Police Finances
New measures laid in Parliament today (16 April 2024) will make it easier for police chiefs to sack rogue officers during misconduct hearings.
Police chief constables will be given the responsibility of chairing the hearings which decide on the removal of officers found guilty of police misconduct.
By giving these powers to chief constables, police leaders will be held increasingly accountable for their own officers and be able to influence any dismissal decisions impacting their own force.
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Recruitment and Retention
New arrangements for misconduct hearings whereby Legally Qualified Chairs (LQCs) will be replaced by chief officers in presiding over hearings are set to come into force on May 7.
The Home Office reforms, put before Parliament on Tuesday, will allow chief constables to lead the proceedings and restore responsibilities chiefs held almost a decade ago before LQCs were brought in to provide independence to the process.
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Economy & Public Finance
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey hinted that the UK might be able to lower interest rates before the US, saying inflation dynamics in the two economies are diverging.
Bailey said on Tuesday that there is more “demand-led inflation pressure” in the US than seen in the UK after markets were spooked by surprisingly strong price data in America last week. He said there is “strong evidence” of UK price pressures retreating.
“The dynamics of inflation are rather different between Europe — I mean Europe geographically now — and in the US,” he said in an interview with the International Monetary Fund. In the UK “we’re still seeing the extension of the process of coming out of the big supply shocks, the impact of the war, the impact of coming out of Covid.”
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Police Finances
Police forces have begun trawling through crime and counter-terrorism intelligence reports after faulty mobile phone data is believed to have been submitted as evidence in criminal cases for over a year.
It is understood experts are now manually checking databases for information provided by O2, amid concerns the problem could cause trials to be further delayed or convictions challenged.
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Police Demand
Police failed to show up to more than seven in 10 car thefts last year, shocking figures reveal today(TUES).
Some 30,900 vehicle thefts went unattended by officers in 2023, accounting for 72% of all cases during this period, according to research by the Liberal Democrats. The number of unattended incidents had also risen dramatically compared to previous years, up 32% from 2021 figures, which saw 22,979 unattended car theft incidents.
Of the 23 forces that responded to freedom of information requests, Cambridgeshire was the worst performing, with 1,156 incidents of car theft going unattended, accounting for 90% of all cases. Bedfordshire followed closely behind with 1,187 (88%) of incidents not attended by officers, responses show.
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Economy & Public Finance
Price falls for some food items like meat, crumpets and chocolate biscuits helped drive inflation down to its lowest level in two-and-a-half years.
The rate consumer prices have been rising at fell to 3.2% in the year to March, down from 3.4% the month before, according to official figures.
Inflation has been falling gradually since it peaked at 11.1% in late 2022.
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Police and Crime General
What would a member of the public expect of the selection procedure for a future police officer? He or she would surely imagine that candidates for a force were interviewed in person and at great length, and that family and friends were contacted and visited to verify their backgrounds. And, of course, the recruitment process would include the most thorough background checks, with the merest hint of criminality — certainly in adulthood — being immediately fatal to an application. This would not be a one-off check but the start of a continuing process, tracking officers throughout their careers. This is what reasonable laymen would expect as a minimum. Yet the elements above cannot be taken for granted in selection procedures practised by some of the more than 40 forces that make up the police service in this country.
Despite the appalling scandals surrounding Wayne Couzens and David Carrick, former firearms officers in the Metropolitan Police, both of them prolific sexual predators guilty of the most heinous crimes, vetting of new officers remains porous. Bad apples can still slip into the barrel — and ones that go rotten may not be picked up.
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Justice
Domestic abuse cases are widespread in countries across the world. In the United States, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner. Across the European Union, at least two women are killed daily by an intimate partner or family member. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, partners or family members are responsible for nearly half of all female homicides.
Given the profound impact of domestic violence on individuals and society at large, and the potential risk of escalation of harm, domestic abuse cases in which a high risk of future harm has been identified are a high priority for law enforcement agencies. Despite that, across England and Wales, we see a steeply increasing number of domestic abuse cases that are closed because victims withdraw their complain.
In our recent CEP discussion paper, we explore the connection between the workload of police officers and the likelihood of victims withdrawing from high-risk domestic abuse cases, using the data from Greater Manchester Police spanning January 2014 to March 2019. Our findings reveal that an addition of 10 cases per officer per month is related to a 3 percentage point increase in the likelihood of victim withdrawal.
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Police and Crime General
More than a third of people caught with class A drugs such as cocaine and heroin are being let off, analysis by The Telegraph has shown, sparking fears that they are being legalised by stealth.
Home Office data analysed by The Telegraph reveals that 39.2 per cent of people caught with hard drugs, other than cannabis, avoided a criminal record and were instead handed community resolutions or let off any action “in the public interest” last year. It represents a fivefold increase since 2016 when the proportion was just 7.5 per cent.
Community resolutions are supposed to be used only for “low-level” offences. However, MPs have warned that in the absence of government direction, police forces appeared to be crafting their own policies with first-time offenders not being prosecuted even for possession of class A drugs.
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Technology
Experts have revealed the ways social media networks TikTok and Instagram are profiting from having creators promoting a criminal lifestyle in the UK on their platforms.
A six-month Express investigation found one of Albania’s biggest online celebrities, Aleks Visha, rose to fame through live online tours of UK cannabis farms and boasts about his criminal exploits.
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Police and Crime General
The police were first made aware of suspicious messages targeting men at Westminster late last year - but did not warn MPs, the BBC has learned.
Many of those targeted in the alleged "honeytrap" scandal did not realise others had also been receiving messages until media reports in the past week.
It now emerges the Metropolitan Police began an investigation last year when Commons security staff were alerted.
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Recruitment and Retention
A North Wales Police officer who showed bodycam footage of a dead man to a colleague who was also his girlfriend while off duty would have been sacked if he had not quit the force.
A misconduct hearing was told that PC Matthew Roberts showed other bodycam footage to the Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) with whom he was in a relationship at the time.
The footage included the arrest of a man who claimed the former police officer "had aggravated or caused him a broken wrist" and the "forced removal of a female from private premises".
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Police Finances
An evaluation report into the UK Government-funded Grip programme and hot spot policing initiative designed to tackle serious violence has highlighted significant reductions in crime and potential savings, but has also warned that the approach is not a “quick fix” and requires commitment and buy-in from forces and leaders, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.
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Technology
There have long been warnings about the criminal and terrorist threat posed by drones, a risk that is increasing with the proliferation of cheap drone technology and the accessibility of explosives; against this backdrop, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the concerns and recommendations regarding the use of drones highlighted in the latest report from the Counter-Terrorism Preparedness Network.
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Police Demand
New counter-terror tactics have helped police to catch 24 of London’s worst predators suspected of crimes against women and girls in six months.
The Metropolitan Police has revealed a landmark pilot, which uses data to collate a monthly list of the suspected worst criminals targeting female victims, has already resulted in a string of arrests and convictions.
The scheme was announced last year after the troubled force was hit by a series of scandals and a savage review by Baroness Louise Casey who found that it was institutionally racist, misogynist and homophobic.
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Police Finances
The government is investing more than £55m in expanding facial recognition systems – including vans that will scan crowded high streets – as part of a renewed crackdown on shoplifting.
The scheme was announced alongside plans for tougher punishments for serial or abusive shoplifters in England and Wales, including being forced to wear a tag to ensure they do not revisit the scene of their crime, under a new standalone criminal offence of assaulting a retail worker.
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Police Finances
Thousands of police have been drafted in for tonight's Champions League games in Paris and Madrid amid the terror threat.
Several posters emerged on social media alleging to be from the Al-Azaim Foundation - a media arm of an IS affiliate group.
They called for attacks on the four Champions League quarter-final ties that are taking place this week.
In response, security has been "considerably reinforced" in Paris ahead of tonight's game, as thousands of officers were drafted in to help with the security operation in Madrid across both nights.
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Police Finances
More than 80% of South Yorkshire Police officers have experienced stress or low mood over the past year, according to a survey by their union.
A similar proportion felt financially worse off than five years ago, while 17% said they "never or almost never" had enough funds to cover essentials.
The Police Federation of England and Wales heard from 409 force officers for its Pay and Morale Report 2023.
The force said it hoped to create an "inviting and encouraging workplace".
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Police and Crime General
Scottish police received more than 7,000 online reports of hate crimes in the first week after a controversial new law came into effect.
The force said this was a "substantial increase" - but that the impact on frontline policing had been minimal.
Police Scotland said the "vast majority" of the reports were anonymous and that no action was taken after they were assessed against the new legislation.
A total of 240 hate crimes and 30 non-crime hate incidents were recorded during the seven-day period.
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Justice
The number of shoplifting offences leading to a prosecution has fallen in parts of the South East over the last five years, despite a rise in recorded crimes.
It comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced on Wednesday that assaulting a shopworker was to be made a separate criminal offence in response to a wave of retail crime.
Provisional Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) figures show offences leading to a court appearance fell in Surrey and Sussex between 2019 and 2023.
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Police Finances
Police sergeants are earning up to 150pc extra in overtime pay each year despite solving a lower proportion of crimes.
The overtime bill has soared by £100m in the past two years, with police forces spending more than £1bn on extra hours since 2020. Last year alone accounted for £412m, while between 2020 and 2021, the total spend was £311m.
The basic pay for a sergeant varies from £49,077 to £51,498, depending on experience. Taking an assumed average salary of £50,000, this means some are being paid 146pc more than their average salary in overtime pay.
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Justice
Judges have been told to consider more lenient sentences for offenders from “deprived” or “difficult” backgrounds.
The Sentencing Council, the official body responsible for setting guidelines for judges and magistrates, has for the first time spelt out “mitigating” factors relating to disadvantage that courts should consider before passing sentence.
The guidelines on “difficult and/or deprived background or personal circumstance” state that these factors include poverty, low educational attainment, experience of discrimination and insecure housing.
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Justice
The expansion of testing on arrest across England and Wales has seen nearly 100,000 drug tests on suspects whose behaviour was believed to have been driven by their drug abuse.
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Police and Crime General
It’s fair to say that the creation of elected PCCs – that’s Police and Crime Commissioners – didn’t get off to the best of starts.
Introduced under the Coalition government, these new politicians were first elected back in 2012. Prior to polling day, then CEO of the Electoral Reform Society, Katie Ghose, warned that: “Those pulling the strings have not done their homework and as a result this election looks primed to degenerate into a complete shambles.”
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Police and Crime General
The number of “honour-based” abuse offences recorded by English police forces has increased by more than 60% in two years, figures suggest, with concerns voiced that increased polarisation is partly to blame.
Data from 26 out of 39 constabularies approached showed that there were 2,594 cases of “honour-based” abuse – which includes forced marriage, rape, death threats and assault – in 2022, compared with 1,599 in 2020.
The increase, which was even more pronounced since 2016 (up 193%) may be partly explained by more victims coming forward and improved identification of offences by police – but other factors are also believed to be at work.
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Police and Crime General
Opal, the UK National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) intelligence unit on serious organised acquisitive retail crime, is set to enhance operations with the launch of training to combat its growth.
It aims to equip retailers and police forces with the knowledge to effectively refer intelligence on a national scale.
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Technology
The first year of live facial recognition technology has been the biggest breakthrough for crime detection since DNA, the Metropolitan Police chief leading its introduction has said.
In an exclusive interview with The Times, the Met’s director of intelligence, Lindsey Chiswick, said that the tool had been a “game-changer”, triggering an arrest every two hours of alleged criminals including rapists, burglars and robbers since it was introduced last April.
A Whitehall source said that it had been so successful that the government was planning to make a policy statement setting out its facial recognition strategy in May or June.
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Police and Crime General
Now that the electoral campaigns for Police and Crime Commissioners are firmly underway, it’s a good time to look at how it’s going and why it’s no surprise that voters aren’t that motivated to vote for them given how complex police governance has become.
There are 41 PCCs in England and Wales and they are all up for election by their local communities on 2 May. This is the fifth PCC election since the role was created in 2011. The first elections were held in 2012 and saw a paltry 15 per cent voter turnout. The reasons for this seem to be a combination of a gloomy and dark November election date that did not coincide with other elections and a lack of understanding or interest from local voters. Elections since then have had a better response and they always do better if they coincide with other local elections, as they do this year.
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Recruitment and Retention
Worried officers have proposed setting up food banks for police recruits, The Independent can reveal, as one in 10 admit to relying on handouts.
Figures show that record numbers of police are struggling with food poverty and turned to food banks last year as wages stagnated.
One in five police officers is missing meals to get by and almost 10 per cent have used a food bank in the last 12 months, according to a survey of more than 6,000 serving officers.
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Police Finances
ce spending on translation services has climbed to more than £19 million a year, new figures show.
On average, forces spent more than £450,000 each on translation and interpretation services in the most recent full financial year of 2022-23.
Campaigners have said taxpayers will be “lost for words” at the increasing sum.
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Police and Crime General
One of Britain’s most senior policing officials has revealed how he overhauled Interpol’s controversial red notice system as he burnishes his credentials to run the international law enforcement agency.
Stephen Kavanagh said that he had put in place new measures to prevent autocratic regimes from abusing Interpol alerts to detain dissidents.
The alerts, which are effectively “wanted” notices distributed among member states, have previously been used by Russia to try to arrest critics who have blown the whistle on corruption and human rights abuses.
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Recruitment and Retention
Police officers and firefighters should get the same bereavement leave following a miscarriage as NHS workers, a charity has said.
It comes after NHS England unveiled new guidelines that will give staff, including ambulance workers, paid time off work if they suffer a miscarriage before they are six months pregnant.
The Laura Hyde Foundation (LHF) is calling for the policy to be extended to all 999 workers.
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Police and Crime General
Ministers are facing a revolt from Conservative MPs over plans to criminalise homelessness that form part of the government’s flagship crime bill.
Under proposals due to be voted on by MPs before the general election, ministers intend to give police the powers to fine or move on “nuisance” rough sleepers.
But the move has infuriated dozens of Tory MPs on both the left and right of the party who have warned whips they will vote against the measures in the Criminal Justice Bill, which is going through the House of Commons.
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Police and Crime General
"So, do we have a serial killer in the UK pushing people or drowning people in rivers, canals, lakes, etc?" a TikToker cheerfully asks, in a video that has attracted more than 300,000 views.
She uses mainstream media reports of unconnected women found dead in the water across the country, Google maps, and studies published online to add credibility to the baseless theory on her account, which has more than 90,000 followers and more than two million likes.
People have always been interested in "solving a mystery", says criminal psychologist Dr Amanda Vicary, but now people have access to tools they didn't 30 years ago.
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Recruitment and Retention
Worried officers have proposed setting up food banks for police recruits, The Independent can reveal, as one in 10 admit to relying on handouts.
Figures show that record numbers of police are struggling with food poverty and turned to food banks last year as wages stagnated.
One in five police officers is missing meals to get by and almost 10 per cent have used a food bank in the last 12 months, according to a survey of more than 6,000 serving officers.
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Police Demand
Police failed to catch any criminals who stole a car in more than 100 neighbourhoods across England and Wales last year, analysis by the Observer has revealed.
A further 558 neighbourhoods with an average of at least one vehicle crime a week saw less than 2% solved, with a suspect caught and charged, according to figures published on data.police.uk, a site for open data on crime and policing.
In total, about 336,000 vehicle crimes across England and Wales, which includes thefts and break-ins, were closed without a suspect being identified – approximately 85% of all vehicle offences recorded. In some cases, police closed investigations into car theft in less than 24 hours.
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Police Finances
Police spending on translation services has climbed to more than £19 million a year, new figures show.
On average, forces spent more than £450,000 each on translation and interpretation services in the most recent full financial year of 2022-23.
Campaigners have said taxpayers will be “lost for words” at the increasing sum.
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Police and Crime General
The migrant nationalities with the highest rates of crime will be revealed in league tables under plans to be considered by ministers.
The proposal, backed by senior Tory MPs, would require the crime rates of each nation’s migrants in England and Wales to be published annually.
Ministers would present a report to Parliament each year detailing the nationality, visa status and asylum status of every offender convicted in English and Welsh courts in the previous 12 months.
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Police and Crime General
A senior police officer has said new Scottish hate crime laws which take effect on Monday could risk damaging public trust in the force.
Ch Supt Rob Hay, from the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents (ASPS), said people could feel "aggrieved" if they are reported under the legislation and have their details recorded, even if they have not committed a crime.
He also told the BBC the force has not been given any additional resources to cope.
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Police and Crime General
Former sub-postmasters and politicians have called for the Post Office to face a police investigation after BBC News revealed the company knew of flaws in its Horizon IT system.
A document shows bosses and lawyers knew of issues in 2017, but kept arguing sub-postmasters were to blame.
MP Kevan Jones said "the police need to start looking at this" specific point raised in the BBC investigation.
The Post Office earlier said it would be "inappropriate to comment".
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Police and Crime General
There are fears innocent people could end up on police databases with controversial new hate crime laws in Scotland being weaponised to "settle scores".
Legislation is being introduced on 1 April criminalising threatening or abusive behaviour which is intended to stir up hatred based on certain characteristics including age, disability, sexual orientation, and transgender identity.
The rules will apply in people's private homes and online.
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Police and Crime General
The Court of Appeal has rejected the Home Secretary’s appeal over a High Court judgment quashing the decision to abolish the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) role in the West Midlands and transfer its policing governance powers to the Mayor of West Midlands.
The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, Simon Foster, who brought the legal challenge, said the election for the Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands would now go ahead on 2 May 2024.
Mr Justice Swift in the High Court had rejected the Commissioner's contention that the consultation in December 2023 and January 2024 had not been undertaken with an open mind.
However, the judge allowed the challenge on the PCC's second ground, namely whether sufficient information was given in the consultation document to permit appropriate consideration and response.
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Police and Crime General
BASC has launched a contact platform to allow you to find out where your local Police and Crime Commissioner candidates stand on firearms licensing ahead of PCC elections on 2 May 2024.
In England and Wales, Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) are responsible for holding Chief Constables, who in turn are responsible for service delivery, to account. They also preside over the police budget and Policing Plan.
Consequently, PCCs play a vital part in ensuring your local police force fulfils its statutory obligations on firearms licensing and delivers the service in an efficient and effective manner, while protecting public safety.
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Police and Crime General
The chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) says the Angiolini Inquiry is an “urgent call to action”.
Responding to the recommendations in the Inquiry’s Part 1 Report, Chief Constable Gavin Stephens said: “The Angiolini Inquiry made for shocking and sombre reading, a view which I know is shared across policing.
“We must ensure there is nowhere to hide in policing for wrongdoers, that we lead a police service which the public, and especially women and girls, can trust to protect them and that we are uncompromising on the high standards our communities deserve.
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Police Finances
The boss of the Bank of England has said it is "not yet" the time to cut interest rates leaving them unchanged for a fifth time in a row at 5.25%.
The widely-expected decision means the cost of borrowing remains at its highest level for 16 years.
Eight of the nine Bank rate setters voted to leave rates unchanged, with only one voting in favour of a cut.
The Bank has kept interest rates at a high level in a bid to slow the pace consumer prices have been rising at.
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Economy & Public Finance
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has hinted a general election could be held in October.
He told a Lords Committee the government's next spending review had to be completed before next April and "if the general election is in October that will mean it's very, very tight".
The latest date an election could legally take place is 28 January 2025
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Recruitment and Retention
Policing is facing a “perfect storm”, with fears of a looming staffing crisis as figures reveal more than one in five officers is poised to quit the service.
A major survey of rank and file officers found 22 per cent are planning to resign in the next two years – up from 18 per cent the previous year and just 12 per cent in 2021 – in the wake of complaints of poor pay, declining mental health and low morale.
The stark figures from the Police Federation’s annual survey come after a record figure of almost 9,200 officers left forces last year, with one police figure warning: “They are feeling that it’s just not worth being a police officer any more. We have never known it so bad.”
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Police and Crime General
On the shop floor of supermarkets there is one shoplifting tactic which has become so commonplace, staff have given it its own name.
The “banana trick” consists of putting an item through a self-checkout as a cheap fruit or vegetable product and walking out with a much more expensive item.
“Best life hack ever,” one TikTok user claims in a viral video, joking that they managed to get a TV and Playstation through a self-service checkout by logging them as grapes or bananas.
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Police and Crime General
Following today’s Home Office announcement that new synthetic opioids are now under the strictest controls, in line with fentanyl, to prevent drug-related deaths in the UK and ensure anyone caught supplying these substances faces tough penalties, APCC Addictions & Substance Misuse Leads, David Sidwick and Joy Allen, said:
“We welcome the announcement that the government is banning a further 15 synthetic opioids as part of its action to prevent drug deaths. That it is regularly having to react as new synthetics become available, is a warning signal of the pace at which life-threatening drugs are being synthesised and finding their way into our communities, causing serious health harms, risk of overdose and contributing to drug-related crime too. Police and Crime Commissioners are very aware of this emerging threat, and deeply saddened by continuing reports of deaths linked to these drugs.
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Police and Crime General
A man has been sentenced for cyber flashing in England for the first time.
Nicholas Hawkes, 39, from Basildon in Essex, was jailed for 66 weeks at Southend Crown Court today after he sent unsolicited photos of his erect penis to a 15-year-old girl and a woman on 9 February.
The older victim took screenshots of the offending image on WhatsApp and reported Hawkes to the police the same day.
Cyber flashing became a criminal offence in England with the passage of the Online Safety Act on 31 January. It has been a crime in Scotland since 2010.
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Police and Crime General
Three missing children have been found and dozens of vulnerable adults have got their homes back after a police operation to tackle drug crime.
Operation Scorpion involved police forces from across the west of England.
In Wiltshire alone more than 30 people were arrested and £24,000 in cash, two guns, and cocaine and heroin worth £36,000 was seized.
Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson called the gangs' actions towards vulnerable people "despicable".
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Police and Crime General
Eight XL bully dogs and more than 600 weapons including guns, nunchucks and knuckledusters have been seized in a week of police raids on county lines drug gangs.
A total of 1,874 suspects were arrested across the country in the week ending March 10, with 245 drug dealing phone lines closed down.
Another 1,653 people who were being exploited by the gangs, just over half of them children, have been brought to safety.
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Economy & Public Finance
The period after most “fiscal events” ushers in a wave of disappointment. Last week’s budget is no exception.
Conservative MPs have realised that it will not transform the economy and their political prospects. Economists recognise that unreasonable assumptions about future policy flatter the public finances. And then there’s been the host of complaints from lobby groups, MPs, think tanks and trade bodies about all the wonderful policies the chancellor failed to deliver.
After the 2021 budget, I observed a growing trend of PR agencies and campaigners branding each overlooked budget policy as a “missed opportunity”. Since then, I’ve been collating these reactions. The sheer number of “missed opportunities” and the range of issues covered sheds light on the farce that budget days have become and the inflated hopes pinned on them as cure-alls for every social problem.
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Justice
A new report from the Victims' Commissioner spotlights the crucial role victim advocates play in supporting victims through the criminal justice process.
“Invaluable” advocates keep victims engaged in the criminal justice system for longer amid long waits for justice, says Victims’ Commissioner.
Advocates praised in extensive new first-hand testimony, with studies showing victims with advocacy support 49% less likely to withdraw from the criminal justice process.
Report highlights challenges facing the sector, including high caseloads exacerbated by Crown Court backlog.
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Justice
Ministers have unveiled a new extremism definition under which certain groups will be blocked from government funding and meeting officials.
It will apply to, but not criminalise, groups that promote an ideology based on "violence, hatred or intolerance".
Communities Secretary Michael Gove said a surge in extremism since the Israel-Gaza war posed "a real risk" to the UK.
Civil liberties advocates, community groups and MPs have criticised recent government rhetoric on extremism.
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Police and Crime General
More than 700 investigations have been launched by Britain’s biggest police force after nearly 3,000 contacts to an anti-corruption hotline in the first 18 months of operation.
The figures for the Metropolitan Police were revealed on Thursday as the police anti-corruption and abuse reporting service was rolled out nationally.
A series of harrowing scandals, including the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens, and then-Pc David Carrick being unmasked as a serial rapist, led the Met to be the first force to start using the service in November 2022.
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Police Finances
Inspectors have praised North Yorkshire Police for the progress made after concerns were raised over its performance 12 months ago.
The force was told to make "urgent" improvements after an inspection by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS).
Now, following a fresh review, HMICFRS said the force had made advances in all the areas of improvement identified.
The force said it had "worked hard" to make the necessary changes.
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Police Demand
Thefts of historic stone and metal are on the rise, according to a new report by Historic England and the National Police Chiefs' Council.
It sets out how walls and paving slabs were stolen in Yorkshire and Cheshire, while granite troughs and fountains were taken in Kent and London.
Meanwhile, metal thefts from church roofs were particularly common during the Covid lockdowns, the report added.
Historic England said such thefts "rob us of our collective history".
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Police Demand
Plans to transfer policing powers in the West Midlands to the region's mayor are unlawful and will reduce "democratic accountability", the High Court has been told.
Simon Foster, the Labour police and crime commissioner (PCC) for the area, is taking legal action against the government's move to scrap his role ahead of elections in May.
His powers are set to be merged with those of the West Midlands mayor - a role currently held by Conservative Andy Street.
The Home Office, defending against the challenge, said its decision was taken "with an open mind following a lawful consultation and with regard to relevant information".
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Justice
The framework was initially launched in December 2021 and set out the “immediate actions” policing committed to take to “build trust and confidence, relentlessly pursue perpetrators and create safer spaces”.
This revised framework, which covers the next three years, is the next step in ensuring policing is focused on outcomes that make a real difference to tackling the epidemic of VAWG.
In February 2023, the Home Secretary included VAWG within the Strategic Policing Requirement, which means that the national policing response to VAWG should be on par with terrorism and serious and organised crime.
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Police and Crime General
A new report on how police forces in England and Wales are cracking down on retail crime has revealed successful initiatives on keeping stores safer.
Led by Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Katy Bourne through her role as the Association of PCCs’ lead for retail and business crime, she accepted that “there is still more work to do”, and backed Labour’s call for a new offence in England and Wales for assaulting shop workers. She also pushed for more prolific shoplifters to be monitored with electronic tags.
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Technology
A trial called Project Eagle X is testing remotely-piloted drones for emergencies in Norfolk - amid questions over privacy and their crime-fighting powers
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Police Finances
The cost of policing Gaza-related protests in London has reached over £32 million, as major marches are planned across the capital on Saturday.
A Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) march will take place in central London, with this weekend being the fifth major demonstration of the year so far.
The group said it was expecting “hundreds of thousands of people” to march from Hyde Park Corner to the US Embassy.
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Police Finances
The government has failed to fund research into the escalation of sex crimes, despite promising to do so in the wake of the kidnapping, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.
In 2021, the Home Office pledged to “take forward work looking at the escalation of sexual offending” as part of its plan to tackle violence against women and girls. The plan, which had the tagline “the safety of women and girls across the country is our priority”, was informed by 180,000 public submissions after Everard was killed by serving police officer Wayne Couzens.
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Prisons
Fewer than 250 spaces are left in men’s jails in England and Wales, The Telegraph can reveal, as the Justice Secretary sanctioned the biggest early release scheme from prisons in nearly 20 years.
Alex Chalk announced emergency measures to release hundreds of burglars, shoplifters and violent criminals up to 60 days early to tackle the crisis.
He also unveiled plans to slash the number of foreign prisoners – now standing at over 10,000 – by refusing tourist visa applications from countries that fail to take back their criminals earmarked for deportation.
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Prisons
Nottinghamshire Police has been put in special measures and told to "urgently produce an improvement plan" by a watchdog.
The move follows an inspection by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS).
The force will now be subject to an "enhanced level of monitoring", known as the "engage" process.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Drones will be increasingly used as “first responders” when the public report incidents to emergency services, under plans announced by the chancellor in the spring budget on Wednesday.
Jeremy Hunt told MPs £230m would be set aside for police to spend on “time- and money-saving technology” such as unmanned flying vehicles and video technology.
The hope is that drones will provide accurate information on the potential scale of an incident reported by a member of the public who has called 999.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Dr Richard Carter suspects that the authoritarian nature of policing attracts people who are unsuitable for situations where empathy and human consideration are needed.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The chancellor will seek to appease a raft of powerful critics in the last Budget before the general election.
Jeremy Hunt is expected to set out plans aimed at reducing tax that will appease backbenchers demanding cuts in personal taxation while meeting demands from the International Monetary Fund for the UK to focus on long-term stability.
It follows a weekend of negotiations between the chancellor and the prime minister – with the PM making clear he thinks there is room to put more cash in the public’s pockets.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government should avoid “prioritising politically driven tax cuts while decimating services” during Wednesday’s Budget, public sector unions have said.
[ more...]
Justice
Police have failed to solve a single burglary in nearly half of all neighbourhoods in England and Wales in the past three years despite pledging to attend the scene of every domestic break-in to boost detection rates.
A Telegraph analysis of police data shows that no burglaries were solved in 48 per cent of neighbourhoods – areas covering between 1,000 and 3,000 people – in the past three years.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Budget will contain an £800m package of technology reforms aimed at freeing up NHS and police time, the Treasury has announced.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said ahead of the 6 March announcement that there was "too much waste in the system".
As part of the reforms, AI will be used to cut NHS scan times by a third and the police will deploy drones to incidents such as traffic collisions.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Chancellor is to launch a £300 million tax raid on second-home owners who make money from holiday lets. He will reportedly abolish a series of tax perks for landlords who rent out their properties to short-term holidaymakers rather than long-term tenants, arguing it will help tackle the housing shortage in coastal areas and holiday hotspots.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Leading economists have warned that Jeremy Hunt will “cost the country dear” if he gambles on pre-election cuts to tax and spending in this week’s Budget. Former Treasury advisers Dimitri Zenghelis and Anna Valero, backed by other economists, said the Chancellor should focus on the long-term national interest with measures to spur investment and growth.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Senior Salaries Review Body must consider evidence from a variety of sources when giving advice on pay, including the Home Office.
This document is the evidence submission from the Home Office and covers chief police officers in England and Wales
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Local Government Association (LGA) has welcomed news that councillors will for the first time have a named police contact to help with security issues.
The Government has committed £31m to improve security provisions for all locally elected representatives over the next year and to ‘protect the UK’s democratic processes from disruption’.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police in Guernsey are being given training to challenge discrimination in the workplace.
Guernsey Police said it was putting officers and staff on the Upstander Training Programme, which has been designed by the UK College of Policing.
The digital course aims to highlight what inappropriate behaviour is and how to challenge it while at work.
Police said the training would help maintain "a culture that is fair and equal".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Transgender police officers will only be allowed to strip search suspects of the same biological sex under changes being considered by the Government.
Chris Philp, the policing minister, has ordered an urgent review of strip-search rules after it emerged that national police guidance allowed transgender officers to carry out intimate searches of people of the opposite biological sex.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has withdrawn the guidance, which allowed transgender men self-identifying as female or with gender recognition certificates to strip-search women. It is now conducting a “thorough” review of its rules.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Jeremy Hunt is expected to use next week’s Budget to cut national insurance rather than income tax as he announces a new levy on vaping. The Chancellor has significantly scaled back his planned cuts after official forecasts suggested he will have much less money to spend than expected. The two main tax cuts expected in the Budget are a 1 percentage-point reduction in employee national insurance, at a cost of about £4.5 billion a year, and an extension of the fuel duty freeze at a cost of £1 billion a year.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Government should not cut taxes in the upcoming Budget, unless it can spell out how it will afford them, a leading think tank has warned. The Chancellor has hinted he would like to lower taxes in what could be the last Budget before a general election. But the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the case for tax cuts was "weak". The Government said it would not comment on whether further cuts to tax would be "affordable in the Budget".
[ more...]
Police Finances
Ministers must do more to prevent the Israel-Gaza protests from “draining” official resources after policing the events cost £25 million, a report has concluded.
The figure covers pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protests from October 7 to December 17 last year. Scotland Yard has spent almost £19 million policing London rallies, with another £6.5 million spent outside the capital.
[ more...]
Justice
A scheme to allow prisoners to be released early because of a lack of space has been extended indefinitely, suggests Sky News. Ministers have also expanded the number of jails letting out prisoners before the end of their sentence, according to leaked documents. Originally, the early release scheme - known as the End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL) - applied to 21 jails, but has since been "updated" to apply in others. The scheme, outlined in October, allowed prisoners to be released up to 18 days before the end of their sentence to reduce an "acute and exceptional demand" on prison places.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Britain’s stretched public services will buckle under the weight of the spending cuts being planned for after the election, economists have warned, as the Chancellor reportedly prepares for another round of tax reductions in next week’s Budget. Experts say the level of public sector spending pencilled in for the next parliament would mean cuts equivalent to those undertaken by David Cameron’s government from 2010 to 2015, with some warning the next government will not be able to implement them and be forced either to raise taxes or borrow more to fund emergency spending.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
A serving Metropolitan Police officer has appeared in court charged with rape and stalking.
Pc Jake Cummings, 23, from Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, appeared at Hatfield Magistrates' Court on Friday, police said.
Cummings is accused of rape, two counts of stalking, two counts of controlling and coercive behaviour, and possession of an offensive weapon.
The alleged offences, which occurred while he was off duty, relate to one female victim in Hertfordshire.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
A Metropolitan police detective initially sacked for racism has been reinstated and sent on a leadership course, the Guardian has learned.
DS Neil Buckmaster was dismissed in 2021 after a discipline panel found him guilty of gross misconduct. The panel heard he had used racist terms, which he gave to avatars while playing an online football game.
A public complaint led to an investigation, and Buckmaster was sacked and placed on a list barring him from employment in policing, Scotland Yard announced.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
A London “under siege” with “criminals ruling the streets”. That’s not the plot of a comic book, but rather the picture that mayoral candidate Susan Hall painted of the capital in an article for the Express on Saturday.
Sadiq Khan, who as the mayor for London, also acts as police and crime commissioner for the city, is often targeted with accusations that he has allowed crime to spiral. But Guardian analysis of government data shows the reality is more nuanced.
According the Crime Survey for England and Wales, someone is actually less likely to be a victim of crime in London than they are across the country as a whole. In the capital, 14.9% of people experienced a crime either to their person or their household in the year ending September 2023, compared with 15.7% nationally. But what about different types of crime?
[ more...]
Prisons
Foreign shoplifters, thieves and drug dealers are to be deported rather than prosecuted as part of radical plans by the Justice Secretary to free up prison spaces.
Alex Chalk told The Telegraph that lower level foreign offenders will be spared jail and instead given “conditional cautions” under which they will be expelled and banned from returning to Britain.
