MPS Gifts and Hospitality policy

Report: 9
Date: 12 December 2011
By: Director of Resources on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

The revised MPS Gifts and Hospitality Policy and Standard Operating Procedures set out the processes for reporting offers of gifts and hospitality and the factors to be considered by those authorising acceptance. The procedures outline the behaviours expected of all employees, as well as their responsibilities towards the MPS and its customers, clients and service users. Following extensive consultation with MPS Staff Associations, Staff Support Associations, Business Groups, the MPA and the MPS Advisor for Police and Media relations, MPS Management Board approved the revised Gifts and Hospitality for publication. A copy of the Policy and Standard Operating Procedures are attached for the information of committee members together with details of the accompanying implementation plan and activity to address the issues arising from the recent MPA audit of MPS compliance with its current Gifts and Hospitality policy and processes.

A. Recommendation

That Members:

1. Note Note the revised MPS Gifts and Hospitality Policy and the proposed implementation plan.

B. Supporting information

Context

1. In 2004 the MPS published the Gifts and Hospitality Policy and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and following publication the Policy and associated procedures have been continually revised. In August 2011, MPS Management Board requested that a comprehensive review of the Gifts and Hospitality Policy should be undertaken to reflect the requirements of the Bribery Act 2010 and to ensure that gifts and hospitality processes and procedures were managed more consistently and robustly across the organisation.

2. To assist with the development of the revised Policy and to ensure compliance with the MPS Policy Development Framework, extensive consultation has been undertaken with the MPS Advisor for Police and Media relations, MPS Staff Associations (TUS and the Federation) the Superintendent's Association, Staff Support Associations, MPS Business Groups and the MPA.

3. Following completion of the consultation exercise the Gifts and Hospitality Policy and SOP was revised and presented to MPS Management Board on 28 November 2011. The Board agreed that the Policy would be formally published in January 2012.

4. A summary of the Gifts and Hospitality Policy and SOP is provided in paragraphs 5-8 of this report. A copy of the revised Gifts and Hospitality Policy and SOP is attached at Appendix 1. Details of the proposed implementation plan are provided in paragraph 9-10 of this report. Paragraphs 11-13 of this report provide a summary of initial activity to address the issues arising from the recent MPA audit of MPS compliance with the current Gifts and Hospitality Policy and associated processes.

Summary of Gifts and Hospitality Processes and Procedures

5. The revised MPS Gifts and Hospitality Policy and Standard Operating Procedure set out the processes for reporting offers of gifts and hospitality and the factors to be considered by those authorising acceptance.

6. The procedures outline the behaviours expected of all employees, as well as their responsibilities towards the MPS and its customers, clients and service users. Specific guidance is provided in the following areas:

• Consideration of offers of gifts or hospitality
• Declining offers of gifts or hospitality
• Authority levels for the acceptance or refusal of gifts and hospitality
• Examples of gifts and hospitality
• Hospitality provided by the MPS
• Recording of gifts and hospitality
• Reviews and publication
• Penalties for inappropriate acceptance
• The Bribery Act 2010
• Suspected wrongdoing
• Offers from contractors

7. The Policy explicitly states that:

‘It is the policy of the MPS that Police Officers, Special Constables, volunteers or staff employed by or under the direction and control of the Commissioner must not accept gifts, hospitality or other benefits or services that would place them, or be perceived to place them, under an obligation or compromise their judgement and integrity. Offers of gifts and hospitality must therefore be declined with an explanation of this policy. The only exception to this is where it can clearly be justified that to refuse would cause serious offence or damage working relations’.

8. The revised Gifts and Hospitality Policy and SOP also stipulates that all MPS B/OCUs and Business Groups maintain a Gifts and Hospitality Register and that all items or services that are intended for use by the MPS, for example, donations of items for use by Police Officers and Staff or the loan of premises, must be recorded in the register within five days of acceptance/refusal.

Gifts and Hospitality Implementation Plan

9. Following publication of the Gifts and Hospitality Policy in January 2012 information about the revised Policy and SOP will be provided for all managers and staff via MPS People Pages together with a comprehensive set of Frequently Asked Questions. In addition an understanding of the key principles will be embedded into Police Officer recruit training, MSC training and the Police Staff induction programme. Regular codes of conduct alerts will also be published on the MPS Intranet. To further embed staff understanding of their key responsibilities in relation to gifts and hospitality training and development will be provided following completion of a Performance Needs Analysis. The results of the Performance Needs Analysis will recommend the most appropriate training and development intervention which may include the delivery of an E-Learning module for delivery in February 2012.

10. The publication of the revised Gifts and Hospitality Policy and SOP will also explicitly support the publication of the findings and recommendations arising from the report on Police Media relations produced by the MPS Advisor due to the direct links that exist between these areas of work.

