National Intelligence Ballistics System

This paper seeks a decision to support the allocation of £199,077 per year, over a 3 year period (2017/18-2019/20), to fund the MPS membership of the National NaBIS service. NaBIS is the UK Ballistic Intelligence Service and provides strategic and tactical intelligence support for forces across the UK to tackle firearms related criminality.

The decision required is the renewal of an existing membership by the MPS of the NaBIS Service, which has existed since 2007.

The DMPC is asked to approve;

• A renewal to the existing MPS membership via an s22 Collaboration Agreement, of the NaBIS service to cover the period of 2017/18- 2019/20.

• The funding of MPS membership of the National NaBIS service at revenue cost of £597,231 over the three year period. This amounts to £199,077 per year, to be funded from existing revenue budgets

1. Introduction and background

1.1. The NaBIS intelligence database provides a national picture of firearm usage, seizure and trends. Forensic information is inputted into the database by all forces providing a national intelligence picture.

1.2. The product that NaBIS provides, aligned to the work of individual forces, is critical to the understanding of gun crime in the UK and within each force. It gives a clear understanding of the level of threat posed by firearms that are available to criminals and works with police forces, the National Crime Agency (NCA) and other partners to pro-actively target resources against the greatest threats.

1.3. The NaBIS s22 Collaboration Agreement is an agreement to ensure collaborative and co-ordinated policing activity can take place. For this purpose, the parties, supported by the Home Secretary, agree to deliver national services for NaBIS, set out in the agreement and associated Memorandum of Understanding.

2. Issues for consideration

2.1. The NaBIS service provides value by delivering a cross-border, collaborative approach to tackling gun crime with a database that provides a national intelligence picture. The MPS is the largest contributor to the database and largest customer of the NaBIS service. Without its’ inclusion and contribution, the effectiveness of the collaboration diminishes.

3. Financial Comments

3.1 Membership is at a fixed revenue cost of £199,077 per annum, to be funded from existing revenue budgets. The total commitment over the three year period is £597,231.

4. Legal Comments

4.1. There are no legal implications arising from this proposal.

5. Equality Comments

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

6. Background/supporting papers

6.1. None.