POLICE: PER CAPITA COSTS
Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average annual capitation rate is for a police (a) constable, (b) sergeant, (c) inspector, (d) chief inspector, (e) superintendent and (f) chief superintendent.
Mike Penning, Minister of State for Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims: We do not use or compile "capitation rates" for the police but do produce estimates of "on costs" for the police which are used in published impact assessments and other analysis. The "on costs" estimate the full hourly cost
of using a police officer, this includes not just the wage per hour actually worked but includes expenses, tax payable, pensions, premises, transport, training and other costs. We provide estimates for police community support
officers (PCSO), sergeants and below and senior police officers (inspectors and above). The "on cost" of a PCSO per hour is £28.90, a sergeant and below is £36.51 and a senior police officer is £58.79.
The figures use publically available data from a variety of sources including the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA), the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), Office for National Statistics
(ONS) and the Metropolitan Police Service. The first step works out the number of annual hours available for work by subtracting absence, training and leave from contracted weekly hours. The second step totals the wage and non-wage
costs per head for the three categories of police officer. The total costs are then divided by the number of hours available for work.
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