Grant Funding Acceptance – Cyber Dependent Crime

This paper requests the acceptance of £1,116,625 of Police Transformation Fund grant funding for 2020/21 from the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) to address cyber dependent crime.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to approve the acceptance of a grant for 2020/21 of up to £1,116,625 from the NPCC lead for Cyber Crime

1. Introduction and background

1.1. This papers seeks the authority to accept Police Transformation Fund (PTF) grant from the National Police Chiefs Council to tackle cyber dependent crime. Previous funding for this activity has been approved for the period from October 2018 to March 2020.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The grant will be used to fund up to £1,091,625 for the wage costs for up to 14 officers in 2020/21, up to £5,000 for training and up to £20,000 for equipment.

2.2. The grant is conditional on MPS matching the funding provided for staffing and ring-fencing the use of the grant to cyber dependent crime. The MPS has assured that both of these conditions are met.

2.3. The MPS state that the acceptance of the grant “directly support the MOPAC Police & Crime Plan which states “we will continuously review our approach, skills and capabilities to tackle new and emerging threats …….. and the changes in the types of crime facing Londoners such as social media hate crime, fraud and cybercrime.”

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The proposal is for the acceptance of grant funding of £1,116,625 for 2020/21.

3.2. The existing budget for staff allocated to this work for 2020/21 will be released to contribute to corporate savings. There is no expectation of further PTF funding in future years.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. The grant is accepted 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);

4.2. 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 all bids for grant funding.

5. GDPR and Data Privacy

5.1. 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.

5.2. The MPS have assured that screening questions have been completed and a DPIA is not required because this is not a project or application to change or introduce a new process or function but to deliver business as usual in an investigative capacity.

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. The MPS has assured that this recommendation does not change any aspects relating to our equality obligations and compliance under the Equality Act in particular our continued commitment as an equal opportunities employer to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty (section 149) therefore, an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) or an Equality screening would not be required at this time.

7. Background/supporting papers

• Appendix 1 MPS Report Funding for Force Level Cyber Dependent Crime Response