Funding

Above and beyond mainstream police funding there are three main sources of special funding for action to tackle the supply of drugs: 

• The Building Safer Communities Fund (BSCF), replacing and incorporating Communities Against Drugs (CAD) funding

• The Police Commanders or Basic Command Unit (BCU) fund 

• Mainstream police funding

Each can be used to support work in tackling drug related supply

The Building Safer Communities Fund

The Communities Against Drugs (CAD) Initiative was launched by the Government in 2001 as a three year programme to help communities mobilise against drugs. New resources were allocated to this in the spring 2001 Budget – a total of £220 million over three years. The funds are intended for Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) to disrupt local drugs markets and drugs related crime.

In 2003 it was announced that the fund would be absorbed into a larger fund called the Building Safer Communities Fund (BSCF). This is allocated in exactly the same way and allows partnerships to have greater flexibility in management and allocation to address local problems. There is a requirement that there should be no disinvestment from actions to tackle drugs and the three main aims of the original CAD fund need to be maintained. Partnerships are expected to spend at least the same amount as they did previously on the same three aims of the CAD fund namely:

• Tackling drug related supply

• Tackling drug related crime

• Building stronger communities

The allocation has been designed to ensure that each partnership will receive some funding while at the same time targeting resources at those areas with the worst problems. Funds have been released to Local Authorities (who will hold the funds for Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships), as grant conditions have been agreed. Partnerships will have a great deal of flexibility over the way that the money is spent. The only requirements are that CDRPs should have the agreement of the local BCU police commander and Drugs Action Team on a strategy before any interventions funded with the money can begin, and that the money is used for the purposes of disrupting drugs markets and tackling drug related crime and disorder. It is expected that the level of spend on drug problems should be not less than the figure of £50m allocated in the first year of CAD.

Fund details and grant conditions can be found at: - http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/activecommunities31.htm

The Police Commanders or BCU fund

This fund, £50m in 2003-4, was announced at the same time as the BSCF, and absorbs half of what was intended to be the CAD funds for this year. This is a three-year programme designed to be used by BCU commanders to tackle the specific crime needs of their area in line with the requirements and priorities set out in the National Policing Plan. http://www.policereform.gov.uk/docs/nat_police_plan02.pdf 

It is expected that this fund will be used to help tackle drug related supply where this problem is locally identified as a serious cause of crime.

Fund details are to be found at: www.drugs.gov.uk/WorkPages/CoreDocuments/Jan03FundingPackage/v2.PDF

www.drugs.gov.uk/WorkPages/CoreDocuments/Jan03FundingPackage/BCU_Fund_Allocations_Finalv2.PDF

Mainstream police funds 

Police Chief Constables must allocate the available resources to them in line with Police authority approval and the National Policing Plan. Where drug supply is a substantial local issue it is expected that forces allocate a sufficient sum of funds to tackle supply at both Level 1 and Level 2 of the National Intelligence Model (NIM).