Correspondence

Serious and organised crime local partnerships bulletin: August 2019 (accessible version)

Published 25 October 2019

August 2019 Issue 11

Working together to tackle Serious and Organised Crime

Welcome

Welcome to the eleventh edition of our Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) Partnerships Bulletin, developed to share good practice from across government, law enforcement and the public, private and voluntary sectors. We hope these articles will form the basis for practitioners and policymakers to interact and share information to help develop both local activity and national policy that will protect the public from SOC.

In the last edition, amongst other things, we reported on progress of the Home Office’s SOC Strategy Multi-Agency Workshops and introduced the first of two regular features on community resilience and lifetime offender management of SOC offenders. We also highlighted a number of important projects working to reduce individuals’ vulnerability to SOC, as well as recent developments in the world of data analytics.

In this edition we are pleased to showcase the Home Office’s SOC Community Coordinators programme which is driving a whole-system response at local partnership level; the new Single Competent Authority for streamlining NRM referrals; impressive partnership working to tackle money laundering as part of our economic crime feature; as well as various activity in the communities, vulnerability and lifetime offender management space.

The SOC Partnerships Bulletin is released on a quarterly basis by the Home Office’s SOC policy group. If you have an article which you would like to feature in a future edition, please email the team mailbox below. If you have any further feedback/suggestions or questions, please contact your usual SOC contact or the SOC Partnerships mailbox at: SCOC.localpartnerships@homeoffice.gov.uk.

Special unit established to support modern slavery victims

April 29th saw the launch of the Single Competent Authority (SCA) for the Modern Slavery National Referral Mechanism (NRM) by the Home Office. This is a unit responsible for both the identification and management of modern slavery victims across the UK.

In recent years, the numbers of victims identified and supported through the NRM has increased significantly, primarily due to the rising awareness of modern slavery crimes. 2018 saw a referral of 6,993 victims, which was a 36% increase on the year before, with the number of UK national referrals increasing by almost 100% during this period too.

The SCA has been formed as part of a wide programme to reform the NRM, with reforms including improvements to the identification process and the support provision for victims. Until April, the identification of victims was led by UK Visas & Immigration and the National Crime Agency, and the management of victim care was led by the Modern Slavery Unit. The significance of the SCA can be found in how it brings both aspects of helping modern slavery victims together and makes intelligence sharing significantly easier.

First Responder organisations such as police forces, immigration officials and local authorities are primarily in charge of referring modern slavery victims. These organisations will soon be able to submit referrals using a new online form which will feed into a bigger system used by the SCA, making the response to modern slavery much more dynamic and efficient. We currently have some First Responders testing this new form, and further information will be communicated to all relevant organisations in preparation for the launch of this new system.

The SCA is also responsible for the management of the Victim Care Contract, through which the government supports victims of modern slavery in England and Wales. This support is provided through the Salvation Army, which uses a network of subcontractors to provide accommodation and support services for those who are most in need.

For more information on the SCA, please contact alice.matthews3@homeoffice.gov.uk.

SOC Community Coordinators

Funded through the Police Tranformation Fund (PTF), the Home Office’s Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) Community Coordinator programme is a key enabler for SOC Strategy implementation at local partnership level.

The project has so far worked to deliver a whole system approach to tackling SOC through activities that involve targeted Prevent interventions, community resilience-building and strategic communications that develop capability on the ground. Since its introduction in 2018/2019 the programme has represented a change in the Home Office’s approach to reducing the impact of SOC on communities and protecting the most vulnerable members of society from criminal exploitation.

In its first year, the programme was delivered in Bradford, West Yorkshire; Brighton, Sussex; Newport, Gwent; Sedgemoor, Avon and Somerset; and Speke, Merseyside in conjunction with Halton, Cheshire. In 19/20 the programme is being expanded to Birmingham, West Midlands; Haringey and Enfield, London; and Grimsby and Immingham, Humberside.

In most cases coordinators are based within local police forces. Each receives an annual budget and is responsible for embedding themselves within, and galvanising local partnerships. Day to day they work to identify and commission local projects, capturing and strengthening the evidence base around what works for reducing vulnerability to SOC, at both an individual and a community-level. Coordinators are also working to mobilise additional local and national funding streams to bolster their existing Home Office allocation and up lift the scale, reach and impact of project activity.

