The Table and Charts Below Give Information on the Police Budget

Lilie King
Written by Lilie

Scored a 7 twice in the writing test

July 11, 2022

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.

This essay question is from Cambridge IELTS 17 Test 2 Writing Task 1.

Police Budget 2017–2018 (in £m)
the table shows where the money came from

How the money was spent

the charts show how it was distributed

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Sample Essay

The table and pie charts provide information about the 2017–18 police budget of one area of Britain. The table displays the sources of the budget’s funds while the charts show where the funds went.

Overall, the total police budget increased with the national government being the biggest funder in both years. In terms of expenditure, salaries remained the primary form.

In 2017, the police had a total budget of £304.7 million, which rose significantly to £318.6 million in 2018. The majority of this money was sourced from the national government, with an increase from £175.5 million to £177.8 million. Of all sources of funding, local taxes saw the largest growth from £91.2 million to £102.3 million, whilst other sources accounted for £38.5 million of the total budget in 2018, £0.5 million more than the previous year.

Expenditure primarily consisted of officer and staff salaries, although the proportion decreased from 75% of the total to 69%. However, spending on technology almost doubled from 8% to 14%, whereas expenditure on buildings and transport remained unchanged at 17%.

183 Words

Use Different Grammatical Constructions to Describe Trends

  • In 2017, the police had a total budget of £304.7 million, which rose significantly to £318.6 million in 2018.
  • The majority of the money was sourced from the national government, with an increase from £175.5 million to £177.8 million.
  • Other sources accounted for £38.5 million of the total budget in 2018, £0.5 million more than the previous year.

Remain Unchanged Vs Remain Constant

  • Expenditure on buildings and transport remained unchanged/the same.
  • Expenditure on buildings and transport remained constant.
I’m not saying “constant” is wrong” but it expresses some sense of continuity. In the pie charts, there are only two data points. In this case, it’s better to remove the sense of continuity and use “unchanged” or “the same”.

12 CommentsLeave A Comment

  1. The details in the table demonstrate the sources of the police funding while the pie chart illustrates the allocation of the funds in 2017 and 2018 in Britain.

    According to the table, the national government allocated the most budget to the British police force and with a slight increase of 2.3m in the later year. Followed by taxes given by the local British citizens totaled to 91.2m in 2017 and a small raise of 11.1m in 2018. As for the other sources, it only had an additional 0.5m more in 2018 and it was considered as the lowest funding source among the three. With a boost in their finance in 2018, it amounted to 318.6m which was more than the previous year.

    Looking into the expenditure for the law enforcement, an equal amount of money was used to maintain the building and transportation for the police force. The employees’ wages hold the highest expenditure in both years but faced a slight decrease of 6% in the second year. At the same time, there was an increase of 6% in fund allocation towards technology.

  2. Hi thanks for your kind efforts.
    I have one question, is it not necessary to write the unit of money while describing data. i.e. 175 ₤m instead of 175m.
    your answer will be helpful for me. thanks in advance.

    1. Hi, thanks for your comment. “175 ₤m” is incorrect. You can use either “£175 million” or “175 million pounds.

  3. The given table details the data on the money allocated to the police from 3 sources and the two pie-charts illustrate its distribution in an area of Britain over two years 2017 and 2018.
    Overall, there was an increase in the funds given to the police, in which the money from NG constituted the majority and the budget was used mostly to pay for officers and staff.
    Looking into details, the NG investment remained the dominant donor with 175.5m in 2017 and 177.8m in 2018. Additionally, the money from local taxes witnessed a staggering rise of 11.1m over the examined period. There is also a slight increase of 0.5m from other sources.
    The police budget was mainly allocated to the staff payments that made up 78% in 2017 and 69% in 2018, which experienced a little fall. While the funds subsidizing for buildings and transport remained, that of the technology changed from 8% to 14%, though, contributed the least after all.

  4. The table and the pie charts provide information about the police budget for 2017 and 2018 in one area of Britain. The table illustrates the sources of funds and the pie charts give details about expenditures.
    Overall, the total police budget increased from £304.7 million to £318.6 million and the national government being the biggest contributor in both years. The highest expenditure was on officers and staff salaries although it was decreased by 6% in 2018.
    The National Government was given 175.5 million and 177.8 million in 2017 and 2018 respectively. The second majority of funds were received by local taxes which were amounted to 91.2 million in 2017 and 102.3 million in 2018. Other sources granted 38 million in 2017 and increased by 0.5 million in 2018.
    75% of money in 2017 and 69% in 2018 was spent on staff salaries and 17% of money was accounted for buildings and transport which remains unchanged in both years. Expenditure on technology was 8% in 2017 and nearly doubled in 2018 in to 14%.

    1. Hi, thanks for posting your report here. You need to report numbers accurately. Expenditure on salaries didn’t decrease by 6%. It decreased by 8%. This is called a percentage decrease and you can use a percentage change calculator to calculate. If you want to show an absolute decrease, then you need to use “percentage points” and not “%”: Expenditure on salaries decreased by 6 percentage points.

      1. Police budget of a particular area of Britain is delivered by means of a table showing the sources of funds and pie charts for the expenditure distribution in years 2017 and 2018.
        Overall, for both years major source of fund was national government while other sources contributed the least. At the same time, highest expenditure was for salaries of officers and staff.
        National government and other sources shows considerably less increment of money which is 2.3m and 0.5m respectively. Significant increment in tax collection can be seen which has lead to the total budget raise from 304.7m to 318.6m.
        The expenditure for building and transport remained unchanged at 17% while it has a percentage increment by 6% for technology in 2018. Also salary expenditure shows a proportionate decrement than previous year.

  5. The table and chart illustrate about the budget allocated that has been spent by the police of Britain.

    Overall, the table provides an information about the fund approved for two years in 2017 and 2018. It is clear that there was an upward trend in all three different sources while the money spent on salaries was the majority of the contribution. At the same point of time, the chart explains with same scenario in each year thus, major chank of money is similarly spent on salaries.

    Looking into the more details, there has been highest amount of money in the police budget belonged to National Government: 175.5 million pound in 2017 has kept rising to 177.8 million in 2018. At the same time, local taxes were upsurged significantly from 91.2 million pound in 2017 to 102.3 million in 2018. In contrary, other sources has only negligible rise with the difference amount of only 0.5 million in 2018.

    With regards to how money was spent in each year, the majority of the police budget was paid as the salaries for the officers and staffs. Nevertheless, there was slight dropping from 75% in 2017 to 69% in 2018. Meanwhile, the 17% of fund apportioned for the buildings and transport remained unchanged in each year. An opposite pattern of expenditure can be seen in the category of technology its figure rose sharply from 8% in 2017 to 14 % in 2018.

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