PCD 1365 Home Office Serious Violence Duty

PCD  1365 Home Office Serious Violence Duty

The VRU are leading on the coordination of the Serious Violence Duty across London and the Home Office have allocated funding to support each area with the implementation and delivery of elements of the Duty. 

The VRU have been allocated a total amount of £2,548,650.10 split across financial years  (below amounts per year) and have submitted an application form accordingly.  

• 22/23 labour Costs: £137,941.30, non-labour costs: £206,621.25  

• 23/24 labour costs: £647,435.38, non-labour costs: £623,888.22  

• 24/25 labour costs: £616,333.64, non-labour costs: £316,430.36 

The VRU will be splitting the funding equally across each 32 borough and will be requesting they submit an outline on how they will be using the funds in line with the Home Office application.  

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Approve for the VRU to enter into a Grant Agreement with the Home Office to accept the funding over the three years for the serious violence duty.  

2. To note this is additional funding and budgets for 2022/23 – 2024/25 will need to be updated accordingly. 

3. Allocate direct grant funding to each London borough equally for each financial year relating to: 

• 2022/23 labour Costs: £137,941.30, non-labour costs: £206,621.25  

• 2023/24 labour costs: £647,435.38, non-labour costs: £623,888.22  

• 2024/25 labour costs: £616,333.64, non-labour costs: £316,430.36 

PART I - NON-CONFIDENTIAL FACTS AND ADVICE TO THE DMPC 

1. Introduction and background  

1. Following public consultation in July 2019, the Government announced that it would bring forward legislation introducing a new serious violence duty (“the duty”) on public bodies which will ensure relevant services work together to share data and knowledge and allow them to target their interventions to prevent serious violence altogether. 

2. Introduced by government through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, the Serious Violence Duty, which is due to commence on 31st January 2023, requires specified authorities to work together to prevent and reduce serious violence, including identifying the kinds of serious violence that occur in the area, the causes of that violence and to prepare and implement a strategy for preventing and reducing serious violence.   

3. MOPAC and the VRU received a letter in September outlining the indicative funding allocation for the 2022/23, 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years. A follow up letter was received on 5th December confirming the funding allocation for the financial years and provide additional information on the funding allocations process taking into consideration the later commencement date.  

4. The new sums that we are eligible to receive for Serious Violence Duty funding are as follows:  
   
   2022/23 labour Costs: £137,941.30, non-labour costs: £206,621.25  
   
   2023/24 labour costs: £647,435.38, non-labour costs: £623,888.22  
   
   2024/25 labour costs: £616,333.64, non-labour costs: £316,430.36 

5. The VRU have to submit an application form to the Home Office on how we anticipate the funds will be spent but will need to obtain this information from each borough. All boroughs are aware of the funds available and have been informed to stary thinking about this ahead of receiving any grant agreement. Letters will also go out to boroughs with further detail once it is internally approved and confirmed by the home office that we will receive the grant following application. Draft grant agreements have also already been draft internally. 

6. The VRU will equally split the funding per year across each 32 London borough, via a grant agreement, for them to implement and deliver on the Duty.  

2. Issues for consideration  

2.1 Due to the timeframe of confirmation of funding, the VRU will need to coordinate how each borough will be spending their funding and due to local pressures there could be boroughs that are unable to spend the funding within this financial year.  

2.2 The VRU will continue to work closely with each borough with regards to the funding and support around this.  

2.3 The VRU have submitted an application form accordingly for the funding amounts available for each financial year however we are yet to receive confirmation for receiving the funds. 

3. Financial Comments  

3.1 This paper is seeking approval to bid for funds from the Home Office totalling £2,548,650.15 for the 3 year period 2022/23 – 2024/25 and allocate funding to each London Borough equally for each financial year. A break down of the funding is set out in the table below. 

3.2 The 2022/23 – 2024/25 budgets will need to be updated accordingly to reflect the additional income and expenditure. 

3.3 Due to the timeframe of confirmation of funding, there is a small risk that some boroughs will be unable to spend the full amount allocated to them in 2022/23. There is no opportunity to carry forward funds from this financial year to the next. Mitigations to this have been made, detailed in 1.6. 

4. Legal Comments  

4.1 Paragraph 4.8 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to: 

• Approve all bids for grant funding. 

• Approve  the  strategy  for  the  award  of  individual  grants  and/  or  the  award  of  all  individual  grants  whether  to  secure  or  contribute  to  securing  crime  reduction  in  London or for other purposes. 

• The  procurement  strategy  for  all  revenue  and  capital  contracts  of  a  total  value  of  £500,000  or  above,  such  determination  to  include  decisions  on  the  criteria  and  methodology  to  be  adopted  in  the  tendering  process,  any  exemptions  from  procurement requirements, and any necessary contract extensions.   

5. Commercial Issues  

1. This decision is seeking approval to direct award 32 grants to all 32 London Boroughs. The justification for the direct award is, in accordance with section 11 of and Schedule 1 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 the Serious Violence Duty requires local authorities to work together and plan and prevent and reduce violence.  

2. All 32 boroughs will be sent a Grant Agreement which will include the mandatory requirements, specification, reporting requirements and our outcomes. The boroughs will be required to submit a delivery plan which will be approved by the VRU before delivery commences. All pricing will be reviewed by the VRU before acceptance. 

3. The Grant Agreements will be for the full 3 years as the only area that could potentially be varied is the delivery plans. VRU will work closely with the boroughs to meet the outcomes. 

6. GDPR and Data Privacy  

1. MOPAC and the VRU will adhere to the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 and ensure that any organisations who are commissioned to do work with or on behalf of MOPAC are fully compliant with the policy and understand their GDPR responsibilities.   

7. Equality Comments  

1. MOPAC is required to comply with the public sector equality duty set out in section 149(1) of the Equality Act 2010. This requires MOPAC to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations by reference to people with protected characteristics. The protected characteristics are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. 

8.      Public Health Approach  

8.1 London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) is taking a public health approach to violence reduction, that is  contextual;  looking  at  the  context  and  influences  that  impact  on  individuals at significant points in their life. We will support such approaches from local authorities to utilise this funding.