Agenda and minutes

Nominations will be invited for the role of Chairman for a term of 12 months to June 2021.

The Monitoring Officer invited nominations for the role of Chairman of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Police and Crime Panel.

It was proposed, seconded and upon being put to the vote carried that Joe Orson take the position of Chairman for the municipal year 2020/21.

RESOLVED:

1.    That Joe Orson be elected as Chairman of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Police and Crime Panel for the municipal year 2020/21.

Nominations will be invited for the role of Vice Chairman for a term of 12 months to June 2021.

The Chairman invited nominations for the role of Vice-Chairman of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Police and Crime Panel.

It was proposed and duly seconded that Elaine Pantling take the position of Vice-Chairman. It was also proposed and duly seconded that Deborah Taylor take the position of Vice-Chairman.

Upon being put to a ballot, Elaine Pantling was elected as Vice-Chairman for the municipal year 2020/21.

RESOLVED:

1.    That Elaine Pantling be elected as Vice-Chairman for the municipal year 2020/21.

The Chairman led introductions including new members to the panel and advised this was a virtual meeting as permitted under section 78 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 to enable meetings to take place whilst observing social distancing measures.

Apologies for absence were received and accepted from Simon Whelband.

It was also noted that Sharmen Rahman and Alan Walters needed to leave the meeting before its conclusion.

Members will be asked to declare any interests they have in the business on the agenda.

Members were asked to disclose any pecuniary or other interest they may have in the business on the agenda.

Keith Culverwell made a standing declaration that two family members were in the Police Force.

There were no other declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 15 June 2020 are attached and Members will be asked to confirm they are an accurate record.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held 15^th June 2020 be confirmed as an accurate record.

None received.

There were no public questions submitted.

Members to receive an update report of the performance exceptions of Leicestershire Police for the period 1 January 2020 to 31 March 2020.

Members will be asked to comment on the recommendations for further analysis based on exceptions and to note the contents of the report.

The Police and Crime Panel considered a report providing an update of the performance exceptions of Leicestershire Police for the period 1 January 2020 to 31 March 2020.

Panel members noted that:

·         Violence with Injury offences had seen a reduction throughout Quarter 4 however there had been an increase in the most recent data point (March 2020) and a comparison to the same quarter of the previous year indicated a 25% increase.

·         The increase in these offences was attributed to an adjustment to correctly classify crimes as Common Assault (Violence without Injury) to Actual Bodily Harm offences (ABH, Violence with Injury).

·         Burglary Residential offences were showing a month on month reduction with comparison to the same quarter of the previous year indicating a 21% decrease.

·         Stalking and Harassment offences showed a prolonged increasing trend with an average monthly volume increase by approximately 100 offences and a comparison to the same quarter of the previous year indicating a 18% increase.

The ensuing discussion included the following points:

·         In relation to the increased reporting of incidents and call handling the introduction of new software had enabled call handlers to switch more easily between 999 and 101 calls improving performance throughout the year. Online crime reports remained stable.

·         The purpose of providing comparison data of response times to 2018 was to generate an idea of longer trends, 2018 was a notable year as it was the World Cup and there were other large events taking place across the County. Overall the data showed response times were quite steady and had recovered from a difficult period. It was also hoped that the introduction of the new Target Operating model in March 2020 during the Covid 19 impact would show further improvement on call handling response times.

·         It was suggested that the report could be more consistent in the presentation of data and simplified rather than a statistical manner.

·         Regarding the missing person data and how that related to Looked After Children, there were 2 elements, children from Leicester who were looked after in Leicester and children from outside Leicester/Leicestershire who were placed here. For the latter group it was not always clearly communicated who had been placed where and when. It was recognised this was a challenging area with 62% of those “missing” being repeaters for a variety of reasons.

Action: Chief Constable to provide a breakdown of the missing person data related to Looked After Children to panel members.

1.40pm Alan Walters left the meeting.

·         In terms of harassment and stalking offences it was suggested this was often linked to domestic violence and so some of those offences should be categorised as such. It was clarified that many offences featured in more than one category, but each crime was reported and categorised through Home Office rules. Crimes were being assessed to try and analyse other factors surrounding the crime such as domestic violence.

·         It was noted that there had been a slight increase month on month of hate offences, and it was queried  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

Members will receive a report informing them about the peer mentoring work undertaken within substance misuse provision across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland including details of Dear Albert a Leicester based, peer-led Social Enterprise.

Members are asked to note the contents of this report.

The Police and Crime Panel considered a report informing them about the peer mentoring work undertaken within substance misuse provision across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland including details of Dear Albert a Leicester based, peer led social enterprise.

The panel noted key points that:

·         within a relatively small area of Leicester there were three places using peer mentoring: – Turning Point; Number 5 and Dear Albert.

·         Dear Albert, provided mentoring to people over 18 years and Turning Point had provision for younger people.

·         Dear Alberts approach was unique as the whole organisation was 100% peer led and every mentor had overcome an addiction to drugs or alcohol.

·         PCC Funding had expanded the “through the gate” provision enabling more individuals to be met at the prison gate and supported in the community.

·         The Violence Reduction Network were also looking at opportunities with the providers as a means of recognising effective violence prevention.

Lord Bach, Police and Crime Commissioner referred to the Safer Streets Home Office ambition to give grants to various OPCC so that towns and small areas could take steps towards Safer Streets and advised that the OPCC had applied for grants for three areas and had been successful in securing that funding which would enable increased spending towards Safer Street initiatives in the following areas:

·         West Bridge/Narborough Road - £550k

·         New Parks/Braunstone Frith - £420k

·         Warwick Way/Loughborough - £550k

The panel welcomed the report on peer mentoring and congratulated the OPCC team on securing additional funding that would help make safer streets.