Chris Philp, the policing minister, has been put in charge of delivering the deportation scheme which aims to reduce the 3,300 foreign prisoners on remand who have been charged but not yet convicted.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
A special constable has been sacked for viewing body-worn camera footage of two victim’s final moments following the Nottingham attacks, it has emerged.
The man has been barred from ever serving in the police after he was found to have viewed the footage of students Grace O’Malley Kumar and Barnaby Webber shortly after they were stabbed, The Independent understands.
School caretaker Ian Coates, 65, was also knifed to death and three others were run over by paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane in the horrific city centre attack last June.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A suspended chief constable's gross misconduct hearing for allegedly misrepresenting his military service is to be heard in private.
Nick Adderley faces the proceedings by Northamptonshire Police following an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
He was accused of wearing a Falklands War medal he did not earn and falsely stating he was a Royal Navy officer.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A shipment of £450m worth of cocaine has been seized at Southampton Port in a "huge hit" to crime cartels.
It's the largest-ever seizure of a haul of class A drugs in the UK, with National Crime Agency (NCA) and Border Force officers finding 5.7 tonnes in a container carrying bananas from South America on 8 February.
This far eclipses the previous record of 3.7 tonnes discovered at the same port in 2022 and 3.2 tonnes found on board the tugboat MV Hamal in Scotland in 2015.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Britain’s biggest police force is facing a “deeply concerning” shortfall in officer numbers amid recruitment struggles.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the force will be 1,400 short at the end of March, and 2,650 short by March 2025 at current application and recruitment levels.
Under the national programme to replace 20,000 police officer jobs cut during austerity measures from 2010, the Home Office has allocated funding for the Met to employ 35,415 full-time equivalent officers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More than 6,600 arrests were made in the latest national Christmas drink and drug-drive police operation.
The campaign known as ‘Operation Limit’ has been run nationally since 2022 and brings police forces together in what the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) describes as a “concerted effort to remove drink and drug drivers from our roads”.
In total, 49,812 breath tests were conducted with 9.5 per cent of those testing positive, failed or refused.
Almost 50 (48.5) per cent of the 6,846 tested for drugs were positive.
[ more...]
Police Finances
An unprecedented number of women are being investigated by police on suspicion of illegally ending a pregnancy, the BBC has been told.
Abortion provider MSI says it knows of up to 60 criminal inquiries in England and Wales since 2018, compared with almost zero before.
Some investigations followed natural pregnancy loss, File on 4 found.
Pregnancy loss is investigated only if credible evidence suggests a crime, the National Police Chiefs' Council says.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A man has been jailed for four months for possession and intention to supply nitrous oxide in the first prosecution since it became an offence.
Essex Police found canisters alongside ketamine and £38,995 in cash after Thomas Salton was pulled over in Southernhay, Basildon, in December.
The drugs were discovered in party bags with balloons and crackers in the boot of his Range Rover.
Nitrous oxide was made a Class C drug in November.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
£40,000 has gone into the new initiative, which it's hoped will assist Bedfordshire policing teams with recovering stolen agricultural equipment.
The Bedfordshire OPCC has invested in a new scheme that will enable farmers to forensically mark agricultural equipment at half the price.
It has been funded by the Safer Streets project which encompasses tackling neighbourhood crime issues.
The initiative, worth £40,000, will see discounts available to Bedfordshire farmers on the industries official CESAR System, incorporating Datatag technology – a scheme that has already assisted policing teams across the country to recover stolen agricultural equipment.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Domestic abuse charities have warned that services will have to be scaled back due to a reduction in funding. Women’s Aid has said that the non statutory nature of them put them at greater risk as councils looked to manage budgetary pressures.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The West Midlands police and crime commissioner (PCC) has announced he is taking the home secretary to court over plans to scrap his role and transfer his powers to the region’s mayor.
Simon Foster, who took over as PCC in the West Midlands in 2021, said he had applied for a judicial review to challenge what he described as a “hostile takeover of PCC powers by the mayor”.
[ more...]
Technology
The early findings of a joint inspection by HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate and HM Inspector of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services into case building by police and the CPS has found bureaucratic processes and IT challenges as well as an inexperienced workforce are creating barriers and tensions between the two organisations – but the closer working relationships of specialist teams could bring real benefits, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.
[ more...]
Justice
Police are failing to get justice for mental health patients who have suffered alleged sexual violence in hospitals as new figures show only a handful of complaints end up in criminal charges.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Serial rapist David Carrick has been stripped of his state-funded Metropolitan Police pension.
Carrick, who was unmasked as one of the UK's worst sex offenders and convicted of crimes against 12 women over 17 years, will lose 65% of his pension, estimated to be more than £10,000 a year, which was contributed by the force.
If he is released, he can still receive 35%, his personal financial contribution.
[ more...]
Justice
Victims of crime are waiting up to five years for their cases to go to court, the chief inspector of prisons has said, amid Covid backlogs that have led one in six prisoners being held on remand.
Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, said he had recently encountered one prisoner who had been in jail on remand for three years, and had received reports of others waiting up to five years before facing trial.
The number of people being held on remand without having been tried or sentenced has risen to 16,200, a 50-year high and up from 9,000 in 2019 before the Covid pandemic.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Humberside Police has been awarded £1,392,980 to combat anti-social behaviour.
The government has said £66m will be spent in England and Wales in 2024-25 to enable each force to deploy uniformed patrols in “hotspot” areas.
The neighbouring Lincolnshire force will receive £1m.
Each force has been given until 8 March 2024 to submit proposals for how the money would be spent.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government has announced that every police force in England and Wales will receive at least £1 million to ramp up patrols to tackle violence and disorder, targeted in areas with high levels of anti-social behaviour.
It is estimated that the funding - £66 million in total - will enable each force to deploy uniformed patrols for up to 20,000 hours in “hotspot” areas each year, helping drive down crime and boost public confidence in their local force. The announcement follows the successful piloting of this approach in 10 areas, which saw more than 80,000 hours of patrols in the six months since it launched.
[ more...]
Technology
A charity that helps people worried about their own thoughts or behaviour says an increasing number of callers are feeling confused about the ethics of viewing AI child abuse imagery.
The Lucy Faithfull Foundation (LFF) says AI images are acting as a gateway.
The charity is warning that creating or viewing such images is still illegal even if the children are not real.
[ more...]
Justice
Shoplifters should be spared prosecution and jail to help tackle court backlogs and overcrowded prisons, says the former head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Sir Max Hill said the Government should consider dealing with acquisitive crime such as shoplifting outside the court system through schemes designed to tackle the causes of the criminality.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
People spending less, doctors' strikes and a fall in school attendance dragged the UK into recession at the end of last year, official figures show.
The economy shrank by a larger than expected 0.3% between October and December, after it had already contracted between July and September.
The UK is in recession if it fails to grow for two successive quarters.
The figures raise questions over whether Rishi Sunak has met his pledge made last January to grow the economy.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England's governor has said UK inflation remaining unchanged is "encouraging", but he hinted it would not mean earlier interest rate cuts.
Andrew Bailey said inflation, which measures how prices rise over time, staying at 4% last month "pretty much leaves us where we were".
The figure surprised experts who had expected a rise in energy bills to push prices up at a faster rate.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
People spending less, doctors' strikes and a fall in school attendance dragged the UK into recession at the end of last year, official figures show.
The economy shrank by a larger than expected 0.3% between October and December, after it had already contracted between July and September.
The UK is in recession if it fails to grow for two successive quarters.
[ more...]
Justice
Men who kill their partners through “rough sex” face longer sentences under a Government crackdown on violence against women and girls.
Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, is to introduce legislation that would make rough sex an aggravating factor if it caused the death of an offender’s sexual partner.
Judges would be empowered to increase the sentence of the offender for causing death through “abusive, degrading or dangerous” sexual behaviour. It would mean anyone convicted of manslaughter, for example, would get an additional period in jail on top of their normal sentence.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Shop workers feel like "targets" the BBC has heard, as reports of violence and abuse have soared.
Shop assistant John from Dundee said: "It's almost a daily occurrence now where you are shouted at or sworn at".
Violence and abuse against shop workers rose to 1,300 incidents a day last year, according to a trade body.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) criticised the "woefully inadequate" action taken by the government to address the "crisis".
[ more...]
Police Finances
A one per cent weekly rise in council tax could help fix neighbourhood policing in England and Wales, a think tank has said.
Onward has proposed that the 43 police forces in England and Wales need to recruit 19,000 neighbourhood officers to restore numbers to 2012 levels.
The think tank said it would meet the public demand for more visible policing to help curb persistent crimes, such as anti-social behaviour, theft and burglary.
The Government has added 20,000 more police officers in the past three years, but the number covering local neighbourhood beats is still 10 per cent down on 2012.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police has scrapped its gangs violence matrix (GVM) after more than a decade over concerns about the scheme's "disproportionality".
The GVM database was used by the Met to identify those at risk of committing, or being a victim of, gang-related violence in London.
It is being replaced by an existing but "adapted" violence harm assessment (VHA), the force said.
Mayor Sadiq Khan said Londoners would "judge this new approach on results".
[ more...]
Justice
Andrew Rosindell, the Conservative MP for Romford, has been cleared of rape allegations against him after a thorough investigation by the Metropolitan Police.
However, this victory for Rosindell raises serious concerns about the handling of the case and the broader implications for justice in our society.
Although the importance of thorough investigations cannot be overstated, it is evident that Rosindell’s experience with the Met has been marred by delays and questionable decisions. As someone who has endured the shortcomings of police investigations, notably in Operation Midland, I cannot help but feel a sense of déjà vu, particularly when I have been told by three Met commissioners that lessons will and have been learnt.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The policing chief for retail crime has called on Meta to force users of its Facebook Marketplace platform to verify their identity and location to thwart an epidemic of shoplifting.
Chief Superintendent Alex Goss, head of retail crime at the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), said that Meta and other online platforms needed to do more to “think about criminality” when designing their platforms.
Figures out today show that police forces are attending almost twice as many shoplifting cases reported to them since they signed up to a new commitment in October to prioritise it.
[ more...]
Technology
Launched on Monday (February 12), Stop! Think Fraud is backed by leading counter-fraud experts to provide “consistent, clear and robust” anti-fraud advice to the public.
City of London Police, the national lead force for fraud, hopes it will generate a much greater understanding of what has become the most prevalent crime in the UK.
Fraud accounts for around 40 per cent of all crime in England and Wales, with an estimated 3.2 million offences each year.
While latest data from the Crime Survey of England and Wales shows it has reduced by 13 per cent over the past year, the estimated cost of fraud to society is £6.8 billion in England and Wales.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police failed to attend 40 per cent of shoplifting incidents where there was violence, despite an agreement to prioritise such offences, official figures show.
Officers also failed to attend in a quarter of cases where the shoplifter was detained by shop or security staff, according to the data from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).
The figures represented a significant improvement on last year but revealed big performance differences between forces, with some achieving 100 per cent attendance rates for violent shoplifting incidents or where the offender was detained.
The figures were based on 31 of the 43 forces in England and Wales who were each asked to review 50 shop theft crimes from Dec 1 last year.
[ more...]
Justice
Criminals are gaming the system by pleading not guilty and relying on crippling trial delays to evade justice, The Independent has been told.
Laying bare the extent of the crisis in the courts, figures obtained by this publication suggest the number of cases waiting more than three years for a verdict has skyrocketed at least sevenfold since 2019 to exceed 1,280 last June.
As delays have soared, the proportion of early guilty pleas has plummeted – falling by nearly half in four years – as suspects try to manipulate the system.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Local Authorities in England are facing the possibility of a deadline to publish overdue accounts before September. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has announced that it plans to bring in a “statutory backstop” in an effort to clear a high number of audit opinions by September 30. The Department said the backlog had reached an “unacceptable level”, which sat at over 700 at the end of 2023. In its report in June last year, the Public Accounts Committee noted that the market had been severely constrained, with fewer than 100 “key audit partners” registered to carry out the work across England.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Protesters who wear masks could face arrest, up to a month in jail and a £1,000 fine under proposed measures that human rights campaigners claim are pandering to “culture war nonsense”.
Police in England and Wales will be given the power to arrest people if they are wearing face coverings at specific demonstrations, the Home Office has said.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Plans to merge the West Midlands mayor and police and crime commissioner roles have moved a step closer.
Conservative Mayor Andy Street has given his formal consent to the merger, which means the decision will now be sent back to parliament which should have the final say.
But there is still opposition to the move from existing Labour West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster, who the BBC understands is considering his legal options following the latest news.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Home Secretary spoke at the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners general meeting on 7 February 2024.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Apparent "duplicate responses" to a public consultation have fuelled an ongoing row over scrapping the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) role.
The official Home Office consultation, external into plans to merge the role with that of the West Midlands mayor showed 50% of replies to a survey of about 7,000 people disagreed with the move while 46% agreed.
The picture was further confused after it emerged a total of 927 responses were identified as "duplicates" – all of which disagreed with the move to merge the roles.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
An inspector who sold his police trousers for £4 online has had his rank reduced after being found guilty of gross misconduct at a hearing.
Owen Hurley of Hertfordshire Police admitted he sold the item on Vinted, a second-hand selling app.
He told the misconduct hearing the trousers had been in his wardrobe at home for "a long time" and he wanted to "make space" after redecorating.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police in England and Wales have failed to record the racial identity of nearly two-thirds of people referred to the Prevent counter-extremism programme, despite questions over whether it discriminates against minority ethnic groups.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said details on the race or ethnicity of 33,116 people referred to the scheme over eight years could not be accessed. Government figures show that there were 51,204 Prevent referrals from April 2015 to April 2023.
The findings come after William Shawcross’s much-criticised review of the strategy which places public bodies, including schools and the police, under a legal duty to identify people who may turn to extremism and intervene in their lives before an attack takes place.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Eight Metropolitan police officers are under investigation after a black 16-year-old was stopped six times in five months, on each occasion with nothing criminal found.
The police watchdog is investigating after the case triggered claims of racial profiling and a friend of the boy’s family said he had been left traumatised.
The Guardian has learned that one stop took place outside the boy’s mother’s house, another outside his grandmother’s house, one in a chicken shop and another by Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
[ more...]
Police Demand
James Cleverly has ordered police chiefs to present him with “hard evidence” that they are treating neighbourhood policing as a priority. The Home Secretary has set out his vision to “get back to core policing” and said that bringing back the presence of officers in communities was a vital part of restoring the public’s trust in the police.
[ more...]
Justice
Abuse ruins lives. It is a stark reality that sexual and domestic abuse have a devastating impact, particularly when it comes to children. The effects are intricate and far-reaching, often lingering with victims for a lifetime.
It’s not a ground-breaking revelation to say that traumas like sexual abuse and domestic abuse in childhood have lasting consequences. Experts have known this for decades, understanding the profound influence these experiences can have on people’s lives.
With the right support, children and young people who have endured abuse can find a path to recovery, but the key lies in ensuring that the necessary support is readily available.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has been accused of bowing to political pressure by banning pro-Palestine demonstrators from ending their march this Saturday with a rally outside Downing Street.
The marches in London have regularly ended both at Trafalgar Square and near Downing Street on Whitehall to allow the huge crowds to safely disperse from two locations.
Organisers were told on Wednesday that the police would not allow the expected 300,000 demonstrators to rally on Whitehall this Saturday, however. According to Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), senior officers liaising with them claimed to have been unable to consult with government offices and businesses about the disruption.
[ more...]
Justice
Victims Commissioner, Baroness Newlove, has said that the Victims and Prisoners Bill, set to return to parliament this week, is not strong enough. The Ministry of Justice has committed to inspect agencies which fail a new proposed code of conduct for supporting victims of crime and better oversight. Baroness Newlove has called for this code of conduct to be front and centre of the Bill and for the code to become law, saying currently it is just guidance which will not assist those without legal rights.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Bedfordshire Police said its new 999 policy "Right Care, Right Person" (RCRP) would allow officers to focus on the jobs they have been "trained" for.
The change, which came into force from Wednesday, sees 999 callers with mental health issues turned away by police unless there is a risk to life or a crime has been committed.
The force said it had to deal with 14,000 welfare calls in 2023.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Banning “zombie” knives and machetes will not end the trauma of knife crime, the founder of an academy trust has warned, after two pupils at one of his schools were fatally stabbed over the weekend.
The Rev Steve Chalke, of Oasis academies, said the killing of Mason Rist, 15, and his 16-year-old friend Max Dixon in south Bristol was “absolutely devastating” for family and friends, their school and the wider community in Knowle West.
Knife crime, he said, was a “tragic symptom” of a wider crisis affecting young people – made worse by Covid – and called for earlier, therapeutic intervention for children as young as five who are already struggling in school, and support for their parents.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police station in Cornwall has been granted planning permission for a £3m redevelopment.
Camborne Police Station, which was built in the 1960s, will get a new police enquiry desk, new windows and a new roof.
Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez said the work was "desperately needed".
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Premier League is to pay £7 million to police forces as “an unconditional gift” but sources insist the cash is not a sweetener to ensure matches in prime-time TV slots can be played.
The one-off payment — said to be for “recognition and thanks” to the police — will be split among all forces that have a Premier League club in their area, with more paid to those such as the Metropolitan Police, which has several top-flight clubs.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Sussex Police faces a budget shortfall of more than £8m, even if it increases its share of council tax by the maximum allowed by the government.
The force can raise its share of the council tax precept by £13 a year for a Band D property in the 2024-25 financial year, though this has yet to be approved.
Chief Constable Jo Shiner said the rise was "absolutely fundamental".
Without it the force would have to make "quite destructive savings", she said.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
More than 150 police officers and staff in England and Wales were found guilty of crimes last year after a complaint or misconduct investigation – up 70% compared with the year before.
Home Office figures show that, in the year to April 2023, 115 officers and 43 staff were found guilty of crimes including sexual offences and violence against the person – up from 68 and 25 the year before.
The figures will have included the serial rapist and ex-Metropolitan police officer David Carrick, who was jailed for life in February 2023 after pleading guilty to 85 serious offences including 48 rapes.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police officers made "sickening" comments about an assault victim while watching body-worn video showing her groin, the BBC has learned.
The woman's body was exposed when she was filmed suffering from a seizure. Three Thames Valley Police PCs later watched the footage without reason.
None of the officers faced a misconduct hearing but a student officer who reported them was later dismissed.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A school will employ a sniffer dog and install detectors in its toilets to stop pupils vaping.
City of Norwich Secondary School said a “passive deterrence dog” will be in place to sniff out vapes for one day next month.
Heads at the school, which has 1,720 pupils, said they would also install vape detectors in the toilets, carry out student bag searches and add staff patrols.
[ more...]
Technology
An expansion of a county's CCTV network will help to fight crime, police have said.
Since 2022, CCTV has helped Cumbria Constabulary investigate hundreds of crimes and missing person searches.
The county's network has now been improved with about 40 new cameras added to provide wider coverage and clearer images.
Deputy Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Mike Johnson said the upgrade would be "a great additional resource" as it was not possible to "put a cop on every street corner".
[ more...]
Police Finances
A police and crime commissioner (PCC) has proposed increasing the policing element of council tax bills.
Darryl Preston has requested a rise of £12.96 per year for households in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
The proposal is just four pence shy of the maximum £13 rise that is permitted.
It would mean Band D households would pay £285.48 in the next financial year, up from £272.52. The plans are due to be discussed on Wednesday.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than 200,000 burglaries went unsolved in England and Wales last year, the latest data has shown.
Three in four of all break-ins went unsolved in the year to September 2023, with only 6 per cent resulting in a suspect being charged.
The total number of unsolved burglaries stood at 213,814 – a rise of 4 per cent compared to the previous year – with an average of 586 a day.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Scrutiny following a police shooting is the greatest barrier to officers joining a firearms unit, research has found.
A survey of more than 2,487 non-armed police officers from across England and Wales found that 98.1 per cent were concerned about how they would be treated after discharging their weapons if they were to join an armed unit.
The research was commissioned by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and carried out by researchers at Liverpool John Moores University at the start of 2023, before the case of NX121, the police officer who was charged with murder over the fatal shooting of Chris Kaba, in southeast London in September last year.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Procurement scrutiny hits the Airwaves
Can’t get enough of rows over public sector procurement deals going badly?
Peers in the House of Lords are starting the week by delivering fresh scrutiny of the plans to replace the emergency services Airwave system.
The idea was to create one system for the three Blue Light services. It’s a critical issue since the Grenfell Tower disaster but it hasn’t gone well.
Labour peer Lord Harris of Haringey will lead the debate on the cost estimate and full operational launch of Emergency Services Network critical communications system. The back story: it’s eight years late and has cost £11bn so far. The supplier of the current system is also being paid to keep it going.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government is considering allowing local authorities more freedom to use capital resources to reduce the pressure on their revenue budgets amid dire warnings over the sector’s sustainability, but caution is needed, Nicole Wood, president of the Society of County Treasurers, told PF.
While giving authorities additional freedom over their finances is welcome, she said, it is arguably the “wrong time” to introduce potentially high-risk capital changes at a time when local audit capacity is low – as evidenced by a huge backlog.
“There has been non-compliance with the Prudential Code; whether that is through omission or commission, it is a matter of fact that that has happened,” Wood said.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Surrey's police and crime commissioner has said the allocation of government funding for police is "unfair".
Lisa Townsend said the Surrey force gets "proportionately the lowest level" of grant in the country to cover its costs.
She made the comments in a letter to the government after funding was announced last month.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Households across Nottinghamshire will be asked to pay more council tax next year to support the police.
The proposed 4.8% increase would bring in an extra £4.3m for Nottinghamshire Police over the 12 months from April compared to the current financial year.
Police and crime commissioner, Caroline Henry, said she was "mindful" of the burden this placed on taxpayers.
[ more...]
Justice
The concept couldn’t have been sexier: a real-life Line of Duty. That’s how film-makers Hugo Pettitt and Ashley Francis-Roy pitched their documentary series to Channel 4 commissioners and the top brass of Avon and Somerset police, whose corridors they wanted to shoot inside. It was late 2020, TV audiences were awaiting the final series of AC12 bent-copper hunting. In their docuseries, Pettitt and Francis-Roy would be embedded within Avon and Somerset’s very own professional standards department and counter-corruption unit – their cameras granted access for the first series of its kind involving a British police force.
“We expected secret squirrel-style cases,” Pettitt said, “maybe without the explosions and guns, but still an enjoyable journey of officers solving cases and crimes, rooting out individual officers.” While precise formats differ, access-driven law-enforcement shows like this have become a mainstay of modern British television. Major returning series including 24 Hours in Police Custody (also Channel 4), BBC One’s The Met, Special Ops: Crime Squad (UKTV) and Sky’s The Force – alongside a constant stream of limited series and single documentaries – ever-popular with audiences, drawing out drama by following criminal investigations, or bobbies on the beat.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police and crime commissioner has said it is "not possible to eradicate" misconduct completely among officers.
Avon and Somerset PCC Mark Shelford made the comment ahead of a Channel 4 series, To Catch A Copper, which goes behind-the-scenes at the force.
The documentary-makers film how police look into cases against its own officers.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police forces are failing to attend four out of five calls to shoplifting offences, data obtained by The Telegraph shows.
The proportion of shoplifting offences where police forces send an officer has fallen from 36 per cent in 2019 to just 19.7 per cent in 2023, according to the figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws.
National data last week showed shoplifting offences have risen by more than 30 per cent in a year to a record 1,300 a day but only one in seven are being solved.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
In many ways, Gavin Stephens is an old-fashioned police officer. Now chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), which brings together police leaders across the UK, he is at the forefront of discussions with the Government about the future of policing: investment in facial recognition and artificial intelligence, but his core passion remains neighbourhood policing, which he calls the “bread and butter” of crime-fighting and has been the focus of much of his three-decade career.
“It’s my belief that’s the bedrock of what we do,” he says. “Local relationships will always be important for everything, from antisocial behaviour through to countering terrorism. Everything happens in a neighbourhood somewhere.”
Stephens knows that the impact of one crime can be felt far more widely than in the area it happened. The murder of Sarah Everard in March 2021 by a serving Metropolitan Police officer in London decimated trust in the police nationally and generated reverberations that are still being felt three years later.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A Labour UK Government should pave the way for the transfer of policing powers to the Welsh administration and avoid adopting a “King Canute” stance on devolution, Mark Drakeford has suggested.
The outgoing First Minister said colleagues in Westminster would have a “responsibility” to show the “journey has begun” towards handing Cardiff more control of the system across the border if they win this year’s election.
In 2022, a report led by former prime minister Gordon Brown said the next UK Labour government should “embark upon the devolution of youth justice and the probation service”.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Knife crime is rising faster in rural areas than in other parts of Britain, police figures show.
The figures were revealed on Wednesday as Sir Keir Starmer prepared to pledge that no young person caught with a knife will escape sanction under Labour.
Offences of knife possession have doubled in the past decade in rural areas, compared with a 60 per cent rise in urban police force areas, according to Labour analysis of Office for National Statistics (ONS) data.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More than two million crimes have gone unsolved in a year — as knife crime and shoplifting soar, figures show.
Culprits in England and Wales got away scot-free nearly 6,000 times a day in the year to September.
Home Office statistics reveal that a staggering 2.18million offences were closed with no criminal identified — a nine per cent jump on the year before.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Conservative government has announced its third attempted crackdown on zombie knives since 2016 in a bid to close “loopholes” in its previous efforts to ban the weapon.
James Cleverly, the home secretary, defended the government’s record on tackling knife crime as he announced fresh legislation set to be introduced to parliament on Thursday.
Zombie-style knives were first banned in 2016 when the government defined them as having a cutting edge, a serrated edge and “images or words” that suggest violence.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
More than 600 police community support officers have been taken off the streets in just one year, Home Office statistics have revealed.
The total number of PCSOs have been "slashed into oblivion" under the Tories, dropping to just 7,651 across England and Wales. When the Tories came into power in 2010 PCSO numbers were at 16,918, but have been falling ever since.
Some 611 fewer PCSOs were on the streets in September 2023 compared to the previous year. The hardest hit police force was Kent, which saw its PCSOs numbers down by 67% in just 12 months. This brought their total number of PCSOs to around 70, down from more than 200 in the previous September.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A police force in Wales seized one of the highest amounts of cocaine per capita in the UK last year, it has been revealed. Officers across the UK seized record amounts of the Class A drug during raids carried out across the UK and our interactive map reveals the areas with the biggest problems.
Dyfed-Powys Police recorded the third highest amount of cocaine drug seizures UK wide with 574 per million of population. It was a significantly higher amount than South Wales Police, which recorded 364 drug seizures per million of population. Gwent Police had the lowest amount of Welsh cocaine drug seizures per million of population with 203. North Wales Police, meanwhile, recorded 561 seizures per million of population.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police chiefs have said a mass screening of more than 300,000 UK police officers, staff and volunteers has led to nine criminal investigations.
The records of 307,000 police employees were checked against a national intelligence database in an exercise after the cases of Wayne Couzens, the officer who kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard, and David Carrick, who became one of Britain’s worst convicted serial rapists, despite repeated concerns being raised about him.
Police gave very little detail about the alleged wrongdoing unearthed by the exercise, citing privacy concerns, but said sexual assault was among the allegations.
[ more...]
Technology
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) will enhance the threat posed by ransomware over the coming years, the UK’s cyber security agency has warned.
A new report from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – which is a part of GCHQ – said the technology is lowering the barrier of entry to novice cyber criminals.
As a result, AI is enabling unskilled online actors to carry out more effective cyber attacks, the report says.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police failed to catch the Nottingham killer for nine months when he was wanted for another offence before he stabbed three strangers to death.
Nottinghamshire Police issued a warrant for the arrest of Valdo Calocane in September 2022 after he failed to appear in court in connection with an assault on an officer who was taking him to hospital for mental health treatment.
But officers failed to track him down and make the arrest, leaving Calocane free to launch his fatal attacks on Barnaby Webber, Grace O’Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates in June last year.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Just Stop Oil eco-zealots slammed for their "cheek" in costing the Metropolitan Police millions of pounds as they tried to bring London to a standstill.
Just Stop Oil has been roundly condemned for costing taxpayers nearly £20million in just over a year to police as protesters repeatedly tried to bring London to a standstill.
Latest figures released by the Metropolitan Police show that the force spent more than £3.8million responding to the group’s disruptive protests over a five-week period in October and November.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Shoplifting and other retail crime has not always been tackled effectively, police chiefs have admitted.
Thames Valley Police has launched a new Retail Crime Strategy, developed jointly with retailers and businesses.
Police and crime commissioner Matthew Barber said offences targeting shops were not "victimless crimes".
The Association of Convenience Stores welcomed efforts to target "prolific, repeat offenders who blight communities".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A whistleblower who resigned from Greater Manchester Police has told Sky News the force's child protection investigation unit where she worked is "not fit for purpose" and that failures have left a paedophile ring at large for at least seven years.
In her resignation letter last year, she said: "I don't feel like we're making things better for these kids. In fact, I think we're making it worse."
She also said that her work with the victims only served to "re-traumatise them" and "leave them hanging".
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Sixty-four Northumbria Police officers were accused of sexual or domestic abuse over the last four years, it has been revealed.
The figures cover April 2019 to March 2023 and saw 54 officers investigated with 11 dismissed and three prosecuted.
The information was released following a request by councillors in North Tyneside.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
James Cleverly must not repeat the same “tropes and terminology” as Suella Braverman, the head of the police racism watchdog has said.
In an interview with the Mirror, Nick Glynn told the Home Secretary to recognise “his words have immense power and influence” as he warned that police officers are “not immune” to being influenced by harmful narratives. He gave the example of Ms Braverman describing illegal migration as an “invasion”, as well as her interference in pro-Palestine protests, which she described as “hate marches”.
“I know what it’s like as a Police Commander to keep the balance right and it’s hard. The Home Secretary’s job should not be making that more difficult for policing,” he said. “They should be being as supportive, or as quiet as appropriate, and to let them get on with treading that very difficult path and keeping that balance.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police has apologised to a man after homeless people's tents were destroyed in central London.
Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley admitted that officers acted unlawfully when issuing a dispersal order and some tents were thrown into bin lorries.
It happened on 10 November on Huntley Street, Camden.
[ more...]
Justice
Tens of thousands of child sexual abuse victims face long waits for vital support, a major report has found.
It takes at least six months for many to get help including therapy, advice and counselling, but some wait over a year, the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse (CSA Centre) report says.
Coverage is patchy, with victims facing a "postcode lottery" in accessing support, according to researchers.
Service providers say they cannot keep up with rising demand.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Independent retailers have welcomed a “crucial” amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill that would make it an offence to assault a shop worker.
The amendment was tabled by Alex Norris, the Shadow Minister for Policing earlier this week.
Muntazir Dipoti, the national president of the Federation of Independent Retailers, said: “We have been lobbying the Government for years for better protection for those who work in shops, for any form of attacks on shop workers to be taken more seriously and for the penalties for those who commit such crimes to be more stringent.”
He added: “We campaigned successfully in Scotland for the establishment of a standalone offence for those who abuse or use violence against retail workers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police has been carrying out undercover operations over the last two years to catch suspected robbers targeting people with luxury watches.
In four CCTV videos filmed on different days in London's Soho, criminals can be seen approaching people - who unbeknownst to them are undercover police officers - and then proceeding to try and take their watches.
A number of stings have taken place in London, after 300 watches were stolen between April and September 2022, totalling in a value of £4m.
Commander of Met Intelligence, Ben Russell, said that the stings "resulted in 31 robbers arrested in a 12-month period" and that "fourteen have already been sentenced".
[ more...]
Police Finances
A police force is planning £5.2m in savings over the next four years.
Suffolk Police and Crime Commissioner Tim Passmore said the plans were a "worst-case scenario" and that, while it was too early to say where the axe may fall, he hoped to avoid job losses.
Mr Passmore, a Conservative, said cuts were necessary due to a "lousy" government funding settlement.
The Home Office said that in 2024/25 Suffolk Police would receive £10.8m more than during the current year.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
People in West Yorkshire must take "personal responsibility" to help tackle knife crime, police have said.
The comment by Ch Insp James Kitchen came after staff at a Leeds hospital shared their concerns about the number of injuries from machete-style weapons.
West Yorkshire Police said while knife crime had decreased, it was down to communities to keep reporting it.
Ch Insp Kitchen said: "We must all work together as one community."
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
An investigation into potential criminal offences linked to the Post Office/Horizon scandal will take at least until 2026, Britain’s most senior police officer has admitted.
Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said that an exhaustive nationwide investigation will take place to determine whether crimes have been committed. The investigation will follow the public inquiry into the scandal, which is due to publish its findings late next year.
He said detectives will have to trawl through tens of millions of documents in order to establish whether crimes such as fraud or perverting the course of justice took place. Officers will have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that there was “deliberate malice” on the part of alleged suspects.
[ more...]
Police Demand
West Midlands Police says that it is now one of the best performing police forces in answering calls for help within just 10 seconds after spending the past 11 months transforming the way it answers 999 and 101 calls. Police officers are now arriving at the most serious incidents in an average of 12 minutes which is two minutes faster than in March 2023.
In December 2022, the force only answered 78 per cent of emergency calls and 40 per cent of non-emergency calls. It said that this was ‘simply was not good enough and not the service we wanted to provide to the communities of West Midlands Police.’
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The annual rate of inflation has surprisingly risen, official figures show.
The consumer price index (CPI) measure of inflation stood at 4% in the year to December, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). A fall, to 3.8%, had been expected by economists polled by Reuters.
But instead inflation rose from 3.9% in the 12 months to November.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The daughter of murdered MP Sir David Amess is suing the police and the Home Office for failing to prevent his death.
Katie Amess has filed a court claim to get justice for her father, 69, who was stabbed to death while meeting constituents at Belfairs Methodist Church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, on October 15 2021, according to The Mirror.
Ali Harbi Ali, 28, was found guilty of murdering the Conservative MP for Southend West at the Old Bailey in April 2022 and he was handed a whole-life prison term.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police force has referred itself to the police watchdog after a two-year-old boy starved to death next to his father’s body in what has been described as a “straightforward system failure” by the authorities.
Bronson Battersby was last seen alive on Boxing Day and was found 14 days later lying next to his father Kenneth Battersby, 60, who had died of a heart attack at their home in Skegness.
Social workers had visited the home on January 2 and again two days later, getting no answer. They contacted police on both occasions but the bodies were not found until January 9 when Battersby’s landlord provided a key to the property. She and a social worker opened the door to discover Battersby dead and his son “curled up” next to him.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
It has always been a big ask to convince enough fit, brave and smart individuals to sign up to be a Police Constable in the capital.
