Home Office Grip Funding 2021

This paper seeks approval for the acceptance of £9,430,885 of Home Office (HO) Grip Violence Fund grant for the 2021/22 financial year. The funding will be used in the main for hot spot patrols to tackle violent crime in public spaces. The decision also seeks approval for the allocation of this funding by way of grant of £170,000 to the British Transport Police and £70,000 to the City of London Police. Approval to fund (from the HO grant) a grant payment to the Jill Dando Institute for the delivery of training and expertise to police officers in Problem Oreintated Policing (POP) is also sought.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Accept the receipt of the Home Office Grip funding into the MPS and the associated conditions as set down in the grant agreement. The funding is combined total of £9,430,885.

2. Approve three specific allocation of spends committed to within the grant agreements. They are:

a) Approve the allocation of £170,000 grant from the Home Office Grip funding to British Transport Police (BTP). This allocation is to fund their contribution towards the delivery of operational activity in their areas of responsibility in London. The grant will be paid in arrears at the end of the FY and will be subject to delivery of pre-determined outcomes.

b) Approve the allocation of £70,000 grant from the home office grip funding to City of London Police (CoLP). This allocation is to fund their contribution towards the delivery of operational activity in their areas of responsibility in London. The grant will be paid in arrears at the end of the FY and will be subject to delivery of pre-determined outcomes.

c) Approve the payment of a grant to the Jill Dando Institute (JDI) to the value of £264,900 from within the grip fund. This funding will be to deliver training and expertise to MPS officers who will then act as SMEs to deliver the cultural change across the organisation. The funding breakdown is detailed on the corresponding business case.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. This offer of grant funding for 2021/22 follows the acceptance of funding from the Home Office last year, and the allocation of some elements of the funding to organisations including British Transport Police (BTP) and City of London Police.

1.2. In order to expedite the delivery of this high priority work MOPAC signed a grant agreement accepting Home Office funding of £8,060,500 in August.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) states that accepting this grant funding contributes to the MOPAC Police & Crime Plan 2017-2021 as it supports the MPS strategic aims in reducing violence across the entire capital, and provides significant opportunity to engage with critical stakeholders and key service providers, outside of policing, to deliver a truly joined up and community focused approach to reducing violence.

2.2. The key success measures are as follows:

• A reduction in hospital admissions for assaults with a knife or sharp object and especially among those victims aged under 25,

• A reduction in knife-enabled serious violence and especially among those victims aged under 25,

• A reduction in all non-domestic homicides and especially among those victims aged under 25 involving knives.

2.3. The allocations to the British Transport Police (BTP) and City of London Police are to fund their contribution towards the delivery of operational activity in their areas of responsibility in London.

2.4. The proposed use of the £264,900 of grant funding is for the development of training in Problem Oreintated Policing (POP) for officers by the Jill Dando Institute.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The acceptance of the HO funding of £9,430,885 does not require any match funding by MOPAC.

3.2. The cost of the grants to BTP (£170,000), City of London Police (£70,000) and the Jill Dando Institute (£264,900) will be funded from the HO grant funding.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. Under Schedule 3, paragraph 7 (1) Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 (the 2011 Act) MOPAC has incidental powers to “do anything which is calculated to facilitate, or is conducive or incidental to, the exercise of the functions of the Office.” Paragraph 7 (2) (a) provides that this includes entering into contracts and other agreements. The Met assure that these powers are sufficiently broad to permit MOPAC to enter into the grant agreement.

4.2. In relation to the receipt of grant monies, under Section 93 of the Police Act 1996, MOPAC “may, in connection with the discharge of any of its functions, accept gifts of money, and gifts or loans of other property, on such terms as appear to [MOPAC] to be appropriate”.

4.3. Under S.9 Police and Social Responsibility Act 2011, MOPAC can make a grant with the objective of “secur[ing], or contribute to securing, crime and disorder reduction in the [MPS]’s area”.

4.4. Para 4.8 of the MOPAC Scheme of Consent and Delegation provides the DMPC with delegated power to approve all offers made of grant funding. Further para 4.8 also provides the DMPC with delegated power for the strategy for the award of individual grants and/ or the award of all individual grants whether to secure or contribute to securing crime reduction in London or for other purposes

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 Met assure that the project does not use personally identifiable data of members of the public, and so there are no GDPR issues to be considered

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 Met assure that the grant arrangement has been prepared under the governance of the Violent Crime Task Force (VCTF) and is covered under that Operational Command Units Community Impact Assessment. It has undergone an initial equality screening and real consideration has been taken to assess equality impact caused by the proposed business changes. As a result 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

• Appendix 1 MPS Paper Home Office Grip Funding 2021