MD3325 Home Office Grant Funding for the National Police Co-ordination Centre Football Policing Unit

1.1.    The UKFPU is responsible for coordinating national police forces in connection with domestic football-related crime and disorder and managing the policing of England overseas fixtures and tournaments.
1.2.    This unit was formerly part of the Home Office but transferred to the National Police Coordination Centre (NPoCC) on 1 April 2023. 
1.3.    The NPoCC provides support to police forces across the United Kingdom (UK) and is made up of a small number of police officers and police staff seconded from police forces across the UK. Amongst other things, the NPoCC support the operational co-ordination of national operations. MOPAC and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) host the NPoCC (and therefore the UKFPU that sits within it) and are responsible for holding assets, property, contracts, finance and ICT and employing staff (as detailed in the relevant legal agreements governing the NoPCC) to enable the NoPCC to operate. 
1.4.    The Home Office is proposing to provide grant funding of £2.5m to enable the operation of the UKFPU and is proposing to do so under section 31of the Local Government Act 2003 (LGA 2003). A draft of the proposed revenue grant determination is attached as Appendix 1. 
1.5.    Grant funding cannot be provided by the Home Office directly to MOPAC under section 31 of the LGA 2003 because that section only empowers government to provide grant funding to specified local authorities, and MOPAC is not a specified local authority for those purposes. However, the GLA is a local authority for the purposes of section 31 of the LGA 2003 and so this decision seeks approval for the GLA’s receipt of the grant and its transfer to MOPAC. In view of the above, it is appropriate for the proposed grant to be transferred to MOPAC.
 

2.1.    The acceptance of this funding stream from the Home Office will cover both staffing costs for 16 people and operating costs for the unit for the financial year 2024-25. 
2.2.    The funding will meet the costs of the UKFPU to enable the continued co-ordination of the policing of football for both domestic and international fixtures. The UKFPU is responsible for:
•    football-related training for policing in England and Wales (UKFPU is the College of Policing provider for this training)
•    coordinating policing’s football intelligence network in England and Wales
•    collating data on and investigating football-related hate crime
•    acting as the UK’s National Football Information Point
•    acting as the Football Banning Orders Authority.
2.3.    The grant is non-ring-fenced and the UKFPU “must prepare a progress report at six monthly intervals or at such other intervals as may be specified by the Department, to be submitted to the Department by a date to be specified by the Department. The report must provide details of progress against the outputs, activities, milestones and targets.” The attached appendix sets out the detail of the grant agreement.

2.4.    This decision also delegates authority to the Chief Finance Officer to approve receipt by the GLA, and transfer to MOPAC, of grant funding for future financial years provided by HO for the purposes of enabling the operation of the UKFPU.  
 

3.1.    Under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 (the Equality Act), the Mayor must have due regard, when making a decision, to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under that Act; and to advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations, between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. Protected characteristics under the Equality Act are age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and marriage or civil partnership status (the duty in respect of this last characteristic is to eliminate unlawful discrimination only).
3.2.    There are no equality implications arising from the proposed receipt and transfer of the grant. 
 

4.1.    There are no conflicts of interest to declare from any officer involved in the drafting or clearance of this form. 

5.1.    The proposed funding of £2.5 million from the Home Office will cover both staffing costs for 16 people and operating costs for the unit for the financial year 2024-25. 
5.2.    The NPoCC assure that if there is any overspend by the UKFPU that the NPoCC will meet the cost from within its own resources. There is no financial exposure to the GLA or MOPAC. 
5.3.    The award of the grant under section 31 of the LGA 2003 enables the flexibility of funding across the years when there is an uplift in activity in relation to the Euros and World Cup football tournaments and those years when there is not.
 

6.1.    Under section 31 of the LGA 2003, the government may pay a grant to a local authority in England towards expenditure incurred or to be incurred by it. A grant under that section may be paid on such conditions as the person paying it may determine. Implicit within section 31 of the LGA 2003 (as applied to the GLA by section 32 of the LGA 2003) is the power to decide whether to approve receipt of any grant proposed to be paid under that section.  
6.2.    Section 32 of the LGA 2003 applies section 31 of the LGA 2003 to the GLA. Section 32(2) provides that the conditions on which a grant under section 31 may be paid include, in the case of a grant to the GLA, a condition requiring the Mayor to transfer the grant to a functional body. Section 32(5) provides that where a grant paid under section 31 to the GLA is not paid subject to such a condition, the Mayor may transfer the grant to a functional body. MOPAC is a functional body. 
6.3.    It is not clear from the draft grant determination at Appendix 1 whether the grant is being paid on condition that it is transferred to MOPAC. In any event, the Mayor is asked to approve transferring the grant to MOPAC, which he is empowered to do under section 32 of the LGA 2003. If the Mayor approves the receipt and transfer of the grant, MOPAC can only use it for the purposes of, or in connection with, the discharge of its statutory functions. 

6.4.    The powers to approve the receipt by the GLA, and transfer to MOPAC, of grant funding under sections 31 and 32 of the LGA 2003 are powers of the GLA, which pursuant to section 35(1) of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 (GLA Act) are exercisable by the Mayor on behalf of the GLA. Under section 38(1) of the GLA Act, the Mayor may arrange for any GLA member of staff to exercise these functions on behalf of the GLA. The Mayor therefore has the power to delegate to the Chief Finance Officer approval of the receipt by the GLA, and transfer to MOPAC, of grant funding for future financial years provided by HO for the purposes of enabling the operation of the UKFPU. 
 

7.1.    The next steps in relation to the acceptance of the grant are set out below. 

Appendix 1a - UK Football Policing GRANT DETERMINATION 2024/25 No. 31/7428
Appendix 1b - Annex to Grant Determination