PCD 1632 HO Grant Organised Crime Specific Grant Agreement 2023/24

PCD 1632 HO Grant Organised Crime Specific Grant Agreement 2023/24

This paper seeks approval to accept the Home Office Organised Crime Specific Grant (OCS Grant) of £1,701,000 in 2023/24, as well as future OCS Grant offers of up to £2,000,000 per year until 2027 , to continue funding the London Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU) capability in respect of  activities such as confiscation of assets determined to be proceeds of crime,  threat assessment, drugs strategy, digital forensic support and transformation. 

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Approve the acceptance of a Home Office grant totalling £1,701,000 to fund the following capabilities in 2023/24. 

• London ROCU including the Regional Asset Recovery Team (RART) - £1,000,000. 

• London Regional Organised Crime Threat Assessment (ROCTA) team - £231,000. 

• London Asset Confiscation Enforcement Team (ACET) - £220,000. 

• SOC Drugs Strategy - £150,000. 

• Digital forensics Support SOC Drugs - £100,000. 

2. Approve the acceptance of future OCS Grant offers of up to £2,000,000 per year until 2027.  

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

1. Introduction and background.    

2. This paper seeks approval to accept grant funding to tackle on-going organised crime activities which have been funded for a number of years and specific organised crime activities.  

3. MOPAC has previously approved grant acceptance for the Organised Crime Unit from the Home Office PCD (1418).  

2. Issues for consideration.  

1. The London Regional Asset Recovery Team (RART) and other Units provide a cohesive and coordinated operational response to Serious and Organised Crime from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), City of London Police (CoLP) and British Transport Police (BTP). The three police forces work closely on a range of issues and follow an operating model reflected nationally across England and Wales.  

2. The RART and Asset Confiscation Enforcement Team (ACET) are multi-agency teams, physically co-located with other partner agencies including the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).  

3. The primary purpose of the RART and ACET is to provide specialist support for London law enforcement for the restraint, confiscation, enforcement and realisation of the proceeds of crime which have been identified as criminal assets. They also identify, adopt and implement best practice for financial investigation and asset recovery which is reflected across a national network. 

4. The national Regional Organised Crime Threat Assessment (ROCTA) network was formed in response to HMIC’s PEEL: Police effectiveness 2016 (national overview) which found the mapping of organised crime groups to be unacceptably inconsistent, giving an incomplete and inaccurate picture of the SOC threat.  The London ROCTA is to provide a single regional capability that will deliver comprehensive identification of risk from organised crime from across police and partner agencies and establish a consistent process for assessment and prioritisation of risk according to the threat posed to the public. 

5. The London RART and other units support directly the MOPAC Police and Crime Plan with activity specifically aimed at tackling serious and organised crime, including by removing the financial incentives from crime using powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. This includes seizing the profits from high-end economic crime such as fraud, money laundering and drugs trafficking.  

6. The London ROCTA is developing the London SOC threat picture and, in doing so, enabling better informed and more effective policing responses to groups and individuals that are causing the greatest amount of harm. With continued development, the ROCTA will provide greater collective capacity across threats and across capabilities through improved focus and coordination of regional assets.  

7. The uplift in staffing numbers to the ROCTA unit will ensure better capability and mitigation of prioritised threats in London 

8. The MPS confirm that there are at least an equitable number of officers and staff across the MPS engaged in this area of business and so meeting the ‘match funding’ requirement of the grant offer. 

3. Financial Comments.  

1. This proposal seeks approval to accept £1,701,000. of Home Office grant funding for 2023/24.  The MPS confirm that there is additional MOPAC funded expenditure of £2,047,000 meeting the match funding requirement. Therefore, the total cost of the areas funded by the OCS is £3,748,000. 

4. Legal Comments. 

1. 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). 

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 accept any offer of grant funding. 

3. The grant will be paid to MOPAC by the Home Office in the exercise of power conferred upon the Secretary of State pursuant to Section 169 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 and Section 48 of the Police Act 1996 to make awards of Grant funding. 

4. GDPR and Data Privacy.   

5. 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. 

6. Under Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulation (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. 

7. Criteria published by the Information Assurance and Information Rights Unit within MPS has been reviewed and is considered that the London ROCU & SOC departments meet compliance requirements.  

8. MPS assure that a screening questionnaire has been completed and a further DPIA is not considered necessary. All asset enforcement activity takes place after individuals have been convicted of offences and thus personal information is either in the public domain or subject of DPA compliance during a criminal investigation. Data processing pre-conviction is undertaken in line with existing processes regulated by ECHR and DPA; as reflected by existing Privacy Notices published by the MPS Information Rights Unit. 

5.  The London ROCU (and ROCTA, RART & ACET), along with the SOC departments relevant to the funding streams, are already subject to the requirements and conditions placed upon it, as the MPS is a ‘State Body’ to comply with statutory requirements of the European Convention of Human Rights and Date Protection Act 2018. Both pieces of legislation place an obligation on the MPS to ensure personal data is processed fairly and lawfully to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals. 

6.       Equality Comments 

6.1.     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. 

6.2.    MPS assure that an equality screening has taken place, and that no positive or negative impact has been identified to any individual and/or group safeguarded by a protected characteristic and those who are not.  

7. Background/supporting papers. 

1.  Appendix 1 Home Office Grant Organised Crime Specific Grant Agreement 2023/2024.