Yorkshire Post today 20. Februar 2007

A FINANCIAL wrangle over payment for policing the G8 summit held in Sheffield almost two years ago has finally been settled, with the Home Office refusing to pay the full cost of the operation. Despite that, South Yorkshire Police regards the outcome as a better than expected result of the negotiations.

The G8 summit was a meeting of leaders from the world’s most powerful nations and South Yorkshire was selected as the venue when David Blunkett, MP for the Attercliffe constituency in Sheffield, was Home Secretary.

Senior politicians met at several venues in the city and at a dinner event on the Chatsworth estate in north Derbyshire, although by the time the event took place he had resigned.
The G8 events are regarded as prestigious for the hosts, but they also bring high security risks and have been the focus of violent protests when held in some other countries previously.

That meant a costly policing operation was inevitable. Although the South Yorkshire force was given a vague agreement that the Government would refund costs it was never fully clear to what level they would underwrite expenditure for ensuring safety at the event, which lasted for several days.

The operation included conducting security checks on residents living in the area around a hotel where guests were staying in Sheffield and putting up cordons to keep protesters away from the delegation.

Police leave was cancelled to ensure the force had adequate staff available and specialist resources were also called in from elsewhere, resulting in an operation that was regarded as successful.

Eventually the force submitted a bill for £1,860,000 and the Government has agreed to pay £1,730,000 of that.
However, the force regards that as a better than expected situation and had budgeted on getting only £1,250,000 of its costs returned from Whitehall.

The accounts have taken so long to settle because of a series of hitches, the first of which was staffing problems within the force.

That resulted in delays in the costs of the work being calculated after the event in the early summer of 2005. When the claim was finally put in to the Home Office, civil servants demanded more information before making a decision and that was provided last July.

A report to South Yorkshire Police Authority, the force’s controlling body, states: “South Yorkshire Police chased the Home Office on a regular basis.

“As the Home Office had made it clear that police authorities were expected to cover part of the costs
from general reserves, the authority took a prudent approach.”
In effect that means they budgeted for getting £480,000 less back than they actually have and that has now created a financial windfall for the force.

At present the service is in the process of putting together budget proposals for the next few years and it is likely the money will be soaked up in providing public services in the 2007-8 financial year.
Spending is likely to be tight during that period because forces nationally have been warned to expect below-inflation increases in the money they are given from the Government.
20 February 2007