Commissioner’s Report

Report: 5
Date: 26 May 2011
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report summarises recent performance in the MPS, as well as operations and initiatives designed to tackle crime and make London safer.

It is intended to update MPA members and give a high-level, strategic view of the work of the MPS. It highlights the Commissioner’s operational priorities of improving public confidence, tackling serious violence and serious youth violence, delivering value for money policing, ensuring a safe and secure Olympics and countering terrorism.

The performance figures referred to throughout this report are those for April 2010 to March 2011, the latest available before the deadline for submitting this report.

A. Recommendations

The report be received.

B. Supporting information

1. The following paragraphs offer Members a summary of recent performance within the MPS. The performance data referred to below is for April 2010 - March 2011 compared to April 2009 - March 2010. This is the most recently available data at the time of writing. At the Full Authority meeting, the Acting Commissioner will be able to update members on performance in April 2011.

Confidence and satisfaction

2. The most recent British Crime Survey results show that the percentage of people who agree that the police and local council are dealing with anti social behaviour and crime issues that matter in their area dropped slightly to 56.2% for the rolling year to December 2010, down from 56.7% for the rolling year to September 2010. The MPS remains ahead of its year end target of 55.4% and is first in its Most Similar Forces comparison group.

3. User Satisfaction Survey results are now available for April to March 2010/11. Overall satisfaction remains broadly stable at 78.6% compared to 78.9% for the period April to December 2010. White user satisfaction remains stable at 80.1% compared to 80.9% for the period April to December 2010, as does BME user satisfaction at 73.8% compared to 73.2% the previous year.

Performance

Total Notifiable Offences

4. Total Notifiable Offences (TNOs) for 2010/11 were down 0.8% on the last financial year. That equates to 6,723 fewer offences, the lowest number of TNOs since 1998/99.

Serious Acquisitive Crime

5. Serious Acquisitive Crime (robbery, motor vehicle crime and residential burglary) ended the financial year up 2.4%. This equated to 4,537 additional offences (up to 197,093 offences from 192,556 offences).

6. This has been predominantly driven by a recent rise in motor vehicle crime which is up by 2.3% or 2,294 offences compared to 2009/10. We continue to tackle this crime on a borough by borough basis targeting known hot spots.

7. Robbery also continues to present a challenge, which ended the financial year up by 7.1% or 2,370 offences. The increase in personal robberies remains the driver behind this, up 8.7% or 2,641 offences. Within this, personal robberies where a gun was involved decreased by 26.3% (295 fewer offences). Knife enabled personal robberies have risen by 15.4% (1002 more offences), with the main driver in this rise being robberies where a knife was intimated.

8. In response to this rise the MPS continued with Operation Blunt 2 and extended Operation Autumn Nights, originally launched to address the seasonal upsurge in robbery and violence in early November, to the end of the financial year. Whilst clearly a challenging area for the MPS it is important to bear in mind that robbery is still at its third lowest level for the last ten years.

9. Alongside increased operational activity, a targeted media campaign is ongoing urging the public to keep valuable possessions safe, particularly around transport hubs.

10. There were 127 fewer residential burglary offences during 2010/11 when compared to 2009/10.

Most Serious Violence

11. Violence with Injury (VWI includes all Most Serious Violence and Assault With Injury offences) is showing a reduction of 6.1% for 2010/11 compared to the previous financial year (4,330 fewer offences).

12. Overall gun crime has continued to fall, with 759 fewer offences (a reduction of 21.9%) as have instances where a firearm has been discharged, down by 9.8%, or 71 fewer offences.

13. The MPS is making a significant effort to reduce gun crime in conjunction with a broader effort to reduce violence. Bespoke Trident plans are in place for specific Boroughs; Operation Verano is targeting extra resources based on intelligence; SCD7 is focussing on tackling the supply of firearms; and the media is being used proactively to increase public understanding, provide reassurance and encourage information.

