Andrew Dismore

Children in custody

Question No: 2016/4842

Andrew Dismore

For the last 12 months, please state how many children under:

12

13

14

15

16

Have been held in police custody for:

Over 4 hours

Over 8 hours

Overnight

Over a weekend

Written response from the Mayor

Please note, Clause 60 of the Policing and Crime Bill 2015 will amend the Mental Health Act with a new subsection 136A, which is intended to prevent children being detained in police custody under the specific provisions of that Act.

 

The MPS is working with local authorities to reduce the number of children detained at a police station after charge. There are clear requirements on local authorities to respond and take into their care young people who have been refused bail. Children who are charged with an offence and refused bail should be transferred to local authority accommodation unless there is no such accommodation or escort available, or there is insufficient time to do so before attending court. On a daily basis Custody Support Inspectors are reporting to Met Detention Command meetings cases where local authorities have not responded so that this can be raised with them directly.

 

Find below the total number of children with duration held in custody (Nov15-Oct16)      

Age at arrest	Over 4 hours	Over 8 hours	Overnight (4hrs or more between 00:00 & 08:00) in custody	Over a weekend
Under 12	47	24	10	4
12	163	133	77	16
13	392	552	342	68
14	806	1296	959	179
15	1132	2261	1721	277
16	1410	2934	2211	343

 

Please Note

 

• ‘Overnight’ detention is defined as holding an individual within custody for four or more consecutive hours between midnight and 8:00am. ‘Weekend’ detention is defined as holding within custody an individual, who has been detained at some time on a Saturday or Sunday, for at least four hours before being released the following Monday.

 

• The number of detentions do not equate to the number of individuals detained. g. an individual detainee may have been arrested twice within the time period stated.

 

 

Homophobia in the police

Question No: 2016/4845

Andrew Dismore

What are you doing to tackle homophobia in the police?

Written response from the Mayor

Please also see my response to MQ 2016/ 4874.

 

As I have said in my draft Police and Crime Plan I will work to support a culture of fairness and transparency within the organisation and my Deputy Mayor and I will hold the Commissioner to account for the development of an inclusion and equality strategy and monitor progress.

 

An Action Plan is in place to meet recommendations following both the ACAS review and EHRC investigation, in order to improve the way the MPS handle allegations of discrimination.

 

As a direct result of this report, the MPS is aiming to improve the levels of self-reporting (declarations) from officers and staff on sexual orientation.  A task and finish group will be run to understand the issues that prevent individuals self-declaring and then we will address these challenges as part of our ongoing project. The MPS has an engaged, robust LGBT independent advisory group.

 

The new internal grievance process has been designed to address some of the challenges, and this again meets EHRC and ACAS recommendations.

 

 

DBS Checks [1]

Question No: 2016/4867

Andrew Dismore

How many Enhanced DBS Checks are outstanding with the Met?

Written response from the Mayor

The MPS recognises that individuals applying for these checks, particularly those seeking employment opportunities, may be impacted by turnaround times and is working with MOPAC, Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and the Home Office to further reduce waiting times.

 

The improvement plan put in place is helping to alleviate the situation and the MPS is making good progress in reducing the time it takes to complete DBS checks.

 

As of 7 December 2016, the MPS ‘Work in Progress’ (WiP) for DBS applications was 43,007. This is down from a high of circa 82,000 earlier in the financial year.

 

As this is a continuous process, there will always be a substantial WiP. The MPS aims to reduce the WiP to the region of 30-35,000 applications.

 

The backlog has shown week on week reductions following the introduction of a robust recovery plan. To improve the speed with which applications are processed and to reduce the backlog the MPS has recruited additional staff and redeployed officers on recuperative duty. Furthermore, staff have been seconded from TfL and MOPAC has seconded a senior member of staff to lead the backlog recovery.

 

 

DBS Checks [7]

Question No: 2016/4873

Andrew Dismore

As delays in completing Enhanced DBS Checks can result in people losing job offers, or being out of work for far longer, or charity volunteers losing interest as a result of the delays, what are you doing to speed up the process?

Written response from the Mayor

The MPS recognises that individuals applying for these checks, particularly those seeking employment opportunities, may be impacted by turnaround times and is working with MOPAC, Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and the Home Office to further reduce waiting times.

 

The MPS is making good progress on its improvement plan to reduce the time it takes to complete DBS checks, with the average turnaround time for a DBS Enhanced Disclosure now down to 26.96 days.

 

To improve the speed with which applications are processed and to reduce the backlog the MPS has recruited additional staff and redeployed officers on recuperative duty. Furthermore, staff have been seconded from TfL and MOPAC has seconded a senior member of staff to lead the backlog recovery.

