Funding for Independent Custody Visiting Panels 2004/05

Report: 7
Date: 18 March 2004
By: Clerk

Summary

Each year the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) allocates a budget to Independent Custody Visiting Panels (ICVPs) to enable them to undertake specified aspects of work on its behalf. A budget allocation for each has been proposed and is being presented to this Committee for approval, along with details of a number of smaller budget allocations, including the production of the ICVP handbook. Progress is being made on the initiation of a review of Independent Custody Visiting and this too is reported to the Committee for information.

A. Recommendation

That

1. the Committee agrees and signs off the recommended budget allocation to each ICVP for 2004/05;
2. agrees and signs off a number of related budget allocations, including the production of the ICVP Handbook;
3. notes that a fuller training programme for Independent Custody Visitors and Trainers is being developed and will be the subject of a further report; and
4. notes the progress being made on initiating a review of the Independent Custody Visiting Panel Scheme.

B. Supporting information

Background

1. The MPA’s statutory responsibilities for organising and overseeing the delivery of Independent Custody Visiting (ICV) reside in Section 51 of the Police Reform Act 2002. This requires that the MPA have in place:

"…robust and effective procedures for establishing and maintaining the independent custody visiting scheme, including the allocation of sufficient resources to this function. This includes:

• Publicising the work of their schemes
• Developing a policy/policies to maintain and enhance the effectiveness of schemes
• Overseeing the recruitment, approval and training of independent custody visitors
• Establishing and maintaining effective systems for feeding back to the police authority the outputs from visits, and putting in place the necessary action to respond to issues as they arise
• Facilitating meetings of their independent custody visitors to discuss their work and issues arising from it
• Monitoring performance against the agreed frequency of visits.”

2. The key role of the MPA is to ensure that the scheme is running effectively on a day-to-day basis and to act as a source of advice and support for those organising Independent Custody Visitor Panels (ICVPs) at the borough level. An essential purpose of the ICVPs is to strengthen public confidence in procedures at police stations.

3. The process by which Independent Custody Visiting Panels operate is that volunteers from the community are recruited and approved by the MPA after a formal security check is made by the MPS and, following training, suitably organised to visit local police stations. Unannounced visits are made at varying times of the day and night, with volunteers having immediate access to the custody area. As part of that process, there is discussion with custody staff and detainees who are required to give their consent before being spoken to. Independent Custody Visitors must raise issues needing immediate attention by the police. After every visit they produce a written report of their findings. Arrangements are in place for outputs from visits to be discussed by the Panel and communicated to the police at local, area and force level where necessary.

4. The major budget item for the ICVPs is for the local administrator. The duties of this person generally are:

• ensuring that a suitable pattern of visiting is established and supplied (i.e. developing rotas)
• acting as a conduit for feedback to local police commanders and the MPA
• facilitating meetings and discussions between Panel members
• facilitating local publicity of the Panels’ work to encourage the recruitment of volunteers

ICVP expenditure

5. In November 2003, Independent Custody Visiting Panels were invited to complete applications for funding to be submitted by January 2004. The application process itself requires further development and refinement for next year. It will also need to take account of the results of the forthcoming review of ICV.

6. The total budgeted amount for ICVPs for 2004-05 is £288,000. This represents a slight increase on last year’s budget, which is being used to offset the increase in staffing costs for administrators of the Panels.

7. Budgetary restraints and the need to await the outcome of the review led to the decision that all Panels would receive the same allocation as 2003-04 plus a 2.5% salary increase where applicable. See Appendix 1 for full details.

8. After the allocation of Panel running costs, the remaining £31,770 has been allocated as follows:

• Clustered administrative support to four boroughs £21,255
• ICVP Handbook £7,000
• Training and publicity £ 3,515

The MPA has funded a post to provide administrative support to a cluster of four ICVPs in South East London. It is also developing a Handbook in order to provide guidance and support to ICVs and Panels. Further work will be undertaken to develop and implement a fuller training programme for both Visitors and Trainers.

Review of Independent Custody Visiting

10. The Committee agreed a proposal to initiate a review of Independent Custody Visiting at its previous meeting. It also agreed to refer the supporting report to the Equal Opportunities and Diversity Board, which noted the contents of the report.

11. Early discussions were had within the Authority to draw up a list of potential consultants and to identify a budget for this work. This process has now been completed and a brief has been drawn up and is being discussed with the MPS Procurement Unit. Once the tendering process has been completed, it will be possible to shortlist and select a consultant to carry out the review.

12. The review will include analysis of the support currently provided by the MPA to ICVPs, the provisional training, the collection and monitoring of statistics; the relationship to the work of the Panels to the MPA’s responsibility for overall policing priorities. It will also examine the apparent inconsistencies between the number of custody suites and the number of Independent Custody Visitors. A report with recommendations will be submitted to the Consultation Committee before December 2004.

C. Equality and diversity implications

Much of the improvement that is being encouraged in the work of ICVPs will contribute to the activities demonstrating greater integration of equal opportunities and diversity in their performance and practices. The activities of the Panels are listed in the MPA Race Equality Scheme; there is therefore a specific responsibility to ensure that they undertake their consultation and community engagement activities in ways that meet the general and specific duties of the Act.

D. Financial implications

The financial implications are the subject of the report.

E. Background papers

None.

F. Contact details

Report author: Tim Rees, Acting Head, Community Engagement Unit,MPA.

For more information contact:

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

Appendix 1

ICVP 2004-05 budget allocations

Appendix 2

Numbers in custody by borough 2002

(Source – MPS)

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