14. Whilst this reduction is clearly pleasing, the challenge remains to maintain this over the longer term, especially crimes where guns have been discharged and homicides where a gun has been used. This rightly remains a key focus for the MPS.

15. Knife crime remains a challenge, up by 5.7% (723 more offences) compared to the previous financial year. It is encouraging that instances where a knife is used to injure continue to fall, down by 1.4%. That is 57 fewer stabbings on London’s streets, with offences reducing from 4,200 to 4,143.

16. As well as Operation Autumn Nights the MPS employs knife arches and hand held scanners at schools across the capital, weapon sweeps in parks known to be high risk areas and through an intelligence-led approach, focussing on geographic crime hotspot areas and high-risk offenders.

Homicide

17. There were 15 more homicides during 2010/11 compared to the year previously, an increase from 120 to 135 deaths. This is the second fewest homicides over the last 12 years since 1999/00.

18. Preventing homicides, especially of teenagers, is the cornerstone of the MPS’s anti-knife crime strategy which revolves around Operation Blunt 2 and we continue to focus our partnership work on the prevention of these tragedies.

Serious Youth Violence

19. There were 81 more serious youth violence offences in 2010/11 when compared with 2009/10, an increase of 1.2%.

20. To keep young people safe, we continue to maintain our tactical focus through the umbrella of Operation Verano, which includes the Blunt 2 taskforce, Safer Schools officers, Safer Transport Teams and local BOCU officers working together to ensure a safe journey for young people between home and school.

21. The key to tackling serious youth violence is prevention. The vast majority of police work will always be about suppression, so the prevention work carried out by our partners in government, local government and our communities is vital.

Domestic Violence and Hate Crime

22. Financial Year 2010/11 saw further reductions in the number of reported Domestic Violence and Hate Crime offences. Domestic Violence offences were down by 6.1% (3,155 fewer offences), Racist and Religious Crime offences were down by 11.6% (1,156 fewer offences) and Homophobic Crime offences were down by 1.5% (20 fewer offences).

23. Despite this reduction it is important to recognise that these are under-reported crimes and that the MPS takes all domestic violence and hate crime offences seriously.

Rape

24. The number of recorded rape offences has increased by 473 offences during 2010/11 when compared against 2009/10 (up by 16.7%).

25. The MPS has a long term aim to increase victims' confidence in the police. We are making it easier to report rape; more victims are coming forward to report offences and, by working in partnership with others, we have seen an increase in the number of offences reported through third parties directly to the Havens.

26. Rape remains a significantly under-reported offence. With the support of partners, we strive to encourage more victims of all backgrounds to come forward and report offences.

Public Order

27. The Commissioner has praised all MPS officers and staff involved in the Royal Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on 29 April, in the policing operation on the day and in the planning stages. The MPS has received letters of congratulation from the couple themselves, the Prime Minister, Home Secretary, Mayor of London and over 150 emails and letters from members of the public.

28. Both in the planning and execution officers and staff from across the MPS, including volunteer cadets and special constables, worked together to deliver a safe and secure event. On the day the level of engagement with the crowd was superb, reflected in the overwhelmingly positive results of an online survey on the policing operation.

29. The huge and complex policing operation took 22 weeks to plan and involved around 1 million visitors to central London. An estimated 2 billion people worldwide watched the event on television, seeing a spectacular coordinated movement of crowds up and down the Mall that has been rightly praised.

Better for Less

30. The 2011-14 Budget and Business Plan was approved at MPA Full Authority on 31 March. The document identifies that the MPA/MPS now has a balanced budget for 2011/12 on the basis that agreed reductions of £161m are delivered.

31. A great deal of excellent work has already taken place to make savings - in 2008/09 the MPS saved £72m; in 2009/10 it saved £194m. In 2010/11, the MPS saved a further £315m.

32. The MPS remains committed to continuing to deliver a better policing service for less by streamlining business support and making best use of operational assets. A significant part of this includes reducing the cost of inanimate objects and making efficiency savings in business support services.

