Nottinghamshire Police’s annual communications spend tops £750,000

Nottinghamshire Police has released figures on its communications spend for the last six financial years after a Freedom of Information Request from Nottinghamshire Live. The force’s press office did not wish to give a detailed explanation as to exactly which costs fall under the umbrella category “communications”. They did explain, however, that any method of communication that the force[1] uses between themselves and to communicate with the public – including radios, marketing, press releases and telephones – would count.

Since the beginning of the 2017/18 financial year, the total spend was calculated at GBP4,106,982.87. The force has consistently spent more than GBP500,000 annually since 2017, with similar figures of GBP508,194.16 and GBP505,792.25 for 2017/18 and 2018/19 respectively, the first two years on the report. There were two jumps of around GBP150,000 in spending consecutively, however, for the next two years.

The figure rose from GBP505,792.25 in 2018/19 to GBP666,668.19 in 2019/20, and again from GBP666,668.19 in 2019/20 to GBP808,542.37 in 2020/2021. It increased once more to GBP852,713.24 in 2021/2022 before dropping to GBP767,072.66 for the last financial year, 2022/2023.

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A spokesperson for Nottinghamshire Police[2] said that reasons for the increase in spend include “increased operations usage” due to numbers of officers and police staff rising, the usage of “more data-enabled devices” to ensure officers remain visible on the street and procuring more because the “organisation has expanded”.

The total figures are as follows:

2017/2018 GBP508,194.16

2018/2019 GBP505,792.25

2019/2020 GBP666,668.19

2020/2021 GBP808,542.37

2021/2022 GBP852,713.24

2022/2023 GBP767,072.66

Total GBP4,106,982.87

References

  1. ^ the force (www.nottinghampost.com)
  2. ^ Police (www.nottinghampost.com)