Correspondence

Crime and policing news update: October 2015

Published 3 November 2015

1. New Counter-Extremism Strategy published

The government’s new one-nation Counter-Extremism Strategy was published on 19 October. The strategy aims to protect communities by challenging extremists’ narratives and promoting the positive alternative to extremism.

The strategy sets out 4 principal areas in which action will be taken:

• confronting the extremist ideology head-on
• actively supporting those who want to fight extremism, but are too often disempowered or drowned out of the debate
• disrupting extremists, aggressively pursuing the key radicalisers who do so much damage
• building stronger and more cohesive communities, fighting segregation and feelings of alienation that can help provide fertile ground for extremist messages to take root

Alongside the strategy, a new power was announced, which will allow parents who are concerned that their children are at risk of travelling abroad under the influence of extremists to apply to have their passports removed.

The strategy also sets out proposed measures to strengthen the role of the Disclosure and Barring Service to ensure anyone with a conviction or civil order for terrorist or extremist activity is automatically banned from working with children and vulnerable people, in the same way as individuals convicted of sexual offences against children.

2. Support for local initiatives to prevent extremist ideologies announced

The government will invest £5 million to build a national network of grassroots organisations to challenge all forms of extremist ideology. This new funding, initially for this financial year, will be dedicated to providing direct and in-kind practical support to groups to expand the reach and scale of their work to confront extremism and develop credible alternative narratives to the dangerous views propagated by extremists.

This new partnership approach to strengthening community resilience and promoting a coalition to speak out, challenge and ultimately defeat extremism is a central part of the new Counter-Extremism Strategy.

3. Diversity profiles published to encourage forces to become more representative

Ensuring that all police forces in England and Wales are truly representative of the communities they serve is a priority for the Home Secretary. In her speech to the National Black Policing Association, she urged forces to do more to increase diversity and announced the publication of a force-by-force overview of the proportion of Black or Minority Ethnic (BME) and female officers in each police force.

The data is available on the police.uk website, and is presented alongside total population statistics, allowing the public to see how representative their force is in terms of ethnicity and gender. The data will enable chief constables to identify areas for improvement and for the public and police and crime commissioners to hold them to account.

The diversity profiles show:

• there is no police force in England and Wales that has a BME representation that matches its local demographic
• according to self-declared data submitted by forces to the Home Office, 4 forces have no black or black British officers
• there are no BME Chief Constables
• female police officers make up 28.2% of all police officers yet are 51% of the total population

With the launch of the BME 2020 Vision, the government will be calling on all public sector organisations, including the police, to make their workforces racially representative.

4. College of Policing launches scheme to increase inclusivity in forces

The College of Policing has launched a pilot scheme to help increase inclusivity in police forces. Four forces (Gloucestershire, Staffordshire, Sussex and West Midlands) have signed up to take part in the reverse mentoring programme, which is being run as part of the college’s leadership review recommendations.

The scheme will see senior police officers learn about the experiences of junior staff of all backgrounds. This will help senior policing leaders gain greater insight into the experience of officers and staff from under-represented groups, including BME officers, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender officers, female officers, and officers with disabilities.

The pilot will run for 9 to 12 months before being evaluated. If it is found to be a success the college plans to offer the scheme to all forces.

5. Police innovation fund 2016 to 2017

The police innovation fund was established to support innovative, collaborative and cost-saving projects aimed at transforming policing.

This year the fund will consider both proof of concept as well as implementation-ready bids. The change will enable police forces to seek funding to assess an innovative idea, as well as fully worked through proposals. This will allow for more funding to be given to ideas coming from the grassroots of policing at a much earlier stage.

The assessment criteria for this year’s bids have been revised to reflect the increased emphasis on bids that improve outcomes and can be scaled nationally. You can email Police.InnovationFund@homeoffice.gov.uk for more information on how to submit your bid.

6. Home Secretary announces chair for deaths in custody review

On 21 October, the Home Secretary announced that Dame Elish Angiolini DBE QC will chair the independent review into deaths and serious incidents in police custody.

The appointment was announced alongside the publication of the review’s terms of reference, which include a commitment to examine the procedures and processes surrounding deaths and serious incidents in police custody, including the lead up to such incidents, the immediate aftermath, through to the conclusion of official investigations.

INQUEST, a charity that has long campaigned on these issues, will also have a formal role in the review, to ensure that the voices of families who have lost loved ones in police custody are heard. This will include INQUEST’s director, Deborah Coles acting as a special adviser to Dame Angiolini.

7. FGM mandatory reporting duty comes into force

A new duty, which requires professionals to report confirmed cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) comes into force from 31 October, and guidance has been published to help prepare for the new duty.

The duty requires regulated health and social care professionals and teachers in England and Wales to report visually confirmed or verbally disclosed cases of FGM in girls under 18 to the police. To help professionals understand and comply with the duty, guidance has been published setting out the legal requirements it places on them and the process to follow for making reports. It contains an overview of the action which may be taken if they fail to comply with the duty. The guidance also includes information for the police on what to do when they receive a report.

8. New video shows the devastating impact of forced marriage

The forced marriage unit has released a new film to demonstrate the devastating impact of forced marriage on victims and their families. Building on the outreach and education work of the forced marriage unit, the film aims to raise public awareness of the impact of forced marriage, and that forcing someone to marry is a criminal offence.

