Home Office Grip Funding 2022

This paper seeks approval for MPS application of up to £23,964,846 Home Office (HO) Grip Fund grant for 2022 -2025. The funding will be used to provide resources for the purposes of tackling violence in hotspot areas and long-term problem solving for violence prevention. Total funding is available until 2024/25 and annual applications will be expected by the Home Office.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Approve MPS bidding for up to £23,964,846 in 2022-25 of the Home Office Grip funding.
2. Approve acceptance of GRIP funding and the associated conditions as set out in the multi-year grant agreement, should the bid be successful.
3. Approve the associated match funding to be financed from within the existing MPS budget and MTFP, should the bid be successful.

1.1. On 17 February 2022 Kit Malthouse, Minister of State for Policing, and the Fire Service, wrote to Forces and PCCs to invite bids for the Grip Fund grant. The intention is that those successful in applying will receive a multi-year grant agreement, covering 2022/23 – 2024/25 financial years. The MPS is eligible for £7,988,282 for each financial year and has bid for the total £23,964,846.

1.2. Grip funding is a Home Office initiative aimed at cutting violence by giving additional funding to forces to support short-term suppression of levels of serious violence, as well as longer-term problem-solving strategies in hotspot areas. The funding aligns with MOPAC’s key Police and Crime Plan priority of preventing and reducing violence.

1.3. In 2021/22, MOPAC accepted £9,430,885 of the HO Grip Funding grant. The Decision also included funding of £170,000 for the BTP and £70,000 for the City of London Police. Approval of a grant to the Jill Dando Institute to the value of £264,000 for the fund was used to deliver training and expertise to MPS officers to deliver cultural change across the organisation.

1.4. The application form, written by the MPS, sets out plans for delivery over the next financial year, explaining how they intend to continue hotspot activity, building on learning from previous funded activity. Forces are only required to provide costed proposals with financial forecasting covering one financial year at a time. As a result, Forces will be required to produce updated Delivery Proposals for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years prior to year-end and may vary the agreement in accordance with grant terms.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The MPS’s application of continued Grip funding contributes to the MOPAC Police & Crime Plan 2021 - 25 as it supports the MPS strategic aims in reducing and preventing violence across the capital and provides significant opportunity to engage with partners and key service providers, outside of policing, to deliver a truly joined up and community focused approach to reducing violence.

2.2. To aid partnership and shared learning, the MPS will share the monitoring data provided to the Home Office with MOPAC. The DMPC has encouraged the MPS to consider ways in which multi-level evaluations, incorporating several commissioned and operational activity, might be evidenced. A MOPAC officer will sit on the strategic group to ensure partnership elements are included and benefits maximised. MOPAC will also suggest other forums, such as the Reducing Teenage Homicide Partnership and the London Crime Reduction Board, where delivery of the fund can be discussed, and learnings disseminated.

2.3. The MPS will also bid for money for the Innovation Fund. It is important we continue to seek new and innovative ways to suppress violence. Any deployments made in relation to any money awarded will be dependent upon appropriate consultation, including with local authorities

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The MPS is eligible for up to £7,988,282 per year for the financial years 2022/23 – 2024/25 (inclusive).

3.2. As per the application guidance, to secure Grip funding for the funding period, Forces must commit to providing a match funding contribution. For 2022/23 this will be 20 per cent of the Force’s 2022/23 allocation. Rising to 30% in 2023/24 and 40% 2024/25. Funding for this is provided for within the existing MPS MTFP.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. 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 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. Young White Londoners made up the highest proportion of victims of all types of serious violence except homicide in the twelve months to end March 2021. 39% of victims of ‘most serious violence’, 41% of knife crime victims and 41% of gun crime victims were White. But accounting for relative population size shows a very different picture of disproportionality. Young Black Londoners are more likely than young White Londoners to be victims of serious violence. Young Black Londoners were 3.1 times more likely to be a victim of knife crime compared to young White Londoners, 3.4 times more likely to be a victim of knife crime compared to young White males, 5.2 times more likely to be a victim of homicide compared with White Londoners, with young Black males 6.0 times more likely to be a victim of homicide compared with young White males.

6.3. This work is intended to have a positive impact on the likelihood of all Londoners, and particularly black Londoners, being the victims of violence. MOPAC will continue to monitor and act on issues of disproportionality through its Disproportionality Board.

6.4. Should the MPS be successful the subsequent request to accept the funding will include regard for the Equality Act’s Public Sector Equality Duty.