Gifts and hospitality policy – MPS

Report: 8
Date: 14 September 2009
By: Director of Human Resources on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report documents changes made to the MPS Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Gifts and Hospitality. The changes take into account, the comments and observations made by Committee Members at their meeting on 23 March 2009.

A. Recommendation

That members note and endorse the amendments to the Standard Operating Procedure accompanying the Gifts and Hospitality Policy.

B. Supporting information

1. Following the meeting of the Corporate Governance Committee held on 23 March 2009, the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Gifts and Hospitality Policy has been amended to reflect the comments, observations and suggested changes, where appropriate.

2. For ease of reference the changes made to the SOP are shown in red. The following paragraphs discuss the key headline changes.

Note - Policy
No amendments have been made to the Policy.

• Annex A - Offers of Gifts and Hospitality
  • Timescales - Reporting of the offer of a gift or hospitality has to be made within 5 days of the offer being made.
  • Quality Assurance Process - When the register is audited the auditor must date and sign the register and, in addition, use the provided checklist (appendix 1) during the audit, which must also be signed and dated.
  • Clarity - The definition of an “immediate family member” has been clarified as husband, wife, partner, civil partner, son or daughter.
• Annex B - Gifts and Hospitality Register
  • Timescales - Reporting of the offer of a gift or hospitality has to be made within 5 days of the offer being made.
• Clarity - Disposal of an accepted gift has been amended to show any form of disposal and the heading used in the Gifts and Hospitality Register has been amended to accommodate this change. (Appendix 1 of Annex B)
  • Quality Assurance Process - When the register is audited the auditor must date and sign the register and, in addition, use the provided checklist (appendix 1 of Annex A ) during the audit, which must also be signed and dated.
• Annex C - Provision of Corporate Hospitality
  • Clarity - Under the Provision of Corporate Hospitality the fifth bullet point has been amended to read ‘not extended to the husband, wife, partner, civil partner or son or daughter’.
  • The bullet point relating to the provision of alcohol has been amended to read ‘Alcohol should not typically be supplied. However, where the provision of alcohol is seen to be appropriate, it should be kept to a reasonable amount (a third to half a bottle of wine per person depending on whether other alcohol has been offered prior to the meal) and authority obtained from an ACPO officer/Director. The provision of alcohol should be documented, explaining why the alcohol has been provided and the cost included in the above limits’.
  • Timescales - Reporting of the offer of a gift or hospitality has to be made within 5 days of the offer being made.

3. The Policy and associated Standard Operating Procedure were published on the MPS Corporate Policy Database with effect from 8 May 2009.

4. A copy of the amended Standard Operating Procedure is attached at Appendix 1 with all amendments shown in red type.

C. Race and equality impact

No race or equality implications have been identified.

D. Financial implications

There are no specific financial implications arising from this report other than the funding of any corporate hospitality that is offered to members of organisations with which the MPS is interacting.

E. Background papers

• Corporate Governance Committee Report – 23 March 2009

F. Contact details

Report author: Glynn Bailey, HR Policy Development and Co-ordination Manager, MPS

For information contact:

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

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