Police Budget Sources and Spending in Britain

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 make comparisons where relevant.

Annotated response

8 correction notes

The presented table details the funding sources for the police force in a specific British region, while the accompanying pie charts the distribution of this budget for the years 2017 and 2018.

Broadly speaking, in funding from all sources, notably with a substantial surge in contributions from local taxes. Regarding expenses, salaries remained the primary focus of the budget, although there was a distinct rise in funding for technology. there were no alterations in the budget allocations for buildings and transport.

Specifically, was £175.5 million in 2017 and slightly increased to £177.8 million in 2018. In contrast, local taxes experienced a significant from £91.2 million to £102.3 million. Funding from other sources, including grants, saw a modest uptick from £38 million to £38.5 million. Consequently, the overall budget showed an increase of £13.9 million, reaching a total of £318.6 million in 2018.

In terms of budget distribution, salaries comprised 75% of the total budget in 2017, but this proportion decreased to 69% in 2018. In contrast, funding designated for technology nearly doubled, rising from 8% to 14%. Expenditure for buildings and transport remained steady at 17% in both years.

Overall assessment

Why this response received Band 7.5

The strongest aspect is the accurate, complete coverage of both visual sources, with all key figures correctly reported and meaningful comparisons drawn across the two years. The main limitation is somewhat formulaic linking and occasional mechanical use of connectors, which keeps the writing short of fully natural progression.

IELTS criteria

How each score was decided

Task Achievement

8.0

The response covers all data from the table and both pie charts accurately, including totals, percentage shifts, and the unchanged buildings and transport share, with a clear overview of rising funding and shifting expenditure priorities.

Coherence and Cohesion

7.0

Information is logically grouped into sources and spending with a clear progression, though cohesion relies on somewhat mechanical connectors and repeated framing phrases.

Lexical Resource

7.0

Vocabulary is flexible and precise for describing change, with terms like 'substantial surge' and 'modest uptick', but some phrasing such as 'primary focus of the budget' is slightly imprecise for expenditure.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy

7.0

A wide range of structures is used accurately, including complex sentences with participial and relative elements, with only rare minor awkwardness affecting an otherwise controlled grammatical performance.

More responses with feedback

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