Responding to the London Victims Commissioner Review

In March 2019, the Independent Victims’ Commissioner for London published her review of how well London’s criminal justice system complies with the Victims Code of Practice (VCOP). As part this review, the Victims’ Commissioner put forward recommendations and next steps to make London’s criminal justice system and processes more victim centred, in line with the Mayor’s overarching ambition of putting victims at the heart of London’s criminal justice service. This decision will support the Victims’ Commissioner to drive forward those recommendations. It will be used to develop strategic partnership delivery plans and governance arrangements to address the findings in the review.

MOPAC and partners responded to the Victims’ Commissioner recommendations, see MOPAC’s response in annex 1. While MOPAC has already made substantial progress in ensuring commissioned victims services are integrated and support victims to access their VCOP entitlements; this decision will enable MOPAC to build on that progress and deliver further improvements in line with the London Victims’ Commissioners recommendations.

The Mayor has allocated £3.5m additional funding which includes funding to make real and immediate progress against the recommendations in the VCOP review and thereby improve services for victims. This funding will enhance London partnership’s ability to monitor compliance with the Victims Code, bespoke research on disclosure and technology evidence in cases of rape, support partnership arrangements to deliver the recommendations in the Victims’ Commissioner report, and pilot training for front-line practitioners to take a trauma-informed approach to working with victims to build on the successes of the London Victims and Witness Service.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to approve the budget allocation of £607,116 of which £451,792 will be deployed in 2019/20 and the remaining £155,324 will be earmarked in reserves for future years for the purposes set out in this decision. This budget is for the following:

• £186,101 to sustain and increase the pace by which the Victims’ Commissioner is able to drive forward the recommendations set out the VCOP review and improve victims’ experience with London’s Criminal Justice Service;

• £125,691 to enable MOPAC to carry out the new responsibilities for monitoring VCOP compliance and to support criminal justice agencies and service providers in overcoming information sharing barriers that impede London’s Criminal Justice Service’s ability to provide a good service to victims; and

• £140,000 to pilot training for front-line practitioners to take a trauma-informed approach to working with victims within the context of the London Victims and Witness Service which will improve the frontline delivery of services.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. On 21 March 2019, London’s Independent Victims’ Commissioner published a comprehensive and rigorous study of victims’ experiences with the Victims’ Code of Practice (VCoP) in London. It was informed by more than 2,100 victims of crime, as well as insights from 14 victims’ focus groups, including representatives from the Met Police, the Witness Care Unit, and Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service.

1.2. The review revealed that despite the police and service providers’ desire to do the best possible job for victims and witnesses, lack of resources and funding were significant obstacles to following the Code. The review also highlighted that the Victims’ Code itself needs revising and updating, to make it more accessible for both victims and front-line practitioners. In the review, the Victims’ Commissioner set out her recommendations for London and national partners to make substantive improvements to the victims’ experience in London. Please see annex 1 for MOPAC’s detailed response to relevant recommendations which can also be found online here: /programmes-strategies/mayors-office-policing-and-crime/victims-commissioner

1.3. Partners have been supportive of the London Independent Victims’ Commissioner’s findings and recommendations. The London Crime Reduction Board’s Victims Board and the London Criminal Justice Board’s Victims and Witness Delivery Group are the partnership boards that have agreed to oversee the work to address the findings and take forward the recommendations.

1.4. In 2018, the National Criminal Justice Board set out that Police and Crime Commissioners would become responsible for overseeing a new monitoring process which measures criminal justice partners’ compliance with certain entitlements under the Victims’ Code. Subsequently, in May 2019, the Ministry of Justice set out in more detail what Police and Crime Commissioners are now expected to report back to the MoJ in terms of local compliance levels. MOPAC is actively working with partners under the London Criminal Justice Board governance to implement these new responsibilities.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. This decision serves the dual purpose of providing the London Victims’ Commissioner with the resources to sustain and increase the pace of delivery against the VCOP review while also enabling MOPAC to build on the successes of programmes and services like the London Victim and Witness Service in overcoming barriers to providing a good service to victims and driving a partnership approach to monitoring and improving compliance with VCOP in London.



2.2. With additional resources, the London Victims’ Commissioner’s office influence will have greater reach and more effectively manage the concurrent programmes needed to deliver at an increased pace the meaningful changes called for by the VCOP review.

2.3. In addition,a strategic partnership delivery plan is needed to ensure progress against the recommendations set out in the VCOP report is timely and efficient. Given the wide-reaching, mulit-agency nature of the plan it is proposed that this be coordinated with the support of external consultants. An upfront investment in the planning and partnership governance arrangements will pay dividends in future years in terms of the progress against the VCOP recommendations. It will also build on the growing evidence base for further devolution and integration of services for victims in London.

