Violent Crime Taskforce (VCTF) Funding

The MPS received funding of £15m in the financial year 2018/19. This was provided from additional funding raised by the Mayor through raising the council tax precept, and is directed towards the tackling of violent crime. The funding led to the creation of the Violent Crime Taskforce.

This paper requests approval from DMPC for specific recommendations on the provision of grants to partner organisations from the VCTF funding.

The DMPC is asked to:

• Approve a £100k grant to British Transport Police and to note the allocation of £50k to City of London Police to enable enhanced activity in areas of the capital under their policing remit as directed by the Mayor.
• Approve the increase of delegated authority of the Third-Party Contracts Commercial Director to £85k when approving VCTF grants. MOPAC have directed that £1m to be allocated as 12 individual grants of max £84k. for each of the Frontline Policing BCUs. The grants will be awarded locally by BCU Commanders to enhance Community Safety Partnerships (CSP).

1. Introduction and background

1.1. During the 2018/19 Budget process, the Mayor provided additional funding to the Met through raising council tax precept. Of this, £15m was ringfenced to combat violent crime, focusing on violent crime, weapon-enabled crime and serious criminality.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. Under the objective to “Stand with Communities, Neighbourhoods, & Families Against Knife Crime” an allocation of £1m is stipulated to be ‘ringfenced’ for allocation to those MPS/Borough Community Safety Partnerships to support enforcement and partnership activity. BCU Commanders will decide on priorities for funding in consultation with local CSPs. The grants will be overseen locally as part of the CSP Knife Crime Plans. The Central Oversight will come from the joint MOPAC & MPS Knife Programme Boards.

3. Financial Comments

3.1. The funding associated with this report (overall £15m) forms part of the Frontline Policing Group budget. The allocation of £1m as requested for approval in this report is to be ‘ringfenced’ for allocation to those MPS/Borough Community Safety Partnerships to support enforcement and partnership activity. The allocation is to be split evenly across the 12 BCUs to deliver a maximum of £84k grant for CSP activity to each.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. As per Clause 4.8 of the Scheme of Delegation and Consent, the DMPC has delegated authority for the approval of

• Bids for grant funding made and all offers made of grant funding; and/or where appropriate a strategy for grant giving.
• The strategy for the award of individual grants and/ or the award of all individual grants whether to secure or contribute to securing crime reduction in London or for other purposes.

5. GDPR/Data Privacy

5.1. This proposed grant giving does not use personally identifiable data of members of the public therefore there are no GDPR issues to be considered.

6. Equality Comments

6.1. A significant amount of community engagement and diversity impact assessments were carried out as part of the original MOPAC plan.

6.2. Within the MPS Violent Crime Strategy there is a dedicated Community Partnership strand. This team continuously monitors and assesses the work associated with this funding for community impact.

7. Background/supporting papers

None.