? (1 point)
- By the Government (via taxes) - controlled by Attorney General’s Office
What has happened to the CPS budget? And how did this impact them? (2 points)
- In 2010, 25% was cut
- 1/3 of staff was lost - many were experienced
Has there been any improvement in CPS budget recent years? (1 point)
- Prime Minister ordered an urgent review of sentencing policy, handing the CPS an extra £85 million
How has limitations with the CPS budget impacted them? (3 points)
- Lack of funding - inexperienced staff - mistakes made - could lead to miscarriages of justice
- Low rape convictions - CPS charged 206 in the first 1/4 of 2021, and 292 in the second 1/4.
- But, in 2016, the quarterly average was 538 (decreased since)
How are the Prisons funded? (2 points)
- Government (via taxes) - controlled by MoJ
- Also privately ran prisons - G4S, Serco & Sodexo
What has happened to the Prisons budget? And how did this impact them? (3 points)
- In 2018: total budget was approx. £3 billion - 16% lower than in 2010
- Has resulted in cuts to staff, with a 15% fall in prison officers between 2010-18
- By 2018, 1/3 of prison officers had less than 2yrs experience
Has there been any improvement in the Prison Service’s budget in recent years? (2 points)
- Extra £2.2 billion to aid recovery in prisons (& courts and probation services)
- More than £1 billion has been allocated to boost capacity & accelerated post-pandemic recovery
How has limitations with the HMPS budget impacted them? (4 points)
- Overcrowding: Prison population in November 2022 was 82,900, but is projected to grow to 98,700 by 2026
- Self-inflicted deaths are 6.2x more likely
- HMP Birmingham 2016 riot: A 15-hr riot involving at least 500 prisoners that should have been prevented from escalating within 30 minutes
- Chronic staff shortages contributed to a breakdown of authority that led to the riot
How is the Probation Service funded? (2 points)
- Government (via taxes) - controlled by MoJ
- The NPS previously worked with privatised community rehabilitation companies - who were self-funded & working for profit
Summarise the most recent restructuring of the probation service? (3 points)
- 19 of the 21 CRCs missed targets for reducing reoffending & some were even supervising their offenders remotely via telephone
- Had to have an extra £342 million pumped in
- These contracts have been withdrawn - Probation Service fully restored to public ownership
How has limitations with the NPS budget impacted them? (3 points)
- Chief Inspector of Probation, Glenys Stacey, argued that part-privatisation of the PS was fundamentally flawed & that judges, victims, the public & even offenders lacked confidence in it
- Probation Officers in the CRCs were taking higher workloads that those in the Public Sector, due to the companies cutting staff to save money
- In his report, the inspectorate said the risk of offenders had been downplayed just to meet government targets - failing to keep then public safe