Sir Ernest Shackleton’s apocryphal advert seeking men for his Antarctic expedition who were willing to tolerate “low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness; safe return doubtful” often seems not far from appropriate.
The Metropolitan Police’s own data now shows that the numbers willing to sign up for a policing career have reached crisis levels. Three years ago a quarter to a third of Londoners were willing to consider a policing career – now the figure has cratered to around 10 per cent.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Scotland Yard has warned ministers and City Hall that it risks being unable to police London effectively and overhaul its performance because of a £250 million funding shortfall as it seeks to win more money for the coming year.
The force says that rising demand and changing crime patterns, which are both affecting the capital disproportionately, are among the causes of the huge gap in its budget for the next financial year.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government has been told to stop “messing around” and bring forward a new fit for purpose police funding formula as a matter of urgency.
West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster, is doing all he can to fight for fair funding for West Midlands Police, but the government’s “time wasting” is leaving the force facing a £27m budget deficit in the next financial year.
He said the force was having to make tough decisions on cuts and highlighted that despite the so-called uplift, the force still had 800 fewer police officers and 500 fewer PCSOs than it did in 2010. In addition, the failure to implement the existing funding formula in full, costs West Midlands Police £40 million a year – the equivalent of 800 police officers.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England may be forced to bring forward the date of its first interest rate cut after three leading forecasters issued a surprise update suggesting the inflation rate will halve to 2% by April.
The Oxford Economics consultancy and analysts at Investec and Deutsche Bank have reassessed their outlook for inflation in 2024 and concluded that the consumer prices index (CPI), which dropped to 3.9% in November last year, will fall below 2% within four months.
A slump in energy prices and the cost of oil on international wholesale markets will, they say, bring down inflation at a faster rate than the Bank of England expected when it reviewed price rises in November.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Wiltshire Police has put an improvement plan and recruitment strategy in place for responding to 999 calls.
It comes after more than 20% of emergency calls to the force were not answered in under the target 10 seconds in November, according to Police.UK data.
It found that of 7,868 emergency calls, 77% met the target.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The annual number of sexual offences recorded on the Tube have risen, British Transport Police (BTP) figures show.
There were 909 sexual offences, excluding rape, recorded between December 1, 2022 and November 30, 2023, compared to 866 in the previous 12 months.
The figures also show that violent crimes rose, with 3,542 incidents reported, up from 2,963 in the previous year.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Devon and Cornwall Police is no longer under extra scrutiny over its handling of violent and sexual offenders in communities, it announced.
In October 2022, the force was moved into an enhanced level of monitoring by the police inspectorate.
The watchdog found three areas for improvement; emergency call response, recording of crime and management of registered sex and violent offenders. "Additional scrutiny" has been lifted for the third strand, the force said.
[ more...]
Technology
Police chiefs in England and Wales are reducing their use of social media due to foreign automated bots that they fear could unduly influence the public’s view of the service, a watchdog has found.
There are also concerns over other social media users misusing official police communications to fit their own agenda, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) said.
Watchdog chief Andy Cooke wrote to the Home Secretary James Cleverly on Wednesday to give an update on a review of activism and impartiality in the police.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Steve Hartshorn said the episode, Will My Crime Be Solved, which aired on Monday (January 8) highlighted a number of criminal cases in which the subsequent police investigation appeared inadequate and the victims of each felt let down by the police response.
“While the journalist was at lengths to highlight, rightly, the impact of these crimes on the victims, and appeared to shine a light on police response and investigation inadequacies, I feel that what was missing was an explicit expression of the root causes that have led to such failings,” said Mr Hartshorn.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers are confused about how to treat trans people and want better training to avoid misgendering them, a watchdog has found.
Forces said there needed to be greater clarity about how they applied the Equality Act particularly around complicated areas such as gender and sex.
In a letter to James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) warned that getting things wrong risked undermining public trust and confidence.
But there was also a warning that forces risked discriminating against certain people, such as the disabled, the elderly and those of particular faiths, because too much emphasis was placed on other protected groups.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Ministers have told police chiefs to stop transgender officers conducting strip searches unless they have a gender recognition certificate.
Research from the Women’s Rights Network found that the majority of police forces allowed officers who self-identified as female to strip-search women.
Chris Philp, the policing minister, told parliament’s home affairs committee on Wednesday that codes of conduct which govern policing state that strip searches should be conducted only by someone of the same sex. He has asked the National Police Chiefs’ Council to review its guidance to ensure that transgender officers may search someone of their current sex only if they have a gender recognition certificate.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Encouraging councils to use reserves as a one-off quick fix during the funding crisis is “misguided and unhelpful” and could put more authorities at risk of Section 114 notice, a finance director has said in response to a minister’s comments.
Local government minister Simon Hoare said “authorities can and indeed should” consider drawing on their reserves to meet any funding pressures because council cash balances have generally increased since the beginning of the pandemic.
However, Michael Hudson, executive director of finance and resources Cambridgeshire County Council, said Section 151 Officers allocate and use reserves with the full understanding and knowledge of their future financial risks.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
3D-printed guns have been recorded by Police Scotland for the first time, according to new figures.
Two incidents were logged last year, with the force working with key partners to prevent the risk posed by the manufacture, distribution and possession of the crafted firearms.
Figures obtained by justice and social affairs magazine 1919 revealed that an incident occurred in the Argyll and West Dunbartonshire division in April, followed by another in Tayside a month later.
[ more...]
Justice
Hundreds of domestic abuse survivors will receive cash payments of £2,500 each to help them flee their tormentors, under a new initiative.
The £2m scheme, which launches this month, is described as a "lifeline" for women who can't flee - or are forced to return to - abusive relationships because they cannot afford essentials.
A successful pilot of the scheme last year, saw 600 victims given £250 or £500. A review found 80% of applicants used it to flee to a safe location, as well as buy food, clothing, nappies and security cameras.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Simon Foster says if it is not withdrawn he will have no alternative but to seek a judicial review.
He disagrees with the Government’s plans to transfer the powers of the PCC to the mayor and has called on the Government to abandon its “hostile takeover plans”.
In his letter to the Home Secretary, Mr Foster highlights how a “surprise public consultation”, launched just before Christmas, does not adhere to the requirements for a lawful consultation.
He said: “I have repeatedly advised the Government and the mayor not to proceed with this cynical, divisive and undemocratic power grab, yet they have refused to listen.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police officers are more likely to quit their jobs now than ever before, an arresting survey reveals.
Too few officers, a blame culture, lack of support from bosses and stress are top reasons why cops leave.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police in England and Wales are leaving people at risk of domestic abuse by refusing to release information on suspected violent partners, the Observer can reveal, with one force declining 95% of requests for checks.
Under Clare’s law – named after Clare Wood, 36, who was murdered in 2009 by her ex-boyfriend George Appleton – people have a right to ask police whether a partner or ex-partner has a history of abusive behaviour.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Actor Idris Elba has urged the government to immediately ban machetes and so-called zombie knives, saying it's "time to push the agenda as strongly as we can".
The Luther star has launched a campaign called Don't Stop Your Future, and told Sky News that "the nation wants to see that we do care about our youth".
"We're seeing a rise not a decline and that needs to change," Elba said.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The government is "actively considering" using legislation to quash all the Horizon scandal convictions, according to the justice secretary.
Alex Chalk answered questions about the government's position in between meetings with senior judges to discuss ways to accelerate the appeals of those convicted in the Horizon scandal.
An announcement is expected this week - with Mr Chalk saying he expects to be able to make "further announcements shortly".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police is investigating the Post Office over potential fraud offences committed during the Horizon IT scandal.
Over a 15-year period, more than 700 branch managers were convicted of false accounting, theft and fraud, based on faulty software information.
It has been called the most widespread miscarriage of justice in UK history.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Stop the War Coalition has defended its pro-Palestinian protests as “overwhelmingly peaceful” after a government adviser suggested that activists should pay for the policing of their marches.
Lord Walney, the Home Office’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption, is urging ministers to consider charging organisers for the costs of policing demonstrations.
His call came as hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters staged a sit-in at Westminster Bridge at the weekend, requiring a heavy police presence.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A black youth worker who was standing with his arms folded when he was shot with a stun gun by officers during a traffic stop has been given permission to appeal over a lost claim for damages against City of London police.
Officers claimed in statements that Edwin Afriyie had adopted a “fighting stance” before he was hit by the Taser electrical weapon but police body-worn camera footage showed his arms were folded and he was standing at a distance from them.
Afriyie, 37, hit his head on a stone ledge and sustained a minor injury after the shot knocked him backwards.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The police are investigating an alleged rape in the metaverse for the first time after a child was “attacked” while playing a virtual reality video game, it emerged last night.
The girl, who is under the age of 16, was not injured as there was no physical assault but is said to have suffered significant psychological and emotional trauma. She had been wearing an immersive headset while in a virtual “room” when she was attacked by several adult men, according to the Daily Mail.
Police leaders are concerned that sexual offending is rife in online worlds, and Ian Critchley, the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s lead for child protection and abuse investigation, said: “The metaverse creates a gateway for predators to commit horrific crimes against children.”
[ more...]
Police Finances
Mr Lloyd is one of the longest-serving PCCs in the country having being elected to the post when it was created in 2012. He was re-elected in 2016 and again 2021.
He was previously chair of the Hertfordshire Police Authority and deputy leader of Hertfordshire County Council and has been continuously involved in police governance since 2005 – the longest in the country.
The new PCC will be elected in May 2024 when elections will be held across England and Wales.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More teenage homicides were recorded in London last year than in 2022 after 21 teenagers were killed.
Of those who died, 18 teenagers were stabbed, two were shot and one was killed after his moped was hit by a car.
The number is up on 2022, when 14 teenage homicides were recorded, but lower than the peak of 30 in 2021.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A prolific shoplifting couple with more than 60 convictions for theft have been jailed after terrorising a market town.
Scott McSpadden and Tanya Momot, who are already banned from entering shops together, stole hundreds of pounds worth of alcohol and hair straighteners from two major stores.
The couple have a combined total of 120 criminal offences against their names, including 60 thefts, and were already subject to Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs), but they had, until now, escaped jail.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Bike thefts have been effectively “decriminalised”, with nine out of 10 cases remaining unsolved, analysis of Home Office data shows.
More than 365,000 bike thefts reported to police have gone unsolved since 2019, accounting for 89 per cent of all cases, analysis of Home Office data shows.
This adds up to 200 bike thefts a day – more than eight an hour – going unsolved in England and Wales over the past four years.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Thousands of vulnerable women are being left at serious risk of harm because police forces are failing to hand over potentially lifesaving information on violent criminals, The Independent can reveal.
In the latest shameful example of England’s police forces failing to protect women, official data shows that more than half of 20,226 requests for background checks on potential domestic abusers were rejected during a six-month period.
Campaigners say that victims face a “postcode lottery” in their search for answers, with one expert warning that the sheer scale of rejections is putting women’s lives at risk.
Senior Tory MP Robert Buckland has called for an urgent independent review of the disclosure scheme, known as Clare’s Law. It is named after 36-year-old Clare Wood, who was murdered in 2009 by her ex-boyfriend George Appleton. Appleton had a history of violence that Wood was unaware of.
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Police and Crime General
I knew I was cutting it fine – trying to squeeze in a last afternoon with old friends ahead of a final night with my family, before leaving for home. “A couple of hours,” I said to my parents, who were planning a takeaway pizza send-off for me.
The crowd at the pub was much larger than I’d anticipated (“you’re hardly ever here! Why wouldn’t everyone come?” my best friend said, delightedly) and it was hard to make my way around everybody. I became anxious, knowing that my family was expecting me home; more so when I saw how low my phone battery was. Not wanting to rely on its dwindling strength to get an Uber, I said goodbye to everyone and told them I was going to head out onto the street and hail a taxi.
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Police and Crime General
Policing Insight have published the recipients of the policing and public safety new years honours.
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Police and Crime General
Police officers, staff and volunteers from forces across the country have been recognised in His Majesty The King's New Year Honours List.
People of all ranks and several roles have been awarded honours.
The 2024 list includes a total of 36 police and law enforcement personnel honoured for their extraordinary contributions to policing.
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Recruitment and Retention
More than 1,100 police officers across England and Wales are under investigation for sexual or domestic abuse, prompting fresh calls for vetting and misconduct procedures to be radically overhauled.
Of these, 180 – almost one in seven – have been allowed to carry on working as normal despite the severity of the offences. Of the 1,151 officers under investigation, 428 have been placed on restricted duties, with another 378 suspended.
The highest number of officers under investigation is from the largest force, the Metropolitan police, with 657 individuals accused of sexual or domestic abuse, or both.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than 200,000 shoplifting cases went unsolved over the space of 12 months, the Liberal Democrats have concluded from analysis of official figures.
The party, which studied statistics for England and Wales, says the government is "totally falling" to tackle a "growing crime epidemic".
A Home Office spokeswoman said charging rates for shoplifting are up by "almost a third" in the past year.
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Justice
Shoplifters will benefit most from the government’s plans to impose a moratorium on jail sentences of less than 12 months in England and Wales, figures show.
Despite Rishi Sunak’s attempt to introduce tough sentences for criminals in the run-up to the general election, shoplifters, offenders convicted of battery, and those who have assaulted emergency workers, are the top three groups who will avoid prison under the government’s new measure.
Shoplifters account for more than one in eight offenders who will not face jail and who will instead receive a suspended sentence, the data shows.
[ more...]
Police Demand
After a burglar stole thousands of pounds' worth of power tools from her home, in St Albans, in October, Sharon Allen turned amateur detective.
She began going house to house, making her own inquiries, and handed CCTV footage from her neighbours to police.
"He's got a distinctive nose," Ms Allen tells BBC News, as she examines her own black-and-white security-camera footage.
"I've given them the information and I'm hoping they've looked at the CCTV."
[ more...]
Police Demand
After a burglar stole thousands of pounds' worth of power tools from her home, in St Albans, in October, Sharon Allen turned amateur detective.
She began going house to house, making her own inquiries, and handed CCTV footage from her neighbours to police.
"He's got a distinctive nose," Ms Allen tells BBC News, as she examines her own black-and-white security-camera footage.
"I've given them the information and I'm hoping they've looked at the CCTV."
[ more...]
Justice
Education, training and rehabilitation needs to become the primary focus of jails, the chief inspector of prisons in England and Wales has said. He said that a "fundamental reorientation" of the prison system was the only way to reduce reoffending.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Letters of thanks from Home Secretary James Cleverly to all police, fire and rescue service workers.
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Justice
Analysis of 116 studies found that imprisonment resulted in ‘increased reoffending’ compared with punishments in the community
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
UK inflation has fallen to its lowest level for more than two years, driven largely by a drop in fuel prices.
Prices rose by 3.9% in the year to November, down from 4.6% in October.
Slowing price rises for food, including staples such as pasta, milk and butter, as well as for household goods were also behind the fall.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Government are consulting on the transfer of police and crime commissioner functions to the Mayor of South Yorkshire at the May 2024 elections.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Government is consulting on the transfer of police and crime commissioner functions to the Mayor of the West Midlands at the May 2024 elections.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of 999 calls received by a police force has increased, while the proportion of those answered within the national 10-second target has dropped.
Cleveland Police took nearly 122,000 emergency calls in the year to September, a rise of more than 8,500 on the previous 12 months.
The average waiting time was less but the percentage of calls answered within 10 seconds decreased to 84.3% from 88.2%.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Reporting to the Met Police Board earlier this month, Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley confirmed that his officers attended 6,000 less deployments to mental health calls, almost half compared with the same period last year. This comes after the Met introduced a new approach called Right Care, Right Person for those in a mental health crisis.
He said that this equated to 34,000 hours of police officer time saved, as under this approach they will not attend medical calls where a healthcare professional is more appropriate.
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Prisons
Suella Braverman opposed sentencing plans when she was home secretary that would see up to 6,800 criminals spared jail at any one time, it emerged on Sunday.
Mrs Braverman sought to block Ministry of Justice (MoJ) plans to let offenders facing jail terms of less than 12 months serve their punishment in the community on suspended sentences rather than in prison but was overruled by Rishi Sunak, sources say.
A newly-released impact assessment from the MoJ has now revealed that the policy will mean between 1,700 and 6,800 offenders including thieves, shoplifters and drink drivers will be under the supervision of probation officers at any given time after being spared jail. The mid-range estimate is 3,700.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Less than half of shoplifting reports in London are being attended by the police, new data has shown.
Met Police statistics show that between April 2022 and April 2023 38% of shoplifting-related calls were attended by officers.
Caroline Pidgeon, a Liberal Democrat assembly member, called on the government to tackle the gangs behind "shoplifting rings".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More training for door staff and funding for testing kits are among a package of measures announced to crack down on spiking.
The Home Office has said the law will also be "modernised" to make it clear spiking - putting alcohol or drugs into another person's drink or body without their consent - is a crime.
The plans have broadly been welcomed by campaigners.
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Police Finances
Police leaders have warned that shortfalls in Government funding will leave forces in England and Wales facing “difficult financial decisions” next year.
A 6% increase in cash terms falls short of what is needed to “progress and improve”, chief constables said, while the staff association for more than 145,000 rank-and-file officers branded the package the “worst financial support forces have received in recent years”.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A £40m cash boost for West Yorkshire Police will do "nothing" to close its funding gap, the politician in charge of the county's policing has said.
Funding for the West Yorkshire force would rise from £574.8m in 2023-24 to £615.5m in 2024-25, Policing Minister Chris Philp confirmed on Thursday.
But Alison Lowe, the county's deputy mayor, said it had lost £140m since 2010 and faced an £11m deficit in 2024.
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Police Finances
A £40m cash boost for West Yorkshire Police will do "nothing" to close its funding gap, the politician in charge of the county's policing has said.
Funding for the West Yorkshire force would rise from £574.8m in 2023-24 to £615.5m in 2024-25, Policing Minister Chris Philp confirmed on Thursday.
But Alison Lowe, the county's deputy mayor, said it had lost £140m since 2010 and faced an £11m deficit in 2024.
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Police Finances
Responding to today’s police funding settlement APCC Lead on Funding Formula, CSR and Grants, Roger Hirst, Essex Police Fire and Crime Commissioner, said:
“Today’s announcement is good news for policing and gives Police and Crime Commissioners greater flexibility in locally raised funding. The police service must adapt to meet evolving threats and challenges, and this can only happen with sound investment to support growth. We welcome the flexibility in precept cap, which in part recognises the inflationary pressures currently impacting forces and the need for additional funding if we are to maintain the frontline resources necessary to get crime down."
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy shrank by more than expected in October, as higher interest rates squeezed consumers and bad weather swept the country.
The economy fell 0.3% during the month, after growth of 0.2% in September.
Household spending has been dented by rate rises as the Bank of England tries to tackle inflation. It is due to make its next rate decision on Thursday.
[ more...]
Prisons
Eight out of 10 people in the UK caught with images of children being sexually abused avoid going to jail, the head of the National Crime Agency has revealed.
Graeme Biggar, the director general of the NCA, said some had been caught with thousands of images but avoided imprisonment, and others had been given rehabilitation orders and suspended sentences and then reoffended.
In a media briefing, the NCA called for tougher sentences of imprisonment.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Campaigners have written to the chief constables of Norfolk and Suffolk to request an investigation into thousands of mental health deaths in those areas.
They say coroners are raising safety issues but no improvements are being made.
A report by independent auditors found as many as 8,440 patients had died unexpectedly over three years.
[ more...]
Police Demand
With a population of around 3,000, Fordham, Cambridgeshire, is not known to be a hotbed of organised crime.
But for Jonathan James, who opened a new Fresh & Proper shop in the village with his son Joshua in June, it has become the site of an ongoing battle with shoplifting gangs.
“It’s utterly soul destroying just how brazen they are,” says James, who runs 45 stores across the country. “I’ve got a video of six people coming in – three ladies and three gentlemen – and they are just loading stuff into the females’ skirts.”
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Police Demand
With a population of around 3,000, Fordham, Cambridgeshire, is not known to be a hotbed of organised crime.
But for Jonathan James, who opened a new Fresh & Proper shop in the village with his son Joshua in June, it has become the site of an ongoing battle with shoplifting gangs.
“It’s utterly soul destroying just how brazen they are,” says James, who runs 45 stores across the country. “I’ve got a video of six people coming in – three ladies and three gentlemen – and they are just loading stuff into the females’ skirts.”
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Metropolitan Police lacks the funding it needs to meet London's “unique demands”, Sadiq Khan has said.
The mayor has written to Home Secretary James Cleverley to call for an increase in the National and International Capital City (NICC) grant.
NICC is a mechanism provided to the Met to support the additional costs of policing a capital city – including protests, sporting events and diplomatic protection.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Pro-Palestine protests have cost police as much as £20 million and have put a strain on other frontline duties as thousands of officers have had to be redeployed every week since the Israel-Hamas conflict began on October 7.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Metropolitan Police lacks the funding it needs to meet London's “unique demands”, Sadiq Khan has said.
The mayor has written to Home Secretary James Cleverley to call for an increase in the National and International Capital City (NICC) grant.
NICC is a mechanism provided to the Met to support the additional costs of policing a capital city – including protests, sporting events and diplomatic protection.
[ more...]
Technology
The biggest data breach in the history of UK policing, which saw the personal details of almost 10,000 Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers published online, was missed by six officials, a report has found.
The surnames, initials, ranks and units where the officers and staff worked ended up in the hands of dissident republicans after being mistakenly published online following a Freedom of Information request in August.
It was initially thought the blunder was the result of “simple human error”, but an independent review into the data breach found that six people missed the mistake before the data was eventually published.
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Police Demand
The Met Police has asked Just Stop Oil (JSO) to "reach out and speak to us" after revealing policing the campaign group's protests has cost almost £20m.
The force said the time it had spent on the group equated to roughly 300 officers being taken off frontline policing each day.
It added JSO had "refused to engage" with police when planning protests.
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Police and Crime General
Police still do not have an accurate understanding of "grooming gangs", despite years of concerns about the problem, the police watchdog has said.
His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) reviewed 27 cases.
Data collection was "unreliable", it said, and intelligence gathering "wasn't prioritised".
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Police and Crime General
HMICFRS has identified a number of areas of positive practice within Surrey Police’s understanding and use of police powers.
The force has been graded as “adequate” in this category by the Inspectorate this morning, with further work required on informing the public on how analysis and monitoring inform the use force and stop and search, as well as ongoing work on addressing disproportionality.
Surrey holds quarterly meetings discussing both these powers, however HMICFRS has today said that the minutes from these should be published and enable the public to both follow discussions and subsequent decisions.
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Police Demand
The number of child cruelty and neglect cases has more than doubled in the past five years, police data collected by the NSPCC shows.
The data from police forces in England shows there were 29,405 offences between April 2022 and March 2023 compared to 14,263 offences between April 2017 and March 2018.
The figures, obtained by the NSPCC children's charity by using the Freedom of Information Act, reveal the number of cases increased steadily year on year during that period.
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Police and Crime General
Drug-drivers convicted in the South Tees area (policed by officers in Cleveland) will become the first in the UK to be offered an educational course to reduce reoffending – similar to the drink-drive rehabilitation scheme – under a pilot programme which, if successful, could be rolled out nationwide.
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Police and Crime General
The West Midlands Mayor has said his request to take on the powers of the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) have been approved by the Home Secretary.
Andy Street has argued it is necessary because the West Midlands force is currently in special measures and has seen crime rise.
He said it would not happen until after the next mayoral elections in May.
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Prisons
Prisons are being allowed to release domestic abusers early to deal with chronic overcrowding, leaked government guidance has revealed.
The document was sent to 21 prisons across England and Wales as part of an early release scheme launched last month by the justice secretary, Alex Chalk.
It confirms that convicts guilty of a range of domestic abuse offences, as well violent offenders sentenced to less than four years, can be freed early. The government has made tackling domestic abuse and violence against women a pillar of its criminal justice reforms.
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Police and Crime General
A police force which was put into special measures for failing to record up to 80,000 crimes has "significantly improved" its performance, the police inspectorate has said.
A report by the watchdog said no areas of policing by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were currently inadequate.
Outcomes for victims of crime had been improved, it added.
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Police Demand
Sadiq Khan has been criticised for failing to keep Londoners safe after crime on the capital’s transport network increased by a third.
Figures show a 30 per cent rise in the number of crimes reported on public transport in London in the six months up to September. The total of 22,290 crimes reported was up from the 17,160 recorded in the same period last year.
The sharp rise came despite public transport use increasing by only 13 per cent between the two periods.
[ more...]
Justice
Courts could soon be handing out more rehabilitative community sentences, rather than sending people to jail for short terms, under radical new plans.
The Sentencing Council for England and Wales says judges and magistrates should think more about sentences that are proven to reform offenders.
The plans tell courts to think twice about jailing women because of the impact on children.
The plans, years in development, come amid a prison overcrowding crisis.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The number of temporary gun licences issued by Devon and Cornwall Police has "drastically reduced," according to the force's police and crime commissioner (PCC).
PCC Alison Hernandez told Devon and Cornwall's police and crime panel on average only four temporary gun licences are now issued each month.
The 50-year licensing system is being reformed after an inquest found "catastrophic" failings in the force's firearms licensing unit allowed a lone gunman to kill five people in Plymouth.
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Police Finances
It might have been better to “wait a bit” before launching into the programme to replace the Airwave system, the Home Office Permanent Secretary has said.
With the programme further delayed while Motorola appeal the decision by the Competition Markets Authority to cap the amount it can charge forces for the current system, Sir Matthew Rycroft has said that as a government “it is not always the best place to be, to be at the cutting edge of technology”.
The programme now has a baseline cost of £11.3bn where the cost in the business case, signed off in 2015, stood at £5.2bn.
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Prisons
Menopausal female offenders could be spared jail under new sentencing guidelines for judges and magistrates.
The Sentencing Council, which advises the Government and courts, has set out new guidelines encouraging courts to consider more rehabilitative community sentences rather than sending people to jail for short terms.
The council said judges and magistrates should think more about sentences that are proven to reform offenders and think twice about jailing younger women because of the impact on children and older women because of the menopause.
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Recruitment and Retention
A police force which made improvements to be pulled out of special measures is struggling with a "really inexperienced" workforce, bosses said.
Gloucestershire Constabulary was discussing barriers to its recovery at a Police and Crime Panel on Friday.
Assistant Chief Constable Richard Ocone raised concerns that increasingly high workloads were placed on young officers who are also required to do a degree.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
A police force which made improvements to be pulled out of special measures is struggling with a "really inexperienced" workforce, bosses said.
Gloucestershire Constabulary was discussing barriers to its recovery at a Police and Crime Panel on Friday.
Assistant Chief Constable Richard Ocone raised concerns that increasingly high workloads were placed on young officers who are also required to do a degree.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
One of England's biggest police forces remains "institutionally racist" and must do more to tackle the problem, a leading equality advisor has said.
A 2021 report found black people were more likely to be arrested, Tasered and searched by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) than white people.
Elizabeth Cameron, who worked with GMP on the report, said its systems were "perpetuating racial discrimination".
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The government has only met its target to show debt will fall by “pretending” certain measures, including the fuel duty freeze, will end this year, economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies have said.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Jeremy Hunt has pledged up to £7m over the next three years to charities tackling antisemitism in the UK.
The chancellor unveiled the measure while delivering the government's Autumn Statement on Wednesday.
Mr Hunt expressed his "horror" at the Hamas attack on Israel last month, and said he was "deeply concerned about the rise of antisemitism" in the UK.
Police have recorded a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents since the conflict broke out on 7 October.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
It is the first time the national lead force for the three threat areas has produced a five-year plan, which builds on fraud and cybercrime being included in the strategic policing requirement earlier this year.
The new strategy has been developed to guide and support local, regional and national policing to deliver a better service for victims and sets out the actions under three objectives to improve outcomes for victims, proactively pursue offenders and protect people and businesses from threat.
T/Assistant Commissioner Nik Adams who is responsible for the national coordination of economic and cybercrime, welcomed more than 400 operational law enforcement professionals and industry representatives at this week’s Serious and Organised Crime Exchange (SOCEX) conference to share the plan and discuss how the UK tackles fraud and cybercrime.
[ more...]
Prisons
Scarlett Roberts' diary of her four months inside a women's jail last year is a rare and shocking account of mostly male prison officers allegedly abusing their power over women.
One extract reads: "14th of May, cell 19 after lunch at 12:30. Two officers were arguing with her. She was not violent... There were seven officers in the end, all restraining her in her cell. No officers put bodycams on. One officer kicked her in the chest."
Her account details the alleged treatment of a youth offender in a cell next door.
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Police Demand
Thames Valley Police responded to more than half a million contacts from the public in the six months from April to September, new figures have shown.
The force said it made 16,239 arrests during the period, 28% of which were related to domestic violence.
The figures also showed a 22% rise in the number of charges for rape and an 11% increase for other sexual offences, compared with the same period in 2022.
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Police and Crime General
Thieves, drug dealers and shoplifters could be charged within hours under new police powers to speed up justice.
Police will be able to charge offenders for crimes that merit jail sentences of up to six months without having to go through independent crown prosecutors.
The move – a significant increase in the powers of the police – will be piloted by “high performing” forces before any expansion to all 43 constabularies in England and Wales.
The change has been recommended by a government-commissioned review that found officers spent 540,000 hours a year filling in 17-page forms for nearly every case sent to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) before it decided on whether to charge.
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Police and Crime General
APCC Chair, Donna Jones said:
“It was great to welcome the new Home Secretary to the APCC/NPCC Partnership Summit, in collaboration with the College of Policing. We're grateful for him attending after just four days in post. His words on working together and our combined duty to the public are important and welcome.
“Police and Crime Commissioners look forward to working closely with him and police colleagues to meet the public's expectations on combatting and reducing crime.
“I've known James Cleverly for years and I'm looking forward to working with him to continue to achieve, not only improvements in the policing and criminal justice system, but to ensure policing is match fit for whatever the future holds. This morning I have spoken to him about our first sit down meeting and about the part that PCCs are committed to doing to support him in making communities safer with a first-class police service across the UK."
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers have seen a dramatic increase in the number of criminals using imitation firearms, official figures show.
Offences involving imitation weapons jumped by 13 per cent to 2,130 in the 12 months to March, up from 1,889 in the previous year. This means the use of such firearms has risen to its highest level since 2008, when 2,561 were used in offences, according to the police data.
Police chiefs believe the success in closing down other markets for weapons such as conventional and converted guns has fuelled demand for alternative sources, including 3D-printed firearms.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The actions of pro-Palestinian protesters who climbed on to a war memorial were “inflammatory” but not illegal, the Metropolitan police commissioner said on Thursday, as the government said it would consider giving police new powers to prevent “offensive” demonstrations.
Video footage appears to show at least two pro-Palestinian protesters clambering on the Royal Artillery Memorial at Hyde Park Corner, central London, on Wednesday evening, timed to coincide with a vote on calls for a ceasefire in Gaza in the Commons.
The video shows the protesters being spoken to by a police officer, and agreeing to come down.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Shoplifting is “creeping in” among the middle classes because of faulty self-checkouts, the chairman of Marks & Spencer has said.
Archie Norman said well-off shoppers were being tempted to walk out without paying for items when self-checkout scanners failed to properly register all their items.
Mr Norman said: “Nobody quite understands why this has happened, but shoplifting has become a global problem. We’re seeing this rise.
“It’s too easy to say it’s a cost of living problem. Some of this shoplifting is gangs. Then you get the middle class.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are weighing up last-minute cuts to income tax or national insurance to boost economic growth and the Conservative Party’s electoral fortunes.
The prime minister and chancellor have taken the surprise decision to consider tax cuts for low and middle earners before the autumn statement on Wednesday, having been handed billions of pounds of additional spending power.
[ more...]
Technology
Plans to use drones as first responders to emergencies will be trialled by a police force next year.
Dubbed Project Eagle X, initial trials will take place in Norfolk because of limited access to the helicopters flown by the National Police Air Service.
If successful, drones would be stationed on buildings and operated remotely to scenes to give the police early information.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Almost 4,500 officers have left policing during their probation period since 2019, with ‘nonsensical’ policing degrees being singled out as a reason why new recruits are leaving in their droves.
Figures provided to LBC by over thirty police forces across England and Wales detail the number of people to depart within the first two years of their employment during the Uplift Programme, a scheme launched by the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson four years ago to add 20,000 police officers to Britain’s streets.
The findings illustrate a concerning picture about police retention across the country, with the failure to keep hold of new recruits exacerbating the staffing shortfalls highlighted by many chief constables.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
James Cleverly has promised police chiefs that he will “praise in public” and “criticise in private”.
In a thinly veiled swipe at Suella Braverman, his predecessor, the new Home Secretary told delegates at a policing summit that he did not want a “relationship of conflict”.
Mrs Braverman was sacked on Monday, just days after publishing a newspaper column in which she accused the police of bias in the way they handled protests. Her comments were criticised as an attack on the operational independence of policing.
[ more...]
Police Finances
West Sussex-based Jayesh Patel was at his wits’ end back in 2020 when - on top of the stress and supply issues caused by the pandemic - his store became a repeat target of known shop offenders.
Having previously been supportive, Jayesh found that as the problem escalated, the police became more distant - failing to attend the site or take a statement personally. “In the past five years before then, if I was experiencing shoplifting, they would come within that day or the next day and sit down with me and take the statement,” he says.
[ more...]
Police Finances
New data shows a sharp fall in UK inflation in the year to October, down to 4.6% It's the lowest rate since November 2021 - the fall is mainly down to lower energy prices.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
UK inflation fell sharply in October to its lowest rate in two years, largely due to lower energy prices.
Inflation, which measures the rate at which consumer prices rise, dropped to 4.6% in the year to October, down from 6.7% the month before.
The government says its pledge to halve inflation by end of the year has been met early.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Met Police Federation chairman says combined impact of demonstrators and Just Stop Oil protests would strain force’s day-to-day resources.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
David Cameron has returned to the cabinet table for the first time in more than seven years on Tuesday after his recall to government.
Rishi Sunak met his new cabinet after a dramatic overhaul on Monday saw the former prime minister return to frontline politics.
He replaces James Cleverly, who was moved to be home secretary to take over from Suella Braverman.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The UK Government’s efforts to influence policing’s operational response to protests have reached new levels in recent months, and former Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s comments on the issue would appear to have prompted her sacking; but Wrexham University’s Professor Peter Joyce and Dr Wendy Laverick of Hull University argue that policing independence in relation to protests has been threatened by Conservative governments for some time, and that a fundamental rethink of governance arrangements may be the only long-term answer.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Suffolk Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Tim Passmore, recently talked to PolicingTV about how he and Suffolk Constabulary have used the additional “Safer Streets” funding that he and his team obtained from the Home Office.