MPA Audit of MPS gifts and hospitality framework

11. In November 2011 the MPA provided initial feedback on its audit of MPS compliance with the current Gifts and Hospitality Policy, SOP and associated processes. The MPA audit provides an assessment of the effectiveness of the existing governance framework in place to ensure that the integrity of the MPS was not compromised by the acceptance of gifts or hospitality or the provision of hospitality and makes a number of recommendations to improve performance.

12. The emerging findings of the MPA audit were that:

• the current control framework in place for gifts and hospitality was not operating effectively to mitigate key risks to protect the integrity and reputation of the MPS
• although procedures were in place to support the Policy they required greater clarity in places to ensure the policy intent was consistently met, particularly around the interaction with suppliers of goods and services
• approval of the acceptance of gifts and hospitality was not consistently documented and that the standard of records generally needed to improve
• the level of monitoring and review was felt to be inconsistent and had proved ineffective in highlighting areas of potential challenge.

13. A number of issues identified during the course of the MPA audit have already been addressed through the provision of greater clarity within the revised Gifts and Hospitality Policy and SOP about the professional and ethical standards required of officers and staff and information about the legislative framework. In addition, the introduction of E-Registers to replace existing Gifts and Hospitality Registers is also anticipated to address concerns identified during the course of the MPA audit about the consistency and standard of record keeping. The MPS will continue to work closely with the MPA auditor to ensure that all of the issues arising from the MPA audit are fully addressed.

Publication Schedule and Quality Assurance

14. The Resources Directorate’s Programme Office will arrange for the quality assurance and publication of the registers for Management Board, ACPO and equivalent police staff via the MPS Publication Scheme. Publication will be achieved within 15 working days of the end of each month.

15. Each business group will establish systems to quality assure and publish their registers, for officers and staff below ACPO level, within 20 working days of the end of the month. Business groups will also establish systems to monitor compliance with this policy.

C. Other organisational and community implications

Equality and Diversity Impact

1. A full Equality Impact Assessment has been undertaken for the revised Gifts and Hospitality Policy and Standard Operating Procedures and has been submitted to the Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate for quality assurance. An issue that has arisen during the course of the EIA relates to the sensitivity that will be required in the declining of gifts and hospitality (and the disposal of gifts) from religious leaders or those representing a particular community. Although the need to be sensitive in such situations is explicitly acknowledged in the revised Gifts and Hospitality Policy and SOP further consultation will be undertaken to develop more detailed guidelines. This guidance will be published as one of a series of FAQs in the Gifts and hospitality Section of People Pages

Financial Implications

2. Any costs associated with the development of an E-learning package will be met from within existing Business Group budgets.

3. Failure to comply with the corporate provisions of the Bribery Act 2010 could result in potential litigation costs in the defence of any corporate prosecution.

Consideration of MET Forward

4. The revised Gifts and Hospitality Policy and SOP directly support the Met Support and Met Standards strands of MET Forward.

Legal Implications

5. The Bribery Act 2010 (“The Act”) replaces the previous Anti-Corruption and Bribery laws e.g., The Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act 1889, Prevention of Corruption Act 1906 and The Prevention of Corruption Act 1916 and abolishes the UK common law offences of bribery and embracery.

6. The Act is intended to “provide a modern and comprehensive scheme of bribery offences to equip prosecutors and courts to deal effectively with bribery at home and abroad”. The Act came into force in April 2011 and creates criminal offences in relation to conduct which leads to or is intended to lead to “improper performance”, i.e., performance which amounts to a breach of an expectation that a person will act in good faith, impartially, or in accordance with a position of trust. Whether a person has behaved improperly is to be judged by what a reasonable person in the UK would expect.

7. Section 7 of The Act creates a new offence of failing to prevent a person associated with a relevant commercial organisation from bribing another to obtain or retain business or an advantage for the relevant commercial organisation. It is a defence for the relevant commercial organisation to prove that it had in place adequate procedures designed to prevent persons associated with it from undertaking such conduct. The relevant commercial organisation is a body incorporated to carry out business in the UK. Provided the organisation is incorporated it does not matter that it carries out purely public functions provided it carries out commercial activities. Whilst Section 7 does not appear to apply to the MPS the prospect under The Act of custodial sentences for up to 10 years per offence and unlimited fines clearly support the need to take steps to prevent reputational damage.

Environmental Implications

8. There are no environmental implications associated with this report.

Risk (including Health and Safety) Implications

9. Potential risks associated with non-compliance with the Gifts and Hospitality Policy and SOP include the cost of managing non compliance and the impact on the credibility and reputation of the MPS through public corporate prosecution.

10. There are no Health and Safety implications associated with this paper.

D. Background papers

None

E. Contact details

Report author: Shaun M. Kennedy, Strategic Manager, People Services Organisational Development Team, MPS

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

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