PCD 1212 Home Office funding for Cyber Force and Regional response for London

PCD 1212 Home Office funding for Cyber Force and Regional response for London

This paper seeks approval to accept continued Home Office (HO) grant funding of £3,018,000 in 2022/23 (and for the years 2023-25 subject to HO confirmation) to support MPS activity in relation to the Cyber Crime Unit in detecting, disrupting and deterring adversaries to enhance UK security in and through cyberspace and to include prevent, protect and prepare activities alongside pursue. 

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is recommended to:   

1. Approve acceptance of Home Office Grant funding of up to £3,018,000 to support the Prevent, Protect, Prepare and Pursue response to cyber dependent crime in 2022/23. 

2. Approve acceptance of Home Office Grant funding of up to £3,018,000 annually to support the Prevent, Protect, Prepare and Pursue response to cyber dependent crime between 2023 – 2025, subject to HO confirmation. 

PART I - NON-CONFIDENTIAL FACTS AND ADVICE TO THE DMPC 

1. Introduction and background  

1. This is a continuation of funding previously approved by MOPAC PCD371, PCD815 and PCD955. This funding stream has been in place since 2014. 

2. The current grant funding ceased on 31/03/2022 and the grant offered for continuation will be for financial year 2022/23, with the potential for HO to confirm grant funding for the years 2023/24 and 2024/25. 

2. Issues for consideration 

1. The proposed grant funding will directly support the MOPAC Police & Crime Plan in the following areas  

• MOPAC will work with Action Fraud and the MPS to ensure victims of fraud and cybercrime are offered timely and effective support, prioritising the most vulnerable victims and ensuring adequate multi-agency support arrangements are put in place as soon as possible. 

• MOPAC will integrate the work of the London Digital Security Centre – which provides advice and support to small businesses in London to help protect them from online crime – into a new London Cyber Resilience Centre. This will integrate with national efforts to protect small businesses from online crime, supported with Home Office funding, and led nationally by the NPCC. 

3. Financial Comments  

1. This proposal seeks approval to accept upto £3,018,000 of Home Office grant funding for 2022/23, and subject to Home Office confirmation the same funding for 2023/24 and 2024/25. The grant will support the funding of staff and officers as well as software, equipment, specialist training and communications. 

4. Legal Comments 

1. The acceptance of Home Office grant will be 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—entering into contracts and other agreements (whether legally binding or not); 

2. The making of this Grant will be under the powers conferred on the Home Office by Section 169 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 and Section 48 of the Police Act 1996 to make awards of grant funding. 

3. Paragraph 4.8 of the MOPAC Scheme of Delegation and Consent provides that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime (DMPC) has delegated authority to approve all bids for grant funding. 

5. Commercial Issues  

1. The MPS assure that any purchases of equipment, software, training and communications activities will be via existing MOPAC-approved compliant procurement routes. 

2. The MPS assure that the delivery of this project will contribute to delivering the London Anchor Institutions’ Charter objective “Support our communities” by Cyber Protect teams working  with many organisations and forums to extend our reach, most notably the Community Watch project upskilling neighbourhood watch coordinators to share protect advice with their members and communities.  

6. GDPR and Data Privacy  

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.   

2. The MPS assure that initial Data Protection screening questions have been completed and that a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is not required because this is not a project or application to change or introduce a new process or function but to deliver business as usual in an investigative capacity. 

7. Equality Comments  

  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. 

8. The MPS assure that an equality screening exercise was completed where it was identified that there was no impact to any of the protected characteristic groups negating the completion of a full EIA at this time. 

9. Background/supporting papers 

• Appendix 1 MPS Report  - Home Office Grant for Cyber Force and Regional, Response for London