Police Funding

Each year, the PCC is responsible for setting the amount of money you contribute to local police services through your council tax bill – this is known as the police ‘precept’.

The precept accounts for 41% of police funding and the rest is from central Government. The Government set the maximum amount by which PCCs can increase the precept each year.

For 2024/25 PCC Mark Shelford, asked the Police and Crime Panel meeting for Avon and Somerset to support an increase of £13 a year in council tax to fund local policing.

The Police and Crime Panel is independent of the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and has a statutory responsibility to scrutinise the PCC’s proposed council tax precept.

The PCC’s proposal, which equals an extra £1.08 per month for a Band D household, was approved by the Police and Crime Panel.  The increased precept level will raise an additional £7.76 million.

The PCC’s decision followed a 12-week-long consultation that saw more than 6,500 people complete an online and postal survey asking if they supported an increase and how much extra they were willing to pay from zero to £20.

69.8% of respondents with an opinion were supportive of an increase of £10 or above, which includes the 44.8% who were supportive of an £20 increase. While 30.2% of respondents did not wish to pay any increase at all.

For a break down of the survey responses download our Precept Survey Analysis