Sponsorship by M&S Action Counters Terrorism E-Learning Product

This decision seeks the approval to accept sponsorship funding of an additional £30,000 bringing the total sponsorship from Marks and Spencer for the Action Counters Terrorism (ACT) E-Learning to £109,000.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to approve the acceptance of continued sponsorship, to the revised value of £109,000, for the ACT e-learning package, from Marks and Spencer, pursuant to section 93 of the Police Act 1996.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. The Action Counters Terrorism (ACT) E Learning programme is an online version of the ACT Awareness presentation, delivered by Counter Terrorism Security Advisors (CTSAs), which was formally known as Project Griffin.

1.2. Marks and Spencer have previously sponsored the ACT E-learning package to the value of £79,000 – see PCD567. They would like to continue to provide sponsorship for this product. This additional sponsorship has been valued at £30,000 for 2021-2022, which takes the total sponsorship to £109,000.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. ACT products are the recommended engagement tool for delivering Counter Terror (CT) awareness advice and training to industry partners for all police forces in England and Wales and Scotland. They are used to support engagement across a diverse range of industry sectors, particularly those within crowded places.The stated mission of the ACT E-learning product is to ‘engage, encourage and enable members of the community to work in partnership with the police to deter, detect, and counter terrorist activity and crime,’.

2.2. The package provides free accredited counter terrorism advice for anyone wishing to access it. The package is now available for individuals as well as business. Being an online package it was a vital tool during the last year which allowed Counter Terror Policing (CTP) to continue to reach audiences with counter terrorism advice remotely. Updates have been made to improve the accessibility of the package, which is now fully subtitled.

2.3. Nearly one million modules have been completed by learners in the last 12 months. The continued availability of this package may result in the disruption of terrorist activity by improving situational awareness of the public, early reporting and prompt action, which could save lives and mitigate the impact of a terrorist incident. The ACT e-learning continues to develop to improve the user experience. Developments scheduled for this year include, updates to guidance and a full British sign language version.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The proposal is to accept benefit in kind sponsorship valued at £30,000, bringing the total sponsoship by Marks and Spencer to £109,000. If the funding ceases the budget to support the ACT Elearning will come from existing Counter Terror Policing budgets.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. Section 93 of the Police ACT 1996, allows the MOPAC, as the local policing body, in connection with the discharge of any of its functions, to accept gifts and loans of money and resources and includes the ability to provide commercial sponsorship terms to the third party.

4.2. The MOPAC scheme of Delegation at Clause 4.8 requires the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime to approve all inward donations ad sponsorship £50,000 and above in value.

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 assure that DPIA screening has been completed for this project. There are no privacy issues relating to this proposal. The ACT e-learning package does not store any personal information, and all analytical data is collated anonymously. The project 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. 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 assure that there are no identified or anticipated negative equality impacts relating to this proposal from an internal perspective. From an external perspective, the ACT e-learning package has been assessed for accessibility and disability compliance. Full subtitles were added last year and a Welsh version is currently in development. The proposed contribution would assist with development work planned for this year to provide a full British sign language version of the package.

7. Background/supporting papers

• Appendix 1 – MPS paper Continuation of Sponsorship by Marks and Spencer of the Action Counters Terrorism (ACT) E Learning Product