 

 

Met‘s public website

Question No: 2016/4875

Andrew Dismore

Part of the Met’s public website was disrupted as thousands of masked protesters converged on central London in early November for the Million Mask March organised by hacking group Anonymous. What was the cause of this and what is being done to prevent it in future?

Written response from the Mayor

An aspect of the MPS’s public website was disrupted in an attempted Denial of Service Attack.

 

As a result, the MPS news site was unavailable for a short period of time. An alternative MPS News web address was used and worked with no issues, which meant the MPS was able to maintain a news service.

 

The important requirement is the ability to rapidly detect any attack, contain it and take appropriate action – which is what the MPS did.

 

SNB websites and publicity

Question No: 2016/4877

Andrew Dismore

Will MOPAC give consideration to funding and assistance for SNB websites and publicity for their public meetings; and if not, why not?

Written response from the Mayor

It is important that the Safer Neighbourhood Boards (SNB) are able to provide transparency about their oversight and engagement work, and we’re happy to explore the best way to achieve this.

 

A number of SNBs have agreements with their Local Authority for a presence on the council’s own website.  Where this is not the case, MOPAC officers will discuss with SNBs how best to support them in raising awareness and promoting their excellent work in a cost effective way.

 

My Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Sophie Linden, agreed at a recent meeting with SNBs that we would adopt a more flexible approach to how SNBs use their funds, while maintaining the principle that resources deliver value for money and are targeted at tackling issues of local concern and crime prevention.

 

 

Stop and search data and statistics

Question No: 2016/4878

Andrew Dismore

Stop and search data and statistics are not being provided to SNBs monthly as before, apparently due to a new system: when will this be introduced and when will the provision of such data be resumed?

Written response from the Mayor

The MPS Stop and Search Monthly Monitoring Report is being replaced by a new Dashboard which is scheduled to go live in January 2017.  The timing of this change is prompted by the introduction of new stop and search codes by the Home Office.  In the meantime, the MPS has continued to provide stop and search complaints data and redacted stop and search records, to facilitate community scrutiny.  They have also published an interim report of key stop and search data for every borough which has been distributed to our local monitoring groups.

 

Both MOPAC and the MPS engaged with the local monitoring groups about this change and they have been involved in the development of the new dashboard data system.  The groups have welcomed the new system’s improved capability in helping them carry out their monitoring role.

 

Barnet Community Transport’s Rolling Base

Question No: 2016/4879

Andrew Dismore

Are you aware of the excellent and cost effective youth engagement work carried out by Barnet Community Transport’s Rolling Base, currently funded by MOPAC?

Written response from the Mayor

As I understand it, Barnet Safer Neighbourhood Board (SNB) is one of a number of SNBs that has provided funds for Rolling Base to provide activities that aim to help reduce the risk of young people getting involved in anti-social or minor criminal behaviour.

 

It represents a good example of how SNBs, working with local partners, can identify and deliver engagement between local communities, neighbourhood policing teams and young people at relatively low cost.

 

 

Merger of borough BCUs

Question No: 2016/4880

Andrew Dismore

The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime is quoted as saying, in respect of the decision to pilot the merger of borough BCUs:

“Further  (my emphasis) evaluation and consultation will follow, after which and alongside our new Police and Crime Plan, decisions will be taken on the best way to deliver our commitment to real neighbourhood policing.”

What evaluation, and what consultation and with whom, was carried out before the decision to pilot the merger in Barnet and Islington?

Written response from the Mayor

I am committed to restoring real neighbourhood policing to London.

 

I am cognisant that as these improvements are made, it is very important that we work with local leaders and move forward in consultation with them. That is why my Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Sophie Linden and I have discussed these changes with leaders from across London, and across all political parties.

 

Discussions did take place with the Leaders and Chief Executives of the Boroughs who have agreed to be BCU Pathfinders – Camden and Islington and Barking & Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge.

 

Their involvement will continue as the Pathfinders are implemented to enable a fully informed assessment of their delivery of local policing.

 

Senior officer residential accommodation

Question No: 2016/2128

Andrew Dismore

Does the Met still provide, pay for, or subsidise the cost of accommodation for senior officers; if so which officers benefit from this perk; and what does it cost per year?

Written response from the Mayor

Following a significant programme of reducing the police estate, MOPAC has retained a small number of residential flats in London.

 

The contracts for the Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner Special Operations provide the option of MOPAC subsidised accommodation, given that these officers can be called upon at any time of the day or night.

 

In addition, in exceptional circumstances, where chief officers are recruited to the MPS from forces a long way from London, MOPAC subsidised accommodation may be made available to them. Other forces offer significant relocation provision for senior officers.

 

Currently accommodation is provided to the Commissioner and one Deputy Assistant Commissioner. The cost to the MPS of this accommodation is about £23,000 per year.