9. New provision in the Modern Slavery Act to fight slavery in supply chains

The landmark Modern Slavery Act introduced protections for victims and harsh penalties for offenders. The new transparency in supply chains provision from the act has now come into force.

Businesses that operate in the UK and have a turnover in excess of £36 million will be required to set out the actions they have taken to ensure that there is no modern slavery in their organisation and their wider supply chain. The provision will encourage businesses to do more to eliminate modern slavery from their global supply chains. Guidance has been published to advise businesses of the requirement.

To further strengthen the act and better protect victims of modern slavery, a number of provisions in the act came into force on 15 October. These include:

• presumption of age, such that a potential victim who is believed to be a child can be given age-appropriate support even while uncertainty remains over their age
• changes to visa rules to ensure that overseas domestic workers who are victims of modern slavery can remain in the UK for at least 6 months
• updated guidance has been published for law enforcement and other agencies on how to identify and support potential victims

10. New duty to notify Home Office of victims of modern slavery

This government is determined to eradicate modern slavery, and the landmark Modern Slavery Act sets out a wide range of actions to improve support and protection for victims. To help more victims to be identified, a new provision in the act has come into force.

From 1 November, public authorities including the police, local authorities and the National Crime Agency have a legal duty to notify the Home Office when they encounter a potential victim of modern slavery, including human trafficking. Other public authorities and non-government organisations are also encouraged to make a voluntary notification despite not being bound by the duty, in order to help build the picture of modern slavery in the UK.

You can find further guidance on how to notify the Home Office of a case of suspected modern slavery, together with the National Referral Mechanism and duty to notify forms. If you need additional guidance, please email Suzanne Farrell in the Modern Slavery unit.

11. Hampshire and Isle of Wight Modern Slavery partnership launched

On 28 September, the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Modern Slavery partnership was launched. Hampshire’s police and crime commissioner Simon Hayes is funding the Medaille Trust, a charity that supports potential victims of human trafficking to co-ordinate the partnership.

The partnership began as a multi-agency working group set up by Hampshire Constabulary police officers and aims to bring together organisations to fight slavery and support the victims of slavery. It will help a range of organisations share understanding and information on modern slavery, improve the multi-agency response to it, and ensure that victims receive the support they need.

The partnership has launched a website with further information and resources.

12. New sentencing guidelines on theft announced

New guidelines for how offenders convicted of theft should be sentenced have been published by the Sentencing Council. The guidelines will come into force from 1 February 2016 and will apply to the full range of theft offences, such as shop theft, pick-pocketing, handling stolen goods and stealing by employees.

For the first time, judges and magistrates will have comprehensive guidance to help adopt a standard approach to sentencing, ensuring that certain factors are always taken into account. The guidelines give a range of options to judges and magistrates so they can decide the most appropriate sentence for each offender, depending on the level of harm to the victim, the financial values involved, how blameworthy the offender is and what is best suited to both punish the offender and prevent reoffending.

13. Ministry of Justice’s Restorative Justice Week 2015

Restorative justice schemes bring together people harmed by crime or conflict with those responsible, to find a positive way forward. The annual International Restorative Justice Week, which runs from 15 to 22 November, seeks to increase general awareness and understanding of these schemes and emphasise the potential benefits, so that victims and offenders can make an informed decision as to whether they want to participate.

The theme of this year’s Restorative Justice Week is ‘I’ve got something to say’ and focuses on how restorative justice can help empower victims, give them a voice and help them to move forward with their lives.

The Ministry of Justice is working closely with police and crime commissioners, victims’ groups and restorative justice organisations, to support them with local events being held in their communities. A range of campaign materials including posters and digital assets have been produced for partners to support Restorative Justice Week, which you can order from the Ministry of Justice’s campaigns team.

14. Alternative place of safety pilot evaluation report published

At the 2014 Policing and Mental Health Summit the Home Secretary announced funding for the Richmond Fellowship to deliver an alternative place of safety in Sussex.

The pilot to provide an alternative place of safety for people detained under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 was launched in March, and ran for 12 weeks. Sussex Police and local partners, including Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust, the Sussex Clinical Commissioning Groups, NHS England and the Richmond Fellowship participated in the pilot.

On 10 October 2015, the Home Office published its evaluation report of the pilot, which describes the service offered, its impact on some of the recipients of these services and the lessons that were learned by partners during the journey to establish and run this innovative enterprise.

15. Mind’s blue light programme

Mind developed the blue light programme to provide mental health support for emergency services staff and volunteers from police, fire, ambulance and search and rescue services across England.

Since the programme’s launch in March, several members of the police services have now signed the blue light time to change pledge. Mind is encouraging as many services as possible to commit to the pledge, which you can do via mind.org.uk/bluelightpledge. At the same time, nearly 200 emergency services staff have become blue light champions to promote positive wellbeing in their workplaces.

To support emergency services staff and volunteers with their mental health, Mind has produced information booklets. Over 153,000 information booklets have already been distributed to members of the police, and you can order free copies for your workplace as part of an information pack via Mind’s website.

16. Speeches

Read the Home Secretary’s speech at the National Black Policing Association’s conference about a one nation approach to policing.