PCD 1581 MARSOC and CC Grant Funding from HMPPS

PCD 1581 MARSOC and CC Grant Funding from HMPPS

This paper seeks approval to accept grant funding of £382,590 from the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) to fund the continued operation of the Multi-Agency Response to Serious Organised Crime (MARSOC) Hub as well as up to £500,000 per year to fund the continued work of the dedicated team investigating Corruption within His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).  

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Approve the acceptance of £382,590 Serious Organised Crime (SOC) grant funding from the MOJ to support the continued work of the London MARSOC hub and the Corruption team during 2023-2024. 

2. Approve the acceptance of up to £500,000 MOJ grant funding for an additional two years to March 2026 to support the continued operations of the London MARSOC Hub and Corruption Team. 

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

1. Introduction and background.    

2. Corruption and Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) in prisons impacts the justice system. 

3. To address the ongoing issue of Corruption and SOC in prisons and, to provide the criminal judicial system with much-needed support, and beyond, an effective partnership between the Police, HMPPS, and other agencies was implemented through the early adopter phase, which ran between January 2021 to December 2021. Subsequently, the MOJ agreed to continue funding for a further two years, starting January 2022 and ending December 2023, to establish the MARSOC hub in London.  

4. Following a successful year with numerous achievements in London and nationally, this paper seeks approval to accept grant funding from the MOJ to fund the continued operation of the MORSOC model which has been in operation for over two years led by a central MARSOC national team managing 10 hubs to tackle SOC in prisons and an established hub in each Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) staffed by HMPPS, police officers and police staff.  

5. MOPAC has previously approved grant acceptance for the MARSOC and Counter Corruption Unit (CCU) posts, supported with separate Memorandum of Understandings (MOU’s) – PCD1258(MARSOC) & PCD892(CCU). 

6. Issues for consideration.  

7. The Metropolitan Police service (MPS) state that “Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) in prisons impacts the justice system. When organised criminals continue to operate their networks from prison, it undermines the public's confidence in prison and law enforcement, undermines the rehabilitation of offenders and drug trade in prisons impacts the ability of staff to carry out their duties and the wider public are put at risk. 

8. Continued investment and development supports mitigating the risk of losing the ability to fight corruption and SOC in the face of technological advancements, increasing demands on aged jails and an expected rise in the prison population. 

9. The funding will resource Lifetime Offender Management (LOM) a multi-agency process that systematically assesses the threat from priority SOC offenders before, during and after custody and uses all available tools, powers and disruptions to prevent and disrupt offending.  

10. LOM also facilitates improved coordination between law enforcement, the HMPPS, and other important partners by integrating information and intelligence sharing and bringing together skills and capability at the local, regional, and national levels. 

11. The model will be replicated nationally across ROCUs, and the proposed grant will fund One (1) Detective Sergeant, Three (3) Detective Constables (one (1) for MARSOC and two (2) for Corruption)) and an Intelligence Development Officer (IDO) within the London Region Prison Intelligence Unit (LRPIU). 

12. The funding will support the Police and Crime Plan objective of “reducing and preventing violence” in particular “Reducing reoffending by the most violent and high-risk groups.  

13. Financial Comments.  

14. The proposal is for acceptance of grant funding of £382,590 for 2023/24 as well as to accept grant funding of up to £500,000 for an additional two years to March 2026. 

15. The eligible expenditure will be recovered from the MOJ supported by a Memorandum of Understanding between the MOJ and MOPAC to cover staff costs for the MARSOC & CCU team.  

16. Legal Comments. 

17. MOPAC acceptance of this Grant is permitted under Schedule 3 Paragraph 7 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, whereby MOPAC may do anything which is calculated to facilitate, or is conducive or incidental to, the exercise of the functions of the Office which includes entering into contracts and other agreements (whether legally binding or not). 

18. 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 made and all offers made of grant funding. 

19. GDPR and Data Privacy.   

20. 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. 

21. The MPS assure that the processes governing the lawful exchange of information between the key partners, police and HMPPS, are well established, having been subject to rigorous judicial scrutiny and subject to Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (IPCO) inspection. HMPPS through their Operational Partnerships Team have finalised an information sharing MOU between HMPPS and law enforcement which has been signed off by National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).  

22. The MPS Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) has been completed. The formal agreements for data sharing within the MARSOC project are all in place, having been signed off by all partner agencies. 

23. Equality Comments.  

24. 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. 

25. The MPS assure that, no negative impact has been identified to any individual and/or group safeguarded by a protected characteristic and to those who are not. 

26. Background/supporting papers. 

27. MPS Report Grant Funding for Multi-Agency Response to Serious Organised Crime (MARSOC) Hub.