The Coordinators

• Birmingham - Corrina.Griffiths@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk
• Bradford – Michael.cox1@westyorkshire.pnn.police.uk
• Brighton – Donna.Ward@sussex.pnn.police.uk
• Grimsby / Immingham - Steven.Peck@humberside.pnn.police.uk
• Haringey / Enfield - Stuart.J.Smillie@met.police.uk
• Newport - Paul.Davies@gwent.pnn.police.uk
• Sedgemoor - John.Pennycook@homeoffice.gov.uk
• Speke / Halton - Jimmy.Belmar@merseyside.police.uk

For more information on the programme at large, please contact the Home Office’s project manager, Nigel.Page7@homeoffice.gov.uk

Asset Recovery Action Plan

The UK has been recognised as a world-leader in combatting economic crime, with the Financial Action Taskforce giving us the highest rating of any country assessed. Nevertheless, the Government have gone even further by publishing this Action Plan, which will continue to close in on criminals and the spaces used for their illegal activities.

Economic crime poses a significant threat to our security and prosperity despite our successes in tackling it. Serious and organised crime is estimated to cost the UK at least £37 billion each year, and tens of billions of pounds of criminal and corrupt funds are laundered through the UK every year. Across the country, organised crime groups use a myriad of ways to launder the proceeds of their criminality, to enjoy the profits of the misery they have caused others and to re-invest in their drug dealing, human trafficking and fraud.

More assets have been recovered recently than ever before, with £1.6 billion taken from criminals between April 2010 and March 2018 using the powers in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and many hundreds of millions more have been frozen. But the Government is determined to go further and ensure criminals have nowhere to hide their illicit finances. For this reason, on July 12, the Government published the new Asset Recovery Action Plan (ARAP) alongside the Economic Crime Plan.

Our aim is to leave no safe space for organised criminals to operate; targeting the proceeds of their crimes is a key was of disrupting and deterring them. As set out in the Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) strategy, the Economic Crime Plan and the ARAP, we need to take a whole system approach to tackling crime and depriving criminals of their ill-gotten gains.

The ARAP sets out how we will work collaboratively to reform and improve the asset recovery regime, to see a return to year-on-year increases in the value of assets denied to and recovered from criminals. It also sets out a clear ambition to work across Government and the private sector to develop new, innovative approaches to recovering unenforced confiscation orders.

This overall approach will drive the delivery of the Government’s objectives for Asset Recovery: disrupt criminal activity; deprive criminals of their proceeds of crime; discredit negative role models in society; and deter others from becoming involved in crime.

Read the ECP in full

Read the ARAP in full

For more information, please contact Neil.Curtis@homeoffice.gov.uk

Drawing on the expertise of operational leaders in law enforcement and prosecution agencies to achieve these aims, the Government’s objectives for asset recovery are structured around four pillars:

Legal Powers

We will examine where the current law might be improved and consider the provision of new powers.

Improve Operational Performance

To achieve greater consistency in the prioritisation and delivery of financial investigation, essential for an effective operational response, across all UK law enforcement agencies.

Continuously Review and Embed Best Practice

So that we build a clear evidence base of what works and improve our collective response by ensuring our efforts are targeted effectively.

Fostering Innovation and Collaboration

Working with stakeholders to examine the wider capability that exists through public / private partnership approaches and identify the best practice, techniques and partnership arrangements that could be brought to bear against criminals.

New crime in prison referral agreement published

An agreement that helps tackle crimes committed in prison which seek to undermine both the safety of prisons and confidence in the entire criminal justice system.

Crimes committed within prison are incredibly damaging, with serious implications for the safety and discipline that is needed to maintain order in a disciplinary environment. It follows that these crimes also hinder the rehabilitation of offenders by restricting the time they can spend doing enriching activities or on offending behaviour programmes – which impacts our wider communities when these offenders are released.

Therefore, crime in prison that goes unpunished or is dealt with ineffectively undermines prison safety and security, the efforts of the police, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and belief in the effectiveness of our criminal justice system.

In response to this, a new Crime in Prison Referral Agreement was published in May 2019, an agreement produced through working closely with police colleagues, the CPS, the Home Office and other agencies. The agreement sets out the means of referral, investigation and prosecution for crimes committed in prisons and immigration removal centres by any prisoner, staff member or visitor. The original protocol was published in 2015 and this 2019 agreement has now replaced that, with the new agreement placing greater emphasis on different partners working together and the expectations of all parties who have signed up to the agreement.

Jonathan Store, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor has welcomed the agreement, stating that it “… builds on recent legislation, the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018, which treats an assault on prison staff as seriously as an assault on a police officer, by clearly setting out guidance for prosecutors when dealing with a crime in prison”.

