Question –
WRITING TASK 1
You should spend 20 minutes on this task.
The table and charts below give information on the police budget for 2017 and 2018 in one area of Britain. The table shows where the money came from and the charts show how it was distributed.
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and making comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
Answer –
The table and pie charts provide information about the 2017-18 police budget of one region of Britain. The table displays the sources of the budget’s funds, while the pie charts depict where the funds went.
Overall, it can be seen that the amount of money received for the police budget from all three sources increased, with the national government being the biggest funder in both years. In terms of expenditure, the most money was spent on salaries in both years.
In 2017, the police department’s total budget was £304.7 million, which rose to £318.6 million in 2018. The majority of this money was sourced from the national government in 2017, with £175.5 million, and this figure grew to £177.8 million in 2018. Local taxes’ contribution saw the largest growth from £91.2 million to £102.3 million over the period, whilst ‘other sources’ accounted for £38.5 million of the total budget in 2018, £0.5 million more than the previous year.
The percentage of money expended on officers and staff salaries made up three quarters of the total in 2017, although this figure experienced a decline to 69% in 2018, but it was still the highest figure on the graph, whereas spending on technology almost doubled from 8% to 14%, and it remained the lowest value in both years. However, while the percentage of expenditure on buildings and transport remained unchanged at 17%, the amount spent on it increased overall over the recorded period.