Provision of Crimestoppers Trust Funding

This paper requests approval for funding of £372,818 per annum from 2016/17 to 2018/19 and to approve an exemption contract award to Treble 5 Treble 1 Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Crimestoppers.

The DMPC is asked to approve funding of £372,818 per annum from 2016/17 to 2018/19 for the provision of the Crimestoppers service and to approve an exemption contract award to Treble 5 Treble 1 Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Crimestoppers.

1. Introduction and background

1.1. Treble 5 Treble 1 Ltd is a subsidiary of Crimestoppers Trust, which provides anonymous information regarding criminal activity to all police forces in the UK. A call bureau operates on a 24/7 365 days a year basis. The MPS receives 24% of all national Crimestoppers information, which through fast time processing is disseminated to relevant areas of the business and used to detect, reduce and prevent crime throughout London.

1.2. It is proposed for this year the MPS remain outside of the newly agreed National Police Chief’s Council Service Level Agreement (SLA) and have a SLA directly with Crimestoppers.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. If the MPS were to stop funding Crimestoppers, it would mean the MPS would need to rely on its existing intelligence structures to generate intelligence opportunities. With the MPS being the largest contributor to the Crimestoppers Call Bureau there is a real risk that the Bureau would cease to exist. There is also the reputational issue for the MPS by not supporting a function that the public have confidence in and clearly use.

2.2. These are discussed in the Part 2.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The cost of £373,818 per annum will be funded from the Specialist Crime and Operations budget from 2016/17 until 2018/19.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. Regulation 32(2)(b)(iii) of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 provides that a contracting authority may use the negotiated procedure without prior publication of a contract notice when reasons connected with the protection of exclusive rights, the public contract may be awarded only to a particular economic operator. Treble 5 Treble 1 Ltd holds exclusive licensing rights to use the Crimestoppers brand and telephone number. Consequently, the Public Contract Regulations permit MOPAC to negotiate directly with Treble 5 Treble 1 Ltd for the provision of the service on the basis of their exclusive licensing rights.

5. Equality Comments

5.1. There are no direct equality or diversity implications arising from this report

6. Background/supporting papers

6.1. None.