London Crime Reduction Board - 12 July 2023 - Minutes

Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London (Chair)

Sophie Linden, DMPC
Diana Luchford, MOPAC
Will Balakrishnan, MOPAC
Tamara Barnett, MOPAC
James Bottomley, MOPAC
Connie Stygall, MOPAC
Claire Waxman, Independent Victims' Commissioner for London
Debbie Weekes-Bernard, GLA
Lib Peck, VRU
DAC Alexis Boon, MPS
Marie Heracleous, MPS
Jane Garvan, MPS
David Malone, CPS South
Barry Hughes, CPS North
Leah Simms, Probation
Sinead Dervin, NHS London
Althea Loderick, London Councils
Cllr Darren Rodwell, Barking & Dagenham
Cllr Ian Edwards, Hillingdon
Ekta Gohil, London Councils
Rangan Momen, London Councils
Henry Smithers, YJB
Stephanie Bibby Roberts, YJB
Andrea Simon, EVAW
Ian Bickers, London Prisons Group
Pinaki Ghoshal, ADCS
Professor Neal Hazel, Salford University

Apologies

Dame Lynne Owens, Deputy Commissioner
Doug Flight, London Councils
Kilvinder Vigurs, Probation
Lionel Idan, CPS
Cllr Jas Athwal, Redbridge
Jo Towens, HMCTS
Kenny Bowie, MOPAC

The previous minutes were agreed. MOPAC went through the LCRB completed actions.

2.a Operational Updates

The MPS noted the extraordinary demand they are facing with 999 and 101 calls, last month receiving 100,000 calls in one day which is the highest on record. There are several operations running to tackle violence, over the summer period, including VAWG, open space violence and robbery.  In central London there’s a concerted effort on central BCUs to target robbery and tackle the handlers of stolen property. Safer neighbourhood teams have been tasked with investigating where stolen goods are going and are working with Local Authorities to utilise their expertise to strengthen intelligence. Public protection is showing early signs of improvement for detection and outcome rates for rape and stalking cases, but there is still a lot of work to be done. The 32 new borough super intendents have responsibility for local boroughs and the partnership approach to supporting local delivery.

2.b The Baroness Casey Review/A New Met for London Update

A New Met for London plan is due to launch soon, which sets out important principles; it puts Londoners and communities first, is a tilt to local policing, is front-line focused, promotes inclusivity, being collaborative internally and externally with partners, and using data in a new way to better inform decisions and put resources in the right place. The MPS have new values of respect, integrity and encouraging accountability to underpin those principles. The plan sets out how the MPS will keep the public safe, responding to and resolving calls, investigating and solving crime, and putting neighbourhood policing back into the boroughs, with the PCSO uplift that the Mayor is supporting.

2.c Right Care, Right Person (RCRP)

The Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) model is about making the right decision to get patients the right care from the right professional, releasing policing hours to enable focus on policing activities. The Met need to work with partners on a multi-agency response to be able to implement the model by ensuring the right support is in place. It was suggested in the media that the Police would no longer attend any incidents of health crisis risk but the MPS offered assurance that the Police will always attend an incident where there is an immediate risk to life or serious harm. The MPS don’t want to over-police or criminalise and stigmatise those in health crisis and want to work with partners to ensure they get the right care they need. The MPS recognise that 31^st August is a challenging deadline and are asking partners to come back with plans on how they will work with the MPS to roll this out over the autumn period.

Professor Neal Hazel presented MOPAC’s Child First Approach as the contemporary evidence base around what is important to supporting children’s positive outcomes and preventing offending; it forms a 4-tenet principle to inform decision making for policy and practice involving children. Child First underpins the national standards in the wider criminal justice system for youth justice and youth custody service commissioning. Child First uses a useful common language to be used across the Criminal Justice System to ensure partnerships work effectively. There was commitment across the board to support a partnership approach to delivering Child First.

The principle of the Prison Violence Reduction Strategy was how London Prisons Group can contribute to meeting the Mayor’s objectives around reducing violence in London, in prisons and on the streets in the community. There has been wide consultation across London on the issues prisons are facing around: gangs, information sharing, trauma, neurodiversity and ACEs, debt in the elicit economy, corruption, the management of younger people 18-21 and diversion, and how police can have a presence to help deal with these issues. London Prisons Group would like wider consultation and involvement of partners across LCRB to co-commission and help deliver interventions in the 3 proposed pilot prison sites: HMP Pentonville, Wandsworth and Feltham.

CPS North updated that the Magistrates court has now recovered, and workload is approximately 5% less than it was pre-pandemic but there is still a need to improve London’s early guilty plea rate. In the Crown court, there has been a steady decline in the number of cases at a rate of approximately 150-200 cases a month. The backlog is steadily decreasing, and the CPS estimate the Crown court being back to pre-pandemic levels in the next 4 years.

The DMPC updated that MOPAC received over 300 applicants being shortlisted for the new London Policing Board and the first meeting will be in early Autumn. The London Policing Board will sit at the top of the Mayor’s and MOPAC’s oversight and governance structure, which is currently being reviewed and partners will be consulted.

There was no other business.