2.4. Additional funding are also needed to enable MOPAC to undertake its new responsibilities for monitoring VCOP compliance in London and carry out a bespoke piece of research . The funding is needed to undertake the programme management, analysis, and data gathering (additional surveys, focus groups, dip sampling, etc…). MOPAC continue to lobby central government to recoup the costs of the additional resources required to undertake these new responsibilities.

2.5. Information sharing challenges were frequently highlighted by practitioners in the VCOP Review as one of the main barriers to providing a good service to victims. Investing in a cross-agency resource that will upskill and unblock information sharing issues will help to bring about the integrated approach called for by the VCOP review. In addition, this resource will aid in facilitating a partnership approach to VCOP compliance monitoring by helping to troubleshoot any information sharing issues that arise.

2.6. An important driver for a good service to victims, as highlighted by the VCOP Review, is the manner in which services and entitlements are provided to victims. Despite growing resourcing pressures and a confusing/convoluted system, frontline practitioners regularly go above and beyond to provide victims with a good service. The purpose of this additional resource is to test what more can be done to assist frontline practitioners and the organisations they work for in taking an empathetic and trauma informed approach to delivering services. The objective is to improve a victim’s overall experience and satisfaction with London’s criminal justice service. This budget will be used to pilot training on communication and engagement styles alongside consultancy services to drive a cultural shift in the way services are delivered within the context of the London Victims and Witness Service.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. This report sets out proposals for responding to the VCOP review.

3.2. The maximum budget allocated for this piece of work is £607,116 and will be funded with £47,500 from MOPAC’s core budget and £559,616 from the £3.5m additional budget provided by the Mayor to MOPAC for victims’ services and crime prevention activity in the 2019 - 2020 budget process. Of the total budget for this piece of work, £451,792will be deployed in 2019/20 and the remaining £155,324 will be earmarked in reserves for future years for the purposes set out in this decision. A breakdown of the budget for 2019/20 is set out in the table below.

Overview of budget and funding arrangements:

4. Legal Comments

4.1. MOPAC’s general powers are set out in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 (the 2011 Act). Section 3(6) of the 2011 Act provides that MOPAC must “secure the maintenance of the metropolitan police service and secure that the metropolitan police service is efficient and effective.” Under Schedule 3, paragraph 7 MOPAC has wide 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.

4.2. Section 143 (1) (b) of the Anti-Social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014 provides an express power for MOPAC, as a local policing body, to provide or commission services “intended by the local policing body to help victims or witnesses of, or other persons affected by, offences and anti-social behaviour.”



4.3. In line with section 4 of MOPAC’s Scheme of Consent and Delegation, the DMPC has authority for the approval of business cases for revenue expenditure above £500,000 and for the strategy for the award of grants. The proposals set out in this decision form are accordingly to be approved by the DMPC.

4.4. The delegation of responsibility for the finalisation of planning and contractual arrangements, including relevant terms and the signing of agreements, to the Chief Executive Officer for activities to the value of £499,000 or less, is in accordance with the general power of delegation in section 5.

5. Commercial Issues

5.1. Professional, technical and legal advice is being sought from TfL procurement and legal colleagues to determine the process which needs to be followed to identify any organisation required to support the delivery of these proposals, to ensure it is fully compliant with the Public Contract Regulations 2015.

6. Public Health Approach

6.1. This decision provides the funding to enable a better informed and more cohesive partnership approach to improving outcomes for victims in London which will much align with and support the Violence ReductionUnit’s public health approach to tackling the causes of violent crime in London.

7. GDPR and Data Privacy

7.1. A DPIA will be undertaken as part of the scoping and planning phases of developing the trauma-informed training pilot.

7.2. Specialist advice from data privacy experts will be sought as part of developing the programme of work needed to improve London’s ability to monitor VCOP compliance. This is to ensure any risks to personal data are identified and adequate safeguards are put in place.

8. Equality Comments

8.1. The programme of work to improve VCOP monitoring arrangements in London will have a particular focus on identifying any gaps in victim experiences across different demographics.

8.2. There are no significant equality or diversity implications to this programme of work that need to be considered in detail at this stage. MOPAC will review any equality and diversity implications of the trauma-informed training pilot in greater detail as part of the scoping and planning phases of that project.

9. Background/supporting papers

9.1. Annex 1: MOPAC’s response to relevant VCOP recommendations