This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Fire and police finance bill passed
02/11/2001
Emergency services across Scotland will gain more control over their budgets after the Police and Fire Service Finance Bill was passed by the Scottish Parliament today.
The Bill will allow better financial management by police forces and fire brigades, avoid any rush to spend at the end of each year and underpin the three year budgeting cycle introduced by the Scottish Executive.
It will allow forces and brigades to carry forward:
- three per cent of their budget from any one year and;
- accumulate reserves of up to five per cent of their overall budget, and to accumulate larger reserves with Ministerial agreement.
Outlining the benefits for Scotland's Police Forces and Fire Brigades, Deputy Justice Minister Iain Gray said:
"The Scottish Executive is investing record funding in police forces and fire brigades. It is vital therefore that they can use this money where and when it is most needed in Scotland's communities.
"Until now forces and brigades have been left in a difficult position. They have had to keep enough money back to enable them to meet any unusual demands but thay have had to return any money unspent at the end of each financial year. This creates a pressure to rush to spend money at the end of the year to avoid losing it.
"This Bill will remove the financial straightjacket on chief constables and Firemasters, giving them much more freedom to deliver first-class services to the public in the long term."
The changes follow a report by the Accounts Commission for Scotland and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary which concluded that better value would be obtained if police forces could carry forward a working balance from year to year. It was also decided that fire brigades would benefit from the new arrangements.