Deputy Chief Constable Jason Hogg, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for Prisons and Lifetime Offender Management notes ‘The new agreement reflects wider police commitment to do more to support prisons to tackle the threat of crime in prisons, which impacts on our communities as well as on prisons. I am particularly pleased the agreement strengthens and builds on partnership working, which is essential in tackling all criminality in a whole-system way’.

Dr Jamie Bennett, Deputy Director of Operational Security Group in HMPPS welcomed the new agreement:

I am delighted to see this new referral agreement introduced, this represents a significant step forward in our work with the police and CPS and will provide us with a more consistent approach to managing crimes committed within prison.

Read the full agreement

For more information on this topic, please contact Laura Fisher at laura.fisher@justice.gov.uk.

Wolverhampton Church pledges to fight hate crime

St Peter’s Collegiate Church has launched as a Third-Party Reporting Centre for Hate Crime, working in partnership with Safer Wolverhampton Partnership, West Midlands Police and Transforming Communities Together.

The local charity Transforming Communities Together co-hosted an event with West Midlands Police Wolverhampton Partnerships Team to train and equip churches, faith groups and charities to consider becoming Third Party Reporting Centres.

Victims and witnesses of hate crimes and hate incidents often find it difficult to report the matter directly to the police but may feel more comfortable talking to other ‘third party’ community organisations. Staff and volunteers within these thirdparty reporting centres have been trained to help victims and witnesses to submit a report to the police or can make a report on their behalf.

Transforming Communities Together Lead development worker James Henderson said, “This is a really exciting development for the city and is another way to see everyone flourish and thrive. We’d love to see more churches and faith groups in Wolverhampton receive hate crime training and consider becoming a Third-Party Reporting Centre.”

Deborah Smith, Prevent and Cohesion Officer for City of Wolverhampton Council explains, “There is no place for hate or prejudice here in Wolverhampton. We are working hard with our partners to raise awareness of hate crime and encourage communities to report it and get help. It is fantastic that St Peter’s Church wants to support the city in this way, and we want to inspire and empower more people to be involved in tackling hate crime in more communities across Wolverhampton.”

Participatory budgeting in Newport

A partnership group in Newport has been working with local communities to unlock the potential in community assets in a bid to prevent crime, protect the vulnerable or support victims.

Gwent Police, Newport City Council, Milton primary school, Newport City Homes and the local Fire and Rescue Service have been working with MutualGain, a specialist community engagement organisation to improve the way organisations engage with the people they serve. Using World Café and Participatory Budgeting (PB) events, the partnership has been focusing on the Ringland and Always areas of Newport. The two adjacent wards have unemployment and crime levels above the national average and have been experiencing SOC related harm characterised by street level drug supply, child criminal exploitation, cuckooing, prostitution and vehicle theft.

The initiative kicked off in February through a World Café in which the partnership initiated conversations with residents about SOC and what they felt was needed to improve their community. Attendees were invited to form a community planning group ahead of a PB event in March where local organisations and community groups pitched their bids for project funding. The bids, which had to be related to preventing crime, protecting the vulnerable or supporting victims, were assessed by a panel of residents from the planning group, supported by staff from the partnership agencies.

For an area that had traditionally struggled to engage with police and frontline services, it was no small achievement that this event attracted nearly one hundred participants of all ages. A total of £15,000 of funding was made available by the Gwent Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) with £5,000 available per project. Sixteen bids at a combined value of £65,000 were received from a range of organisations in and around the Ringland and Alway area. Grants were awarded to Gwent Police Cadets, Newport Samaritans, Ringland Primary School and the Alway Boxing Club to take forward community-based initiatives that would tackle vulnerability and contribute to safer and more empowered neighbourhoods.

MutualGain are also running a community coaching programme to provide additional support to local people and winners of the PB funds. This will support them to develop on a personal level and encourage them to achieve community focused goals that will provide foundations for stronger police/community relationships.

The community feedback from the event has been exceptionally positive. MutualGain has since held feedback sessions with the community and the Partnership and will be holding an Action Planning event in June to ensure the sustainability of the success of the programme to date.

For more information, please contact Paul Davies at Paul.Davies@gwent.pnn.police.uk

What is Participatory Budgeting?

Participatory Budgeting is a process of democratic consultation and decision-making in which ordinary people decide for themselves how to allocate and part of a public budget. The PB approach can be an effective technique for initiating social action and resilience building in communities that may be facing adverse circumstances and where there may be a lack of social cohesion, connectedness or inclusion. The approach can help build relationships with the community and strengthen the social capital in the area to begin to impact on local behavioural change.