“We’ve got around £800,000, and it really has made a difference to defined areas within Ipswich.”
“It has helped improve security, public trust and confidence.”
[ more...]
Police Demand
Policing mass pro-Palestinian protests every weekend until Christmas is unsustainable and drags officers away from neighbourhood duties, the Metropolitan Police Federation has warned.
The federation, which represents rank and file police, said there was “no magic box of public order officers” the force could roll out to police the protests.
Last Saturday, Armistice Day, upwards of 300,000 demonstrators took to the streets of London to protest against the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is reshuffling his cabinet, with Suella Braverman sacked as home secretary, James Cleverly replacing her and former prime minister David Cameron going into the Foreign Office in an unexpected return to government.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Homeless people's tents in central London have been destroyed during a Met Police operation.
Refuse workers threw the tents into the back of their lorry on Huntley Street, Camden, at about 15:00 GMT on Friday.
Elodie Berland, who volunteers with outreach organisation Streets Kitchen, recorded the scene after being called there by some of the homeless men.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are failing to show up in three out of four cases where shop workers have detained criminals who were looting from stores.
New figures from Co-op reveal that retail crime is worsening ahead of the crucial festive season, amid growing concern over police inaction.
The supermarket said it has experienced almost 300,000 incidents of shoplifting, abuse, violence and anti-social behaviour this year across its 2,400 stores – up 43pc year-on-year.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police are failing to show up in three out of four cases where shop workers have detained criminals who were looting from stores.
New figures from Co-op reveal that retail crime is worsening ahead of the crucial festive season, amid growing concern over police inaction.
The supermarket said it has experienced almost 300,000 incidents of shoplifting, abuse, violence and anti-social behaviour this year across its 2,400 stores – up 43pc year-on-year.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
James Cleverly arrived at the Home Office pledging to run the department in his own style.
The role of home secretary is one of the biggest jobs in government, with responsibility for the police, immigration, and national security.
Asked if he wanted to distance himself from the rhetoric of his predecessor, Suella Braverman, he said: "I intend to do this job in the way that I feel best protects the British people and our interests."
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Inflation is poised for a “seismic drop” to its lowest level in two years, figures are expected to show next week, which will result in Rishi Sunak hitting his target to halve the rate by the end of the year. The rate of price growth in the UK is expected to have fallen to 4.8 per cent in the year to October from 6.7 per cent in September, which would be the largest decline since 1992.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Half of all teenagers witnessed or were victims of violence in England and Wales last year, according to a landmark report by government advisers into what drives knife crime, bullying and gang rivalries.
The largest-ever survey in the UK of youngsters about the problem found “shocking and unacceptable” levels of youth violence, with 358,000 teenagers physically injured during the last 12 months.
The scale of the problem was also found to be undermining children’s education, with one in five teenagers admitting they had skipped school during the last 12 months because they felt unsafe, according to the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF).
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK's economy failed to grow between July to September compared to the previous three months, official figures show. Many economists had expected the UK to shrink over the period by around 0.1 per cent, but a stronger September meant the economy showed zero growth, according to the Office for National Statistics.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police chiefs must be able to operate without political interference, one of the UK's most senior officers has said.
Gavin Stephens, the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) chair, suggested policing could be undermined if "public debate" influences decision making.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has accused the police of bias in their handling of pro-Palestinian protests.
The move left her facing calls from some within her own party to be sacked by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
One of the UK’s most senior police officers has spoken out to defend force chiefs’ rights to make independent operational decisions amid intense political pressure linked to Armistice weekend protests.
Gavin Stephens, who is chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), said that political views could not be allowed to influence decision making.
His comments came after the head of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, refused to ban a pro-Palestine protest in central London on Saturday, despite pointed public comments by the prime minister and home secretary.
[ more...]
Technology
Facial recognition was used on crowds attending a Beyoncé concert in Cardiff to scan for paedophiles and terrorists.
South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Alun Michael said searching for potential terrorists at such events had become normal since the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing.
He said paedophiles were also targeted as "there would be very large numbers of young girls attending that concert".
Mr Michael described using such cameras as "entirely sensible".
[ more...]
Justice
Victims’ Commissioner Baroness Newlove said the statistics should serve as a “wake-up call” for all those involved in the justice system.
The findings were released ahead of her first speech in the House of Lords on Wednesday (November 8) in response to the King’s Speech.
They come as the landmark Victims and Prisoners Bill is set to return to Parliament.
Baroness Newlove used her speech to call for the Bill to be the “catalyst”, “to end the culture whereby victims’ entitlements are regarded as ‘optional’ extras or ‘nice to haves’, instead of a being a core part of delivering justice”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
As a Service, we once again find ourselves facing a very difficult period and dealing with exceptional circumstances and tensions within our communities. There is a very real and tragic humanitarian crisis currently taking place overseas.
We join others across the world in condemning the terrorist attacks of Hamas and our thoughts remain with all involved.
A national policing response to the current conflict was quickly established by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), with support from the National Police Coordination Centre (NPoCC), even before the horrific severity of the initial attacks by Hamas became clear. This work links with, and functions alongside, established Counter Terrorism Policing structures, which continue to lead on protective security.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A permanent youth worker will be based at a county's missing persons unit following a pilot scheme.
Specialist youth workers carried out follow-up visits for every young person who had gone missing during a three-month period in Northamptonshire.
The county's police, fire and crime commissioner's office (OPFCC) said none of the 52 people who were visited went missing again.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The King’s Speech will keep violent criminals locked up for longer and put victims front and centre of the criminal justice system.
Under the new package of legislation, which is at the heart of the government’s legislative programme for the year ahead, the worst offenders will not only be kept behind bars for longer, but also forced to face their victims in court and hear first-hand how their crimes have devastated lives.
Through the new laws, due to be set out later today, the government will build on the progress it has already made to keep our streets safer. Since 2010, in England and Wales, violent crime is down 52% and domestic burglary by 57%.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A pro-Palestinian protest on Armistice Day will go ahead, the head of the Metropolitan Police has said.
Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said "people should be very reassured that we're going to keep this away from the remembrance and armistice events".
[ more...]
Justice
Returning Victims’ Commissioner says blueprint for reform she left behind five years ago has largely been ignored.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Chancellor is facing renewed calls from Conservative colleagues to cut taxes after figures showed a multi-billion-pound improvement in the public finances since March’s budget.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The early warning system designed to identify English councils in serious financial difficulty is in crisis, with hundreds of local authorities failing to meet the legal deadline to publish audited accounts covering £100bn of public spending.
The vast majority – 99% – of English councils did not have their 2022-23 financial accounts signed off by the deadline this year, which experts say is increasing the risk of financial irregularities and risky behaviours going undetected..
More than 900 sets of accounts for councils and other public bodies going back to 2017 remain unaudited. Ministers are considering an amnesty whereby incomplete past audits would be cancelled to clear the backlog.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The recently-passed Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill has created an avenue whereby Mayor Andy Street can ask to bring this area into his remit.
The Mayor for the West Midlands has formally requested to take over responsibility for policing in the area, in a move previously branded a "hostile takeover" by PCC Simon Foster.
Conservative Mayor Andy Street has written to the Home Secretary requesting a transfer of these powers, an option that became available after the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill was given royal assent on October 26.
[ more...]
Prisons
When Mancunian Helen Newlove first set foot into the House of Lords as a newly-enobled baroness, she admits she felt as out of place as Coronation Street’s Hilda Ogden might have done.
“It was a proud moment, but nerve wracking. I was surrounded by all these very clever people, intellectuals, academics who speak in a certain way. I thought how am I going to fit in? I’m Helen from the north and I live in a council house,” she says.
When asked her background, she would reply that she was the widow of Garry Newlove, who was murdered by being punched and kicked to death after confronting a gang of drunken youths vandalising her car. “It would stop the conversation,” she recalls.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is expected to use the Autumn Statement to announce that public spending will not increase by more than 1 per cent a year for much of the next decade. It means that unprotected departments face real terms spending cuts in the coming years.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The Metropolitan Police had to return £60m funding to Government after the force failed to meet its uplift target. The Met was the only force not to meet its target by the deadline of March this year.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The West Midlands mayor should be handed powers of the Police and Crime Commissioner after the next mayoral election, the current mayor says.
Conservative Andy Street has acted because "crime in this region has more than doubled... and I simply cannot allow it to go on any longer".
Mr Street, who has written to the home secretary, said currently police were not being properly held to account.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The Metropolitan police may have to seek support from other forces because of the pressure that managing protests over the Israel-Hamas conflict has had on the capital’s limited number of officers, the UK’s most senior officer said on Thursday.
Sir Mark Rowley told a meeting that since Hamas’s attacks on Israel on 7 October, successive weekend protests in central London had been policed by 1,000 officers, then 1,500 and then 2,000.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England have frozen interest rates at 5.25 per cent for the second time in a row. The Bank of England warned that interest rates would have to remain high for “some time” to bring down inflation with a risk of the UK entering a recession.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Channel 4 reveals that hundreds of police officers have been suspended by UK police forces because of allegations of sexual offences.
The figures – released in response to freedom of information requests by Channel 4 News, come as police leaders say trust is being re-built and that alleged crimes by police – against women – are taken seriously.
But some women who’ve reported serving officers have told this programme that too often police perpetrators are getting away with it.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Interest rates are expected to be left unchanged as the Bank of England looks to balance the impact of higher rates on the UK economy.
Sluggish economic growth and signs that the country's job market is slowing down have led to predictions that rates will be held at 5.25%.
Rates had been hiked previously in a bid to slow the pace of price rises and are at the highest level for 15 years.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Victims of burglaries and domestic abuse are waiting up to 13 hours for the police to attend, new figures have revealed.
Data from police forces shows dramatically different response times across England and Wales.
Police took 13 and a half hours to respond to priority calls in Birmingham West last year, the longest wait in the country. It was 37 minutes in Bristol and Plymouth, according to figures disclosed in freedom of information requests by the Liberal Democrats.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Operation Calibre will target habitual offenders in known hotspot areas to take them off the streets and the transport system.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) says there will be focus on the different strands of education, engagement, prevention and enforcement, all of which are important in reducing personal robbery.
A national week of action will be conducted by forces across the country during the month of November.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Volunteer police officers in a county are set to be armed with Taser stun guns.
Experienced Special Constables in Cheshire will now be able to train to use the devices following a change in legislation in 2022.
Volunteer officers, who have the same powers as paid officers, form "an integral and integrated part of frontline policing", the force said.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police and security services have been told by Rishi Sunak to prepare for the prospect of a terror attack as tensions rise over the Israel-Hamas war. Yesterday the Prime Minister chaired an emergency meeting of Cobra at which ministers, police chiefs and security officials assessed the “accelerated” threat of domestic terrorism and the risk of public disorder.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Public services are crumbling and risk getting stuck in a perpetual state of crisis, a leading think tank has said.
In its annual report on the state of public services, the Institute for Government (IfG) said they were performing worse than before the pandemic and much worse than when the Conservatives came to power in 2010.
Funding cuts, a lack of capital investment and disruption caused by strikes have all contributed to the decline, the IfG said. Its report claimed that the government’s refusal to negotiate on public sector pay for months had extended the duration of strikes and brought more disruption.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Three quarters of burglaries and car thefts went unsolved over the past year, analysis has shown.
Almost 6,000 crimes a day went unsolved in the year to June, up 10 per cent on the previous year. In total, 214,076 burglaries went unsolved across England and Wales in the year ending in June — up 6 per cent compared with the previous year. Seventy-six per cent of burglaries went unsolved in the year to June, with only 6 per cent of burglaries leading to a charge or a summons.
In all 107,451 car thefts were closed without a suspect identified over the same period, up by 20 per cent from the previous year. It means that 77 per cent of car thefts went unsolved in that period. Only 4 per cent of car thefts resulted in a charge or summons.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
UK ministers will hold an emergency meeting of its Cobra committee amid concerns that the Israel-Gaza conflict has raised the possibility of a domestic terrorist incident.
The home secretary, Suella Braverman, will meet national security officials and police at No 10 on Monday to assess the security risk after the deadly Hamas attack on Israel more than three weeks ago.
Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, chaired a Cobra meeting on Thursday with figures from the Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence and Cabinet Office to discuss delivering aid to Gaza.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Met has unveiled a raft of new and expanded victim services in order to better support a group the force admits has been "let down in the past".
One of the new initiatives is My Met Service, which allows victims to give instant feedback through rating the officer they have spoken to.
This process, done via a QR code, email or SMS, will inform frontline training and be used as an avenue to recognise good work.
Currently in the pilot stage, this service is being rolled out across London boroughs including Havering, Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge, Waltham Forest, Newham, Hackney and Tower Hamlets.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A new police station believed to be the smallest in the country has been opened in Sussex to tackle a nationwide epidemic of serious knife crime and shoplifting.
The new station in Crawley, West Sussex, measures just 8ft x 8ft x 6ft and was announced in response to a spate of recent stabbings.
In February, an 18-year-old man died after being stabbed close to the town’s train station.
[ more...]
Technology
Police are being encouraged to double their use of retrospective facial recognition software to track down offenders over the next six months.
Policing minister Chris Philp has written to force chiefs suggesting the target of exceeding 200,000 searches of still images against the Police National Database by May using facial recognition technology.
He also is encouraging police to operate live facial recognition cameras more widely.
[ more...]
Police Finances
As part of the fifth round of Safer Streets funding, PCCs will receive cash injections to invest in a range of prevention activities to make public spaces safer and reduce the fear of crime.
The scheme will run from this month for an 18-month period until March 2025.
Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) joint national prevention lead, Festus Akinbusoye, said: “I am delighted that PCCs have secured a further £42 million of Safer Streets funding to complement their existing work targeting anti-social behaviour, VAWG and neighbourhood crimes.
“The APCC has been instrumental in the delivery of this opportunity, gathering the views of PCCs and sharing them with the Home Office to inform how best to spend this funding.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Picture: Brian A Jackson / Shutterstock
These extra patrols, along with hundreds more arrests and stop and searches, were just one part of the Government’s Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan, launched six months ago.
The latest data from police and crime commissioners (PCCs) shows that since hotspot uniformed patrols have been rolled out in ten pilot areas, there have been more than 250 arrests, over 600 stop and searches and around 1,000 other enforcement actions such as community protection notices and public protection orders.
Crime and Policing Minister Chris Philp said: “Anti-social behaviour ruins neighbourhoods and brings fear and misery to local people, be it people smoking cannabis in the street, intimidating gatherings in public spaces or acts of vandalism.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Criminals will not always be forced to attend sentencing, the Justice Secretary has said, because of fears it could be used as propaganda.
Alex Chalk said that judges will have discretion to decide whether to force convicted criminals to come to court for sentencing under legislation expected to be announced in the King’s Speech next month.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police have pledged to attend more shoplifting incidents and use facial recognition technology to catch thieves in a crackdown on Britain’s shoplifting epidemic.
The Home Office has announced a new action plan with retailers and police chiefs which they claim will create a “hostile environment” for shoplifters after it was revealed that offences have increased by 25 per cent in the past year.
[ more...]
Prisons
A series of "very stark" failures by the probation service contributed to the murders of a mother and three children, a coroner has ruled.
Terri Harris, 35, her son John Bennett, 13, daughter Lacey Bennett, 11, and Connie Gent, 11, were murdered by Damien Bendall in 2021.
Bendall, on licence at the time, was managed by overworked and inexperienced probation officers, the coroner heard.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Billions in local government pensions have been invested in the fossil fuels industry, according to new analysis.
Environmental campaign groups Friends of the Earth and Platform London analysed data gathered through Freedom of Information requests.
The groups said they were able to analyse data covering 75% of the assets under management for the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) – one of the largest schemes in the country – for the financial year 2021/2022.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Drug-spiking incidents reported to the police have increased five-fold in five years, yet the proportion leading to a criminal charge is falling, freedom of information (FoI) requests show.
Almost 20,000 reports of spiking were received in the past five years by 39 police forces that responded to FoI requests sent out by Channel 4 for a documentary.
Yet the proportion of the reports that were investigated and resulted in a criminal charge dropped from 1 in 25 in 2018 to 1 in 400 in 2022. Channel 4 found just 54 cases where a suspect had been arrested and referred to the Crown Prosecution Service.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Centralised national intelligence team and action plan to bolster policing response
Policing, retailers and the Government have come together to set out further measures to tackle the rise in shoplifting, catch more prolific offenders and keep retail workers safe.
The Policing Minister Chris Philp chaired a meeting with senior police leaders and 13 of the UK’s biggest retailers today to launch the Retail Crime Action Plan.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police chiefs are resisting demands to respond to every case of shoplifting despite a record surge in thefts from stores.
Ministers want police to investigate every crime – including shoplifting below £200 – where there is a reasonable line of inquiry. They are also demanding an emergency-level response when shop staff detain a thief.
However, police chiefs argue that it is “not realistic” for officers to respond to every case of shoplifting because of the demand.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A new “zero-tolerance” plan will be agreed between ministers, police and retailers to crack down on shoplifting and the organised crime gangs fuelling the problem.
At a summit in Downing Street, police chiefs will unveil plans for how they intend to tackle shoplifting, which has soared by a quarter of the last year to reach more than 1,000 per day.
Police have been accused of not taking the crime seriously enough as the number of cases solved has fallen over the same period, with just one in eight shoplifters caught and charged.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Gaps in the law that would allow words such as “jihad” to be shouted at rallies were known to the government but not acted upon, Britain’s former head of counter-terrorism has revealed.
The comments from Neil Basu come as some ministers condemned police for their handling of weekend demonstrations in London, with the home secretary, Suella Braverman, due to meet the Metropolitan police commissioner on Monday.
In 2021 the Conservative government was told laws should be toughened in a report on tackling extremism co-authored by Sir Mark Rowley, now head of the Met, with the conclusions supported by counter-terrorism policing.
[ more...]
Justice
Officers seize class A drugs worth £1.2m, more than £1m in cash, 100 kilos of cannabis and hundreds of weapons, including 33 guns, 377 knives, crossbows, batons and knuckle dusters in a country-wide crackdown.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Shoplifting has hit a record high of 1,000 offences a day, an unprecedented 25 per cent increase in a year, official figures showed on Thursday.
Some 365,164 offences were recorded in the year to June 2023, up 24.6 per cent on the previous 12 months and higher even than the huge post-Covid jump of 24.4 per cent in 2021-22, according to the data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
However, the detection rate for shoplifters has fallen to a record low with just 18.2 per cent of offences being solved, less than half the 46 per cent when records began in 2016. The proportion of shoplifters charged has also collapsed in the same period, from 29.7 per cent to 14 per cent.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The Premier League is considering paying the police up to £10million - in what is being viewed as a controversial attempt to allow clubs to play 'risk' matches in lucrative late television slots.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
High levels of national debt will hurt the UK's ability to fund public services and respond to economic crises, a think tank has said.
Not in the last 300 years has there been as large a peace time increase in the amount of government borrowing, the Resolution Foundation said.
In the last 15 years alone there's been a trebling of the ratio of debt to a measure of economic output, called gross domestic product (GDP), the foundation's Built to Last report said.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Shoplifting has hit a record high of 1,000 offences a day, an unprecedented 25 per cent increase in a year, official figures showed on Thursday.
Some 365,164 offences were recorded in the year to June 2023, up 24.6 per cent on the previous 12 months and higher even than the huge post-Covid jump of 24.4 per cent in 2021-22, according to the data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
However, the detection rate for shoplifters has fallen to a record low with just 18.2 per cent of offences being solved, less than half the 46 per cent when records began in 2016. The proportion of shoplifters charged has also collapsed in the same period, from 29.7 per cent to 14 per cent.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police have arrested more than 1,600 suspects across the country in a blitz on county lines drug dealers.
For a week investigators targeted city gangs who exploit vulnerable youngsters to distribute drugs in towns and villages.
Police said they had shut down 250 county lines - the mobile telephone links gangs use to order and deliver their drugs to more rural areas.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Food prices saw their first monthly fall in two years in September, but fuel prices rose sharply, official figures show.
It came as the overall rate of inflation held steady at 6.7%, ending a run of three consecutive monthly falls.
The price of milk, cheese and eggs all decreased, easing the pressure at supermarket tills, the Office for National Statistics said.
[ more...]
Justice
Prisoners are to be released early from a fifth of the prisons in England and Wales in an attempt to ease the overcrowding crisis. Ministry of Justice figures show nearly half of them are technically 100 per cent full with fewer than 10 spare places.
[ more...]
Justice
Victims are waiting up to a decade for court-ordered compensation from criminals, as outstanding fines and payments have hit a record £1.5 billion, official figures show.
Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data show that more than 50 per cent of the compensation that criminals have been ordered to pay their victims had not been handed over within 18 months and some victims had been waiting for more than 10 years.
The figure is even higher for the victims’ surcharge with 61 per cent unpaid after 18 months. The charge imposed on convicted criminals is paid into a central fund used to pay for victims’ services.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A team of horse riders have been recruited to help tackle crime in the countryside.
Four Rural Mounted Volunteers will work with Dorset Police while out on their regular rides along bridleways, lanes and country roads, reporting suspicious activity to the Rural Crime Team.
Horses will wear reflective material, with riders wearing high-visibility jackets reading Police Volunteer.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Concerns over the wellbeing of investigators – particularly those involved in sexual offence cases – has been raised in a number of reports and reviews, but recent efforts to focus on those issues has helped to significantly reduce the number of unfilled detective vacancies; ahead of next month’s Investigator Wellbeing Week of Action, Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to organiser Sarah-Jayne Bray about the aims of the event and the difference the renewed focus is making to officer and staff wellbeing.
[ more...]
Prisons
Increasing numbers of women are being jailed, despite a government pledge to cut the number of female prisoners, as a wider overcrowding crisis grips the sector.
Some 3,604 women were behind bars at the beginning of October this year – up 15 per cent since January which amounts to nearly 500 more women. And the most recent Ministry of Justice data estimates that the number will surge to 3,800 by November next year.
The Prison Reform Trust said it was concerned the figures showed a reverse of a more than decade-long trend which saw the number of women in prison fall substantially from 7,418 in 2014 to 4,120 in 2022.
[ more...]
Prisons
Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, has pledged to pursue Texas-style justice by sending fewer low-level offenders to prison and making them clean up graffiti and plant forests instead.
Writing in The Telegraph, he said the reform would end the “cycle of criminality” caused by a “merry-go-round of short sentences”.
However, the Government is also moving to head off claims that it is presiding over soft justice by tightening up rules to make sure rapists serve their sentences in full.
[ more...]
Justice
Police investigations into many crimes are taking much longer than they did seven years ago, according to data that lays bare the creaking justice system.
The average time taken to bring a case to charge or summons rose from just over two weeks in 2016 to six weeks this year, according to data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
The situation is much worse for sexual offences, excluding rape, with the investigation time rising from an average of 110 days to 247 days.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England has more “work to do” to ensure inflation is brought back under control, Threadneedle Street’s chief economist Huw Pill has said.
Raising the possibility of an increase in borrowing costs from the Bank, Pill said the fact that the headline measure of the cost of living was now falling was not enough to claim victory.
Speaking at an event in London, the Bank official – one of nine members of Threadneedle Street’s interest-rate-setting monetary policy committee – said persistent price pressures had to be met with a persistent response.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A senior Metropolitan Police officer says stop and search, when done poorly, has traumatised communities in London.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan said the force recognised it needed a "reset".
He added that the Met still believed the tactic was a "significant tool" in saving lives but that it could also reduce trust in the force.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy grew in August following a sharper fall in July as the education sector recovered from strike action, according to official figures.
The Office for National Statistics said the economy expanded by 0.2% in August, in line with forecasts.
Updated figures showed that July performed worse than originally thought.
But despite this, the ONS said overall the economy had grown "modestly" over the past three months.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Chants of “no justice, no peace” at the Metropolitan Police is nothing new to a force all too used to its tactics being challenged by protesters. But when the battle cry emanates from within its ranks, it exposes the internal turmoil roiling the UK’s largest police force as the Met’s senior leadership precariously balances public opinion with officer morale.
Triggering this latest ferment was a decision by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to charge an officer with murder for the shooting of Chris Kaba last year. Scores of armed police handed in their weapons in a show of solidarity for their colleague.
Downing their guns was itself cause for public concern, given what it said about the officers’ attitude towards the CPS and the Independent Office for Police Conduct, on whose evidence the charging decision had been made. Of more concern is the growing rift between the Met’s senior leadership and the officers on the front lines.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The chairman of the Police Federation has said that the investigation of every crime “is not working” after revealing that officers failed to take forensic evidence from his car after a recent break-in.
Steve Hartshorn, who leads the staff association representing 145,000 officers in England and Wales, hit back at a recent pledge made by police chiefs to follow all reasonable lines of inquiry.
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, told delegates at the Police Federation’s annual conference, held virtually this year, that while police must make “difficult” operational decisions, the public “expects more than a crime number”.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy returning to growth in August has fuelled expectations that interest rates will be left unchanged again next month.
The economy grew marginally by 0.2% in August following a sharp fall in July.
Analysts described the figures as "lacklustre" and said higher borrowing costs and the higher cost of living was weighing on consumers and businesses.
[ more...]
Prisons
Criminals facing short jail sentences will be spared prison under measures to be announced next week to combat the overcrowding crisis.
On Monday, Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, is expected to set out “reforms” that aim to slash the number of offenders sent to jail for less than six months or possibly less than 12 months.
Judges and magistrates will operate under a “presumption” that criminals such as thieves and shoplifters facing shorter jail terms should instead be handed “robust” community sentences designed to rehabilitate them. Anyone guilty of sexual or violent offences will be excluded from the scheme.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Addressing the National Black Police Association Conference, hosted by South Wales Police in Cardiff, Jeremy Vaughan acknowledged there were “people with racist attitudes” in the force.
“I have heard too many lived experiences of black and other ethnic minority officers to come to any other conclusion,” he said.
“Some racism is overt and blatant. Where we find out about it, I have been clear that our response should be swift and uncompromising.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Suella Braverman doubled down on her crackdown on “woke” policing as she called for officers to be “patrolling the streets, not policing pronouns”.
Addressing officers at the annual Police Federation of England and Wales Conference, the home secretary said she was fighting a “campaign against political correctness in policing”.
She said it was right that crimes should only be recorded when a criminal threshold has been reached, rather than when someone “claims to be offended”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
She promised the Labour Party would ensure police relentlessly pursue the most dangerous perpetrators who pose a risk to women and would require forces to use counter-terror style tactics to get repeat serious offenders off the streets and keep women safe.
In her keynote speech to the Labour Party Conference on Tuesday (October 10), Yvette Cooper said she was “sick and tired of women who face abuse and violence being failed – generation after generation”.
And she was “sick and tired of the most serious perpetrators getting away with it”.
[ more...]
Prisons
Convicted rapists and burglars will be temporarily spared jail from next week after judges were told that prisons are full.
Crown court judges have been ordered to delay sentencing hearings, The Times has learnt, as the prison population has reached bursting point.
Lord Justice Edis, the senior presiding judge for England and Wales, has ordered that sentencing of convicted criminals who are currently on bail should be delayed from Monday.
[ more...]
Police Demand
It means shops across the UK are losing a shocking £3.5m worth of stock each day to theft, representing a 25% rise on figures from 2022.
According to the Centre for Retail Research, which has compiled these statistics, industry figures have noted a "big jump" in the number of people stealing from their stores, driven by the cost of living crisis and organised gangs.
The group's director, Professor Joshua Bamfield, warned LBC that these factors teamed with a light police presence, have emboldened shoplifters: "These days a lot of people come in, fill up a big bag with stuff, make no attempt to pay, and then leave the store. They don’t expect to see the police, security or anything at all - and that’s new.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Only five of 467 local government bodies had audit opinions on their 2022-23 accounts published by the 30 September deadline, PSAA said.
The body, which procures audits on behalf of authorities, found the incomplete opinions from last year has more than doubled the number of outstanding accounts to 918.
Steve Freer, chair of the PSAA, said: “It is now very clear that an extraordinary intervention of some sort is urgently required to put the system back on track.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Manufacturers have urged Jeremy Hunt to do away with the autumn statement, insisting that the constant “flip-flopping” on policy is holding back investment and is making the UK “uncompetitive”.
The chancellor gives two fiscal statements a year, the budget in the spring with a second statement in the autumn, which is an update on how things are going. However, Make UK, which calls itself the “voice of UK manufacturing”, has urged Hunt to return to a single annual fiscal statement.
It blamed “frequent changes to policies”, especially around investment and research and development incentives, for having “significantly hampered businesses’ investment plans”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Knife-crime ‘‘ASBOs’’ being trialled in the capital are disproportionately affecting young Black men and boys, new figures reveal, as experts call for the “highly discriminatory” scheme to be scrapped.
Court orders preventing individuals as young as 12 from carrying knives, known as Knife Crime Prevention Orders (KCPOs), were first introduced in London in a Metropolitan Police pilot scheme in 2021, with plans for a nationwide rollout in the future.
The orders can be handed to anyone police believe may be carrying knives and can include conditions such as curfews, restrictions on travel to certain areas and curbs on social media use – as well as requirements to attend educational courses or counselling.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Hotspot policing to counter anti-social behaviour is to be rolled out to all 43 police forces in England and Wales by next April after it was found to reduce crime by more than a fifth.
The tactic – where officers are targeted on locations plagued by anti-social behaviour – has been trialled in 10 police forces, and has cut not only incidents of such behaviour by up to a half but also reduced overall crime by as much as 24 per cent.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Rob Whiteman has today announced his plans to retire in June 2024, stepping down from the role of CIPFA CEO that he has held for the past decade.
Under his leadership, the organisation has gone through significant transformation and tackled many initial challenges. It has seen strong growth in its international student numbers and advisory services while continuing to grow and support its UK membership, establishing itself as the leading global voice of sound public financial management.
Most recently, Whiteman announced an exciting new partnership with ICAEW, culminating in both Institutes signing a joint declaration to work closely together including an accelerated route for students to gain CPFA and ACA designations and dual membership.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Chris Philp has urged members of the public to step in when they see thieves shoplifting by making citizen’s arrests.
He also called on retailers to instruct their security guards to intervene when it is safe to do so.
Speaking at a fringe event hosted by the Policy Exchange think tank at the Tory Party conference, Mr Philp said: “The wider public do have the power of citizen’s arrest and, where it’s safe to do so, I would encourage that to be used because if you do just let people walk in, take stuff and walk out without proper challenge, including potentially a physical challenge, then again it will just escalate.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A police force is urging retailers to keep reporting shoplifters and has pledged to tackle an upsurge in the crime before Christmas.
Wiltshire's Police and Crime Commissioner said he has listened to shop-workers across the county and that "there is obviously a huge problem."
Roger Shakles runs Sewcraft, a sewing shop in Swindon, and said thieves were operating "in broad daylight".
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Public safety could be put at risk as "thousands" of armed police around the country are preparing to hand in their guns if the officer accused of murdering Chris Kaba is named by a judge.
This is according to police officers from three forces who have spoken to Sky News ahead of the Old Bailey hearing on Wednesday.
A serving Metropolitan Police firearms officer was charged last month with the murder of Mr Kaba, 24, who was shot by armed police in south London in September last year.
[ more...]
Prisons
Foreign prison places are to be rented for offenders by the Government to help tackle the overcrowding crisis in British jails.
Alex Chalk, the Justice Secretary, announced on Tuesday that he will change the law to enable prisoners from UK jails to be transferred abroad to serve their time in rented cells overseas.
The move comes amid fears that Britain could run out of prison capacity in the face of an increase of up to 20,000 inmates by 2027, taking the total to 106,000.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A specialist national police team will be set up to target shoplifting as a “high-harm” cross-border crime on a par with fraud, robbery and burglary.
The team of intelligence investigators will aim to identify and target organised crime gangs which are blamed for a surge in shoplifting which has increased by an unprecedented 37 per cent in a year.
Police forces across the UK and retailers will pool their intelligence to enable the team to map the gangs which target everything from jewellery to meat which they have been known to re-sell back to the supermarkets.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A surge in knife crime and pupil violence has followed the Covid lockdowns, a former children’s commissioner has said.
Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner for England during the pandemic, told The Telegraph the rise in violence was a “huge danger sign” ahead of her evidence session at the Covid Inquiry on Friday.
Speaking after the murder of 15-year-old Elianne Andam, who was stabbed on her way to school in Croydon, south London, last week, Ms Longfield said: “All of those that work with young people who are in areas of high violence say that the incidents that they see, they used to see once every three months or once every six months, now happen every two or three weeks and they are much more extreme.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
As a former Metropolitan Police marksman, I know what it is like to use lethal force. I know the burden of the split-second decision that can save or end lives. In 2005, when I shot and killed a suspected armed robber and drug dealer, Azelle Rodney, my life was in limbo for ten years, before I stood trial for murder and was eventually acquitted.
Despite the hardships, I’ve always said I would go back and do it all again. I have no regrets. I am proud of the work that my colleagues and I did: proud of the lives that we saved. However, I do fear for the future.
[ more...]
Prisons
Drunken cell parties, fights, stabbings, prison guards with faulty equipment out of their depth.
Welcome to HMP Five Wells in Northamptonshire, where staff Sky News has spoken to claim all these events have taken place, and one guard told us assaults on staff are "a daily event".
Three prison guards have blown the whistle on life inside the state-of-the-art super prison run by security firm G4S. They say they are short-staffed, there are too many inexperienced staff, they are under-equipped and there is a culture that is allowing prisoners to run riot.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A persistent shoplifter has said the police need to do more to stop people like her stealing from businesses.
She said shoplifting was easy, and even the clothes she had on were stolen.
BBC News has spoken to shopkeepers blighted by shoplifting - as well as those who are committing crimes.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Almost 90 retail leaders, including the bosses of Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Boots and WH Smith, have written to the government demanding action on rising retail crime, in which violent criminals are “emptying stores”.
The retailers, who also include the bosses of Aldi, Primark and Superdrug, call for the creation of a new UK-wide aggravated offence of assaulting or abusing a retail worker – as already exists in Scotland – which would carry tougher sentences and require police to record all incidents of retail crime and allow the allocation of more resources.
“The police consistently tell us that a lack of data about these offences means they have no visibility about the nature or scale of the issue,” the letter says.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Recruits say they are relocating thousands of miles away after Chris Kaba scandal because colleagues are ‘thrown under bus’
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The UK's first official consumption room for illegal drugs including heroin and cocaine has been approved by authorities in Glasgow.
