Guidance

Special grant guidance

Updated 28 June 2023

Police forces should include within their policing and budget plans reasonable contingencies for unexpected events within their areas. It is, however, recognised that there will be unexpected and exceptional events that could threaten the financial stability of one or more police forces. In these cases, police and crime commissioners (PCCs) can apply to the Home Office for special grant funding to meet additional costs that would be incurred from policing unexpected and exceptional events within their areas.

Special grant funding can be used to ensure that the financial stability of a force is not threatened by an unexpected event so that police forces can continue to function appropriately. The guidance below outlines the process for applying for a special grant.

You can get separate funding for policing large asylum accommodation centres.

1. Standard criteria and requirements for all application types

1.1. The Home Office will only consider an application from the relevant PCC. The force is not able to make an application of its own volition.

1.2. The Home Office reserves the right to refuse a special grant application, and there should be no presumption that financial assistance will be available.

1.3. The application for a special grant should only include additional costs. In general, these would include those necessary to pay staff overtime, mutual aid and rest day working costs (including backfill if covered through overtime or mutual aid), but may also include premises, vehicle or equipment hire costs. Special grant funding does not cover opportunity costs, for example, the cost of an officer engaged in policing the event as part of their normal duty should not be included in the application because this is an opportunity cost. Similarly overheads such as use of buildings will be an opportunity cost if the premise is already owned or controlled by the police force, but can be included if a new building or premise is operationally necessary.

1.4. In applying for special grant funding the PCC should refer to the special grant criteria document at annex A, which was prepared in conjunction with HMICFRS. The special grant criteria document sets out information that a PCC should include in their application. They should attach all relevant documentation that supports their application in order for their bid to be properly assessed. The Home Office will not refer the application to HMICFRS until the majority of this information has been provided.

1.5. HMICFRS will conduct an independent review of the application to assess whether the costs are reasonable and proportionate. This process is likely to involve a visit to the relevant force and could result in additional information being requested in order to fully assess the application. They will then provide the Home Office with a report outlining their conclusions and recommendations. HMICFRS’s terms of reference are included at Annex B.

1.6. Home Office officials will provide advice to ministers who will take the final decision. The PCC is then informed in due course of the outcome of their application.

1.7. In cases where special grant funding is approved forces will be required to demonstrate that their financial governance arrangements, for managing the expenditure, meet the principles of managing public money^{[footnote 1]}.

2. Single events

2.1. If applying for funding in respect of a single in-year incident or operation, the costs must meet a qualifying threshold of one per cent of core funding. If an applicant is unclear on what qualifies as core funding they should contact the Special Grant team for further guidance.

2.2. Even if a special grant is provided, forces are expected to meet the additional costs of the event up to 1% of the force’s budget. For example, if 1% of the force’s budget is £2.4 million, and the PCC makes an application for £3.2 million to cover the additional costs incurred, generally, the force will be expected to pay the first £2.4 million, with a special grant providing the balance (in this example a special grant of £800k would be provided).

2.3. A one per cent contribution will only be required once in each financial year, so any subsequent qualifying applications (where the additional costs of the event exceed one per cent) will be considered in full.

3. Multi-year events or operations

3.1. PCCs can also apply for Special Grant funding for long-running operations, such as complex investigations or long-running protest activity.

3.2. To qualify for Special Grant funding, the cost of these operations must equal or exceed 0.5% of core funding in a given year.

3.3. At the point of application, a PCC should provide an estimated length of the operation, together with the expected profile of costs over that duration. Following an initial decision, the Home Office will work with individual PCCs and HMICFRS to determine a timescale for tapering of Special Grant support as the operation become established business as usual.

Tapering example

Year	Special grant	PCC contribution
1	85%	15%
2	75%	25%
3	65%	35%
4	45%	55%
5	25%	75%

The example should be taken as illustrative only. Tapering will depend on a number of factors including individual force circumstances.

If you wish to apply for a special grant or have any special grant related queries please contact the following officials from the Police Resources Policy Team at the Home Office:

• Kate Fowler: 03000 722354, kate.fowler@homeoffice.gov.uk

Annex A: special grant criteria proposal

Introduction

By its nature, policing has to deal with unpredictable events and emergencies. The Home Office expect PCCs to make reasonable provision and hold financial reserves to meet these exceptional items or events, especially in light of the strategic policing requirement.

There should be no presumption that financial assistance will be available in addition to general and specific grants. Nevertheless the police may need special grant funding on occasion.

The Home Office will consider requests for special grant funding to help meet costs where necessary, additional expenditure incurred would otherwise create a serious threat to the force’s financial stability and their capacity to deliver normal policing.

The allocation of special grant funding will only be considered for costs that reach 1% of the force’s budget. However, Ministers have discretion to waive this requirement.

A 2-phased approach should be adopted in considering whether a force is eligible for a special grant.

During phase 1 the financial threshold test should be considered. Do the costs amount to 1% or 0.5% (for complex, multi-year operations) of the force’s budget?

If the financial threshold in phase 1 is met, during phase 2 the relevant PCC can make a case for award of special grant funding.

The PCC should provide information about the intelligence upon which a force has based its assessment of threat and risk and thus its gold strategy and subsequent operational deployment.

Information provided to the Home Office should be sufficient for officials to be able understand the rationality of operational planning and the use of resources, with details of additional and necessary costings incurred.

A bid for special grant funding will only be considered if it is accompanied by significant documentation that evidences the rationale, decision making and necessity for expenditure. The bid should clearly evidence that the resources deployed by the force were both proportionate, reasonable and demonstrate that the force is applying value for money principles.

What the bid should cover

Information and intelligence

This includes, for example:

• local intelligence (local environmental scanning, local community engagement, local Special Branch reporting, relevant individual networks)
• liaison with national inter-agency liaison officer partners
• social media
• other open source intelligence
• intelligence from partners
• strategic intelligence (National Domestic Extremism Intelligence Unit, Home Office, All Sources Hub, National Community Tensions Team)

Threat assessment

This includes, for example:

• capability and intent of activists
• local risk assessments including the likelihood of risk and the harm its impact will cause
• operational risks (civil contingencies, event planning and local resilience fora)
• organisational risks (eg need for and capability of joint working with other blue light services)
• community risks (community impact)

Strategies

The gold strategy includes:

• proportionality
• legitimacy
• accountability and any necessary authorities
• necessity
• human rights
• ethics
• partnership engagement
• memoranda of understanding
• regional mobilisation/National Police Co-ordination Centre
• mutual aid requirement
• resources
• collaborative agreements
• Crown Prosecution Service/court processing arrangements
• command structures
• finance
• media
• investigative strategy
• welfare
• policing style
• equality impact assessment
• best value
• peer review

The silver/bronze strategy includes:

• tactical plan
• planned operational deployment (taking account of the risks including of spontaneous action)

Powers/policies

Includes legal underpinning for the operation.

Options/contingencies

Includes operational order.

Financial governance

This includes:

• information about governance arrangements including:
• details of the senior responsible officer for financial governance
• information about authority levels for approval of expenditure
• information about challenge processes in respect of costs and expenditure
• documentation that demonstrates financial governance, decision making and challenge
• information about proposed expenditure

Action/review

This includes debriefing/learning the lessons.

1. See guidance on managing public money. ↩