27998 (2025). Tamatha Paul to the Minister of Police

27998 (2025). Tamatha Paul to the Minister of Police: What formal framework or set of criteria, if any, was used to assess the value of crime prevention initiatives before Police grants were removed?

Hon Mark Mitchell: I am advised that the assessment of crime prevention initiatives was guided by the Treasury Fiscal Sustainability Programme, specifically the deep dive of grants and funds undertaken in July 2024. For the deep dive, the definition of a grant or fund in scope was as follows: • Funding arrangements between public entities and external parties, designed to support an individual, organisation or activity without directly purchasing goods or services; or • Funding arrangements that directly purchase goods or services that have features consistent with grant funding. The definition was informed by the Office of the Auditor General’s good practice guide, with flexibility applied to allow for the inclusion of other funding arrangements that have features consistent with grant funding. Treasury identified that many grants and funds were small and appear to have similar objectives. There were also instances of grants and funds that were not supported by a clear intervention logic and did not provide supporting evidence that they were delivering value for money. Treasury identified a subset of seven grants and funds within Police to review in line with the following principles: • Consolidate and simplify the number of grants and funds • Increase the value of Government spending by scaling or closing grants and funds that represent lower value for money or where there isn’t a clear rationale for Government intervention; and • Minimise administrative costs. Police subsequently applied a set of prioritisation criteria including whether: • The grants or funds duplicated outcomes sought by other grants and funds • Core policing services would be affected if the grant or fund was scaled back or stopped • There was a clear value to communities and priority groups from the grant or funding continuing. To meet the fiscal targets set, Police has sought reductions for grants and funds for activities that have the least impact across core policing services: Response, Investigations and Resolution Services.