Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA)

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the implications on the MPS of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and to seek approval for an increase in police officers, police staff, and agency workers for Operation Winter Key which is the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) response to the inquiry.

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) is asked to;

1. approve the recruitment of an additional 17 agency staff at a cost of £360,000 in 2016/17 to be funded from reserves
2. approve the continual employment of 27 agency staff posts from 2017/18 until 2019/20 at a cost of £1,026,000 per year, to be added to 2017/18 to 2019/20 savings targets
3. note the decision to redeploy a further 11 police officers into the Operation
4. note the decision to allocate Operation Winter Key a police staff Budgetary Workforce Target of 21 posts.

Introduction and background

Operation Winter Key is the Metropolitan Police Services (MPS) response to manage the impact of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).
Management Board originally considered the resourcing of this service in September 2015 and agreed a police officer and police staff establishment equivalent to 80% of the original request

In July 2016 Management Board considered a further bid for additional resources and agreed to reallocate both police officers and police staff in recognition of the current and anticipated workload of the operation.

Issues for consideration

The principles of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse require that they have full access to the material they require, and that the MPS has a statutory requirement to provide IICSA the material and detailed reports within set timescales. If an allegation of child abuse is received by the inquiry it will be referred to the Police.

Since September 2015 the Inquiry has formally announced the public hearing strands and referrals have commenced impacting on the MPS resourcing within Operation Winter Key. The current staffing is insufficient to meet the current demand and the additional staff will be deployed to ensure the MPS can provide to IICSA full disclosure within the statutory time limits, and commence investigations of both historic child abuse and allegations of historical police misconduct that are being received by the MPS.

If the team is not adequately resourced to fulfil its obligations, these are the risks of;

• Failure to provide full disclosure within statutory timescales to IICSA.
• Failure to identify and understand links between enquiries both inside the MPS and with other police forces.
• Delay in progressing criminal investigations and referrals from the IICSA ‘Truth and Reconciliation Panels’ and referrals from other forces. Inherent in this is the risk of delays in safeguarding young people who remain at risk of continuing abuse.
• Delays in professional standards investigations, including those managed by the IPCC thereby impacting on the MPS’s ability to give full and informed disclosure to the IICSA.

Financial Comments

Additional funding of £360,000 is sought to meet the needs of the proposed increase in numbers of agency staff in 2016/17 from 10 to 27 assuming 6 months of costs to be drawn down from reserves.

A revenue budget of £1,026,000 per financial year is sought to fund the 27 agency staff till March 2020. The shortfall will be added to the savings target for 2017/18 until March 2020 and considered as part of the 2017/18 Budget Submission.

Legal Comments

There are no legal implications in providing this resource and funding

Equality Comments

There are no Equality and Diversity implications in providing this resource and funding.