33. The Commissioner has made clear to all MPS officers and staff that his focus is on protecting operational capability as far as possible. That means delivering a policing service that recognises the importance of both the visible uniformed presence on the street and the specialist policing services the MPS provide - often working largely unseen but affecting people’s lives significantly, such as tackling organised crime, firearms, drugs and child trafficking.

34. The Service still faces a very challenging financial environment. The Mayor's Budget Guidance for 2012-15 is expected by the end of May. However, based on current planning assumptions, the Service will have to remove some £600m from its budget in 2014/15 as compared to 2010/11. Work has already started on meeting this challenge.

35. Work continues across the MPS to find savings in business support services. The MPS has recently agreed to award a new multi-supplier framework for digital forensic analysis to 12 suppliers. The contract value is £27m and will save the MPS £8.7m (24%) over the four years of the framework.

36. Operational PDAs are now estimated to be saving MPS officers around 11,700 hours per month, increasing the availability of officers to provide a strong visible presence on our streets.

37. There are now 3,300 devices in use across the MPS, with six applications available. The most frequently used applications are the Stop and Search form and Police National Computer checks. The most time-saving application has been found to be the Fixed Penalty Notice.

Olympics

38. The MPS hosted the National Olympic Safety and Security seminar from 28 - 30 March, which brought together senior leaders from each of the key agencies involved in the delivery of Olympic security. The seminar reviewed the plans of each agency to assess the state of readiness and highlight interdependencies. The feedback received on this event was overwhelmingly positive and the process of presentation of plans to peers will continue both through the National Olympic Security Coordination Board process and at future events similar to the seminar.

39. On 18 May, one year before the start of the Olympic Torch Relay, LOCOG will announce the nomination process for choosing torchbearers as well as identifying the towns and cities the torch will visit during the Relay.

40. Assistant Commissioner Allison hosted a two-day Royal Wedding Observer Programme to show the security leads of the Tier 1 Olympic sponsors our approach to policing a major event. The sponsors were impressed both by the operation itself and by our readiness and openness to discussion and co-operation. They said that the visit set a “new gold standard” for outreach and confidence-building by Olympic host city security authorities.

C. Other organisational and community implications

Equality and Diversity Impact

1. This report is concerned with overall MPS performance, but a number of equalities issues are highlighted, notably measures to encourage the reporting of domestic violence.

2. Throughout all the operational activity detailed in this report, the MPS strives to improve the quality of service provided to victims of hate crime, ensuring that a consistent and effective service is provided to London’s diverse communities; to improve performance against domestic violence, ensuring a consistent level of service across all communities and minimising disproportionality issues; to increase community trust and confidence in the police; to develop a workforce that reflects the diversity of London.

Consideration of MET Forward

3. This report fully reflects how the MPS is delivering the three key outcomes of Met Forward: fighting crime and reducing criminality, increasing confidence in policing, and providing better value for money.

Financial Implications

4. The financial challenges facing the Service are highlighted under Section B of this report.

5. Reports on the progress against the current business plan and budget are submitted on a regular basis to the MPA. As at Period 11 (February 2011) the revenue budget is forecast to under-spend by £6.4m (0.2% of budget). However, Management Board have agreed the need to manage down expenditure to deliver an under-spend of £11m to support the 2011-14 budget position.

6. The Capital Programme as at the end of Period 11 (February 2011) shows year to date total expenditure of £156.9m. This total represents 56.8% of the revised annual budget of £276.3m. The forecast for the year of £199.6m represents an under-spend of £76.7m (27.8% of the revised annual budget).

Legal Implications

7. As this report is a summary of operational performance data, no legal implications arise.

Environmental Implications

8. This report contains no direct environmental implications.

Risk Implications

9. The risks and opportunities are reflected in the content of this report and controls are in place where appropriate.

D. Background papers

None

E. Contact details

Report authors: Director of Business Strategy, Michael Debens, MPS

For more information contact:

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

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