Diverting young people in Ceredigion

Vulnerable young people in Ceredigion are being giving the opportunity to recognise the consequences of becoming involved in serious and organised crime.

The Home Office and Ceredigion Youth Justice Board in Wales have funded a project aiming to help 31 young people recognise high-risk situations that could involve them in serious and organised crime (SOC) and practice ways of responding to those situations. The programme has also been supported by Ceredigion Youth Justice and Prevention Service as well as representatives from Choices Substance Misuse Team, Youth Services, Dyfed-Powys Police and Aberystwyth University.

The interventions run over six weekly sessions packed with activities focusing on SOC activity and risk. The key sessions focus on emotions and behaviour, how to stay safe online, substance misuse, relationships and consent, where to get help (a drama activity) and an outdoor activity challenge.

Of the 31-young people recruited, 29 have successfully completed the programme. As an example of the impact the programme is having:

One participant was referred to the 6-week intensive programme by his headmaster as he was at severe risk of being drawn into SOC. He came from a background of domestic violence, had been assaulted by his father, was previously on the child protection register and was talking to adult strangers online. Suffering from low self-confidence, he was bullied and became a habitual absconder from school, whilst also being known for being aggressive and having a difficult relationship with the police. Through the work of the programme, he has since been provided with the support needed to address his behaviour and emotions and has been helped to learn how to stay safe online and build his confidence.

As well as collecting data to track the progress made by the young people, the programme is also capturing data on SOC and a risk profile based on that group. An evaluation is currently being finalized with the intention to publish findings in the autumn.

For more information on the programme, please contact Harish.Dutt@homeoffice.gov.uk

Modern Slavery Innovation Fund – Phase 1 Results

The results of the first phase of this £11m fund are in, founded to create a large scale, innovative international approach to tackling modern slavery.

Phase 1 of the fund comprised of ten projects and cost £6m from 2017 to 2019, with the aim of supporting victims and raising the resilience of those most vulnerable to this crime. During this period, the fund has also contributed to the evidence base, strengthened the capacity of overseas partners and promoted transparency in supply chains.

The key achievements of Phase 1 have included:

• 1,289 victims were supported,
• 3,234 professionals (such as social workers and teachers) have been trained to help them prevent modern slavery.
• 24,251 vulnerable people have been provided with services to help prevent them from becoming victims, through means such as counselling and school enrolment.
• 93,162 people have been reached directly through face-to-face prevention communications, in events at schools, theatre performances and town hall meetings.

An independent review has been undertaken following Phase 1 and will inform how the Government moves forward with future modern slavery programmes, and particularly Phase 2 of the fund. The review findings concluded that the MSIF is an innovative fund that has used original thinking to tackle this issue, and that whilst Phase 1 was focused on enacting behavioural changes in the vulnerable, it will take longer than two years to create sustainable change. The review also noted that working politically in fragile overseas contexts and selecting the correct partners to collaborate with creates the most successful and long-term impact.

Perhaps most crucially for Phase 2, research and evidence-generation has been found to be most effective when linked to tangible policy/ programmatic outcomes.

The final report including full lessons and recommendations will be shared soon, and the Modern Slavery Unit will also publish a public version of the report shortly to build the evidence-base in the wider modern slavery sector.

For more information on the fund, please contact Awe Adenike at adenike.awe1@homeoffice.gov.uk.

Parents – the problem or the solution?

In response to the rise of youth crime in South Devon, a multiagency approach was created to tackle it – and crucially, parents have been given a seat at the table.

In 2016, South Devon saw the emergence of youth gang culture and a significant escalation in crime and ASB. A multi-agency group was formed to coordinate intervention and prevention activity to safeguard the children involved and at risk. Every imaginable partner sat around the table, yet we had missed the very people required for real cultural change. Who…? The parents. For generations the phrase “I blame the parents” has been used, many of whom have unwittingly joined in the blame culture, viewing themselves as ineffective agents who are part of the problem. We were not even giving the parents a chance to be part of the solution. We began to engage parents, many had no idea of the emergence of gang culture or their children’s involvement. We were expecting them to deal with a problem that they did not know existed, were powerless to prevent and were then judging them by their failures.

The traditional parent support model was reframed beyond recognition and the first Parent Support Group (PSG) ran in April 2018, the aim- to continue for 3 months, the reality- the group has met fortnightly ever since. Parents who previously judged one another now come together inside and outside of group time to provide mutual support in crises. No longer do they feel alone or a failure, they have become a crucial conduit in safeguarding and educating not only their own children but others.

