PCD 1436 Home Office Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Funding 2023-25

PCD 1436 Home Office Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Funding 2023-25

The Home Office are awarding funding to Police and Crime Commissioners to provide interventions for domestic abuse and stalking perpetrators. MOPAC has been awarded, and this decision request formal acceptance of, £5,192,871.25 for three projects: Drive, Culturally Integrated Family Approach and Prevent & Change. These will be a delivered over two years (1st April 2023 – 31st March 2025), with all delivery partners providing match funding.  

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

0. 1. Formally accept funding awards totalling £5,192,871.25 from the Home Office for all three programmes via grant agreements, including up to £130,300 contribution towards MOPAC’s programme managements costs. 

1. 2. Approve MOPAC match funding of £652,150.80 over the period April 2023 to March 2025. 

2. 3. Formally award the funding totalling up to £5,845,022.05 to all lead local authorities and partners involved in the delivery of these three programmes via grant agreements as set out in section 3.4. 

1. Introduction and background  

1. Tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) is at the heart of the Mayor’s priorities for London. 

2. Central to his Police and Crime Plan and VAWG Strategy for London 22-25 is holding perpetrators of VAWG to account whilst supporting programmes to change their behaviour. This will ultimately increase the safety of victims-survivors and their families. 

2. Issues for consideration  

1. The Home Office announced in the 2022 Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan, a £75m investment over three years into tackling domestic abuse perpetrators.   This funding will be used to support the rollout and delivery of quality interventions nationally via the Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Intervention Fund 2023-25   

2. The Home Office are awarding funding to Police and Crime Commissioners to provide interventions for domestic abuse and stalking perpetrators.   This will be a delivered within the total budget of up to £36,290,000 over two years (1st April 2023 – 31st March 2025), broken down to up to £18,145,000 per financial year.     

3. MOPAC submitted five bids for programmes covering multiple London boroughs totalling £8,826,473.58. Three bids were successful, and the Home Office (HO) have subsequently awarded MOPAC a total of £5,192,871.25. 

4. The programme is scheduled to run for 24 months with all delivery partners providing match funding.  

5. Details of the projects and the lead local authorities/organisations involved are listed below: 

3. Financial Comments  

This decision requests approval to accept £5,192,871.25 grant funding from the Home Office, in accordance with the grant conditions. The funding will support the continuation of existing domestic abuse perpetrator programmes for a period of 24 months from April 2023 to March 2025. 

This decision also requests approval of MOPAC match funding of £652,150.80, funded from the Drive budget of £1,350,000 allocated in decision PCD 1307. 

The total funding of £5,845,022.05 will be split across the three domestic abuse perpetrator programmes and across each financial year per the table below: 

1. A breakdown of expenditure by programme is set out in the table below: 

2. Payments will be made in line with grant arrangements, following satisfactory performance and contract or grant management meetings. MOPAC will act as the lead partner for all projects. 

4. Legal Comments  

1. MOPAC’s general powers are set out in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 (the 2011 Act). Section 3(6) of the 2011 Act provides that MOPAC must “secure the maintenance of the metropolitan police service and secure that the metropolitan police service is efficient and effective.” Under Schedule 3, paragraph 7 (1) MOPAC has wide incidental powers to “do anything which is calculated to facilitate, or is conducive or incidental to, the exercise of the functions of the Office.” Paragraph 7(2) (a) provides that this includes entering into contracts and other agreements. 

2. There are further relevant powers set out in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 at sections 17(1) (a) to (c) which place MOPAC under a duty to exercise its functions with due regard to the likely effect of the exercise of those functions on, and the need to do all it can to prevent, crime and disorder (including anti-social and other behaviour adversely affecting the local environment), reoffending in its area, and the misuse of drugs, alcohol and other substances in its area. The proposed arrangements are consistent with MOPAC’s duties in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. 

3. Further to section 143 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 MOPAC can also provide services that secure, or contribute to securing, crime and disorder reduction in the body's area. 

4. Under MOPAC’s Scheme of Delegation, approval of inward MOPAC donations and sponsorship above £50,000 rests with the DMPC, as in paragraph 4.8. 

5. The delegation of responsibility for the finalisation of planning and contractual/grant arrangements, including relevant terms and the signing of agreements, to the Chief Operating Officer is in accordance with the general power of delegation in paragraph 1.7. 

6. Officers must ensure the Financial Regulations and Contract Regulations are complied with.  

7. Officers should ensure that the funding agreements are put in place before any commitment to fund is made.  

8. Officers confirm that sufficient assurance has been carried out to this decision to determine that the DMPC has legal authority to agree the recommendations. 

5. Commercial Issues  

1. Funding will be provided to MOPAC by the Home Office quarterly in arrears, under Grant Agreements. 

2. MOPAC will provide funding to delivery partners, as listed in section 3.3, quarterly in arrears, under Grant Agreements. 

3. There are no procurement issues with this decision, as all funding is provided through Grant Agreements. However, where the Drive project is being continued and extended, there will be a procurement process undertaken for the primary service provider and independent evaluator. 

4. MOPAC makes no commitment to fund the organisations listed in 3.3 until Grant Agreements have been signed by both parties. These will detail performance and payment schedules, in line with Home Office reporting requirements. 

5. The signing of the Grant Agreements will comply with the MOPAC Scheme of Consent and Delegation. 

6. Public Health Approach  

1. These Grant Awards are informed by the Mayor’s public health approach to violence reduction and therefore part of MOPAC’s contribution to overall efforts led by the Violence Reduction Unit. 

2. These programmes seek to intervene with perpetrators of VAWG and provide support to victims (and their children) and will work in partnership with local agencies such as health, social care, criminal justice and the voluntary sector to manage the risks posed by these individuals and seek to reduce repeat victimisation. 

7. GDPR and Data Privacy  

1. MOPAC 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. 

8. 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. 

2. The promotion of VAWG support services supports MOPAC’s equalities duties. 

3. These programmes receiving funding focus on the delivery of interventions for perpetrators of stalking and domestic abuse. Stalking and domestic abuse are gendered crimes which disproportionately affect women and girls. This is not to say that victims of these crimes cannot be male however women are more likely than men to be victims of stalking1, and of every type of domestic abuse including being three times more likely to be the victim of a domestic homicide2. In relation to reported domestic abuse in London; in 2022 MOPAC’s Evidence and Insight team published a deep dive into crimes flagged as domestic abuse by the Metropolitan Police Service and found that 77% of victims were female and 78% of suspects were male3. 

9. Background/supporting papers  

PCD 1307, signed on 25th October 2022