Home Office + ONS · OGL v3.0

Your police precept: pay vs fund vs get

Part of your council tax is a police precept. But the precept is a minority share of what funds your force — most policing money is central government grant. This shows three separate facts for your police force area: what you pay, what share of funding that actually is (the spread runs 19.6%–54.2%), and officers-per-100k + recorded crime as neutral context — never a claim that your precept buys them.

Most police funding is central government grant, not your council tax. The precept is a minority top-up that varies hugely between forces (19.6%–54.2%; ~35.7% on average). These are three separate facts about your force area — not a causal chain.

Police precept as a share of the force's funding

The spread is the story — most policing is centrally funded. (Share of total force funding; a larger denominator than the ~49%/12% "share of gross revenue expenditure" sometimes quoted.)

Surrey 54.2%

Dyfed-Powys 52.8%

North Wales 50.5%

Dorset 49.3%

North Yorkshire 47.6%

Gloucestershire 47%

Warwickshire 46.2%

Wiltshire 45.3%

Lincolnshire 45.2%

Norfolk 44.7%

Thames Valley 44.4%

Cambridgeshire 44.3%

South Wales 44.3%

Gwent 43.9%

Northamptonshire 43.4%

Suffolk 43.3%

West Mercia 43.3%

Sussex 41.9%

Hertfordshire 41.5%

Devon & Cornwall 41.4%

Essex 40.7%

Hampshire 40.7%

Avon and Somerset 40.4%

Kent 40%

Cheshire 39.6%

Bedfordshire 39.3%

Cumbria 38.9%

Leicestershire 38.5%

Derbyshire 38.4%

Staffordshire 37.8%

Nottinghamshire 33.5%

Humberside 32.1%

Lancashire 31.4%

Durham 29.2%

Cleveland 27.8%

West Yorkshire 27.7%

Metropolitan Police 27%

South Yorkshire 26.4%

Greater Manchester 25.5%

Merseyside 23.1%

West Midlands 20.7%

Northumbria 19.6%

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01 Why three separate facts

The precept doesn't "buy" officers

It's tempting to read "I pay £X precept, so I get Y officers" — but that's false. The precept is only a 19.6–54.2% slice of force funding (about 35.7% on average); the rest is central government grant, and the local share swings widely — Surrey is near 54.2% precept-funded, Northumbria near 19.6%. We measure this precisely as the police precept as a share of the force's total funding — a larger denominator than the "~49% / ~12%" figures sometimes quoted (those use share of gross revenue expenditure), so our percentages read higher; the national average still matches the official ~34%. Officer numbers and recorded crime depend on grant, demand, geography and recording practice — not on your council tax. We present them side by side as context, with no causal claim. Recorded crime is not the same as actual crime. This is your force area, which usually spans several councils.

02 Go deeper

Follow the thread

Where your council tax goes Council, social care, police, fire The precept lottery Police, fire & mayoral precepts by area Is your council tax fair? Effective rate against home value

Sources: Home Office Police workforce open data, FTE police officers by force, as at 31 March 2025; Home Office Police recorded crime open data, PFA tables, FY 2024/25 (force-recorded offences EXCLUDING fraud ÷ population × 1,000); Home Office Police funding for England and Wales 2015–2026, Table 4a (force-level Government Funding / Precept / Total), 2025-26 = Precept ÷ Total; Band-D police precept: gov.uk Council Tax levels (England forces) + Met = MOPAC/police element of the GLA precept (Mayoral Decision MD3472) + Welsh forces = gov.wales CT Levels 2026-27, Table 1 police element. OGL v3.0. Context, not value judgement. Estimate.

The data behind this tool

The police precept is a small, uneven slice of force funding — from 19.6% to 54.2% across forces, weighted around 35.7%; most funding is central grant.

Highest precept share: Surrey at 54.2%.
Lowest: Northumbria at 19.6%.
Precept share is not a value-for-money measure — most of a force’s budget is central grant.

Police precept as a share of force funding
Force	Precept share	Band-D precept
Surrey	54.2%	£353
Dyfed-Powys	52.8%	£388
North Wales	50.5%	£398
Dorset	49.3%	£323
North Yorkshire	47.6%	£336

Source: Home Office + gov.uk council tax precept tables (Open Government Licence v3.0).