The facility is backed by the Scottish government as a way to tackle the country's drugs deaths crisis.
The pilot scheme will be based at a health centre in the east end of Glasgow.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Crown Prosecution Service decided not to pursue charges against an undercover police officer who deceived a woman into a 19-year relationship without even hearing evidence from the victim in the case.
The CPS, which says its fundamental role is to support victims and protect the public, was informed in 2014 that an undercover officer at Avon and Somerset police had used his undercover identity to deceive the woman, who was innocent of any crime, into a long-term relationship.
[ more...]
Technology
Information Commissioner John Edwards has issued an advisory notice to all public authorities calling for an immediate end to the use of original source excel spreadsheets when responding publicly to Freedom of Information (FoI) requests.
He says alternative approaches should be used to mitigate risk to personal information.
The notice follows a number of recent high-profile personal data breaches at police forces in which personal information was included in spreadsheets that were shared as part of a FoI response.
The Police Service Northern Ireland inadvertently published the personal details of all its officers and staff on the internet when responding to a FoI request for the number of officers at each rank and number of staff at each grade.
[ more...]
Technology
Police officers are misusing body-worn cameras by switching them off when physical force is used, deleting footage and sharing videos on WhatsApp with friends or colleagues, an investigation has found.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) describes body-worn cameras as a means of gathering evidence, ensuring police accountability and safeguarding both officers and members of the public.
However, a BBC investigation has found more than 150 reports of camera misuse in England and Wales, with cases to answer over misconduct, recommendations for learning or where complaints were upheld.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The suspect was standing on the crest of the hill, armed with a handgun, waiting. He had fled after a carjacking on the A38 near Exeter.
“You can get out now,” the hijacker had told the driver, making his meaning clear by pointing a gun right at him.
The incident was reported and I was dispatched with a colleague to track the suspect down and bring him in. As an armed response sergeant with Devon & Cornwall Police, I was trained to know what to do in these and a thousand other situations.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The head of Scotland Yard has said anxiety led scores of firearms officers to refuse to carry their weapons after a colleague was charged with murder, with “significantly less than normal” armed police still on London’s streets.
Sir Mark Rowley said his force could provide credible firearms cover, but the continuing refusal to carry weapons by some meant “difficult choices” remained.
On Monday the Metropolitan police said some had started to return to their normal duties. The downing of weapons followed the charging of a firearms officer with the murder of Chris Kaba, who was unarmed when shot dead last September in south London.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Suella Braverman has ordered a review of armed policing after dozens of Metropolitan police officers stepped back from firearms duties after an officer was charged with murder over a shooting.
The home secretary said firearms officers have to make “split-second decisions” and “mustn’t fear ending up in the dock for carrying out their duties”.
The review follows reports that more than 70 police marksmen said they want time to consider whether or not they wish to still carry a gun given their colleague is facing a murder charge.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Ministry of Defence has placed the army on standby to support the Metropolitan Police after armed officers handed in their weapons.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has launched a review after a growing number of Scotland Yard officers turned in their firearms following a force marksman being charged with the murder of Chris Kaba.
The MoD confirmed it will now assist the police with specific tasks when needed after the Met requested military support for counter-terrorism duties.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Heartless shoplifters have stolen more than £15million of stock from charity shops in the past year, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The shocking figure comes from an exclusive poll of UK charities, which found that 80 per cent had seen an astonishing increase in thefts of items that had been kindly donated by the public.
More than half of those polled said they had witnessed an increase in abuse of staff and volunteers in the past 12 months.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A ban on laughing gas could leave young users at greater risk as they turn to more dangerous counterfeit markets, drug experts have warned.
Nitrous oxide, which is due to be banned by the end of this year and reclassified as an illegal class C substance, has become increasingly popular for recreational use among young adults and children since the pandemic.
A new law passed last week in parliament carries a sentence of up to two years in prison or an unlimited fine for the unlawful possession of whippits, the small silver canisters in which the substance is often supplied. The use of nitrous oxide will still be legal for medical reasons, as well as commercial purposes.
[ more...]
Technology
Meta has publicly announced plans to roll out end-to-end encryption on its Instagram and Facebook Messenger apps “imminently”, which Ms Braverman says will put children across the UK at risk of being targeted and groomed online by predators.
Currently, 800 predators a month are arrested by UK law enforcement agencies and up to 1,200 children are safeguarded from child sexual abuse following information provided by social media companies.
The Home Secretary has warned that if Meta proceeds with its plans, it will “no longer be able to detect child abuse on its platforms as they currently do”, and the National Crime Agency (NCA) estimates 92 per cent of Facebook Messenger and 85 per cent of Instagram Direct referrals could be lost – meaning thousands of criminals a year could go undetected.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The boss of the Co-op grocery chain has called on the police to take shoplifting more seriously and says he is frustrated by a lack of action against thieves who cost the business £33m in the first half of 2023.
Matt Hood, the chain’s managing director, said shoplifting was becoming a major issue for UK communities and cited a rise in what he called “shop looting”, where large amounts are stolen by organised gangs.
The Co-op has seen crime, shoplifting and antisocial behaviour jump 35% year-on-year, with more than 175,000 incidents recorded in the first six months of this year – or almost 1,000 incidents every day.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Government borrowing was higher than economists had expected in August, new official figures show.
Borrowing - the difference between spending and tax income - rose to £11.6bn last month, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
That was £3.5bn more than a year earlier and the fourth highest August borrowing since monthly records began in 1993.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The largest ever study of care experience and the youth justice system in England has revealed that children who have lived in care are eight times more likely to have received a youth justice caution or conviction than those who have not.
Using data collated by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and the Department for Education, the study monitored the experiences of almost 2.3 million children born in England between 1996 and 1999. Their data was recorded between the ages of 10 – the minimum age of criminal responsibility in England – and 17.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of specialist police officers who tackle rural crimes like farm equipment theft and hare coursing is set to double, it has been announced.
It comes as Gloucestershire Police highlights rural crime and the measures it is taking to tackle it, during a week of action.
The force said rural crime was a "substantial concern for many communities” and cost the UK nearly £50m last year.
Gloucestershire Police and Crime Commissioner, Chris Nelson, said he has now funded "a doubling in the size" of the Gloucestershire Rural Crime Team.
[ more...]
Police Finances
CIPFA’s chief executive has issued urgent guidance regarding protocol around issuing a section 114 notice, “given the many complex local discussions taking place”.
In a written statement on LinkedIn, Rob Whiteman reiterated previous guidance that it is “reasonable” to not issue a notice whilst an authority is having ongoing discussions with the government “to remedy the proximity to an unbalanced budget by additional support, for example, a capitalisation direction”.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Police need the right resources to the job and be treated fairly, according to the leader of frontline officers.
In an exclusive interview with Public Finance, Police Federation chair Steve Hartshorn warned his officers were using warn-out patrol cars and out-dated technology while also being set an overly high bar for professional standards.
He challenged both the government and forces over ‘huge’ future costs, revealed officers are working as jailers and flagged fresh concern over data breaches.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of specialist police officers who tackle rural crimes like farm equipment theft and hare coursing is set to double, it has been announced.
It comes as Gloucestershire Police highlights rural crime and the measures it is taking to tackle it, during a week of action.
The force said rural crime was a "substantial concern for many communities” and cost the UK nearly £50m last year.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Ten police stations will be reopening to the public across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight over the next 18 months.
The £2m scheme is part of the Police and Crime Commissioner’s commitment to drive up police visibility and make police accessible to the public.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
In August, core inflation was 6.2 per cent in the 12 months to August 2023, down from 6.9 per cent in July. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said UK inflation would average 7.2 per cent in 2023. It said this would be the highest rate in the G7 group of major economies.
[ more...]
Technology
Meta’s plans to encrypt users’ private messages will mean 90 per cent fewer paedophiles are caught on its social media sites, the National Crime Agency has warned.
Suella Braverman called on boss Mark Zuckerberg to overhaul proposals to introduce end-to-end encryption for messages between users, meaning they cannot be seen by Facebook or Instagram.
At the moment the companies can access such exchanges and use advanced software to scan for evidence of illegal content being shared, but encryption would stop this access.
[ more...]
Technology
APCC lead for Business and Retail Crime, Sussex PCC Katy Bourne OBE responds to the open letter from the Association of Convenience Stores.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Shop workers have called on police officers to do more to help combat ‘unprecedented levels’ of theft and abuse which they say is blighting communities.
The coalition of businesses and staff claims they are not turning up to deal with violent attacks on workers because the criminal has already fled the scene.
In a letter to police and crime commissioners across the country, they said that ‘in the vast majority, if not all’ cases there will be CCTV footage available and urged forces to make it easier for them to pass on crucial evidence and boost efforts to find serial offenders.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
As we're just hearing, UK interest rates have been left unchanged at 5.25% by the Bank of England.
The decision comes a day after figures revealed an unexpected slowdown in UK price rises in August.
The Bank had previously raised rates 14 times in a row to tame inflation, leading to increases in mortgage payments but also higher savings rates.
However, the latest move raises the prospect that this cycle of rate increases may have peaked.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
More than 1,000 Metropolitan Police officers are currently suspended or on restricted duties, the force has said, as it tries to root out rogue officers. The Met's Stuart Cundy said the number of affected officers was almost the size of a small police force, with one in 34 suspended or restricted.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
At the annual conference of the association, taking place from the 11th to 13th September, Chief Superintendent Fotheringham will deliver his presidential address and will state that whilst he believes policing needs ‘fixing’, it must also be celebrated and calls for the government and others to ‘get back behind policing’.
The annual address will be delivered to Chris Philp MP, Minister for Fire and Policing, who will not be attending the conference in person but will instead provide a live virtual input.
Mr Fotheringham will focus on the fantastic work delivered by police officers and staff every day, citing the recent winners of the Police Bravery Awards, the recipients of the PSA President’s Awards which are presented on Tuesday evening, and the superintendents leading critical, complex investigations.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Mr Pritchard said he was “proud” to have been given the opportunity to help lead the force.
It follows the appointment of Melanie Dales as chief constable in May.
She said: “I am delighted that Kier will be joining us as deputy chief constable. His breadth of senior leadership experience in policing will help strengthen the force as we continue to build our capability to serve defence, improve our culture, and evolve to face new challenges.
“We are all very much looking forward to welcoming Kier to the force and working with him in his new role.”
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government recently proposed auditors provide as much assurance as possible on previous accounts, some of which date back to 2015-16, but limit their opinions in certain circumstances to clear the current backlog of 520 accounts in time for new statutory deadlines.
Sarah Healey, permanent secretary at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said the intervention is necessary to allow for a “system reset”.
Writing to Public Accounts Committee chair Meg Hillier, she said proposals could lead to more qualified opinions and disclaimers of opinions on accounts, indicating auditors lack confidence in a particular aspect of the accounts or are unable to give an opinion at all due to insufficient information.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The chief inspector for Scottish prisons has warned the number of people in custody is projected to soar in the next year.
Wendy Sinclair-Gieben said inmate numbers had fallen during the Covid pandemic - but were on the rise again.
In her annual report she said they were likely to go above 8,000 over the coming year.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Merseyside Police has "significant funding challenges ahead" and will need to make further cuts, the region's police and crime commissioner has said.
In a report, Labour's Emily Spurrell said she had approved £2.9m of cuts for 2023/24, but the force would need to save a further £15.3m by 2027/28.
She said Merseyside Police made cuts of about £3m in the last financial year and was "desperately underfunded".
The Home Office said it had pledged an extra £13.6m to the force this year.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Many councils use reserves to fund capital spending to avoid the need for additional borrowing.
However, Michael Hudson, executive director of finance and resources at Cambridgeshire County Council, said the use of reserves to meet revenue budget pressures has restricted many authorities from doing this.
He told PF that as a result, authorities will be forced to borrow externally, which puts further pressure on finances, given interest rates are at their highest level in more than a decade.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Ten of Britain's top retailers have agreed to fund a police crackdown on shoplifting gangs - by paying cops to scan faces of thieves using CCTV.
High street giants including John Lewis, Co-op, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Next are among those reportedly pumping £600,000 into the operation, dubbed Project Pegasus.
In return, police forces will run CCTV images of suspected shoplifters through the national database, which includes the latest facial recognition technology.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Sir Mark Rowley has criticised the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) claiming police officers are treated differently to members of the public when deciding whether to charge them with criminal offences.
The Met commissioner said “dispiriting and unfair” oversight of officers made them more hesitant when doing their jobs and was undermining their ability to confront dangerous criminals.
In a speech at the Policy Exchange in central London, Sir Mark said prosecutors and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) were too eager to take action against officers accused of dangerous driving when pursuing suspects, and he urged them to allow the police to get on with the job of policing.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The Commissioner, giving evidence to the London Assembly Police and Crime Committee, said recruitment has been challenging and his biggest concern now is that he’s losing more officers than he’s bringing in.
In April, the force was 1,000 short of its recruitment target of bringing in 10,000 new officers as part of the government’s uplift programme.
But Sir Mark hit out at the Home Office for not allowing him to have access to the money they hadn’t used as part of that.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Overwhelmingly, the people behind this aren’t stealing to survive; they’re members of highly organised gangs – and staff are terrified
[ more...]
Technology
A Met Police data breach that saw the names and ranks of staff released has put officers at risk and made many “very nervous”, the police commissioner said.
Sir Mark Rowley said it was “deeply concerning” that the personal data of a “majority of people” at the organisation was leaked, with 47,000 Met employees told about the potential exposure of their photographs and details.
Sir Mark said: “It is deeply concerning. There was data to do with security passes and personal data relating to the majority of people at the organisation, which was breached.
“In most cases, the data breach won’t create extra risk, but in some cases, it definitely will do.”
[ more...]
Police Finances
Ministers cannot ignore the “huge costs” facing police forces amid a new crackdown on crime, the head of the Police Federation of England and Wales has said.
Steve Hartshorn has challenged the government’s insistence that forces have enough resources to investigate all “reasonable lines of inquiry”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
‘We don’t need police’: the New Forest village taking the law into its own hands
At the village with the most unsolved burglaries in the UK, shopkeepers are turning to vigilante-style tactics
Mark Townsend
@townsendmark
Sat 2 Sep 2023 13.36 BST
Within the genteel New Forest village of Lyndhurst, it was considered a crime of almost outrageous audacity.
On a busy Saturday afternoon in February, two vividly painted Moorcroft pottery charger plates were stolen in plain sight from the middle of the venerable antique store.
Yet it was the response from the owner of the Lyndhurst Antiques Centre that has, over time, become more notable.
Desperate for justice, Janine Stone didn’t turn to the police. Instead, the shopkeeper took matters into her own hands. A Facebook campaign demanding the pottery’s whereabouts – combined worth £750 – gained traction. Two days later, the plates were returned.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police officers guilty of gross misconduct in England and Wales will now face automatic sackings. The change follows high-profile cases of officers committing rape and murder. Under the new system, chief constables or their deputies will chair misconduct panels hearing serious allegations against officers.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Funding allocations for 3 Home Office funded programmes:
- Violence Reduction Units
- the ‘Grip’ serious violence policing programme
- the Serious Violence Duty
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy made a stronger recovery during Covid at the end of 2021 than previously estimated, according to sharply revised official figures.
Data has now revealed that the economy was 0.6% bigger in the final three months of 2021 compared to pre-pandemic levels. The previous figures said that the UK economy was 1.2% smaller.
The Office for National Statistics said changes were mainly because it had "richer data" from its annual survey.
[ more...]
Prisons
Inspectors have called for the high-security jail HMP Woodhill to be put into emergency measures amid attacks on officers and "chronic" staff shortages.
The prison, in Milton Keynes, was deemed to be "fundamentally unsafe" following an inspection in August.
Charlie Taylor, the chief inspector of prisons, has contacted Justice Secretary Alex Chalk to issue an urgent notification for improvement.
The prisons minister said there was an "urgent need for improvement".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are failing to solve more than 90 per cent of crime, the highest on record, according to official figures.
The Home Office data show that the proportion of recorded crimes remaining unsolved by police has increased from 74.8 per cent in 2015 when officials started compiling the figures to 90.2 per cent in the year to March 2023.
The analysis of official figures, by the Labour party, also revealed that more than 6,000 criminals a day were getting away with offences as police failed to identify any suspects in the crimes.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Domestic abusers will be forced to wear electronic tags on leaving prison or risk being sent back to detention under a pilot scheme launched by the government to protect victims.
Up to 500 people will be made to wear the devices, which can monitor their whereabouts, enforce a curfew and ban them from going within a certain distance of a victim's home.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police will be automatically sacked if they are found guilty of gross misconduct or a criminal offence, under measures aimed at purging hundreds of officers who are unfit to serve.
Chief constables are also being given greater powers of dismissal and anyone who fails vetting faces being sacked immediately under the “zero-tolerance” reforms.
Chris Philp, the policing minister, told The Times that rogue officers had “nowhere to hide” under the changes, being brought in after failings were exposed by the cases of the predatory officers Wayne Couzens and David Carrick.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Black people applying to police forces across England and Wales under a government recruitment drive had a significantly higher rejection rate than white counterparts, a new investigation has revealed.
An investigation by the Media Storm podcast acquired the data through freedom of information responses from 32 out of 43 police forces in England and Wales. In total, they reflect 181,175 applicants.
In 2019, the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, pledged to recruit 20,000 more police officers and in April this year Rishi Sunak announced the target had been hit.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The tightening of laws preventing the use of the so-called zombie knives will make a "big difference" to police, the prime minister has said.
Rishi Sunak believes giving officers more powers to seize and destroy such weapons with no practical use will make their jobs easier.
Zombie knives were first added to the government's list of prohibited offensive weapons in 2016.
Labour said a loophole allowing the sale of the knives online still exists.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police must investigate every theft and follow all reasonable leads to catch offenders, the home secretary has said.
Suella Braverman said it was "completely unacceptable" that criminals are often "effectively free to break certain laws".
She wants officers to use evidence from smart doorbells and dashcams to solve more lower-level crimes.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A Conservative councillor was arrested for an alleged hate crime after re-tweeting a video criticising how the police treated a Christian street preacher.
Cllr Anthony Stevens, 50, from Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, told The Telegraph he was arrested at his home this month and escorted to a police station for questioning about tweets from his personal account, which has 76 followers.
One tweet involved a video showing how police had treated the arrest of Christian preacher Oluwole Ilisanmi in Southgate, London, in 2019.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers guilty of gross misconduct in England and Wales will face automatic sackings, the government has announced.
The change follows high-profile cases of officers committing rape and murder.
The Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, called the changes "a return to kangaroo courts".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The proposed ban of nitrous oxide could stop users seeking medical help in hospitals, health experts have warned.
In a letter to the government, seen by BBC Newsnight, 15 neurologists and related health experts say possession of the drug should not be criminalised.
Despite rising numbers of hospital patients suffering the effects of so-called laughing gas, they warn the ban could worsen the stigma around users.
The government has responded, saying it plans to go ahead with the ban.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police chiefs have warned the home secretary they must have "operational independence" when deciding how to respond to crime.
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) was responding to Suella Braverman's announcement that police forces in England and Wales must investigate every theft as part of a crackdown on crime.
The home secretary said it was "unacceptable" that crimes such as shoplifting, criminal damage and phone or car theft have been treated as "less important".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Whether it’s a break-in at your home, the theft of a car or a mugging – the criminals who are responsible should be hunted down and brought to justice. They must have no place to hide.
Victims of these awful crimes are failed when police simply don’t take an interest in following reasonable leads – instead just handing out a crime reference number. It’s completely unacceptable.
Crime, on a like-for-like basis, has fallen by over 50 per cent since 2010, including neighbourhood crimes like burglary, robbery and vehicle theft. There are so many examples of great work from police officers, but they must go further in pursuing all levels of criminals – and not just the big-time gangsters and drug dealers.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police chiefs will have more powers to sack officers found guilty of wrongdoing under Government plans to reform the disciplinary system, it has been reported.
Proposals drawn up by policing minister Chris Philp will be unveiled this week as part of a “crime week” of policy announcements planned by Downing Street, according to The Telegraph.
Ministers hope the change will help rebuild public trust in the police which has been damaged by a series of scandals including the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer and ex-Pc David Carrick being unmasked as a serial abuser and rapist.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
One in eight posts for police officers in England and Wales specialising in rape and serious sexual offences (Rasso) remain unfilled, figures obtained by the Guardian suggest.
The gaps in staffing come amid continuing concern over Rasso prosecution and conviction rates. There were 70,633 rapes recorded by police in the year to September last year but only 459 convictions in the 2022 calendar year.
The Guardian sent freedom of information requests to all 43 police forces in England and Wales asking them how many vacancies they had for specialist Rasso officers on 1 June. From the 23 usable responses, the proportion of unfilled posts ranged from zero to two in five.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The UK economy is on course to shrink between July and September and could tip into recession, a closely-watched survey suggests.
The S&P Global/CIPS UK Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) found that rising interest rates and weaker household spending led to a sharp drop in demand for goods and services in August.
The index looks at key economic measures such as orders and employment.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Inside a menswear boutique in an affluent west London neighbourhood, shoppers admire madras shirts and slim-cut jeans under the watchful gaze of the manager.
LA Menswear, just off Chiswick High Road, is one of several businesses that have been targeted by thieves in recent weeks. Independent stores and chain brands have been hit by a wave of pickpocketing, burglary and shoplifters.
Whistles, the women’s contemporary fashion brand, recently posted a sign in its window alerting customers that it was open but “operating a locked door policy”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Almost one in every two letters the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) sends to people who have made complaints – including victims of crime – are not good enough, with many containing incorrect basic details or spelling mistakes, or lacking information about delays, according to a damning official report.
The watchdog for the CPS has urged the organisation to “act urgently to get a grip of this situation”, warning that mistakes undermine public confidence.
While some improvements have been made, the report states that overall, “the quality of letters has deteriorated” since the inspectorate last examined complaints in 2018. An inspection of 351 written responses from the CPS to complainants, about two-thirds of whom were victims of crime, found that only 66 were considered to be of “good quality”, about a third (32%) were “adequate”, while 49% did not meet the required standard.
[ more...]
Technology
South Yorkshire Police has apologised for losing data such as bodycam footage which could affect dozens of cases.
The force said it had referred itself to the Information Commissioner's Office following a "significant" and "unexplained reduction" in data.
This includes bodycam footage recorded by officers between July 2020 and May 2023. The force estimates around 69 cases could be affected.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Another two forces are investigating data breaches that led to sensitive information about officers being published on the internet.
In a joint statement, police services for Norfolk and Suffolk confirmed details of 1,230 officers had been put out in response to a Freedom of Information request on crime statistics.
A technical issue has led to some raw data belonging to the constabularies being included within the files produced in response to FOI requests.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The administrators of a PFI police station are locked in a battle with the force that owns it.
In the latest stage of an expensive saga, Kent Police has told Alix Partners it wants to terminate the deal for the management of its North Kent hub station – a contract worth £5.5m a year.
The force wants to end the deal 13 years early, arguing key elements of the contract have not been met. It has now begun negotiation with Alix and the Home Office.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The Metropolitan police has won its battle to stop attending most of the mental health calls it receives after a tense behind-the-scenes row with the health service, the Guardian has learned.
From 31 October the Met will start implementing a scheme that aims to stop officers being diverted from crime fighting to do work health staff are better trained for.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Better data over the use of restraints on young innocent people in care is needed to help bring an end to the "brutal handcuffing of vulnerable children", a cross-party group of MPs and peers has said.
In a letter to children's minister Claire Coutinho, the signatories said they are concerned at what they call the "worrying prevalence" of vulnerable children being restrained and handcuffed unnecessarily by secure transportation providers.
They wrote that there have been instances of "innocent children outside the custodial system" being restrained during transport, but organisers from the Hope Instead Of Handcuffs campaign said the exact number of such instances is not known due to a lack of data.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Councils are frequently failing to use their powers to crack down on anti-social behaviour, a watchdog has found.
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman criticised the failure of local authorities to act, saying incidents are too often left unchecked despite officers having "compelling evidence to justify taking enforcement action".
Cases include a person complaining about a neighbour's house party which lasted more than 13 hours.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Specialised free-standing cameras, which catch motorists illegally using their mobile phones, are being deployed in the UK for the first time.
They caught nearly 300 drivers breaking the law within three days of being introduced on the A30 near Launceston, Cornwall.
Previous trials have seen similar software mounted on vehicles or inside speed cameras.
[ more...]
Technology
A total of 1,230 people, including victims of crime and witnesses, have had their data breached by Norfolk and Suffolk police forces.
The constabularies said the personal information was included in Freedom of Information (FOI) responses due to a "technical issue".
They said the data was hidden from anyone opening the files but should not have been included.
It included descriptions of offences including sexual and domestic assaults.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Scams on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp are the source of more than one million cases of fraud every year, shocking figures reveal.
A Money Mail investigation has found that an estimated 16 per cent of all crimes recorded by the police in 2022 originated on platforms owned by social media giant Meta – more than double the number of robberies, burglaries, homicides and knife crimes combined.
That means every day, an average of 3,000 people fall victim to a scam that can be traced back to one of these platforms.
[ more...]
Police Demand
It was a man trying to break into her home that turned Jessica Randle into a leading advocate for video doorbells.
Ms Randle had been napping in her living room in Phoenix, Arizona, when she heard a slight noise from outside that she chose to ignore.
Later, when she reviewed the automatic recording from the video doorbell on her phone she discovered that a burglar had tried to open her front door. He then walked off, most likely after seeing the camera.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Chief constables should not be “judge and jury” in officer disciplinary cases, the watchdog has claimed in a rebuff of Sir Mark Rowley’s calls for more power.
The Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) said that lawyers should still oversee gross misconduct hearings because of the previous failures of senior officers to address wrongdoing and root out predators.
Rowley, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, wrote in The Times last week that government inaction was hampering his reform agenda at Britain’s biggest police force, where he has promised to overhaul standards. Rowley, who took charge in September, has vowed to rid the Met of rogue officers after a series of scandals including the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving policeman in 2021.
[ more...]
Police Finances
If accepted, the increase proposed by the police staff employers would take effect from September 1 this year.
It means the hourly rate for the lowest paid police staff would rise from £10.62 to £11.46 an hour. That is an increase of £1,446 a year and would see the lowest annual salaries rise from £20,655 to £22,101, said Unison.
In addition, the police staff employers – the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and the Home Office – are offering a seven per cent rise on payments to employees who are asked to be available for work outside their normal hours.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
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Sir Mark Rowley was accused yesterday of a “disgraceful” slur against the independent lawyers who oversee police disciplinary cases after he said they were fundamentally soft.
John Bassett, a barrister representing the National Association of Legally Qualified Chairs (LQC), who oversee most gross misconduct cases, said that the Metropolitan Police commissioner had impugned their reputation and “undermined the independence of the process”.
The Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents rank-and-file officers, also hit back over Rowley’s calls for government to push through legislation that would give dismissal powers back to chief constables.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The spending power of workers in some parts of the UK will still be below the level it was before the pandemic by the end of 2024, a think tank has warned.
Pay, after accounting for rising prices, is set to fall between 2019 and 2024 in regions like the West Midlands and East of England, said Niesr.
By contrast, it said London and parts of the South were "steaming ahead".
[ more...]
Justice
Labour is setting up an expert commission tasked with drawing up reforms to increase the number of crimes solved.
The Charging Commission will propose ways to help police and prosecutors bring more criminals to justice.
Home Office data show 2.4 million cases were dropped over evidential difficulties in the year ending March 2023.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK is set for five years of "lost economic growth", with the poorest hit hardest, a think tank has warned.
The National Institute for Economic and Social Research said a triple blow of Brexit, Covid and Russia's invasion of Ukraine had badly affected the economy.
It added that the spending power of workers in many parts of the UK will remain below pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2024.
The BBC has contacted the Treasury for comment.
[ more...]
Justice
Almost half of the crimes solved by police result in no charge against the offender, an analysis by The Telegraph has found.
Home Office figures show that the proportion of solved crimes that result in a charge have fallen from 63.7 per cent in 2015/16 – when the data were first recorded – to 51.8 per cent in 2022/23.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Donna Jones, the new chairwoman of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, believes those who block roads and target sporting events need to be remanded in custody until they go on trial, or are sentenced, because the public “have had enough” of their antics.
She also revealed that some drink-drivers are being allowed to stay on the roads for up to six months before they were banned because of a continuing backlog in hearings at magistrates’ courts caused by the pandemic.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Staff at a hotel for asylum seekers obstructed a police investigation into a report that a man masturbated in front of a seven-year-old child, the BBC has been told.
Officers were blocked from entering the east London hotel and staff delayed providing CCTV - which was later automatically deleted, it is claimed.
The provider - Clearsprings - says it has robust safeguarding processes.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England has signalled that interest rates could remain above 5pc until 2026 in a move that will sharply raise costs for more than four million mortgage holders.
Policymakers voted 6-3 to raise interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to a 15-year high of 5.25pc as it admitted that higher wages and prices are becoming embedded in the economy.
Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, said it was vital that officials “make absolutely sure” that inflation fell “all the way back to the 2pc target”.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Allegations that a senior Metropolitan Police officer who wrote the force's anti-drugs strategy took LSD and magic mushrooms have been dismissed by a tribunal panel.
Cdr Julian Bennett is also accused of regularly smoking cannabis before work, which is still before the tribunal.
The officer is facing a gross misconduct hearing and denies three allegations of discreditable conduct.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are shocked at the increasing “ferocity” of murders in London, a senior officer has said, amid fears young killers are being desensitised by violent films, music, television and video games.
Detective Chief Superintendent Neil Cochlin, the Metropolitan Police’s lead on homicide, said a trend of unnecessary brutality had been building in recent years, with most of the 65 homicides in the capital this year committed with knives, including large “hunting” weapons and models designed for lethality.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A former special constabulary sergeant accessed police intelligence systems for non-policing purposes, a panel has heard.
Ben Humphrey served with Devon and Cornwall Police and had his case heard by a misconduct hearing panel in July.
It found him culpable of gross misconduct and concluded he would have been dismissed, if still serving.
The panel also said Mr Humphrey had not informed the police of a previous county court judgement against him.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The number of people missing payments on essential household bills such as energy, phone and water is as high as it was over the winter, according to consumer group Which?. Even though prices have fallen back slightly, about 2.4 million households missed at least one bill payment in the month to mid-July and 770,000 failed to make mortgage or rent payments, according to its monthly online poll.
[ more...]
Prisons
More than 1,000 criminals could avoid prison this year due to a lack of places, the Labour Party has warned. According to the Government's own projections, the prison population is set to grow to 89,100 by this November, but there are only 87,573 operational prison places left - creating a shortage of 1,527 places
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
In the fourth of a new series of The Police Student focusing on Criminology in Policing, Policing Insight Academic Editor Dr Carina O’Reilly explores psychological theories for explaining crime – including the differences between cognitive and behavioural theories, the importance of cognitive learning and social learning theories, and how evaluating these and other theories can make you a better police officer and happier human!
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Picture: Federation of Independent Retailers
Latest figured from the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) show almost two-thirds of crime being driven by repeat and prolific offenders.
According to The Times newspaper, the Government now plans to force judges to impose jail terms when sentencing repeat offenders for shoplifting, burglary, theft and common assault, using new legislation to be included in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
Currently, these offences do not necessarily result in a prison sentence, the way that two convictions for knife crime automatically do. The number of offences required for a prison sentence would vary according to the type of crime, according to The Times.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are taking to the water on water scooters to tackle antisocial behaviour on Dorset's coast and rivers.
Two tactical watercraft will be deployed to increase patrols of almost 100 miles of coastline as well as inland waterways.
Dorset Police said it had received reports of a small number of people "abusing the coastline".
[ more...]
Police Demand
New figures show police solved only 5.7% of crimes last year after 2.3 million cases were dropped without a suspect being found.
The Home Office figures for England and Wales cover the 12 months from April 2022 and show a small improvement on the year before.
The 5.7% represents the proportion of crimes that resulted in a charge or court summons.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A prominent Co-op owner claims the police ignore shoplifting unless it meets strict criteria, which he says effectively decriminalises shoplifting.
Richard Inglis, the owner of a chain of Co-op stores, claims the police will only investigate shoplifting offences if the theft is over £200, there is clear CCTV and the criminal’s full name is known.
[ more...]
Technology
Scotland Yard is to produce league tables on indecent exposure offenders in an attempt to stop sexual predators before their crimes escalate.
It is part of an innovative programme using technology and data to prioritise investigations against smaller pools of suspects who are inclined to be violent and cause the most harm.
The Met will become the first police force to use predictive data on suspects in lower level sex offences, such as indecent exposure, because they are “highly predictive of high harm”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
In a scathing review of neighbourhood policing in the UK, David Lammy explains why petty crime should be taken seriously as the cost of ignoring could lead to "far worse crimes".
Following police chiefs saying they will tackle ‘every single crime,’ David Lammy suggests to listeners that this would not be a waste of time explaining the “broken windows theory.”
“Broken windows theory,” David said, “was an idea coming out of the United States, pioneered by Rudy Giuliani the former mayor of New York.”
He explained: “New York was in a mess basically, it was in a mess because no one was dealing with anti-social behaviour, no-one was dealing with low-level crime… and that's why they coined the catchphrase broken windows.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A "catastrophic" engine failure saw a police BMW catch fire and spin off the road, killing its driver. The fault had been known about for years. The officer's widow now wants answers. Why did no-one warn her husband of the risks? And why are these cars still on the road?
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Humberside Police has significantly improved, but people still want to see more bobbies on the beat, the force's outgoing chief constable has said.
Lee Freeman has been in the role since 2017 and will leave to take up a new job at the end of July.
Under his leadership, the force has gone from being in special measures to receiving an outstanding grade.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A review into firearms licencing at Devon and Cornwall Police has found the force "must stop" its "extraordinarily high reliance" of issuing temporary permits for guns.
The police watchdog - His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) - was asked to carry out an urgent review by the home secretary following the mass shooting in Keyham, Plymouth in 2021, which left six dead including gunman Jake Davison.
Inquests into the deaths in February found Davison's victims were unlawfully killed and that there was a "catastrophic" failure in the management of the firearms unit which led to the 22-year-old having his gun returned to him just weeks before the attack.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police have laid out plans to drastically reduce the number of mental health callouts dealt with by officers, putting the onus back onto healthcare staff.
Some forces in England and Wales currently attend 80% of what a senior officer termed health and social care incidents, and this will be cut to between 20 and 30% within the next two years.