RESOLVED:

1.    That arrangements be made for panel members to visit Dear Albert once lockdown and social distancing measures had eased.

2.    That the contents of the report be noted.

Members will receive a report providing an overview of the Violence Reduction Network (VRN) with a focus on the programme for 2020/21.

Members will be asked to note the progress to date and the contents of the report.

The Police and Crime Panel considered a report providing an overview of the Violence Reduction Network (VRN) with a focus on the programme for 2020/21.

The panel noted that:

·         This was an important piece of work reliant on a Home Office grant given to certain police areas to look at initiatives and cut serious violence in the area.

·         The Home Office prescribed the function and core membership of the VRN and there had been excellent partnership involvement including the voluntary and community sectors.

·         There had been significant progress and developments since the VRN was established in September 2019 with several interventions commissioned including the Violence Intervention Project based in the Emergency Dept at Leicester Royal Infirmary and a Community Grant Scheme aimed at grass root community groups and organisations.

·         The VRN continued to focus on serious violence in public places with a priority on under 25’s, and despite the Covid 19 pandemic progress was still being made, the programme plan for 2020/21 had been drawn from the findings of the Strategic Needs Assessment and the Response Strategy setting out projects, key priorities and activity within each project.

·         The VRN were monitoring the three success measures set by the Home Office which were also monitored centrally although no feedback has been received to date.

There was a brief discussion around continuation of funding from the Home Office in 2021/22 and it was noted that currently there was no indication of future funding. All VRNs had made approaches to the Home Office and were expecting to hear more after the forthcoming spending review. Funding had been secured in the sum of £880k for this year and where possible the VRN were commissioning with sustainability in mind, investing in such things as train the trainer to build capability and become more self-sufficient.

Panel members discussed the report noting the following comments:

·         In relation to planned work with children and young people it was intended to introduce interventions and services across Primary and Secondary prevention as well as tertiary to ensure we reduce reoffending.

·         In terms of seeing the impact of initiatives on reducing crime the first quarter performance report was being compiled for the VRN Board and this could be shared with panel members in future too.

Action: to provide more performance data in future reports.

Action: to share the Young People Involvement Strategy with panel members.

·         Work was ongoing to develop and review progress in relation to known risk factors regarding Young People such as attendance and exclusion rates in schools.

·         A core principle of VRN was to link with others and VRN were seeking to collaborate and strengthen links with projects/services such as Troubled Families and Early Help to avoid duplication.

·         It was planned to spend around £364k on interventions which was more than the Home Office required (set at 20%). It was suggested it would be useful to benchmark that expenditure with other VRN’s.

Action: Grace Strong to explore other VRN expenditure and provide a comparison of units across England/Wales.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

Members to receive the annual report December 2018 to March 2020 of the Ethics, Integrity and Complaints Committee, for the purpose of informing the panel of the work of that committee.

Members will be asked to comment on the report.

The Police and Crime Panel considered the annual report December 2018 to March 2020 of the Ethics, Integrity and Complaints Committee for the purpose of informing them of the work of that committee.

The panel noted that the period of the report had been altered to align with reporting periods of the OPCC, and the current membership of the Ethics, Integrity and Complaints Committee.

RESOLVED:

                        That the contents of the report be noted.

The Chairman has agreed to take an item of urgent business to allow the panel to consider the financial liability arising to Leicestershire OPCC as a result of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

The Chairman agreed to take an item of urgent business to allow the Police and Crime Panel to consider a report on the financial liability arising to Leicestershire OPCC as a result of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

The panel noted that IICSA was due to sit in October 2020 to hear evidence about historic allegations concerning the late MP Greville Janner and the local police’s management of them. Leicestershire Police was a core participant at IICSA as are several former police officers. The former police officers are separately represented as they face challenge regarding their individual conduct during the investigation.

The cost of the Leicestershire Police’s preparations has been anticipated and built into the budget for 2020/21. However, the OPCC is also responsible for meeting the legal costs of the core participant officers, in accordance with the provisions of Home Office Circular 010/2017. These costs have not been budgeted for because, until recently it was uncertain whether IICSA would go ahead; whether these individuals would be called as witnesses and whether the OPCC was responsible for meeting their costs. The OPCC have only recently been able to estimate the likely overall costs of IICSA to the OPCC and still await complete clarity regarding these costs due to uncertainty over other former officers being given core participant status.

The OPCC has fully investigated the extent of their liability to meet these costs and have estimated the likely total sum of meeting the legal costs of former employees of Leicestershire Police covering the duration of the investigation up to £1.2m plus VAT. It was noted that there may be additional costs once the proceedings concluded.

The panel were asked to write to the Home Secretary to request support and financial assistance to meet the anticipated liability.

Panel members were satisfied that Leicestershire Police and Leicestershire OPCC have acted entirely appropriately in response to this issue, alerting the panel members of this liability and its impact on the budget approved in February 2020, and agreed to write to the Home Secretary to lobby support.

The Chairman asked officers to provide a brief update on the financial position to the next meeting.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the financial liability and its impact on the OPCC budget approved in February 2020 be noted,

2.    That a letter be written to the Home Secretary to request support and financial assistance to meet the anticipated financial liability,

3.    That an update on the financial position be provided to the next meeting on 1^st October 2020.

To note the next meeting will take place on Thursday 1^st October 2020 at 2:00pm, venue to be confirmed.

Date of the next meeting noted on Thursday 1^st October 2020 at 2pm. Venue to be confirmed.

There being no further business the meeting closed at 3.30pm