National County Lines Co-ordination Centre Home Office Funding

The Home Office have announced additional spending for police forces and other law enforcement agencies to enhance the way they tackle County Lines criminality. The Metropolitan Police is the recipient of some of these funds as the host force of the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre. This paper outlines the money allocated, how it will be spent and highlights the time frame in which that will occur. This funding has been allocated for the financial year 2021/22.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:

1. Approve the MPS to accept £4,403,246 Home Office grant bid funding as the host force and appointed budget holder for national activities relating to the continuation of the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre. The grant funding is for expenditure and is for the financial year 2021-2022.

2. Approve provision of Grant Payments to the Third Parties outlined in Appendix B (within restricted part of report) to be paid under delegated authority.

3. Approve the MPS to accept £2,000,000 Home Office grant bid funding as the host force and appointed budget holder for national activities in the continuation of a “surge” funding provision for forces outside the MPS which the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre oversees. The grant funding is for expenditure and is for the financial year 2021-2022.

4. Approve provision of Grant Payments to Third Parties who successfully bid against the £2,000,000 “surge” funding provision to be paid under delegated authority.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. All of the funding and activity described in this paper is as a result of the funding that the Home Office have allocated after the Home Secretary’s announcement of £40m to combat County Lines was launched.

1.2. The National County Lines Co-ordination Centre (NCLCC) is funded by the Home Office and is focused around delivering an accurate analysis of the current threat posed by county lines, producing an effective operational response and developing and disseminating relevant strategy derived from best practice and from subject matter experts for national compliance.

1.3. The continuation of the NCLCC is reliant on funds to produce beneficial outputs and give additional support for policing and wider law enforcement given the enhanced priority of County Lines in recent times. This will assist with the objective set by the Home Secretary to “roll up” County Lines.

1.4. The NCLCC has maintained its current business design with some additional functionality to address operational gaps identified. The introduction of a separate “surge” funding provision has been bid for to ensure all police forces in England and Wales have an opportunity to access Home Office funds, to complement the wider funding of the MPS, West Midlands and Merseyside who are separately receiving funding for operational teams dedicated to County Lines.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The NCLCC will enable the MPS across all boroughs (and other forces) to have an enhanced response to keeping children and young people safe through safeguarding strategies and best practice. The NCLCC will also enable the MPS to benefit from national collaboration to tackle and combat organised criminality and its impact on serious violence, use of weapons, drugs and trafficking.

2.2. Detailed information is contained in the restricted section of the report.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The NCLCC costs are £4.4m for financial year 2021/2022.

3.2. The MPS hosts the majority of posts with national responsibility, and the Regional Organised Crime Units host the roles with regional responsibility. The MPS retains approximately £1.4m of this Grant to fund posts resourced by the MPS. The cost of the posts from other Agencies and Forces which are hosted and funded through the grant is approximately £3.1m. Reimbursed Third Parties are outlined at Annex D of the restricted part of the report.

3.3. The funds will be received by Lead Forces for ROCU, BTP and NCA by Grant Agreement where necessary.

3.4. Surge funds of £2m will be managed by the NCLCC. Reimbursement to Third Parties will be done via the grant and will be identified through a set bidding process.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. In accordance with paragraph 4.8 of MOPAC’s Scheme of Consent and Delegation the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime may approve the bids for grant funding made and all offers made of grant funding; and/or where appropriate a strategy for grant giving.

4.2. If approved, the terms of the grants will be formalised between the relevant parties overseen by MPS Commercial Services. MOPAC has the legal powers to enter into Grant arrangements with Third Parties 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);

4.3. MOPAC has an obligation to publish any grant agreement entered into pursuant to Schedule 1, Paragraph 3(g) of the Elected Local Policing Bodies (Specified Information) (Amendment) Order 2012.

4.4. The Grant Agreement is legally binding and the acceptance of the Grant is legal. There have not been any legal issues that arise from the proposal, bid or development of the NCLCC.

5. GDPR and Data Privacy

5.1. The MPS is subject to the requirements and conditions placed on it as a 'State' body to comply with the European Convention of Human Rights and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. Both legislative requirements place an obligation on the MPS to process personal data fairly and lawfully in order to safeguard the rights and freedoms of individuals.

5.2. Under Article 35 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Section 57 of the DPA 2018, Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) become mandatory for organisations with technologies and processes that are likely to result in a high risk to the rights of the data subjects.

5.3. The Information Assurance and Information Rights units within MPS will be consulted at all stages to ensure the project meets its compliance requirements.

5.4. The acceptance of the grant does not use personally identifiable data of members of the public, so there are no GDPR issues to be considered.

6. Equality Comments

6.1. The design and implementation of the NCLCC has undergone initial equality screening. Due regard has been taken to the Equality Act’s Public Sector Equality Duty under Sec 149 of the Equality Act 2010. Real consideration has been taken to assess equality impact caused by the proposed business change including effective engagement and analysing relevant equality information. As a result no negative impact has been identified to any individual and/or group safeguarded by a protected characteristic and to those who are not. Further reviews will be conducted (if necessary) and process monitoring completed. If as a result of the continual development of the NCLCC Equality Impact is identified, a full Equality Impact Assessment will be initiated.

7. Background/supporting papers

7.1. The funding for NCLCC and operational surge funding previously have been authorised by MOPAC under PCD 861 (£4.4m for 2020/21), PCD 726 (£1.2m surge funds 2020/21) and PCD 386 (£3.6m for 18 months across FY 2018/2019/2020).