Patients detained under the Mental Health Act currently wait with police officers for an average of 12 hours before receiving medical care, but under the plans this will be cut to a one-hour handover window.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The government borrowed less than expected in June, helped by higher tax receipts and a big drop in debt interest payments.
Borrowing - the difference between spending and tax income - fell to £18.5bn, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
It is £400m lower than last June and below predictions by the government's independent forecaster.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The mother of two murdered sisters has called for more black police officers to be deployed in London's communities.
Mina Smallman was speaking at the launch of the Alliance for Police Accountability (APA), a group of bodies fighting racism and misogyny within the police.
Ms Smallman said action rather than words was needed to signify progress.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A record number of on-the-spot fines were issued by councils for what have been dubbed “busybody offences”, with many cracking down on activities such as feeding birds, swearing and napping in public.
The seemingly bizarre nature of some of the fines issued under Public Spaces Protection Order legislation has seen them increase to 13,433 in 2022, up from 10,412 in 2019. More than 150 councils issued at least one penalty in 2022, according to a report.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Interest rates are predicted to rise less sharply after the UK saw a surprise drop in inflation in June.
The Bank of England has put up rates 13 times since December 2021 to try to cool soaring price rises, driving up borrowing costs for millions.
But experts say it is now under less pressure to do so after inflation fell sharply to 7.9% in June, down from 8.7% the previous month.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Car insurance premiums have reached an all-time high as police forces fail to crack down on rising thefts.
British motorists are now paying £776 a year for car insurance on average – £222 more than 12 months ago and the highest level recorded, according to data from comparison site Confused.com and insurance broker Willis Towers Watson.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The risk from terrorism is "rising", Home Secretary Suella Braverman has said.
The cabinet minister was speaking as the government published a review of its counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST, which has been updated for the first time in five years.
Ms Braverman said: "We now face a domestic terrorist threat which is less predictable, harder to detect and investigate; a persistent and evolving threat from Islamist terrorist groups overseas; and an operating environment where technology continues to provide both opportunity and risk to our counter-terrorism efforts.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The head of Britain’s biggest police force has said he is frustrated with the Home Office for its slow progress at reviewing “perverse” rules that prevent him from being able to sack his own officers.
Mark Rowley, the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, which has some UK-wide responsibilities, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he had expected results from the review in May but was yet to see them.
The home secretary, Suella Braverman, announced the internal Home Office review in January. It was to consider putting police chiefs in charge of all misconduct hearings, sidelining the independent panels chaired by lawyers that have been criticised for hampering the removal of officers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
British families could be paid to house Afghan refugees under plans being drawn up by Michael Gove to reduce the use of hotels for asylum seekers.
The Levelling Up and Housing Secretary is considering replicating the Homes for Ukraine scheme for up to 2,000 Afghans who worked for the British and have been granted the right to come to the UK in gratitude for their service but have yet to come to the UK.
The Afghans and their families are currently living in limbo in hotels in third countries such as Pakistan and Iran because there is no housing available for them in the UK.
[ more...]
Police Finances
More than one million public sector workers, including teachers, police and doctors, have been offered pay rises of between 5 per cent and 7 per cent. Four education unions said the deal would allow them to end their dispute and will be recommending their members to accept the offer.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Millions of public sector workers will be given a pay rise of at least 6%, but government departments have been told to fund the rise from within existing budgets.
Police officers, junior doctors and teachers in England are among those who would benefit after Rishi Sunak accepted all the recommendations of the independent pay review bodies.
The Treasury has ordered a range of measures for Whitehall departments to “reprioritise” their budgets.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Recommendations from the Police Remuneration Review Body on police officers’ pay in England and Wales.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The chancellor’s plans to force local government pension schemes to back private equity investments have been given a lukewarm reception from the sector.
Jeremy Hunt has outlined plans aimed at increasing UK investment including funds having to earmark 5% of investments in levelling up.
He used the annual Mansion House speech to also outline plans to compel pools to raise their investment level to at least 10% of funding to private equity in a bid to support high-growth, innovative technology companies.
[ more...]
Justice
As few as one in seven offenders caught with class A drugs such as cocaine are being prosecuted for possession, Home Office figures show.
The data reveals that the proportion being charged for possession of drugs other than cannabis has fallen from more than half (51.9 per cent) eight years ago to fewer than four in 10 (39.2 per cent) last year.
This, however, masks wide variations between police forces, with Surrey charging just 14.3 per cent or only one in seven offences for possession of drugs other than cannabis.
It has the lowest charge rate followed by West Mercia (15.7 per cent), West Midlands (17.4 per cent) and Hampshire (23.3 per cent). This contrasts with 66 per cent for the Met Police and more than 50 per cent for Humberside, Wiltshire, Staffordshire, North Yorkshire and Norfolk.
[ more...]
Justice
Violence against women campaigners have accused ministers of being too quick to celebrate increased rape convictions while overall reporting rates remain low.
The justice secretary, Alex Chalk, said on Monday that the government was on course to exceed a target to reverse low conviction rates for rape by the end of this parliament.
He said “significant progress” had been made since the government’s 2020 end-to-end rape review, which revealed that the number of reported cases in England and Wales resulting in a prosecution had declined since 2016.
[ more...]
Justice
Women who have made rape complaints have told BBC News that police and court systems are still "weighted in favour of the accused", despite a new programme piloted by 19 police forces.
Operation Soteria is being extended to all 43 police areas in England and Wales from Monday.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman wants police to "focus on the suspect", not on undermining the victim.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
As few as one in seven offenders caught with class A drugs such as cocaine are being prosecuted for possession, Home Office figures show.
The data reveals that the proportion being charged for possession of drugs other than cannabis has fallen from more than half (51.9 per cent) eight years ago to fewer than four in 10 (39.2 per cent) last year.
[ more...]
Police Finances
An extra £1.4m will be given to Lincolnshire to help fight crime, it has been announced.
The government is providing the cash to the Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) as part of a nationwide programme.
PCC Marc Jones said he had not yet decided how the money, available over the next 18 months, would be spent.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Andy Cooke warned too many forces make decisions based on poor data or insufficient analysis of data.
The latest report from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found while forces have improved in several areas in recent years, trust and confidence in the police is at an “all-time low”.
Mr Cooke said forces must learn from each other after the report into police performance during 2021/22 also highlighted areas of “positive practice”.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Real-time updates on calls received by a police control room will be shared on social media for 12 hours from 15:00 BST on Friday.
Devon and Cornwall Police is holding the 'tweetathon' to show the "significant demand" it faces.
It held a similar event in February when hundreds of incidents were shared.
Lucy Baillie, commander for contact and resolution, said it will show "the diverse range of calls" during "one of the busier times of the week".
[ more...]
Police Finances
An extra £1.4m will be given to Lincolnshire to help fight crime, it has been announced.
The government is providing the cash to the Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) as part of a nationwide programme.
PCC Marc Jones said he had not yet decided how the money, available over the next 18 months, would be spent.
He said: "I am confident this additional money can make a really positive impact."
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
John Robins, head of West Yorkshire Police, says ‘time has now come’ for a legal change to increase the number of black and Asian recruits
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police Scotland's new chief constable Jo Farrell could arrive this summer and find herself slap bang in the middle of a pay dispute.
Associations representing all staff within the service have submitted an 8.5% pay claim for 2023/24.
If it's turned down, the Scottish Police Federation will ask its members to consider withdrawing "goodwill."
[ more...]
Prisons
Ex-offenders could help cut UK labour shortages, says report
Good Jobs Project from ReGenerate aims to help ex-prisoners, neurodivergent people, asylum seekers and other groups into work
Tom Ambrose and agency
Mon 3 Jul 2023 06.00 BST
Unemployed ex-offenders are being overlooked for jobs and could help fill the 1.1 million vacancies in the UK job market, a report has claimed.
Britain is “facing one of the worst labour shortages in its history”, the year-long study said, arguing that the vast numbers of people commonly overlooked for jobs should be targeted.
The Good Jobs Project, led by the business charity ReGenerate, said homeless people, young people in or leaving care, refugees, those with mental health problems and over-50s are also not being given employment opportunities.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Suella Braverman has demanded an explanation from the Metropolitan Police over its ban on officers working at Pride wearing a badge that commemorates fallen colleagues.
The Telegraph understands that the Home Secretary was concerned after hearing that officers were instructed not to wear the Thin Blue Line badge in case it offended the LGBT+ community.
A source close to Ms Braverman said: “She has asked for more information to understand what’s happened.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
New measures aimed at curbing protest methods often used by environmental groups have come into effect.
Police in England and Wales now have powers to move protesters who disrupt transport, while offenders could face three years in jail for tunnelling.
The Home Office says the Public Order Act 2023 will target "a selfish minority" but critics argue they threaten the right to protest.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Prolific thieves are being caught and convicted of stealing up to 50 times before they are jailed by the courts, figures from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) have revealed.
Violent offenders are escaping jail until they have been convicted of up to 25 common assaults, while some are accruing as many as seven or eight repeat convictions for carrying a knife before they are given a prison sentence.
Other criminals are collecting more than 20 drug convictions before being jailed.
[ more...]
Prisons
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has opened a new prison as part of its pledge to create 20,000 jail places.
The Category C HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire was named after a community consultation and replaces the former HMP Glen Parva.
The MoJ said the £286m facility has space for 1,715 inmates, who will be offered industry training to plug labour gaps after their release.
[ more...]
Prisons
The number of prison officers in England and Wales who took sick days for mental health reasons nearly doubled over five years.
Staff taking time off rose from 1,456 in 2016/17 to 2,879 in 2021/22, Ministry of Justice data obtained by BBC Radio Kent shows.
The Prison Officers' Association (POA) says long hours, violence and poor pay are causing staff burnout.
The government says it is providing extensive mental health support.
[ more...]
Justice
Wiltshire Police says it has "let down" women and girls who have been afraid to report violent crimes for "too long".
Det Supt Sarah Robbins, Wiltshire Police's lead on violence against women and girls (VAWG), said the force "will do better".
It comes after a survey found a third of women in Wiltshire who have been victims of crime have not reported it.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The use of undercover policing tactics from the 1960s onwards was not justified and the unit should have been disbanded early on, a report says.
Ex-senior judge Sir John Mitting said most groups infiltrated by the Special Demonstration Squad posed no threat.
His report for the Undercover Policing Inquiry details tactics such as forming sexual relationships and using the names of dead children for cover.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Some £4m is to be spent on making more neighbourhoods in Essex safer, particularly for women and girls, the county's Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) said.
Roger Hirst, PFCC, has allocated £3,953,923 of the force's £363.7m annual budget.
He has previously used government Safer Streets funding to support eight similar initiatives.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Lincolnshire Police has been given extra government money ahead of the arrival of asylum seekers at the former RAF Scampton base.
The force will receive £1.8m to allow extra officers to be recruited.
An additional £2m will be used towards developing digital technology and improving crime prevention measures.
The county's Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones said he was grateful to the government and local MPs who had lobbied for the funding.
[ more...]
Technology
Paedophiles are using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to create and sell life-like child sexual abuse material, the BBC has found.
Some are accessing the images by paying subscriptions to accounts on mainstream content-sharing sites such as Patreon.
Patreon said it had a "zero tolerance" policy about such imagery on its site.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Rishi Sunak must honour the pay review recommendations for increasing police officers’ salaries, says Britain’s most senior policeman.
In an article for The Telegraph, Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, warned that more officers could quit and the force could face a recruitment crisis unless the Prime Minister and his government accepted the recommendations “in full and without delay”.
He suggested officers’ low pay could also put public safety at risk as they would not be “at their best” in their “dangerous” jobs if they had money worries and were exhausted by having to take second jobs or work extra overtime to make ends meet.
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Prisons
Half of all prison officers in England and Wales do not feel safe in the jails they work in, according to a large survey of staff.
More than 80 per cent of prison officers said staff morale was not good and a large majority do not believe their salaries accurately reflect the responsibilities of their job. Morale was at its lowest among staff who work in high-security men’s prisons.
The findings came in a survey of 6,582 prison staff that was carried out by the parliamentary justice committee.
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Technology
Most police forces and other emergency services have confirmed they are able to receive 999 calls again, following a fault on Sunday morning.
Earlier, a nationwide technical issue meant calls were not being connected.
Some said they were still experiencing a "residual impact" so people should only use 999 in a genuine emergency.
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Police Demand
Theft has been “decriminalised” across two thirds of neighbourhoods in England and Wales over the past three years, a Telegraph investigation has found.
From 2020, not a single personal, vehicle or bike theft was solved by police in between half and two-thirds of the 30,100 neighbourhoods in England and Wales, according to an analysis of police data.
Bike thieves were the least likely to be caught with every reported bicycle theft remaining unsolved in 66 per cent of the neighbourhoods since 2020. Of around 184,400 thefts, 3,863 were solved.
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Police and Crime General
A police and crime commissioner (PCC) chosen as a Conservative parliamentary candidate has been asked to stand down by his local crime panel.
Festus Akinbusoye has been selected as the candidate for Mid Bedfordshire should MP Nadine Dorries resign.
Ms Dorries announced on 9 June that she would stand down but has yet to do so.
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Police and Crime General
Glastonbury is to go ahead with tests of illegal drugs to protect revellers from suspect or dangerous substances after the Home Office agreed to a compromise.
There had been fears that testing - said by festival organisers to be vital to prevent revellers from endangering their lives - could have to be abandoned after the Home Office hardened its stance earlier this month on on-site tests.
The “back-of-house” checks by contracted experts are widely used at summer festivals across the UK in agreement with the police to alert revellers to dangerous impurities or risks from illicit drugs.
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Recruitment and Retention
Consistent national standards are being introduced for the first time and will be delivered through the college’s new National Centre for Police Leadership (NCPL). These will ensure “high-quality training” so everyone within the police service is equipped with the skills and knowledge to cut crime and deliver a better service for the public.
Introducing the reforms, the college’s chief executive officer, Chief Constable Andy Marsh, said: “This is the hardest time for policing I can remember in almost 40 years’ service and we cannot continue along this path. Something radical must be done.
“Policing must have high quality leaders at every rank and grade. We know about 80 per cent of officers and staff choose not to move beyond the rank of police constable so it cannot be right that leadership training is only given to those who seek promotion.
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Justice
Rape victims will get a legal right to have face-to-face meetings with prosecutors ahead of their trial as part of the Government’s attempt to reduce drop-out rates.
The new duty for Crown prosecutors will be part of the victims’ code that is being enshrined in law under a Bill due to be considered by the Commons on Monday.
It is designed to ensure victims get a chance to raise any concerns or questions about their trials so they can be addressed and the necessary support provided to help guide them through the criminal justice system.
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Police and Crime General
Suella Braverman has encouraged police chiefs to use stop and search powers more often to "seize dangerous weapons and prevent more knife crime attacks".
The home secretary's letter to 43 chief constables does not have any direct impact on how officers act, as the police are operationally independent of government.
But the latest intervention shows the Home Office wants to see an increase in officers using the controversial powers.
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Police and Crime General
A chief constable says she believes her own force is "institutionally racist".
Sarah Crew said she came to that conclusion after applying a series of criteria to Avon and Somerset Police following a report into the local criminal justice system.
She said she was "in no doubt" that racism and racial bias were reinforced within systems across the force.
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Police and Crime General
Police in England and Wales are to be given clearer powers to stop protests deemed to be seriously disruptive, in a law approved by Parliament.
The House of Lords voted through the new regulations, despite an attempt to block them by an opposition peer.
The new law gives officers more leeway to intervene when protesters attempt to block roads with slow marching.
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Police Demand
A growing number of people aged in their 50s and 60s are allowing their bank accounts to be used to move money illegally.
Fraud experts say that among the increasing number being recruited as “money mules” – those who allow their bank details to be used to transfer criminals’ cash – are older account holders, as well as business owners who use company bank accounts.
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Police Finances
Just Stop Oil protesters are putting people’s lives at risk, Suella Braverman warned on Monday, as it emerged that they have cost the taxpayer £4.5 million in policing bills in just six weeks.
Opening a Commons debate to give police new powers to tackle the group’s slow-walking tactics, the Home Secretary said the roads belonged to the British people, “not a selfish minority.”
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Police Finances
Council tax bills have more than tripled to £2,000 since the charge was first introduced 30 years ago, with the fee for an average band D home increasing by 79 percent, according to research by the Taxpayers’ Alliance. An average band D bill when council tax was introduced in 1993 was £568 but has now reached £2,065, the research found. In response the LGA said that in recent years, the Government has relied on council tax raising powers to increase councils’ core spending power. An LGA spokesperson said: “Faced with the increased cost of providing local services and rising demand for support, councils have faced the tough choice about whether to increase bills to bring in desperately needed funding to protect services at the same time as being acutely aware of the significant burden that could place on some households."
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Police Finances
Figures obtained via Freedom of Information requests have revealed more than three million people have been taken to court for council tax debt in some of the poorest parts of the country. Since the pandemic, magistrates courts across England have handed out the equivalent of more than 4,500 debt orders a day in what campaigners say is the latest illustration of the cost of living crisis. Cllr Pete Marland, Chair of the LGA’s Resources Board, said: “Councils know how difficult the rising cost of living is for so many people and strive to recover unpaid tax as sympathetically as possible. Bailiffs should only ever be used as a last resort and before it gets to that stage, people will have been encouraged by their council to apply for financial support.”
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Justice
Delays to fraud cases in England and Wales have doubled in eight years, prompting fresh criticism that not enough is being done to deliver justice.
The rise in delays came despite the number of fraud cases coming through the courts dropping to barely a third of 2014 levels, according to the analysis by the Criminal Bar Association (CBA).
In the final quarter of 2022, there were 447 fraud cases, which took on average a record 497 days to complete from charge. By comparison, it took 242 days on average for the 1,294 fraud cases that were completed between October and December 2014.
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Police and Crime General
Time is running out if the police and the government are to restore public trust in policing, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary has warned.
In his annual report, Andy Cooke said police forces were experiencing "one of their biggest crises in living memory".
"Atrocious" crimes committed by serving police officers had fuelled distrust, while too few criminals were being caught, he added.
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Police Demand
Officers in England and Wales have met a target to attend every domestic burglary scene, police chiefs have said.
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) made the pledge in a new set of standards announced last year.
The NPCC's Deputy Chief Constable Alex Franklin-Smith said they wanted to end the "postcode lottery" on policing.
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Economy & Public Finance
Britain will have the highest inflation of any major developed economy this year but should narrowly avoid recession, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has said in its latest set of forecasts.
The Paris-based OECD - a club of rich countries - said that inflation in Britain will be higher in 2023 than nearly any of its other members save for Argentina and Turkey.
It warned that higher interest rates are likely to dampen economic growth and incomes in the coming months.
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Police Demand
A rise in knife crime in the North East is a "real concern", Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Kim McGuinness says.
Across the Northumbria Police area, there were 60 more robberies where a blade was used last year compared to 2021, and 33 more threats to kill.
The statistics also show jumps in the number of rapes and attempted murders involving knives.
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Fire
Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners (PFCCs) remain in the minority in England and Wales, where the more common PCC model operates in most force areas aside from those with a Mayor.
Stephen Mold and Ben Adams are two of the five PFCCs currently governing both police and fire in Northamptonshire and Staffordshire. The model is also operational in North Yorkshire, Essex and most recently, Cumbria.
PFCC Mold believes overseeing fire “helps you to be a better PCC because it gives you an interesting perspective”.
PFCC Adams said: “While both services we
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Police Finances
Dorset Police is still in the dark about extra Government funding to help cope with an influx of male migrants due to be housed on a floating barge in the region in less than two weeks’ time, the head of the force has said.
David Sidwick, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset, told i he has been given “verbal assurances” from the Home Office that more cash is on the way to help police the Bibby Stockholm barge, but that he has not yet received full details in writing.
Mr Sidwick said Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, agreed last week to provide funding for extra community police to patrol the area, but that a clash over additional resources beyond that has halted a full funding commitment.
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Police Finances
Auditors should be allowed to draw a line under outdated accounts in order to clear the extensive current backlog of audited local government financial reports. And long-term structural challenges must be addressed to ensure the current crisis in auditing in England does not reoccur.
Those were some of the conclusions drawn by panellists at the second evidence session of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (LUHC) Committee’s inquiry into financial reporting and audit in local authorities.
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Recruitment and Retention
PC Owen Davies, of South Yorkshire Police, was dismissed without notice following an Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) investigation into operational images being shared without any policing purpose.
“Our investigation discovered that PC Owen Davies shared images of people in police custody using his personal mobile phone,” said the IOPC.
“He sent them, along with inappropriate and derogatory comments about the individuals, via WhatsApp to current and former colleagues.”
The officer’s personal mobile phone had been examined to identify any “operational policing images or images of concern” as part of a separate investigation into conduct allegations, the IOPC said.
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Technology
Browse through the public image library of Openjourney, an artificial intelligence tool used to create computer-generated art, and you will find an impressive collage of hyper-realistic portraits, vivid science-fiction scenes and atmospheric landscapes.
The free software is one of a spate of AI programs to have exploded in use in recent months, allowing users to create computer-generated art in seconds with just a few words of instruction. Lifelike images of Pope Francis in a bright white puffer coat and apparent pictures of Donald Trump being arrested have been created and spread across the web this year.
While these viral images were amusing distractions, image-creation AI is also being exploited by those with darker motives.
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Police Demand
Police are to stop responding to thousands of missing persons reports in an effort to prioritise day-to-day crimes such as burglaries.
Overstretched officers will no longer seek patients who discharge themselves from hospital or children who repeatedly disappear from care facilities if the risk of harm is considered low.
In some cases, police have been called out to look for residents struggling to pay their energy bills after utility companies reported them missing and potentially suicidal.
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Police Demand
Paramedics are being told to take a police escort to more than 1,200 addresses for fear of attack, The Times can reveal.
The College of Paramedics said the figure was outrageous and called on courts to implement tougher sentences for assaults on paramedics.
Ambulance services have marked hundreds of addresses after violence towards crew. Notes on addresses include “patient keeps axe under pillow — serrated knife hidden round the house and is known to be a risk”, “shoots/throws acid”, and “patient is anti-ambulance”.
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Police and Crime General
The Attorney was joined by Solicitor General Michael Tomlinson KC MP as they met staff at CPS West Midlands, including those who run the Serious Violence, Organised Crime and Exploitation Unit.
The team, the first of its kind, was launched in the West Midlands in July 2021. The Unit brings together a team of prosecutors and paralegal staff who have extensive experience of prosecuting cases involving serious gang-related violence, serious drug dealing offences, including county lines, as well as modern slavery and exploitation.
Nearly two years on from its launch, the Law Officers heard from unit staff about their work helping to protect local communities.
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Police Demand
Suffolk Police is to scale back its response to mental health calls after similar action was taken by London's Metropolitan Police.
It comes amid concerns that police forces have become the default agency for those with mental health issues.
Partner organisations have been told of the force's plans to use the Home Office Right Care Right Person strategy.
The force said other organisations must make plans to cover the gaps.
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Justice
Indecent exposure reports by women have hit a record high in the wake of the Wayne Couzens scandal - but the proportion being charged by police has fallen to a new low.
Only one in 12 cases of indecent exposure are being solved by police, despite a 27 per cent increase in offences since the rape, kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard by Couzens, a serving Metropolitan Police officer. He was also subsequently found guilty of exposing himself to women before he killed her.
However, Home Office data analysed by The Telegraph showed that just 8.2 per cent of indecent exposure offences resulted in a charge, compared with 17 per cent in 2016 when records began.
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Fire
The English PCC model could be at the start of a shift towards absorbing fire governance within its remit.
In 2017, measures were introduced through the Policing and Crime Act enabling PCCs to take oversight of local fire services. To do so, Commissioners had to put forward a proposal to the Home Secretary including details on economy, efficiency and effectiveness.
It was also a prerequisite that the boundaries for the two services aligned. These severely limited the number of joint governance deals.
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Police Demand
Greater police visibility could help to rebuild trust with the Ely community after the deaths of two teenagers sparked a riot, a councillor has said.
Kyrees Sullivan, 16, and Harvey Evans, 15, were killed in a collision in the Cardiff suburb on 22 May.
Their deaths led to rioting, resulting in nine arrests and 15 officers being injured.
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Police Demand
Lisa Townsend says the time has come for officers to stop attending every mental health call-out.
It comes after Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley announced that from September his officers will only attend health-related calls when a threat to life is feared.
Instead, the force will adopt a scheme known as ‘right care, right person’ (RCRP), which has been trialled by Humberside Police, and helped the force save an estimated 15,000 work hours a year by passing mental health calls to other services.
Ms Townsend, who earlier this month warned that the crisis in mental health was taking officers off the front line, says she believes all forces should follow suit, which would save thousands of hours of police time across the country.
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Police Demand
Dedicated Independent Custody Visitors (ICVs) have logged over 12,000 hours and delivered over 6,000 visits to police custody suites on behalf of Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in the past year.
This Volunteers’ Week (1-7 June), PCCs across England and Wales are celebrating the outstanding voluntary work and commitment of Independent Custody Visitors and the critical role they play in making police custody transparent and ensuring those detained by the police are treated fairly.
ICVs are members of the public who give up their own time to make unannounced visits to police custody suites. They independently deliver checks on detainees to see if they have been treated fairly, with dignity and are held in conditions that are safe.
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Police Demand
The Metropolitan Police will no longer attend the thousands of emergency calls each year related to mental health incidents, according to the force’s commissioner Sir Mark Rowley. The decision comes as The Met chief says officers are being diverted from their core role of fighting crime, with patients in need of medical experts instead.
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Recruitment and Retention
Re-vetting police officers will reveal "more individuals unfit to serve," a police and crime commissioner (PCC) has said.
As all forces are ordered to check staff, John Campion penned an open letter to offer reassurances following revelations of racism, homophobia and gross misconduct.
He said the "vast majority" of West Mercia officers were "brilliant" but he shared public "disappointment and anger" and acknowledged recent findings would "dent" confidence in police.
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Police and Crime General
Where Hull leads, London follows. At least, that is the case when it comes to a radical new approach to policing that has led to the Humberside constabulary achieving the highest arrest and crime detection rates in the country – by refusing to attend most mental health calls.
When a letter from the Metropolitan police commissioner was leaked to the Guardian this week warning that from September his officers would no longer attend unnecessary mental health calls, Lee Freeman had a jolt of recognition.
The pioneering chief constable of Humberside police had issued a similarly blunt deadline to health partners back in 2019 when he decided far too much police time was being spent attending calls over concerns for welfare, mental health incidents or missing people.
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Police Demand
Where Hull leads, London follows. At least, that is the case when it comes to a radical new approach to policing that has led to the Humberside constabulary achieving the highest arrest and crime detection rates in the country – by refusing to attend most mental health calls.
When a letter from the Metropolitan police commissioner was leaked to the Guardian this week warning that from September his officers would no longer attend unnecessary mental health calls, Lee Freeman had a jolt of recognition.
The pioneering chief constable of Humberside police had issued a similarly blunt deadline to health partners back in 2019 when he decided far too much police time was being spent attending calls over concerns for welfare, mental health incidents or missing people.
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Police and Crime General
Too few people experiencing alcohol problems are in treatment, with many experiencing barriers in getting help, according to a Public Accounts Committee report. The cross-party group said government data on the number of people struggling with alcohol problems is out of date, and that more needs to be done to ensure councils that provide treatment services have the resources they need to offer people help. Cllr David Fothergill, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said: “Councils have seen £1 billion worth of cuts to their local public health grant over the last eight years, which goes to fund alcohol treatment services.”
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Economy & Public Finance
UK inflation has dropped to 8.7 per cent in the largest recorded fall since the cost of living crisis began, according to the Office for National Statistics. The drop sees inflation as measured by the consumer prices index fall below double digits for the first time since August 2022.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK is no longer predicted to fall into recession this year, but tax cuts could still fuel inflation and result in a long period of high interest rates, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF now forecast the country’s gross domestic product to grow by 0.4 per cent this year, up from its April estimate of a 0.3 per cent contraction.
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Police Demand
More than 100,000 incidents of sexual violence and misconduct in NHS hospitals in England are not being recorded and investigated every year, experts have warned.
An investigation by the Guardian and the British Medical Journal found more than 35,606 “sexual safety incidents” were recorded by NHS hospitals in England over the past five years. The term covers a spectrum of allegations, from abusive remarks to rape, allegedly perpetrated by staff, patients and visitors.
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Police Demand
Police and Crime Commissioner Angelique Foster has welcomed new figures which prove her three-year plan to crackdown on burglary is delivering strong results.
Since the Derbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner was elected by the public in May 2021, residential burglary rates across the county have fallen by 18 per cent.
Data shows 6,180 domestic burglaries were recorded between 26 June 2019 and 12 May 2021 which fell to 5,086 offences between 13 May 2021 and 31 March 2023 – a period representing the Commissioner’s time in office.
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Police Demand
Vehicle thefts soared by a quarter in England and Wales last year, the latest figures reveal.
Experts attributed the rise to sophisticated new technology that thieves are using to access and start cars by breaching their internal computer.
The Office for National Statistics recorded 130,389 vehicle thefts last year — an increase of 25 per cent compared with 2021. The figures are also influenced by the third national lockdown from January to March 2021, when crime rates fell.
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Police Demand
Drug driving has now become more widespread than drink driving, a new police report has revealed.
About eighty motorists each day are caught driving under the influence of drugs, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).
However, many suspected offenders avoid prosecution because of delays in processing blood tests, the Daily Mail reported.
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Justice
Britain’s most senior police chief has accused the Crown Prosecution Service of trying to boost conviction rates by “cherry-picking easy cases” to prosecute in court.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner, said he believed that the CPS, which authorises charges in England and Wales, was “not taking on the harder cases” and instead selecting easier ones that were more likely to result in a conviction.
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Police and Crime General
A summary document, published on Thursday (May 18), outlines the greatest threats to women and girls. These are domestic abuse, rape and serious sexual offences, child sexual abuse and exploitation and technology-enabled VAWG such as online stalking and harassment.
The in-depth 230-page intelligence document has been shared with all forces by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and will not be made public due to the sensitive information included.
The NPCC says it is “a key step in the police response to violence against women and girls (VAWG) and will guide forces as they relentlessly pursue abusers and deliver justice and support for victims”.
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Justice
This will end “expansive fishing expeditions” for information that is often not relevant to the investigation and used to undermine the credibility of the victim, says the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
An amendment to the Government’s Victims and Prisoners Bill announced this week will set out clearly in law that police officers should only request material that is absolutely necessary and proportionate to ensure that vulnerable victims are not put off seeking vital support.
To ensure police are abiding by the new law, the Government will also publish a new “robust code of conduct” – with forces that fail to abide by the new rules to face consequences, including possible legal action.
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Police Finances
The number of outstanding local authority audits could reach more than 1,000 by the end of 2023 without “urgent and decisive action” to unblock the system, MPs have been told.
Director of local audit at the Financial Reporting Council, Neil Harris, told Parliament’s levelling up committee that the hundreds of existing delays have been caused by a “multiplicity of reasons”, and warned there is no one solution.
However, given the situation is, Harris said, “getting to a crisis stage now”, solutions need to be found.
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Technology
A proposed amendment to the Online Safety Bill would require social media firms to prevent online abuse and violence against women and girls.
A cross-party group of lords, led by former culture secretary Nicky Morgan, is backing the amendment, which would mean companies that failed to remove abusive misogynistic content and ban repeat offenders would face fines, while bosses could be jailed for persistent breaches.
Writing for The Telegraph, Tory peer Baroness Morgan of Cotes said social media companies at the moment “are failing women and girls”.
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Police Demand
Lisa Townsend said in February alone, Surrey Police officers spent 515 hours on incidents relating to mental health – the highest number of hours ever recorded in a single month by the force.
She said over the past seven years, the number of hours police in Surrey are spending with people in crisis has almost trebled.
Ms Townsend, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners lead for mental health and custody, said the “crisis in mental health care” is taking Surrey Police officers off the front line. During March, two officers spent a full week supporting a vulnerable person, taking them away from their other duties.
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Technology
Ministers are calling for facial recognition technology to be “embedded” in everyday policing, including potentially linking it to the body-worn cameras officers use as they patrol streets.
Until now, police use of live facial recognition in England and Wales has been limited to special operations such as football matches or the coronation.
Prof Fraser Sampson, the biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner, said the potential expansion was “very significant” and that “the Orwellian concerns of people, the ability of the state to watch every move, is very real”.
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Police and Crime General
The Police Federation of England and Wales has successfully supported three members in their claim for compensation against the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), for subjecting them to unreasonable and unconscionable delays during an investigation. The investigation ran for 11 years.
Working closely with solicitors from Penningtons Manches Cooper, PMC, we pursued a claim for damages for a misfeasance in public office under the Human Rights Act that resulted in an award of £65,000.
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Police and Crime General
A Conservative police and crime commissioner has been accused of using his influence to push for separate police investigations into his political opponents ahead of the local elections.
Steve Turner, PCC for Cleveland, has been accused of triggering two investigations into his opponents ahead of the elections on May 4. He and his wife, Andrea, were both trying to win council seats in Redcar in the Tees Valley.
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Police Demand
Brits who suffer because of appalling anti-social behaviour must be classed as victims of crime, the Tories have been told.
Shadow Victims Minister Anna McMorrin and ex-Victims Commissioner Dame Vera Baird told the Mirror that “victims are being let down again and again and again” - and branded proposed laws to protect victims as “extremely weak”.
They said vulnerable people - including the elderly or unwell - who are repeatedly targeted by thugs who stamp on their flowers, smash cake at their window or throw beer bottles in their garden are not classed as victims so are not eligible for support.
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Justice
Only 8% of rapes reported to Avon and Somerset Police (ASP) are leading to charges being brought.
Although this is double the rate for the previous year, Chief Constable Sarah Crew has said it is "not enough".
According to figures from the 12 months to April 2023, 141 reported rapes led to charges, compared to 69 the year before.
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Police and Crime General
The number of elected regional mayors has grown in recent years, but the role of police and crime commissioners (PCCs) has remained relatively obscure.
And now there are signs that PCCs are gradually being phased out.
Rishi Sunak's government wants to create more elected mayors - but is keen for them to take over, rather than run alongside, the role of PCCs.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK saw weak growth in the first three months of the year and shrank during March as the economy was affected by strike action.
The economy grew by 0.1% between January and March the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
The figure comes a day after the Bank of England said it was more optimistic about prospects for the UK and that the economy would avoid recession.
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Justice
A royal fan who was mistaken for a protester and detained by police at the Coronation has spoken about her ordeal.
