DD2485 Safestats crime and community safety data portal

SafeStats is a unique and secure data platform hosting a variety of crime and community safety datasets in one place and making these available to authorised analysts in London’s Boroughs, the Emergency Services, the Greater London Authority (GLA) / Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), and other organisations. The web-based portal provides instant access to this data which together provide the most rounded available picture of crime hotspots in London, and a variety of tools to use for different strategic and operational analysis. SafeStats is often used nationally and internationally as a model for sharing crime data. An example is the collaboration with Professor Jonathan Shepherd who developed the ‘Cardiff model’ showing how sharing anonymised hospital emergency department assault data between public agencies could reduce crime.

SafeStats has been built up incrementally since 2001 when it was part of the Government Office for London and has been managed and hosted by the GLA City Intelligence Unit since 2006. Since this time, funding has varied from year to year but consisted of contributions from MOPAC on behalf of London Boroughs and to host data from their ‘Information Sharing to Tackle Violence’ programme, and also Transport for London, the London Fire Commissioner and the Metropolitan Police Service.

Funding for 2020/21 is being provided by MOPAC on behalf of London Borough Community Safety and Violence Reduction Units, and from London Fire Commissioner and Transport for London to host their data. Decision DD2457 covers the cost of running the Information Sharing to Tackle Violence programme, which provides hospital emergency department data on assaults which are hosted within Safestats.

Work for 2020/21 includes the completion of a successful 3-year redevelopment programme which has completely rebuilt the data portal. The new system now provides user friendly access to a wider range of data, supported by improved data transfer and processing, data governance and data security. The final work in 2020/21 involved the completion of some new analytical tools to chart and map outputs and to help understand the proximity of incidents to others in a given postcode. These tools should go live to users in summer 2020. Decisions DD2387 and MD2181 have covered previous phases of this redevelopment.

MOPAC, TfL and the London Fire Commissioner have confirmed that they have sufficient budget to cover the grants set out in decision 1 above.

Safestats aims to reduce crime by sharing multi-agency information in one place, and enabling analysts to securely access a greater range of data. It supports the following objectives:

• supporting the Mayor’s priorities around crime and public safety, health and the economy including keeping children and young people safe, tackling violence among women and girls, cracking down on knife crime, Thrive London: improving mental health, building a 24 hour London, and Regeneration: Improving London’s public spaces and high streets; and
• providing data support to the Mayors’ public health approach to violent crime, in particularly the Violence Reduction Unit. Data from Safetats are used to help allocate funding for local programmes.

Specific Safestats objectives and outcomes for 2020/21 include:

• monthly processing and updating of data received by suppliers and provision 24/7 access to the portal for users;
• completion of the redevelopment including new tools for analysis to make it easier to undertake analysis in the data system and produce maps and charts of report quality;
• a new tool to search for crime and safety incidents around a given postcode to support licensing and other operations. This service will be rolled out to all Boroughs for the first time; and
• increasing the user base now that more organisations have signed up to the new Data Sharing Agreement and their users can be given access as authorised.

The GLA must have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation as well as to the need to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not, under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010. This involves having due regard to the need to remove or minimise any disadvantage suffered by those who share a relevant protected characteristic that is connected to that characteristic, taking steps to meet the different needs of such people; and encouraging them to participate in public life or in any other activity where their participation is disproportionately low.

Safestats meets this public sector equality duty in two ways: advancing equality of opportunity and fostering good relations between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not through analysis conducted using the data (see 3.3 below) and through robust data governance to prevent discrimination.

Analysis conducted using the data further the Mayor’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategic objective of a “safe, healthy and enjoyable city”. The driving force of analysis conducted by organisations accessing Safestats data is to improve the lives of Londoners, victims of crime, identifying the vulnerable, and assist in the enforcement of those who seek to harm.

Key risks and issues for the service in 2020/21 include the completion of the redevelopment. Without this, the wider benefits of the service would be reduced, because remaining work is designed to replace analysis which currently happens manually outside the system and enable a wider range of users to use the data. The new tools will create publication-ready maps and charts from within the system itself. The proximity tool which enables users to look at incidents around a given postcode replaces a process which is currently takes several weeks of analyst time to update each year.

If the ongoing Safestats service not provided, analysts in Boroughs and other organisations would be able to access and process data individually from all the multiple sources so this evidence would not be used to inform Borough Strategic Needs Assessments and violence reduction programmes.

Links to Mayoral strategies and priorities: Police and Crime Plan, Knife Crime Strategy, Strategy to Tackle Violence against Women and Girls, Thrive, 24 Hour London, Violence Reduction Unit.

There are no conflicts of interest.

The data provided to Safestats users does not include any protected characteristics or other personal data. Access to and use of the data is governed by Data Sharing Agreements which set out the legal basis governing and conditions for access and use of the data by authorised public sector organisations and individuals within these organisations and the system includes data security processes which log and audit use of the data accordingly.

Approval is sought for the receipt and expenditure of £115,000 of revenue grant funding. The receipts are made up of £105,000 from MOPAC and £5,000 from TfL and LFC respectively. The funds will be applied to the Safestats budget within the City Intelligence Unit.

The £115,000 expenditure will be funded from the 2020-21 Safestats budget within the City Intelligence Unit (received above) to run the multi-agency Safestats crime and community safety data portal.

The foregoing sections of this report indicate that the decision requested of the Executive Director falls within the statutory powers of the GLA to promote and/or to do anything which is facilitative of or conducive or incidental to the promotion of social development in Greater London and in formulating the proposals in respect of which a decision is sought officers have set out above how they have complied with the Authority’s related statutory duties to:

- pay due regard to the principle that there should be equality of opportunity for all people;

- consider how the proposals will promote the improvement of health of persons, health inequalities between persons and to contribute towards the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom; and

- consult with appropriate bodies.

Section 31(1) of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (the “GLA Act”) prohibits the GLA from incurring expenditure on activity which may be undertaken by functional bodies. However, section 31(6) of the GLA Act permits such expenditure where it relates to the cooperation with or the facilitation or coordination of activity of such bodies. Officers have indicated at section 1 (above) of this report that the expenditure proposed concerns such cooperation and is facilitative of the coordination or activity.

In taking the decisions requested, the Executive Director must have due regard to the Public Sector Equality Duty; namely the need to eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010 and to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic (race, disability, gender, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment) and persons who do not share it (section 149 of the Equality Act 2010). To this end, the executive director should have particular regard to section 3 (above) of this report.

With the consent of the Mayor, functional bodies may provide revenue grants to the GLA (section 121 of the GLA Act). Paragraph 6.1 of Mayoral Decision Making in the Greater London Authority provides a general delegation from the Mayor to senior members of staff – including the Executive Director – to exercise any power that is not a reserved matter; is within the relevant staff member’s area of responsibility; and is made in accordance with the appropriate governance route.

The said reserved matters include approvals of section 121 grants, which are over the value of £150,000. In the instant case, each of the requested grants falls below £150,000. To that end, the Executive Director may consent to the requested grants by signing this decision form.

Finally, officers are reminded that (a) in accordance with section 121 of the GLA Act, no conditions may be imposed upon the GLA’s use of the funds other than that the funds must not be used for capital expenditure; and (b) all expenditure must be made in accordance with the requirements of the GLA’s Contracts and Funding Code.