PCD 1444 DPC Programme Grant for 2023-24

PCD 1444 DPC Programme Grant for 2023-24

This paper seeks approval to accept grant funding of £10,500,000  from the Home Office for running of the Digital Public Contact (DPC) programme for 2023-24. DPC is a Tier 1 NPCC National Policing Programme hosted within the MPS with MOPAC as the contracting authority and with DCC Simon Megicks as the SRO. 

The programme has delivered the Single Online Home (SOH), a web platform offering accessible, on-demand, interactive services (a Digital 101 offering Online Crime Reporting; Road Traffic Incident reporting; Firearms Licensing applications (including online payment); online chat; Domestic  Abuse; ASB; Missing Persons and many more) and Police.uk (PUK) which is predominantly an information service for the public which transitioned from Home Office ownership onto the SOH platform in April 2020. The programme also delivers the social media operating model deployment within policing. 

In addition the Strategic Integration Hub (SIH) is a key development which will provide the functionality to automatically transfer a report from a member of the public into a forces’ back office Records Management System, avoiding resource intensive re-keying. There are currently 35 forces fully on the SOH platform including BTP and by March 2024 the aim is to have 41 forces on the SOH platform, providing digital access to policing services. 

The hosting arrangement was established in 2020/21 and this new Grant Agreement is a continuation for a further financial year. 

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:  

1. Approve receipt of £10,500,000 Home Office grant funding for the Digital Public Contact (DPC) programme for 2023-24 for a period of 12 months beginning on the 01 April 2023 and authorise the use of the  funding by the DPC Programme for the delivery of the outcomes detailed in this paper.  

2. Note that the MPS will provide an additional  £1,400,000 received from from the Home Office in 2022-2023.  

3. Note that the scope of the programme and high level milestones will be agreed between DPC, Home Office, MOPAC and Digital Policing prior to signing the grant agreement. 

1. Introduction and background  

1. The Single Online Home (SOH) has been delivered under the Digital Public Contact Programme and supported by Digital Policing. The MPS acts as the Host Authority for the SOH Platform, National Digital Team (NDT) and the DPC Programme. The NDT are responsible for the live running and service development of SOH. The DPC Programme, fully funded via Home Office grant award, is responsible for the ongoing onboarding of national forces to SOH and delivery of the wider DPC vision and objectives. The SOH platform and NDT are fully funded through the SOH Charging Model revenues every SOH onboarded force and auxiliary body contributes to as agreed through a Section 22 Collaboration Agreement. MOPAC, via the MPS, host all DPC contracts and the ongoing SOH service.  

2. There are currently 35 forces fully onboarded to SOH including BTP. The long-term vision is to deliver a national SOH. 

3. DPC’s key objectives are to: 

1. Encourage the public to access Policing services online to enable High Harm services to be available digitally to improve safeguarding  

2. Adopt a dynamic, flexible, customer-centric approach to delivery. Keeping pace with changing customer needs, adopting good practice and innovation from across Policing. 

3. Complete roll-out of a Social Media framework and use what is learned to better engage with the public. 

4. Continue to improve SOH to provide interactive, two-way communication that evolves into wider customer service for a seamless citizen experience 

5. Set and maintain data standards to allow integration between front-end and back-end systems to drive police efficiency enabling officers and staff through digital. 

6. Leverage commercial opportunities to deliver faster innovation, value for money and connectivity into wider public services and empowering the private sector. 

7. Contribute to wider Policing IT strategies and align with the emerging changes to national governance. 

4. This paper seeks approval for MOPAC to accept the Home Office Grant for 2023/24 that enables DPC to continue to deliver its vision and objectives. 

5. The Home Office has allocated £10.5 million in overall funding for 2023–2024; the remaining £1.4 million will be provided by the MPS with the goal of completing the following work programmes: 

• Continued onboarding of forces onto the Single Online Home. 

• Continued development of services. 

• Continued delivery of a Strategic Integration Hub (i-Hub) to integrate Single Online Home services with back office functionality in individual forces. 

• Strategic development of the police.uk website. 

• Supporting the adoption of a digital desk by the forces will enable control rooms, communications, and neighbourhood policing to collaborate more closely on how the public contacts the police via social media. 

2. Issues for consideration  

1. The nature of a grant agreement is that payments are made by Home Office in arrears. DPC, MPS Digital Policing, MOPAC and Home Office will continue to work collaboratively to ensure the terms of the agreement can be met to ensure expenditure is fully recovered. 

3. Financial Comments  

1. Total funding for the DPC Programme for 2023-24 is £11.9m of which MOPAC will receive £10.5m from  the the Home Office. The MPS will allocate an additional £1.4m funding  received from the Home office for  2022-2023   to the DPC programme. 

2. In addition to additional ministerial priorities that emerge during the year, such as the delivery of a web app, an element  of this total, £0.9 million, is ringfenced for work on 999/101 performance data. The funding is broken down in the table below 

3. The funding paid to MOPAC will be administered through the MPS Finance team as it has been in previous years. Financial, delivery and commercial reporting will continue on a monthly basis to the HO SCIB. It is anticipated that the HO Grant Agreement will be based on standard terms and conditions, consistent with the previous year. 

4. There is no impact on the MPS Capital Plan. All costs related to the DPC programme are recovered through Home Office grant funding. This does not change the MPS annual revenue contribution to SOH of £1.4m per annum.  

4. Legal Comments  

1. MOPAC is a contracting authority as defined in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 ("the Regulations"). 

2. 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 business cases for revenue or capital expenditure of £500,000 or above and to approve bids for grant funding made and all offers made of grant funding. 

3. MOPAC has an obligation to publish a grant agreement pursuant to Part 1 of the Schedule, Paragraph 3(g) of the Elected Local Policing Bodies (Specified Information) (Amendment) Order 2012 

4. The legal powers applicable to the acceptance of the Grant will be under Schedule 3, Paragraph 7 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 which provides that:  

7(1) The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime may do anything which is calculated to facilitate, or is conducive or incidental to, the exercise of the functions of the Office. 

(2)That includes— 

(a) entering into contracts and other agreements (whether legally binding or not). 

5. GDPR and Data Privacy  

1. All privacy issue considerations were considered when the MPS took on responsibility and became the Host Organisation for SOH and the National Digital Team. Nothing has changed since this original commitment but appropriate assessments will be undertaken as part of the design of new services.  

2. Under Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (as amended and updated by the UK GDPR) and Section 57 of the DPA 2018, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) become mandatory for organisations with technologies and processes that are likely to result in a high risk to the rights of the data subjects. 

3. The Information Assurance and Information Rights units within MPS will be consulted at all stages to ensure the programme continues to meet its compliance requirements. 

4. A DPIA has been completed for the Single Online Home (SOH). The SOH DPIA will be updated to reflect changes driven by DPC deliveries. As with the SOH, the DPC Programme will ensure a privacy by design approach, which will allow the MPS to find and fix problems at an early stage, ensuring compliance with GDPR. DPIAs support the accountability principle, as they will ensure the MPS complies with the requirements of GDPR and they demonstrate that appropriate measures have been taken to ensure compliance. 

6. Equality Comments  

1. Equalities assessments were carried out when the MPS took on responsibility and became the Host Organisation for SOH and the National Digital Team. Nothing has changed since this assessment was conducted but appropriate assessments will be undertaken as part of the design of new services. 

7. Background/supporting papers 

1. Report