Alice Chambers was handcuffed and held for 13 hours when officers arrested Just Stop Oil protesters she happened to be standing near to on the Mall.
The architect told BBC Newsnight she was handcuffed, fingerprinted and questioned in a police station.
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Police and Crime General
People in the UK lost £1.2bn to fraud in 2022, the equivalent of £2,300 every minute, according to bank industry group UK Finance.
It said around three million scams took place - slightly less than the previous year - with frauds involving payment cards being the most common.
UK Finance said losses were not always reimbursed and urged tech firms to "share the burden" of covering costs.
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Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England has raised interest rates for a record-breaking 12th successive time, lifting the cost of borrowing to 4.5% and warning that inflation would be higher this year than it previously anticipated.
The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee said that there would be no recession this year, upgrading its economic growth forecasts by more than in any of its previous reports.
It is a dramatic change from only a few months ago, when it was predicting the longest-lived recession in modern British history.
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Police and Crime General
With Warwickshire Police enjoying record officer numbers following the recent Uplift recruitment programme, and a strategic alliance with neighbouring West Mercia ending, the force took the decision to remodel its workforce and operations; Deputy Chief Constable Alex Franklin-Smith spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about the aims for performance improvements, and how the changes could future-proof the service to the public.
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Police and Crime General
Calls to the anti-slavery helpline are at a record high as reports of forced labour, domestic servitude and sex trafficking soar.
More than 6,500 potential victims of modern slavery were identified last year – a 116 per cent increase compared to 2021. In 2022, 7,315 calls were made to the phone line, operated by the charity Unseen, from victims, local government officials, NHS workers, businesses and others. This was up by 16 per cent on the year before.
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Police Demand
Local politicians in Dorset have opposed plans to house some 500 asylum seekers on the vessel. Now Police and Crime Commissioner David Sidwick says the costs for policing of the barge must be covered by the government.
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Police Finances
Policing of a huge barge set to home around 500 asylum seekers should be funded by the government, a police commissioner is demanding.
It comes as the mayor of Portland, where the floating accommodation will be moored, suggested local women had expressed fears about their own safety. And a local MP voiced concerns for his constituents, asking "who is going to monitor these men who have only £9 a week to spend?"
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Police and Crime General
Earlier this year, a video of a black teenager being pinned to the ground and handcuffed in a Superdrug in Chichester went viral. The video, posted by the 15-year-old’s mother, shows the boy lying face down on the floor, two adult men kneeling on top of him and yanking his arms behind his back. The video brings to mind other such clips of force used against black people that have proliferated online in recent years; but in this case, things were different. The two men restraining the teenager were not police officers but private security guards.
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Recruitment and Retention
The aim of the pilot is to help identify those with ADHD entering the criminal justice system at an early stage, allowing for a quick referral for diagnosis and get them the support they need.
This will give a better understanding of the crimes committed by those with ADHD and help prevent reoffending, the force said.
The checklist has been devised by qualified counsellor and therapist Sarah Templeton, chief executive officer of the charity ADHD Liberty, who has already worked in four English prisons.
She says the checklist helps ensure that there is a pathway to diagnosis with urgent cases being fast-tracked to an NHS provider of adult ADHD assessments.
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Police Demand
Police are coming under “more and more” political pressure to crackdown on protesters using legislation they don’t fully understand, a former chief constable has said.
Senior officers are struggling to interpret new laws including the Public Order Act which came into effect on 3 May and have been left in an “uncomfortable” position due to political interference, said Sir Peter Fahy, the former chief constable of Greater Manchester Police.
A senior Metropolitan Police Service officer also told i police felt “under pressure” to implement new laws looking to restrict disruptive protests by outlawing tactics such as the use of lock-on devices.
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Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police's treatment of anti-monarchy protesters at King Charles' Coronation will be examined by MPs.
A committee will meet next Wednesday to discuss the protests, including the arrests of six people from anti-monarchy group Republic.
Sir Mark Rowley, head of the Met, has defended his officers and said there was a "concerning" threat to the event.
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Recruitment and Retention
Thousands of trainee officers recruited to boost police numbers left during their probation period, according to recent figures.
At least 2,012 trainees did not complete their probation, were fired or resigned, with some dismissed as unfit.
It comes after former chief inspector of constabulary Sir Thomas Winsor warned the 'sheer magnitude and speed' of the Government's recruitment campaign risked hiring people 'unsuited' to policing.
The officers were being trained as part of a 2019 Government pledge to recruit an extra 20,000 police officers throughout England and Wales by March this year.
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Police and Crime General
For many, the coronation will have passed by in a blur of pomp, quiches, bunting, fireworks... and rain. But for the anti-monarchy campaign group Republic, things took an altogether more sinister turn.
Its chief executive and several other protesters were bundled into a police van yesterday after being arrested at a peaceful protest in Trafalgar Square. It followed a letter from the Home Office last week that informed them of new police powers to curb protest and harsher criminal penalties for protesters. “I would be grateful if you could forward this letter to members likely to be affected,” it ominously suggested.
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Police and Crime General
Police Scotland is planning to introduce a new clean-shaven policy for frontline officers, according to correspondence seen by the BBC.
It means hundreds of officers will have to shave off their beards and moustaches by the end of the month.
Four are understood to be taking legal action in relation to the policy.
Police Scotland said it was necessary so officers and staff could wear protective FFP3 masks which require users to be clean-shaven.
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Police and Crime General
Disruptive protests in Windsor will be treated with a “lower tolerance level” during the coronation weekend, Thames Valley Police have said.
The force Assistant Chief Constable Christian Bunt said: “just a bit fewer than 1,000” officers will be deployed as part of their operation during the bank holiday weekend.
The officer said no pre-emptive arrests have yet been made, and the force is not expecting to use the new legislation banning serious disruption in Windsor during the coronation celebrations.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More than 29,000 police officers will be deployed during the Coronation period, as part of one of the Metropolitan Police's greatest ever security challenges.
Firearms officers, dog handlers, mounted police and helicopters will all form part of the efforts to keep people safe on Saturday.
The operation, known as Golden Orb, will be one of the most significant and largest security deployments the force has led.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Inflation has reignited in the UK, pushed higher by the economy roaring back and emboldening businesses to pass on higher costs to customers via rising prices, a closely watched survey out today unveils.
S&P Global and the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply’s (PMI) for the country’s services sector climbed sharply to 55.9 points last month from 52.9 points in March.
The reading was above analysts’ expectations and a big upgrade from a preliminary reading of 54.9 points.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The proportion of knife carriers being charged with possession by police has fallen to a record low, a Telegraph analysis of official figures shows.
The number of knife possession offences resulting in a charge has nearly halved in six years with fewer than a third ending up in court.
It comes as the number of knife offences has doubled to 26,500 over the same period, according to Home Office data for last year.
[ more...]
Police Demand
New powers that allow police to stop protesters blocking roads have been expedited amid concerns that Just Stop Oil, the environmental activist group, will target the coronation.
The Public Order Act received royal assent yesterday but new police powers to deal with protests and criminal offences created under the act were not due to come into effect for a couple of months. However, police will be given some of the powers from today.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are to formally review whether they should take indecent exposure more seriously amid emerging evidence that people who commit such crimes can escalate their offending, the Guardian has learned.
It comes after it was revealed Wayne Couzens, the then-Metropolitan police officer who raped and murdered Sarah Everard, had committed a series of offences where he had exposed himself before the murder.
The review will be carried out by the College of Policing – which sets standards for forces in England and Wales – as forces contend with falling confidence among women after Everard’s murder and a series of other scandals.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The bunting is being strung up, coronation quiches prepared and — up and down the country — thousands of street parties planned.
Behind the scenes in the capital, a huge security and logistical operation is advancing as police chiefs and transport bosses prepare for the biggest state event since Elizabeth II’s funeral.
The security operation, known as Golden Orb, is not as big as Operation London Bridge, the funeral plan, because the site map for the coronation is much smaller and focused on Westminster Abbey. However, it still requires a vast amount of resources and meticulous planning.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police officers are back in the headlines – and for once not because of terrible misconduct.
The government announced mission accomplished last week on its manifesto commitment to recruit 20,000 extra coppers. Labour hit back, saying this was just reversing the government’s own cuts since 2010. The reality is somewhere in between: there has now been an increase in police numbers since 2010, but we’re talking 3,500, not 20,000, and forces have grown more slowly than the populations they police.
The focus of politicians on police numbers, rather than wider questions of good policing and the underlying causes of crime, often annoys experts, who point out that tackling crime is far more complicated than putting police officers on the streets. They’re right, of course, but, to defend the politicians for a second, police numbers do matter.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police have been accused of a “chilling” move to deter whistleblowers after deciding to pursue legal costs from a detective who brought an employment tribunal case.
Kam Sodhi, a homicide detective, claimed she was harassed on grounds of her race and sex and that she had been victimised by the Met. She took the case to an employment tribunal last year, where it was successfully defended by the force.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Fewer burglaries are likely to be solved following a shake-up in the way forces define the offence, a senior police leader has warned.
Since 2017, police in England and Wales have considered any domestic burglary to include not just the house but also outbuildings such as sheds and garages.
But a U-turn on that policy has prompted fears that victims will get “poorer service” from officers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
New legislation introduced on Thursday (April 27) would give officers the ability to intervene and stop the tactic, which is widely used by Just Stop Oil.
It is used to block roads in a way that does not involve sitting in the middle of the street to stop traffic, which is illegal.
Last year the group changed its approach and deployed the tactic widely after several activists were arrested for blocking roads.
[ more...]
Justice
The new Justice Secretary has pledged to demand “very high standards” of civil servants and expects “no let-up in tempo” despite the enforced resignation of Dominic Raab, his predecessor.
In his first interview, Alex Chalk, a successful prosecutor who jailed rapists, extremists and fraudsters, said the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) was too critical a department to lower the standards expected of civil servants.
He said Mr Raab “did the right thing” by resigning after the independent inquiry into bullying allegations, paying tribute to his “huge intellect and industry”.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than 200,000 burglaries – almost 600 a day – went unsolved by police last year, shocking new figures reveal.
Crime statistics published by the Government showed 77 per cent of cases were closed by police in England and Wales with no suspect identified.
It means that 209,424 domestic break-ins, or 574 a day, went unsolved, the analysis of official data by the Liberal Democrats revealed.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police are taking an average of five hours to respond to priority calls, risking time-sensitive evidence and witnesses being lost, figures show.
Gloucestershire police recorded the longest average response time last year, taking 18.5 hours to respond to grade-two incidents, according to freedom of information requests by the Liberal Democrats.
Forces aim to respond to these priority calls within about an hour because they relate to incidents that require an urgent response by police but with no imminent risk to life. The crimes include burglaries, domestic abuse and grievous bodily harm, where a suspect may still be in the vicinity or evidence is at risk of being destroyed.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Like many before me, I became a police officer to fight crime. I wanted to catch criminals and lock them up. I wanted to make my local neighbourhood safer. Nothing felt better than putting away burglars, fishing knives out of waistbands, and knowing that in doing so I was making the streets safer.
When I started in the Metropolitan Police as a volunteer police officer, I had hoped to find a force dedicated to fighting crime. Yet the recruitment process was more of a half-baked attempt to identify bigots than any sort of test for crime-fighting aptitude.
As I progressed, becoming a regular officer, I witnessed an organisation in which too many senior leaders were more interested in reputation management than in protecting the public. The force’s systems were archaic – geared towards consuming officer time and slowing things down. And too often, we were required to deal with overspills from other agencies, particularly around mental health.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
A police force has surpassed a government target by recruiting more than 600 new officers since 2020.
The 2019 Conservative manifesto promised 20,000 additional police officers would be taken on in England and Wales by the end of March 2023.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Donna Jones said her force was set a target of 498, which she decided to increase to 600.
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Police and Crime General
The home secretary will call for police to stop “pandering to politically correct preoccupations” and focus on catching criminals.
Suella Braverman is due to deliver a speech on policing following the release of Home Office data at 9.30am on Wednesday, which will confirm whether the target to recruit 20,000 police officers has been met.
Opponents previously claimed that the government, which had until the end of March to reach the figure, was lagging behind its 2019 commitment to replace thousands of jobs cut during austerity measures.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Low trust and confidence in the Metropolitan police is making some parents and carers reluctant to report children missing, according to a report from the London Assembly.
Its police and crime committee says that instead, some parents are deciding to search for their children themselves.
The report says every incident of a missing child requires a full safeguarding response, but the committee’s investigation has found that this is ‘not always being delivered’.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police who get involved in “contested” issues such as trans debates on Twitter or critical race theory by taking the knee are undermining public confidence, says Suella Braverman.
The Home Secretary said police needed to be “politically impartial” and stop “virtue signalling” so that they concentrated on “common sense policing” where they prioritised the fight against crime.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The government has reached its target to recruit 20,000 more police officers in England and Wales. It has employed 20,951 more officers since 2019 so the total is now 149,572.
This means the number of officers is about 3,500 higher than it was in 2010, when the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats began cutting police numbers.
But there are concerns that the rise hasn't kept pace with the increase in population since 2010 and that many experienced officers have left.
Many of the new officers are replacing the approximately 20,000 who left between 2010 and 2019.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The government has hit its manifesto pledge to recruit 20,000 police officers, official figures show.
Home Office statistics published this morning show the total number of police officers recruited since the last election is 20,951 - bringing the total number to 149,572 in England and Wales.
The pledge was made in 2019 ahead of the 2010 general election, but critics have pointed to cuts to police numbers since then and said the government in fact missed the deadline to hit the target, which was set for March this year.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Rishi Sunak is due to announce that the government has successfully recruited 20,000 police officers since 2019, as critics point out that a similar number have been cut by Tory-led administrations since 2010.
In a statement, the prime minister said: “When I stood at the steps of Downing Street six months ago, I made clear that I would do whatever it takes to cut crime and make our communities safer. At the heart of that pledge is recruiting 20,000 additional police officers.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police forces have been alerted to the risk of a spike in disputes and confrontations at the forthcoming local elections amid new voter ID rules, according to the Association of Electoral Administrators. Cllr Kevin Bentley, Chairman of the LGA's People and Places Board, said: “Councils are working in innovative ways to highlight these changes. However, we remain concerned about the potential for electoral staff to be overwhelmed with inquiries and voter authority certificate applications now polling cards have been issued, and that some councils may struggle to recruit sufficient staff for polling stations.”
[ more...]
Justice
More than 80 alleged stalkers have been arrested since new legislation criminalised the offence in Northern Ireland last year, police have said.
The new law, which brought Northern Ireland in line with other parts of the UK, was introduced in April 2022.
Under the new legislation, convictions for the most serious offences carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
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Police and Crime General
A police force has asked volunteers to help them catch rapists by trawling through CCTV footage.
Sussex Police released a job advert inviting members of the public to play “a key role” in helping to investigate “serious sexual offences”.
The force, which has a budget gap of around £17m, has called for volunteers to work four-hour shifts to aid its pursuit of a broad range of criminals, The Mirror reports.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police forces are 30,000 officers short of what is needed to keep the public safe, it has been claimed. Poor pay, rising workloads and a ban on striking have seen record numbers quit, leaving a once-proud service in tatters. Home Secretary Suella Braverman is expected to announce this week that 20,000 have signed up after a high-profile recruitment drive.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police are failing to attend more than 60 per cent of anti-social behaviour incidents, new data has shown.
The figures obtained through freedom of information requests found 860,000 incidents of anti-social behaviour went unattended by police last year, equivalent to more than 2,000 cases a day.
This represented 63 per cent of the total 1.25 million reports of anti-social behaviour by residents and businesses last year, the highest proportion on record.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Six serving and three former Gwent Police officers are being investigated for allegedly sharing offensive messages.
A police watchdog investigation was launched after offensive messages were found on the phone of retired police officer Ricky Jones, who took his own life in 2020.
The messages were discovered by Mr Jones' family.
[ more...]
Fire
Frontline firefighters would undergo enhanced vetting under a change being considered by officials, a Home Office minister has said.
The development comes in the wake of an extensive investigation from ITV News, which uncovered widespread claims of sexual harassment and abuse of women at the hands of firefighters.
Last month, the Fire Inspectorate declared a "watershed moment," after discovering firefighters were suffering misogyny, racism and homophobia at a quarter of England's 44 fire services.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police forces need to be more robust in dealing with eco-protesters who disrupt the lives of millions of law-abiding people, one of the country’s most senior officers has suggested.
Stephen Watson, the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, said forces had the power to tackle demonstrators and should do so “very, very quickly”.
Some police chiefs have been accused of being too soft with unlawful protesters, but the head of GMP said if activists targeted his region they should not expect to receive a “warm blanket and a cup of tea”.
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Police Finances
Two police forces have been reprimanded for recording more than 200,000 phone calls without people's knowledge.
The reprimand was issued to Sussex Police and Surrey Police following the roll-out of an app in 2016 that captured personal data, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said.
It included "highly sensitive information" relating to suspected crimes, the watchdog said.
Both forces said the breach was "regrettable".
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Police and Crime General
Four police forces across England are to trial a new stop and search order aimed at tackling knife crime and serious violence.
They will introduce Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs), which will make it easier for officers to search high-risk offenders for weapons.
Forces in Sussex, Merseyside, Thames Valley and West Midlands will take part in the two-year trial.
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Police and Crime General
Sussex Police will be one of four forces taking part in a two-year trial of the new civil court powers alongside Merseyside Police, Thames Valley Police and West Midlands Police.
The SVROs are aimed at tackling knife crime and serious violence, allowing officers to stop, detain and search offenders who have previously been convicted of knife or offensive weapon offences.
They are also designed to help protect high-risk offenders from being drawn into further exploitation by criminal gangs.
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Police and Crime General
Improvements are being made to the way a police force deals with child sexual exploitation (CSE), its police and crime commissioner (PCC) believes.
John Campion, the PCC for the West Mercia force, said he had met with its chief constable, Pippa Mills, to discuss progress since an independent report into CSE.
It was published in 2022 and 13 of its 47 recommendations were for the force.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A police operation to tackle anti-social behaviour has seen 43 arrests in Exeter in four weeks, police have said.
Operation Loki was launched on 20 March in Exeter. Similar operations covered Torquay, Plymouth and Truro.
They are launching on different dates, with the latest beginning on 24 April in Falmouth.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Some shopkeepers say they are spending thousands of pounds bumping up security amid a surge in shoplifting during the cost-of-living crisis.
Retailers in the UK spent more £722m on crime prevention last year.
Some in the West Midlands have resorted to posting their CCTV footage on social media, complaining police are not doing enough trace the suspects.
One has even started a "wall of shame" by putting up images of alleged offenders outside his shop.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Sexual misconduct and racism claims against officers are proportionally higher in some English forces than at the Metropolitan police, a Guardian investigation has found, as new figures also revealed starkly different approaches to recording.
Three forces – Essex, Suffolk and Staffordshire – had, by proportion, more officers under investigation due to allegations of racism than the Met, according to the snapshot of investigations covering the period of late January and early February.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The number of neighbourhood police officers across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire is set to increase.
Thames Valley Police has confirmed it will allocate 150 additional officers, doubling the size of its neighbourhood policing teams, over the next year.
The force said there would be more visible patrols, with officers focusing on crime hotspots.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police’s reckoning over the past few months has reverberated across forces up and down the country. Many of the harrowing revelations to have emerged involve abuses of a sexual nature by serving officers, leaving women’s confidence in those tasked with protecting them in tatters, according to new survey data. A significant majority now believe widespread reform is in order as a result.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
An investigation has been launched after a man fell to his death from a balcony when he was Tasered by police following an hour-long standoff.
Officers from the Metropolitan police were called to a block of flats in Peckham, south London last week in an attempt to save the man’s life.
Police received a call showing concern for the man’s welfare, amid reports he was threatening to jump.
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Justice
Former Victims' Commissioner Dame Vera Baird has tonight warned that women could be at more risk from their abusive partners due to new rules for police officers which will stop them recording 'trivial' callouts.
Police will stop logging neighbour and domestic rows, Twitter spats and rude letters as offences under a major shake-up by the Home Office.
Chris Philp, the policing minister, believes removing the need to record 'trivial' incidents will save police 443,000 hours a year on bureaucracy and filling in crime reports.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK is set to be one of the worst performing major economies in the world this year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
It says the UK economy's performance in 2023 will be the worst among the 20 biggest economies, known as the G20, which includes sanctions-hit Russia.
The IMF predicts the UK economy will shrink this year, although this is a small upgrade from its last forecast.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers in England and Wales accused of violent and sexual misconduct are less likely to face disciplinary action under the revamped complaints system than the previous discredited regime, figures suggest.
An investigation by the Guardian and BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 programme found that only 8% of the 22,000 allegations scrutinised by local forces under the new system were referred for possible disciplinary proceedings in 2020-21, whereas 10% of the 21,000 allegations investigated under the old regulations were referred in the same year.
The new system was rolled out by the government at the start of 2020 in an effort to repair public confidence in the police, which had been damaged by a perceived lack of accountability. But the shake-up left local forces in charge of handling the vast majority of complaints against their own officers, with ministers and police chiefs at the time promising a greater emphasis on “learning from mistakes”, rather than punishment.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government has confirmed the two-year extension to the IFRS 9 statutory override (taking it to March 2025), allowing councils to record changes in the value of pooled investments in a special reserve rather than the revenue account.
A consultation was launched in August 2022 amid concerns the implementation of IFRS 9 from this April (when the previous override was set to end) could create volatility in setting council budgets.
The vast majority (91 out of 99) of respondents from local authorities supported a permanent override, with many expressing concerns that recording investment losses in revenue accounts could lead to budget cuts, and that local authorities already monitor investment risks through statutory codes.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The London mayor, Sadiq Khan, has accused the home secretary of delaying attempts to clean up policing amid mounting frustration among senior officers that they remain unable to sack rogue officers.
Khan has written to Suella Braverman urging her to stop dragging her feet over pushing ahead with new laws that allow police chiefs to get rid of corrupt officers.
The mayor’s letter was sent hours after the head of the Metropolitan police, Mark Rowley, lamented on Thursday that it was “nonsensical” he did not have the power to sack staff who were offenders or who were feared to pose a risk to the public.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police chiefs are to set up a national Crimestoppers hotline for the public to report corrupt, racist or misogynistic officers.
The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) said it wanted the anonymous reporting scheme to be established as soon as possible to tackle a crisis of public confidence in the police.
It hopes the move - modelled on a Scotland Yard Crimestoppers hotline that has already generated 350 intelligence leads on corrupt or racist officers - will demonstrate police forces are serious about rooting out criminality, racism and sexism.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The list of what is wrong with our system of law and order is now so long that one hardly knows where to start. Prisons, and especially the remand system, are so overcrowded that judges are urged to think very carefully before sending anyone there. In Crown Courts in some areas there is a two-year time lag before potential inmates even come to trial. Barristers are so dismally paid that it is sometimes hard to find any to defend or prosecute a case.
And then there are the police. Even those of us who thought we had seen everything were stunned when Sir Mark Rowley, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, admitted that 161 of his 35,000 officers had criminal records. Perhaps now word has got round that a career in the police – most of whose officers are decent people doing what is often a very horrible job – is not what it used to be, the Met is having to recruit its former clients if it is to maintain numbers.
[ more...]
Justice
Criminals in the south of England get softer treatment from judges than those in the North, according to the first analysis of sentences challenged for being “unduly lenient”.
Convicted offenders in the south of England are almost a third more likely to have their cases referred to the Court of Appeal because victims, members of the public or the Attorney General believe they may be too lenient.
Data compiled by the Labour Party shows that in the south of England, 23.9 per cent of eligible cases are referred by the Attorney General, compared with 18.6 per cent in the North.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Scotland Yard is battling its biggest corruption crisis since the 1970s, its commissioner has warned, as new evidence emerged of the widespread bungling of sexual and domestic abuse claims against officers.
The review of past allegations was triggered by the David Carrick scandal, where the force missed repeated clues that the Metropolitan police firearms officer was a threat to women, while he attacked at least 12 victims over a 20-year period, committing 85 serious crimes.
In a letter released on Thursday to the home secretary and to the London mayor, the commissioner – Sir Mark Rowley – revealed that the force examined 1,131 past allegations of sexual or domestic violence by officers and staff against women from the last decade.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Serving Met Police officers have been taken away from tackling serious crime and terrorism and instead told to investigate wrongdoing in the force.
Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said about 90 officers had been moved away from fighting serious and organised crime to the Met's professional standards team.
He told the BBC it was "nonsensical" he does not have power to sack officers.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Six in ten cases of street vandalism are dropped with no suspect being identified, figures have revealed.
Police recorded 51,033 cases of “criminal damage to a building other than a dwelling”, which officers use to record cases of vandalism in town centres. Of those, 29,391 cases were closed with no suspect identified. Only 3,907 cases — 7.7 per cent — resulted in a suspect being charged.
Vandalism was one of a range of offences that are going largely unpunished because of the failure to find suspects.
[ more...]
Justice
The “living together” requirement has been struck from the descriptions of controlling or coercive behaviour offences.
This means victims still suffering abuse from an ex-partner or family member they no longer live with are better protected.
Safeguarding Minister Sarah Dines said: “This updated guidance will offer wider protection to victims and will support the police to bring more perpetrators to justice.”
Love Island star Malin Andersson, 30, who is a domestic abuse survivor, welcomed the announcement.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Peter McCall officially became Cumbria’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) on Saturday 1 April 2023, taking on the governance responsibility for Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS).
[ more...]
Police Finances
Inflation and private sector expansion will make it increasingly difficult for local authorities to recruit and retain audit and accounting staff.
Two industry surveys revealed expansion plans as firms focus on improving performance as margins squeeze.
The research commissioned by American Express also revealed chief executives believe finance roles will evolve to meet new demands such as sustainability.
Stacey Sterbenz, general manager, UK commercial at American Express, said: “With calls from finance leaders for greater digital and analytical skills to interpret and act on organisational data, it’s clear that the finance function is evolving in response to new challenges.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Missing persons investigations going back decades and cases of unidentified remains across the UK will be freshly investigated under a new pilot scheme.
The programme, by the charity Locate International, will be limited initially to a small number of police forces. But the National Police Chiefs Council has said it could be extended nationwide, bringing in volunteer detectives from around the world to reinvestigate all 13,000 cold cases on the National Crime Agency’s UK missing persons unit.
“There is currently no dedicated, specialist service for families to turn to when a case remains unsolved or is not being progressed satisfactorily,” said Dave Grimstead, the retired police officer who founded the charity.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Rishi Sunak is to set out plans for a police taskforce to tackle grooming gangs, as he said political correctness had hindered efforts so far.
Specialist officers will be sent to help local forces with their investigations, the government said.
It said ethnicity data will help ensure abusers do not evade justice due to "cultural sensitivities".
[ more...]
Fire
Staff at a quarter of fire and rescue services in England have reported alleged racist, homophobic and misogynistic behaviour in their ranks in the past five years, inspectors say.
Their report found bullying allegations in all services - and inspectors say this could be "the tip of the iceberg".
Cases include male firefighters telling a colleague they would rape her and a senior officer using a racial slur.
The government called the findings "deeply concerning".
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy performed better than previously estimated at the end of last year, revised official figures show.
It was previously thought the economy had not grown in the last three months of 2022, but new Office for National Statistics data shows it grew by 0.1%.
The latest figures confirm that the UK economy avoided falling into recession at the end of 2022.
The ONS said telecommunications, construction and manufacturing had all fared better than initially thought.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government’s three-year economic crime plan will amount to “smoke and mirrors” if it does not receive adequate funding, according to MPs and experts who have accused ministers of failing to provide enough investment.
The new strategy – launched by the home secretary, Suella Braverman, on Thursday after a nine-month delay – sets out what the public and private sectors should do to crack down on kleptocrats, money laundering, sanctions busting and fraud.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police will be given the power to test suspects for all class-A drugs when they are arrested for crimes including theft, begging, domestic abuse and antisocial behaviour.
At present only heroin and cocaine are tested for, but under changes announced in the government’s antisocial behaviour strategy this will be widened to all class-A drugs, including Ecstasy and methamphetamine.
[ more...]
Prisons
Eighteen female staff at a jail which has pioneered a liberal approach have had relationships with prisoners since it opened, data obtained under Freedom of Information laws has revealed.
The 18 women including full-time officers and contract staff at HMP Berwyn in north Wales have been sacked or resigned after their affairs were exposed during its first six years of operation. Three have been jailed for misconduct in a public office.
The prison which opened in 2017 as Britain’s second biggest with space for 2,000 offenders pioneered a liberal approach to create a more “domestic” environment to aid rehabilitation with cells rebranded as rooms, prison blocks known as “communities” and inmates provided with laptops when they arrive.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
APCC Joint Victims’ Leads Donna Jones and Sophie Linden, said: “It is good to see to see the introduction of this much anticipated Bill. It is a real opportunity, if delivered right, to put victims at the heart of the system and create approaches that deliver for them.
“We have been working closely with the Ministry of Justice to develop several key areas of the Bill, including code compliance and the duty to collaborate. We are clear that each partner must be effectively resourced in order to deliver upon the aims and objectives. We will continue to challenge the department and our partners to ensure this Bill delivers the best outcomes for victims.
“As PCCs we play a central role locally in monitoring performance through chairing our Local Criminal Justice Boards and are responsible for facilitating partnership conversations. We look forward to the Bill cementing our role and promoting partnership working to drive forward positive change.
“We are pleased to see the vital role of ISVAs and IDVAs recognised by the government, however, we would challenge the department through this Bill to press the judiciary to recognise the vital role these services play in supporting victims to attend court.
“We will be reviewing the Bill in detail over the coming days and closely engaging with it as it progresses through Parliament.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Michael Gove was challenged over his own history of cocaine use as he revealed plans to ban laughing gas on the streets of Britain.
The levelling up secretary said Rishi Sunak’s government would ban the sale of nitrous oxide, also known as “hippy crack”, to stop public places being turned into drug-taking “arenas”.
But Mr Gove – who has admitted taking cocaine on several occasions in the past – was challenged on his own drug use on Sky News politics show Sophy Ridge on Sunday.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Government has announced that possessing laughing gas is to be made a criminal offence for the first time. An LGA spokesperson said: “The problems caused by nitrous oxide in our local communities are no laughing matter. Councils are concerned that not only does it lead to a plague of anti-social behaviour but there is growing evidence that it can cause serious health problems for those who use it.” The change is part of a crackdown on anti-social behaviour which the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will announce today. The plans will also give police and councils additional powers to deal with people who are “causing nuisance” by blocking shop doorways, asking for money at cash machines or leaving their belongings on pavements.
[ more...]
Justice
10 new pilot areas who will be given new powers to tackle anti social behaviour are due to announced by the Government tomorrow it has been reported. The new plans will see Police and Crime Commissioners given funding to ensure people responsible for offences such as graffiti and vandalism start repair work as soon as possible. It will also include a ban on nitrous oxide.
[ more...]
Justice
Long delays and a massive increase in the rescheduling of rape trials are having a devastating impact on victims’ mental health and leading some victims to take their own lives, according to a major new report.
Data from a freedom of information request by Rape Crisis England and Wales has revealed that the number of rape trials that were “vacated” and “ineffective” – and as a result delayed – more than doubled from 2019-2020 to 2021-2022.
Data from HM Courts and Tribunal Service also shows that the number of trials that were postponed at least once increased by 133%, while the number of trials with three or more previous trial dates has almost doubled over the same time frame. There were five times as many trials that had been rescheduled six or more times.
[ more...]
Justice
Children as young as eight are being strip-searched by the police, according to a report showing "deeply concerning" and "widespread" failures. It also found some children were strip-searched in the back of police vans, in schools and outside fast-food outlets.
The report by Children's Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza showed 2,847 children were searched in England and Wales from 2018 to mid-2022.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Sir Mark Rowley has defended Clare Davies, his £200,000-a-year human resources chief, after whistleblowers claimed a catalogue of Metropolitan Police failings identified in the Casey review could be laid at her door.
Ms Davies, appointed an OBE for services to policing in 2017, was promoted by the new commissioner when he took over last year, becoming the Met’s chief people and resources officer.
But last week’s report by Baroness Louise Casey was extremely critical of the force’s HR operations, describing the Met as “an organisation that is incoherent and unstrategic”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Does the government have an issue with listening to experts? That's the question Here's the Story put to the Prime Minister after he announced nitrous oxide (widely known as laughing gas) would be made a Class-C drug in a crackdown on anti-social behaviour.
It means possession could carry a prison sentence of up to two years, an unlimited fine, or both.
Rishi Sunak's decision to criminalise the drug is in direct opposition to advice given by his government's own experts, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), which advised against such a move.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Sex offences have increased by 31 per cent – their biggest ever annual rise – government figures show.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published data on sexual offences in England and Wales based on research from the crime survey, police figures and victim services.
Researchers found that for the year ending March 2022 there was an increase of 31 per cent from 147,835 to 193,566 police-recorded sexual offences compared with the previous year. It marks the biggest annual increase for the police-recorded figures.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan police cannot be reformed: it must be given its final rites and buried for good. I made this argument in the first column I ever wrote for this newspaper, nearly a decade ago: the case is surely even more compelling now.
By finding “institutional racism, sexism and homophobia” within the force, Louise Casey and her review have underlined a basic fact: most of the capital’s population cannot trust the Met with their safety. It is, as Doreen Lawrence puts it, “rotten to the core”. It took the murder of her son for London’s police force to be first damned for “institutional racism” by the Macpherson report nearly quarter of a century ago. And yet nothing changed, aided by a culture of denial among politicians, such as the then-Labour justice secretary, Jack Straw, who said, a decade later, the judgment no longer applied.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The cost of living unexpectedly increased last month after shortages of salad and vegetables helped push food prices to their highest for 45 years.
Alcohol prices in restaurants and pubs also drove up costs for households, as inflation jumped to 10.4% in the year to February from 10.1% in January.
Clothing costs, particularly for children and women, rose last month but fuel prices continued to fall.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley will be questioned by MPs and City Hall today after a damning report found institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia within the force.
The author of the Met review Baroness Louise Casey will also be questioned by the home affairs committee in parliament and London Assembly's police and crime committee.
It follows heavy criticism for Britain's largest police force after harrowing details emerged in the report, which was commissioned by the Met after the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
He will also pledge to halve serious violent crime and raise confidence in the police and criminal justice system in the wake of the damning report by Baroness Casey into Scotland Yard.
The Labour leader will claim Rishi Sunak’s Tories are “out of touch” and too detached with the reality of life in some of the country’s most deprived communities.
