Grant Funding Acceptance for Multi-Agency Response Serious Organised

This paper requests the acceptance of £271,815 of grant funding for 2020/21 from the Ministry of Justice for the implementation of a multi-agency model to tackle Serious Organised Crime (SOC) in prisons to provide support to the criminal justice system.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to approve the acceptance of an offer of funding from the Ministry of Justice of £271,815 of Serious Organised Crime (SOC) Grant funding to enable the establishment of the London MARSOC hub during 2020/21

1. Introduction and background

1.1. This papers seeks the authority to accept grant funding from the Ministry of Justice to tackle SOC in prisons.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The MPS set out that the aim of MARSOC is to “Pro-actively disrupt the highest-harm SOC individuals, using the most effective combination of our collective capabilities, information and intelligence, to deliver a ‘whole-system’ response.”

2.2. The agencies involved include Home Office, policing, prisons and probation and the National Crime Agency (NCA). This establishment phase of the national project is being overseen by a Delivery Board with representation from HO, HMPPS and policing.

2.3. The MPS state that this activity will contribute to the MOPAC Police & Crime Plan 2017-2021 by

• manage the London SOC threat in our prisons and, in doing so, enable better informed and more effective policing responses to the individuals and groups causing the greatest amount of harm

• help provide greater collective capacity across threats and across capabilities through improved focus and coordination.

• It will give greater collective agility to capitalise on intelligence opportunities and dividends.

• MARSOC will also help lever greater support from the National SOC capabilities to better mitigate priority threats in London. This includes targeting organised crime groups engaged in serious violence, grooming and criminally exploiting children, and trafficking women for prostitution.

2.4. The MPS team will operate from within the London Region Prison Intelligence Unit (LRPIU).

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The proposal is for the acceptance of grant funding of £271,815 for 2020/21.

3.2. The existing budget for staff allocated to this work will be retained and the roles backfilled to minimise operational impact of the change.

3.3. Future funding past 31 March 2021 is subject to the Spending Review. If future funding is not provided the officers/staff will be prioritised for roles within the LRPIU.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. Under Schedule 3 Paragraph 7 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 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).

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 formal agreements for the MARSOC project are being finalized to be completed before the project commences. The processes governing the lawful exchange of information between the key partners, police and HMPPS, are well established, have been subject to rigorous judicial scrutiny and subject to IPCO inspection. HMPPS through their Operational Partnerships Team are finalising an information sharing MoU between HMPPS and law enforcement, to be signed off by NPCC.

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 an Equality Impact Assessment has been conducted and will be further developed as and when parameters change. No negative impact has been identified to any individual and/or group safeguarded by a protected characteristic and to those who are not.

7. Background/supporting papers

7.1. Appendix 1 MPS Report Grant Funding for Multi-Agency Response to Serious Organised Crime (MARSOC) Hub