The relationship and connectivity between the Parents and the Police was powerful. When applying for Youth Gang Injunctions we explained this was a safeguarding measure to protect their children and they trusted us, supporting the process rather than contesting it. One parent pinned the injunction to her fridge, another sacked their solicitor when he told her he could get her children off it.

The parents formed a WhatsApp group, sharing information about individuals and situations that may pose a risk to their children. They developed a “cascade” system, missing episodes were reduced by contacting each other to locate their children, if their children were causing problems, Police would make contact and they would go and get their children out of the situation. This empowered the parents, they felt a valued part of the safeguarding mechanism and the demand reduction and their newfound support for the police was extraordinary.

The parents now see themselves differently, as part of the solution not the problem and essential and powerful partners in turning the lives of their children, and their own around. They are supporting the establishment of new PSGs and buddy systems have been formed. The parents feel empowered to take back control, a clear cultural shift and community response is apparent. It took time for trust to be built with families who have hated police for generations and have extensive histories with many agencies, it all started with an acceptance that we needed help, honesty, patience and a blame free environment.

For more information on this article, please contact Ceri Lloyd at Ceri.Lloyd@devonandcornwall.pnn.police.uk

The fight against dirty money

A fresh crackdown in the fight against dirty money has been launched through the publication of a new public-private Economic Crime Plan.

A new public-private Economic Crime Plan has been jointly endorsed by the Home Secretary and Chancellor through the Economic Crime Strategic Board. Representing a step-change in the UK’s response to economic crime the plan sets out an ambitious agenda to strengthen our whole-system response for tackling economic crime. Developed in partnership across HMG, law enforcement and the private sector it sets out 52 key actions around seven strategic objectives.

Strong domestic action will also support our efforts to combat economic crime and illicit financial flows at the international level therefore key actions include:

• Support to a whole-system overhaul including over £48 million in 2019-20 to support new capability, including the multi-agency National Economic Crime Centre.

• Commitment to reform the Suspicious Activity Reporting regime and the UK’s Financial Intelligence Unit.

• Promotion of innovation in the private sector, encouraging the use of new technologies.

• Establishment of a new crypto assets regime to address the use of bitcoin and other electronic currencies.

• Development of an effective transparency of ownership regime including the reform of Companies House, transparency of overseas ownership of UK property and reform of limited partnerships.

By harnessing the capabilities, expertise and information of both the public and private sectors, the UK can remain world leading in the global fight against economic crime.

The plan was published on 12 June.

If you’d like any further information, please contact either clare.wilson9@homeoffice.gov.uk or helena.parselle@homeoffice.gov.uk

Strategic priorities

• Develop a better understanding of the threat posed by economic crime and our performance in combatting economic crime
• Pursue better sharing and usage of information to combat economic crime within and between the public and private sectors across all participants
• Ensure the powers, procedures and tools of law enforcement, the justice system and the private sector are as effective as possible.
• Strengthen the capabilities of law enforcement, the justice system and private sector to detect, deter and disrupt economic crime
• Build greater resilience to economic crime by enhancing the management of economic crime risk in the private sector and the risk-based approach to supervision
• Improve our systems for transparency of ownership of legal entities and legal arrangements
• Deliver an ambitious international strategy to enhance security, prosperity and the UK’s global influence.

The Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce

An innovative information sharing platform between law enforcement and the financial sector is recognised internationally as an example of best practice.

The Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT) has facilitated the exchanges and analysis of information relating to money laundering and wider economic threats since its inception in 2015. Consisting of over 40 financial institutions including the Financial Conduct Authority, Cifas and five law-enforcement agencies: the NCA, HMRC, the SFO, the City of London Police, and the Metropolitan Police Service, the JMLT’s public-private partnership model has generated very positive results.

The three major successes of the JMLIT include:

The support and development of over 500 law enforcement investigations which have directly contributed to over 130 arrests and the seizure or restraint of over £13m.

JMLIT private sector members have collaboratively identified over 5,000 suspect accounts, and commenced over 3,500 of their own internal investigations, to mitigate the threat of financial crime.

Financial sector-led expert working groups provide a platform for members to discuss current or emerging threats, and to identify innovative ways of collectively combating these threats. As a result, over 30 ‘JMLIT Alert’ reports have been shared with the wider financial industry to assist in focussing the identification and implementation of transactional monitoring system queries, in turn helping to mitigate criminal methodologies used to exploit the UK’s financial system.

If the UK is to continue tackle multiinstitutional, and multi-jurisdictional high-end money laundering schemes then a forum for information sharing is essential.

For more information please contact JMLIT@nca.gov.uk.