You can't defeat misogyny without robust policing, but you can't have robust policing without defeating misogyny
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police and Crime Commissioners outside of London have pledged to enact reforms and hold their own forces accountable in light of the Casey report.
Several PCCs acknowledged in statements on Tuesday that Baroness Louise Casey’s review into the “institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic” Metropolitan Police force will impact public confidence in policing outside of the capital.
Sussex PCC Katy Bourne said: “When the Met sneezes, all other forces catch a cold because of its scale and impact in national headlines and public perception.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Trust in the Metropolitan Police has been “hugely damaged” by the torrent of scandals involving its officers, the Prime Minister said on Tuesday.
Rishi Sunak was speaking after a damning report branded the force institutionally sexist, racist and homophobic.
Baroness Dame Louise Casey denounced a catalogue of failings at Scotland Yard in her landmark review, commissioned after the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard by serving Met officer Wayne Couzens.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A review by Baroness Louise Casey has found that women and children have been failed by the Metropolitan Police, with racism, misogyny, and homophobia at the heart of the force.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the BBC: "I want both my daughters to grow up in a society which - not only do they have trust in the police - but is fundamentally safe."
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Sadiq Khan has publicly clashed with the commissioner of the Metropolitan police, saying he disagrees with Sir Mark Rowley’s refusal to describe his force as institutionally misogynistic, racist and homophobic.
The mayor of London, one of two people who appointed Rowley, spoke as the fallout from Louise Casey’s bombshell report into Scotland Yard continued.
Labour attacked the government for complacency and Rowley insisted in a round of broadcast interviews he was committed to radical reforms.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A "root and branch" review of policing is needed across the entire country, Baroness Louise Casey has told Sky News, after the publication of her damning report about the Metropolitan Police.
Baroness Casey, who spent a year investigating the Met Police, said some of the issues she found in the London force such as racism and misogyny are national problems.
"There are some things there like vetting, like the cultural issues particularly around race and around women, I think that they are national issues," she said.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police forces are failing to train officers on the importance of free speech while teaching them obscure pronouns, according to a report.
The Free Speech Union (FSU) said there was a “free speech crisis” in British policing and that forces were not emphasising the importance of freedom of expression to officers.
Officers are undergoing tens of thousands of hours of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) training in which they are told that gender is “culturally determined” and about the use of pronouns including “fae” and “faer”. At least one force still uses the “genderbread” diagram, which illustrates the notion that biological sex is irrelevant to an individual’s innate sense of gender.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Laws could be changed to make it easier for police chiefs to sack rogue officers, the home secretary has said.
Suella Braverman said it was currently “very difficult” for chief constables to kick out officers who “fall short”.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has estimated that hundreds of officers in his force have been getting away with misconduct and even criminal behaviour, but he currently has no way of removing them.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The deal, announced in last week’s Spring Budget, will see more powers and funding – as much as £1.5 billion – devolved to the West Midlands in the coming years. This will give local leaders “unparalleled control” over spending.
But Simon Foster said: “The Government’s Deeper Devolution Deal has failed to deliver on policing, community safety and criminal justice. The Government promised the deal would reduce homicide, serious violence and neighbourhood crime, within the worst affected areas by 2030.
“We submitted many proposals to the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice, including how the criminal justice system could work better for policing and victims of crime, improve the prospects of turning around the lives of young people and increase retention of average speed enforcement fines and proceeds of crime, to enable them to be invested back into the West Midlands.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Almost 25 years after the Macpherson inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence labelled the Metropolitan Police “institutionally racist”, the force is preparing for a far more damning verdict.
This week a report by Baroness Casey of Blackstock, brought in to investigate the Met after the rape and murder of Sarah Everard in March 2021, is expected to highlight rampant levels of misogyny, racism and homophobia in the UK’s biggest force, as well as a series of structural failings.
Now, on the eve of the release of her independent review, which followed a series of scandals at the Met, three female police chiefs have spoken about the impact it will have on policing.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers accused of racism, misogyny and homophobia should face gross misconduct hearings so they can be kicked out of the force if found guilty, a damning report is expected to recommend.
Dame Louise Casey - who will publish her review into culture and standards in the Met on Tuesday - will accuse the force of being too tolerant of unacceptable behaviour in the past.
Police officers can only be dismissed if they are found to have committed gross misconduct rather than just misconduct.
[ more...]
Justice
The Prime Minister is to launch a new “immediate justice” strategy next week which will see anyone who commits anti-social behaviour such as graffiti or fly-tipping forced to clean it up within two days. Rishi Sunak is also thought to be considering plans to dock benefits and allow local communities to decide how people are punished.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police is expected to be heavily criticised for being racist, sexist and homophobic in a report. Baroness Casey's review will be published on Tuesday.
She was appointed to review the force's culture and standards after the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Jeremy Hunt’s pension reforms are a “game changer” which will keep officers fighting crime, the country’s most senior police commissioner said on Friday night – as Labour came under pressure not to reverse the Chancellor’s plans.
The chairman of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) said Mr Hunt’s decision to scrap the rule, which means people must pay tax if their pension pot exceeds £1.07 million, is “essential” to persuading senior officers not to take early retirement.
And he warned that the previous system – to which Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to return – would “disincentivise officers from working longer”.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The UK has been ranked among the worst nations in western Europe in which to participate in a peaceful protest, according to a report that warns of a “rapid decline in civic freedoms”.
Civicus, a global alliance of civil society groups, assessed the extent to which civil liberties were deemed at risk in almost 200 countries, placing them into five categories: open, narrowed, obstructed, repressed or closed.
For the first time the report has downgraded the UK to “obstructed”, making it one of the few democracies in the same tier as El Salvador, Guinea-Bissau, Timor-Leste and Liberia.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The UK has been downgraded in an annual global index of civic freedoms as a result of the government’s “increasingly authoritarian” drive to impose restrictive and punitive laws on public protests.
The Civicus Monitor, which tracks the democratic and civic health of 197 countries across the world, said the UK government was creating a “hostile environment” towards campaigners, charities and other civil society bodies.
[ more...]
Prisons
Hundreds of jailed criminals are to be fast-tracked into open prisons to help tackle an overcrowding crisis.
Burglars, fraudsters, thieves and drug dealers are to be moved from secure “closed” jails to spend their last three months in open prisons before release. It aims to ease the pressure on jails which are now almost full after a 4,000-strong increase in inmates in just a year.
Open or “category D” prisons are designed for low-risk offenders to complete their sentences with minimal supervision and perimeter security. They are often not locked up in cells and can leave to work and spend time at home on temporary early release.
[ more...]
Prisons
The Lord Chancellor changed the rules in July last year in an effort to ban Ministry of Justice (MoJ) staff from expressing a view on whether offenders should be set free from prison.
Raab wanted the power to offer a “single Secretary of State view” in high-profile cases, without the risk of being contradicted by prison or probation staff in their expert reports and evidence.
However, judges in the High Court on Wednesday found the rule change was unlawful and that it may have led to prisoners being released by mistake.
In a highly critical ruling, Lady Justice Macur and Mr Justice Chamberlain found MoJ guidance from July, which was updated in October, estimated it covered more than 12,000 Parole Board hearings.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Two thirds of drivers who use glasses or contacts are 'putting off' correcting their vision and risk a £1,000 fine for risking accidents, new data has shown.
Elderly and visually-impaired drivers are being warned they should get their eyes tested to avoid the risk of causing accidents on the road.
However, most people who need to get their eyes fixed are avoiding treatment, according to data from the Association of Optometrists (AOP).
[ more...]
Technology
The biometrics and surveillance camera commissioner has written to police forces in England and Wales with a series of questions over their use drones.
Fraser Sampson said he is seeking to clarify and develop a picture of how police are using uncrewed aerial vehicles, and has asked them to provide the relevant information by the end of this month.
The questions in the letter cover issues such as details of the drones and supporting systems, including makes and models used by the forces and their partner agencies.
This reflects concerns raised in the commissioner’s recent warning about the widespread use of Chinese technology in policy surveillance cameras, and the Government’s efforts to cut the use of equipment made by some Chinese manufacturers in in its estate surveillance systems.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A man has been taken to hospital with slash wounds after the second knife attack in Walsall in three days.
The victim, in his 20s, suffered slash wounds after being attacked with a machete and was being treated for his injuries which are not thought to be life-threatening.
He was assaulted by a group of men who fled the Pool Street scene just before 20:00 GMT on Monday.
[ more...]
Technology
One of Britain's biggest retailers is using controversial facial recognition cameras to identify thieves – amid claims police have given up arresting shoplifters.
Frasers Group, the owner of Sports Direct and fashion chain Flannels, has installed biometric cameras that scan the faces of shoppers and check them against a database of suspected criminals.
Staff at the retail empire – controlled by billionaire Mike Ashley – are alerted as soon as the artificial intelligence (AI) cameras, which are in at least 27 stores, identify an offender so they can either escort them from the shop or closely monitor them.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police are to be barred from recording non-crime hate incidents just because someone is offended, under plans announced on Monday by Suella Braverman.
The Home Secretary has endorsed new guidance that requires officers to prioritise freedom of expression over offensive, controversial or derogatory language that upsets people.
Officers will be restricted to recording only incidents that are motivated by intentional hostility and pose a real risk of escalating into significant harm.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Half of all police forces in England and Wales have fewer officers than when the Tories came to power in 2010, despite the recent uplift programme, analysis by the Telegraph can reveal.
The Government has insisted it remains on track to achieve its target of recruiting 20,000 new police officers by the end of this month.
But even with the influx of fresh bobbies, 22 out of the 43 forces remain worse off now in terms of officer numbers than before austerity.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police force is to reopen the front desk at 17 stations in an effort to improve public trust.
Will Kerr, who has been brought in as chief constable to get Devon and Cornwall police out of special measures, said that in policing “everything starts and ends in the local neighbourhood” and the move would make officers more accessible to the public.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Jeremy Hunt will have £166bn of headroom to cut taxes and invest in next week's Budget, according to one of Britain's leading economic think tanks.
The figure is nine times a prediction by the official spending watchdog in November, underscoring improvements in the economy after booming tax receipts and a sharp fall in energy prices.
[ more...]
Technology
Replacement for Airwave system hit by fresh delays despite project already costing more than £2bn.
The Home Office is still unable to say when a planned communications system for Great Britain’s blue light services will be operational, despite spending almost £2bn on the project, the Whitehall spending watchdog has said.
[ more...]
Fire
Firefighters have accepted a new pay offer, ending the prospect of strike action. The settlement is for a 7 per cent increase backdated to July 2022, plus an additional 5 per cent from July 2023.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Jeremy Hunt will find himself with an extra £30 billion to ease the cost of living crisis and resolve labour shortages, new research suggests. The Resolution Foundation thinktank said the Chancellor would benefit from borrowing being about £30 billion lower than anticipated this year, due to tax receipts recovering and a lower bill than expected for energy support.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
UK government ministers did not understand their own Covid lockdown rules, causing confusion and resentment among the police officers tasked with enforcing them, according to a former police chief.
Officers were criticised in 2020 and 2021 for their hardline interpretation of the regulations, which involved them monitoring people with drones, fining people going for walks with cups of coffee and handing out leaflets asking why people were outside.
Peter Fahy, the former chief constable of Greater Manchester police, said on Friday however that recent revelations in the Telegraph have underlined how difficult it was for officers to enforce the lockdowns.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A focus on political correctness has created a “blind spot” for Islamist extremists to operate “under our radar”, the Home Secretary has said.
Speaking on Wednesday at a counter-extremism conference organised by Robin Simcox, the commissioner for countering extremism, Suella Braverman said the entire concept of political correctness should be eliminated.
In an excerpt from her speech, obtained by The Times, Ms Braverman said: “We have a blind spot in the system. It has allowed certain Islamist groups to operate under our radar.
“There can be no place for political correctness in our national security. In fact, I’d like to banish it altogether.”
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
More than 800 British police officers have applied for jobs in Australia with the promise of higher pay, better weather and greater respect.
Paul Papalia, police minister in the government of Western Australia, said there has been an “overwhelming” response from fed-up officers.
Recruits, who must have at least three years’ experience, will start on a basic salary of about £50,000 compared with £30,000 for a constable with five years’ experience in the UK.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police chiefs should introduce positive discrimination in recruiting ethnic minorities to help combat institutional racism within forces, says Britain’s most senior ethnic minority policing leader.
Neil Basu, who was the UK’s counter-terror chief and led the police service’s strategic command training course for senior officers, said two-thirds of chief constables were either “too terrified” or did not care enough to acknowledge the police were institutionally racist.
He revealed one chief constable had even been told by his police and crime commissioner that he would be sacked if they came out and called their force institutionally racist.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Violent and abusive attacks on retail staff have almost doubled since pre-pandemic levels, a new crime survey can reveal.
More than 850 incidents have been recorded daily in the UK between 2021 and 2022, which include racial and sexual abuse, physical assault, and threats with weapons.
This is a jump from the 450 attacks per day that happened in the year 2019 to 2020, before Covid hit.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
New figures show government departments are due to spend £24 billion less than the Treasury budgeted for last October. A breakdown of Whitehall spending shows big reductions in the budgets of the business department, and the levelling up department.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
A report by the New Economics Foundation has claimed the Government is hiding £28 billion of “stealth cuts” to public services over the next five years, and warns that a renewed austerity drive at next month’s Budget would further damage the economy.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The legal age for marriage and civil partnerships in England and Wales rises to 18 today under a law to tackle the forced marriages of children.
The legislation, which has increased the legal age by two years, will protect vulnerable youngsters, ministers have said.
Under the law, those found guilty of causing the marriage of anyone younger than 18 will face a potential prison sentence of up to seven years.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police forces are not doing enough in the fight against fraud, with just two per cent of funding spent on Britain's biggest crime, consumer advocates have warned.
Fraud represents 40pc of all crimes committed in Britain, more than any other. Yet an investigation has revealed that some forces only have a handful of officers to deal with it.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Shocking figures obtained by the Observer show roughly one in 100 police officers in England and Wales faced criminal charges, including for sexual offences, last year alone.
An Observerinvestigation has found that the Police Federation, the staff association for police officers, received 1,387 claims for legal support from members facing criminal charges in 2022.
[ more...]
Justice
Official data shows 2,136,930 crimes were logged as 'investigation complete – no suspect identified' by forces in England and Wales during the year.
It means more than 5,800 investigations a day were abandoned, a Labour Party analysis of Home Office data revealed.
[ more...]
Justice
The police, rather than independent prosecution lawyers, should have the power to charge suspects in most cases, three senior police chiefs have said, as they warned of a deepening crisis in the justice system.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The police, rather than independent prosecution lawyers, should have the power to charge suspects in most cases, three senior police chiefs have said, as they warned of a deepening crisis in the justice system.
The controversial change is being called for by the chief constables of the West Midlands, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire forces, respectively the second, third and fourth biggest in England after the Met, the Guardian has learned.
They say the Crown Prosecution Service should be stripped of having the sole power to authorise charges in most cases, helping to drag the justice system out of a worsening crisis. This would include for crimes such as domestic abuse, harassment, burglary, robbery, theft, knife crime, and violent crime.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Motorists are being wrongly accused of offences because it is too easy for criminals to clone number plates, according to an independent report for the Government.
The unpublished document for the Home Office, seen by The Telegraph, warned that the current system of regulation was too weak to prevent criminals and dishonest motorists from copying number plates to avoid detection by the country’s expanding network of 11,000 ANPR cameras taking 100 million pictures a day.
It stated that thousands of innocent motorists a year are at risk of being wrongly accused of not only driving offences, but also more serious crimes because of the ease with which their vehicle’s registration plate could be cloned by those seeking to avoid police detection.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Shocking figures obtained by the Observer show roughly one in 100 police officers in England and Wales faced criminal charges, including for sexual offences, last year alone.
An Observerinvestigation has found that the Police Federation, the staff association for police officers, received 1,387 claims for legal support from members facing criminal charges in 2022.
The data also suggested that the number of officers facing criminal charges has skyrocketed by 590% since 2012. That year, just 235 claims were made for Police Federation legal support by its members.
[ more...]
Technology
New research suggests that by 2026, one in every four people will spend at least an hour a day in the metaverse to work, study, shop and socialise; Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at what this will mean for law enforcement, and how organisations such as INTERPOL are playing a key role in preparing policing for a very different beat.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Home Secretary Rt Hon Suella Braverman has today, Thursday 23 February, written to Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners to set out details and timings of work by partners to address mental health demand.
APCC Lead for Mental Health Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Surrey, Lisa Townsend, said: “Police officers across the country are increasingly becoming the first port of call when someone is suffering mental health crisis when what they really need is proper medical intervention and support from health care professionals.
“This all too often results in our already over-stretched police officers, who are doing their best to keep our communities safe, being diverted away from their core duties.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The police are dealing with increasing demands to intervene with people suffering mental health crises, freedom of information requests show. Some forces across England and Wales have experienced a tripling in mental health requests between 2019 and 2021.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Public sector workers should receive just a 3.5 per cent pay rise next year, ministers have declared, as they opened talks aimed at ending the current wave of strikes.
The figure emerged on Tuesday night in official submissions to the independent pay review bodies released by government departments and relating to the salaries of doctors, nurses, teachers and police officers in 2023-24.
The Treasury is understood to believe that going higher than this level would mean deeper spending cuts were needed - and that any increase above five per cent risks fuelling inflation further. Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, repeated his warning on Tuesday that inflation must be halved from 10 per cent in order to grow in the economy.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK government recorded a surprise surplus in its finances in January despite "substantial spending" to help households with energy bills and one-off payments to the EU. The Government spent less than it received in tax during the month, resulting in a surplus of £5.4 billion, which comes ahead of the Budget set to be delivered next month.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The SPR sets out the Home Secretary's view of what the current national threats are, and the national policing capabilities needed to counter those threats.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK government recorded a surprise surplus in its finances in January despite "substantial spending" to help households with energy bills and one-off payments to the EU.
The government spent less than it received in tax during the month, resulting in a surplus of £5.4bn.
Economists had forecast borrowing of £7.8bn, but record self-assessed income tax receipts boosted the UK's coffers.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Ministers have recommended NHS workers, police officers, teachers and judges are all given a 3.5% pay rise for the next financial year.
Government departments have written to the independent pay review bodies of each sector to submit their evidence and say what figure is deemed affordable by them and the Treasury.
But a number of unions are calling for much higher pay awards for the last financial year before negotiations even begin for 2023/24, and the figure for the following 12 months may not meet expectations.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Stop and search in its present form "burns through trust", the Met Police commissioner has told a group of community leaders in south London.
Speaking at Ruach City Church, Brixton, Sir Mark Rowley also admitted the relationship with black communities was "amongst the worst, if not the worst".
Officers can carry out checks if they have "reasonable grounds" to suspect someone is carrying weapons or drugs.
Sir Mark said: "It has a value but it also has a cost if done badly."
[ more...]
Justice
The Government has said the most dangerous domestic abusers will be monitored more closely and electronically tagged as part of a new crackdown. Police forces will be required to treat violence against women and girls as a national threat – making it as important to tackle as terrorism.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Official submissions to pay board warn of rising resignations and frustration as police barred from striking
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The future of British policing will be under threat if the government continues to ignore calls for a “fair” pay increase, it has been warned.
Submissions to the official advisory board on police pay say that the benefits of Boris Johnson’s pledge to recruit 20,000 extra officers will be lost if members of the force, who are legally barred from striking, continue to resign at rocketing rates.
Documents seen by The Independent state that police officers’ pay has fallen by almost 17 per cent since 2010, with starting salaries plummeting from more than £33,000 to between £23,500 and £26,700 when adjusted for inflation.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Black people are seven times more likely to die than white people after being restrained by police, according to new analysis.
A report by the charity Inquest alleges that the British system for investigating deaths after contact with police fails black families and ignores the possibility that racism could be a factor.
It said that, between 2012/13 and 2020/21 there were 119 deaths involving restraint recorded by the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The most dangerous domestic abusers will be recorded on the violent and sex offender register under new proposals aimed at better protecting the public.
Around 2.4 million people in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse in the last year, with around one in five homicides related to it, according to the Home Office.
Starting immediately, anyone jailed for 12 months or more for coercive control, including suspended sentences, will be placed on the violent and sex offender register.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Senior police officers, families of shooting victims and anti-gun campaigners have called for a “radical reform” of the firearms licensing system after an inquest jury found “catastrophic” failings allowed the Plymouth gunman, Jake Davison, to legally possess a shotgun that he used to kill five people.
Pressure is mounting on the UK government to overhaul the 50-year-old licensing legislation and ensure police forces are adequately funded to allow them to fully examine the suitability of gun owners.
Speaking after the inquest, relatives of his victims described the actions of Davison, who was fascinated with “incel” culture, previous mass shootings and serial murderers, as “pure evil” but said he had been given a “licence to kill” by Devon and Cornwall police. They also argued that the home secretary, Suella Braverman, would be “betraying” them if she did not change the system.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Home Secretary has revealed she is "not wholly satisfied" with the police response over why Nicola Bulley's personal medical information was released.
Suella Braverman had demanded answers last week from Lancashire Constabulary over why it revealed that Ms Bulley, a mother-of-two, has struggled with alcohol and the perimenopause.
The force initially told the public in a press conference last Wednesday that the 45-year-old, who has been missing since January 27, has "individual vulnerabilities” which classify her as "high risk" -- without divulging any further details.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Labour have pledged to reintroduce a strengthened version of the Asbo that would allow police to arrest those engaging in anti-social behaviour.
The party said the “Respect Orders” would tackle serial offenders and help clean up high streets.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Labour have pledged to reintroduce a strengthened version of the Asbo that would allow police to arrest those engaging in anti-social behaviour.
The party said the “Respect Orders” would tackle serial offenders and help clean up high streets.
In 2014, the Government overhauled powers relating to anti-social behaviour, abolishing Labour’s anti-social behaviour orders (Asbo).
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
New analysis shows eight of the ten police forces with the highest increases in knife crime are in areas with Conservative Party Police and Crime Commissioners.
Tory bosses this week mounted an ad campaign claiming Labour were soft on crime. But figures show knife crime in Surrey has increased more than tenfold over the last decade.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Labour will promise to recruit an extra 13,000 community police officers and PCSOs to tackle knife crime and drug dealing if elected.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper is expected to announce the “neighbourhood policing guarantee” on Thursday.
Ms Cooper will also take aim at a deliberately “hands-off Home Office” culture which she will claim has been fostered by the Conservatives over the last 13 years.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Overall UK price inflation fell for the third month in a row to 10.1% in the year to January from 10.5% in December.
The biggest factors in the rate slowing were decreases in fuel prices and the cost of dining out.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Britain should be more concerned about Chinese-made CCTV cameras on the streets than spy balloons 60,000ft above ground, a watchdog has warned.
New findings from the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner (OBSCC) said British police forces are "shot through" with Chinese cameras, drones and other surveillance equipment.
The watchdog's survey also suggested bodies using the equipment were "generally aware that there are security and ethical concerns about the companies supplying their kit".
[ more...]
Technology
Police forces are failing to use DNA powers that could catch repeat killers, rapists, robbers and burglars and prevent them committing further crimes, an official watchdog has warned.
A total of ten police forces have failed to make any applications in the past decade that would have allowed them to retain the DNA of freed suspects in serious “high harm” offences ranging from murder, sex offences and robbery to burglary and assault.
Under the powers, they can apply to the biometric and surveillance commissioner to retain the DNA of suspects for up to three years even if they have been arrested but not charged.
[ more...]
Fire
Strike action by firefighters has been put on hold while union members consider an increased pay offer.
During talks on Tuesday, fire service employers put forward a revised offer, which includes a 7% pay rise backdated to July last year and another 5% from this July.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) will now ballot members on the deal.
More than 80% of members who voted in a ballot in December backed strike action.
[ more...]
Prisons
The government has been described as “chaotic” by a local police and crime commissioner after his West Midlands force was asked to accommodate 44 prisoners in its custody cells after running out of space in jails in the region.
The government’s request was made yesterday under new emergency measures, known as Operation Safeguard, that allow the Ministry of Justice to request police cells to house prisoners.
It is the first time that police cells will have been used for convicted prisoners since 2008. It is understood that a similar number of cells will be requested from police in northwest England in the next few days.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found that Greater Manchester Police has a clear governance structure to provide strategic oversight of custody services.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Rishi Sunak has been warned by an influential Conservative think tank that levelling up will succeed only if the government tackles the antisocial behaviour that is blighting “left behind communities”.
In new research, Onward highlighted low-level crime as the biggest barrier to revitalising town centres and other communities, warning that in some parts of the country public order offences were more than four times higher than in 2015.
The report highlighted Oldham, where a group of young people congregating around tram stops and harassing passengers had resulted in people avoiding public transport and one resident said that “you take your life in your hands for a £3.60 return”.
[ more...]
Prisons
Prisoners are set to be held in police cells within weeks, as plans to cut jail overcrowding were put into action.
Last year the government announced it had asked to use 400 cells, following a surge in overcrowding in male prisons and youth jails.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has given the National Police Chiefs' Council) 14 days to make cells in the north of England and West Midlands available.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Policing Just Stop Oil protests cost taxpayers £7.5 million in just nine weeks, new figures show.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman declared “enough is enough” as Metropolitan Police data obtained by the PA news agency revealed the daily cost of dealing with the environmental activists reached up to £630,000 last autumn.
The force said the money “could have been better used” tackling “priority crime” in local communities.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Government has been accused of being “asleep at the wheel” on tackling crime after only 4 per cent of home burglaries led to a charge or summons last year.
Figures show that almost 96,000 burglaries went unsolved – without even a suspect being identified – in the first three quarters of 2022.
Of the 142,430 total recorded burglaries, 5,926 were solved by police, government data shows.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police chief calls for ‘cooling off’ periods so customers can review transactions if they think they were scammed
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
On the recommendation of Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), ten additional nitazenes, together with brorphine, will now be made Class A substances.
Their possession will now be illegal and anyone caught supplying the drugs will face up to life in prison, an unlimited fine or both.
The Home Office says these “highly dangerous” drugs are psychoactive substances that can be more potent than fentanyl.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Officers with prior convictions and close links with criminals are among hundreds who have joined the police in the last three years who should not have been allowed in, according to the head of the police watchdog.
HM inspector of constabulary Matt Parr also said that there was a real problem with misogyny within the police that had to be tackled, adding that most, if not all, serving female police officers had had to endure sexual assault and inappropriate behaviour from fellow officers. “The culture of misogyny within policing is something that is there, it’s real and it has absolutely got to be dealt with,” he said.
[ more...]
Technology
Fraud is to be reclassified as a threat to national security under government plans that will force police chiefs to devote more officers to solving the crime.
It will be elevated to the same status as terrorism, with chief constables mandated to increase resources and combine capabilities in a new effort to combat a fraud epidemic that now accounts for 30 per cent of all crime.
It will be added to the strategic policing requirement, which means that forces will be required by ministers to treat fraud as a major priority alongside not only terrorism, but also public disorder, civil emergencies, serious and organised crime, cyber attacks and child sexual abuse.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Government is set to fall short of its flagship 2019 manifesto pledge to recruit 20,000 police officers by more than 1,000, leaving police forces facing a £14m funding blackhole, i can reveal.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson promised to hire 20,000 extra officers under the Police Uplift Programme (PUP) by March 2023 in an attempt to reverse a decade of austerity cuts made by his Conservative predecessors.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The government’s policing minister Chris Philp has reassured the Fed that tackling retail crime is a priority.
As part of the Fed’s political engagement strategy and commitment to raising awareness in the government of the scale of retail crime, national president Jason Birks wrote to Philp in December.
He invited the minister to attend a meeting of the All-Party Parliament Group on Retail Crime, of which the Fed is Secretariat, to hear at first hand the true extent of such crimes and the devastating impact they have on victims.
[ more...]
Fire
Firefighters are to go on strike in a row over pay after experiencing what they say is a cut in real-terms pay. Members of the Fire Brigade Union (FBU) voted for action in a ballot that closed yesterday – resulting in the UK’s first nationwide fire service strike over pay since 2003.
[ more...]
Fire
MPs have approved plans aimed at enforcing minimum service levels for some sectors during strikes. Under the bill, some employees, including in the rail industry and emergency services, would be required to work during industrial action. They could be sacked if they refuse.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The International Monetary Fund has said the UK economy will shrink and perform worse than other advanced economies as the cost of living continues to hit households.
[ more...]
Justice
The number of charges related to domestic abuse has halved since 2015, figures for England and Wales analysed by the Labour party have revealed, while similar offences recorded by police have more than doubled. Domestic abuse charges authorised by the Crown Prosecution Service have steadily declined from 82,158 in 2015/16 to 43,836 in 2021/22, the data shows.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
A police chief has suggested vetting should be taken out of the hands of forces and carried out by an independent body to stop rogue officers slipping through the net.
Marc Jones, chairman of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APPC), said the idea “needs to be explored” while reforms are considered in the wake of the David Carrick case and a series of other scandals which have plunged the service into crisis.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Up to 70 per cent of complaints dismissed internally by police forces have been upheld when reviewed by independent bodies, raising the question of whether forces should be allowed to “mark their own homework”.
It has emerged that in the case of hundreds of complaints rejected by forces over 12 months, including allegations of officer misconduct, the decisions were overturned when scrutinised by elected officials or the police watchdog.
An analysis by The Times reveals that nearly half of forces in England and Wales failed to investigate adequately a large percentage of such complaints in 2021-22.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Applicants to the police who can barely write in English are being accepted by the Met in an attempt to improve diversity, one of His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary has warned.
[ more...]
Justice
Nearly a third of victims are dropping out of prosecutions, official figures show, amid a record rise in sex offences.
A record 1.4 million victims – 29.5 per cent of the total – withdrew from investigations largely because of court delays, low police conviction rates and fears over the trauma of reliving the crime in court, according to Home Office figures for the year to last September.
More than half of those who dropped out were victims of rape, other sex offences or violence. A record 67 per cent of rape vicitims withdrew from investigations, while more than half of those injured in violent assaults declined to proceed with a prosecution, leading to the collapse of the case.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) found a 22% increase in sex crimes in comparison to pre-COVID levels. Despite being logged, a charity worker warned those charged for sexual offences is at an "abysmal new low".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has set out a £14.2m proposal to "raise standards, improve performance and rebuild trust" in the Metropolitan Police.
It comes after David Carrick pleaded guilty last week to 49 offences over 18 years while he was a serving officer.
On Wednesday, Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said he expected two or three Met Police officers per week to face criminal charges in the coming months.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
More police officers quit than joined the service last month as the Government faces a struggle to fulfil its flagship policy on police recruitment.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
More than 3,000 police officers need to be hired in less than three months in England and Wales if the Government is to hit its target to sign up 20,000 new recruits.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
For residents of Oldham, antisocial behaviour is pervasive. The lack of safety in the town centre is palpable, day or night. Three of its police stations have gone, shops and restaurants have vanished, the market has emptied. As one local mother says: “There is not a chance you walk round Oldham town centre on your own.” Hopping on a tram to Manchester is no better: the carriages are likely to be empty — ridership stalled years ago — and it can feel just as threatening. According to another resident: “You take your life into your hands for a £3.60 return.”
[ more...]
Police Finances
Rape crisis centres that provide support and counselling to victims are being forced to shut their waiting lists across the country because a lack of funding means they can no longer meet the demand.
Staff at centres from Scotland to Somerset have described waiting lists as long as 18 months for access to counselling, therapy and advocacy services, with some deciding to close lists altogether.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police funding issues cannot be solved by relying on police and crime commissioners raising council tax, and experts have warned that the system creates a postcode lottery of services that threatens to leave some areas behind.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The annual rate of consumer price inflation declined to 10.5 per cent in December, from 10.7 per cent in November and further below the 41-year high of 11.1 per cent in October, according to data published on Wednesday by the Office for National Statistics.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is planning a “slimmed down” spring budget with no immediate tax cuts, it has been reported. Boosting growth, bringing down inflation and reducing national debt were the government’s top priorities, reports suggest.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Conservative MPs in key marginal seats have reportedly been told to not to use the phrase “levelling up” because no one knows what it means.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Tackling anti-social behaviour is not solely the responsibility of the police, Surrey's police and crime commissioner has said.
Lisa Townsend said the issue could have a "very high impact" on victims and blights communities.
Councils, mental health services and the NHS have important roles to play in dealing with the issue, she said.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Suella Braverman is preparing to make it easier for chief constables to sack corrupt or abusive officers as she said she was braced for more “shocking cases” to emerge in the coming weeks in the wake of the David Carrick scandal.
The Home Secretary announced an internal Home Office review would consider putting police chiefs in charge of all misconduct hearings, effectively sidelining the independent panels chaired by lawyers and set up in 2015 to hear cases but which have been criticised for hampering the removal of officers.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Governor of the Bank of England has said there could be a “rapid” fall in inflation in Britain amid a drop in global energy prices over recent weeks, but warned that a shortage of workers could still pose major risks amid the cost of living crisis. Andrew Bailey told MPs on the Commons Treasury committee that the UK’s rate of inflation could fall back substantially this year after reaching the highest levels since the early 1980s during the autumn, after Russia’s invasion in Ukraine led to an increase in wholesale energy costs.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Wages have grown at the fastest rate in more than 20 years, but are still failing to keep up with rising prices, official figures show. Regular pay, which excludes bonuses, rose at an annual pace of 6.4 per cent between September and November, marking the fastest growth since 2001 - excluding the pandemic, when people got big rises after returning to work from furlough.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The National Police Chiefs’ Council has defended a 43 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of officers based in UK schools. The Runnymede Trust race equality think-tank found there were 979 Safer Schools Officers in schools last spring, compared with 683 in 2021.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy unexpectedly grew in November, helped by a boost from the World Cup, official figures show.
The UK's gross domestic product (GDP) - a key economic measure of services, construction and manufacturing output - rose by 0.1%.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said pubs and restaurants contributed to growth as people went out to watch World Cup games.
However, in the three months to November, the economy shrank by 0.3%.
[ more...]
Justice
A violent offender who was facing a prison sentence was spared jailed yesterday because the court had been told there was no room for him.
District Judge Stephen Leake told Medway magistrates’ court that he wanted to jail Fabian Greco, a lorry driver, for 18 weeks after he was convicted of attacking another trucker.
However, the judge said he would suspend the sentence for two years because it was his first offence and prisons were full.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The Police Federation of England and Wales’s (PFEW) Pay and Morale Survey 2022 has revealed severe struggles faced by rank and file officers and a sense of deepening frustration with the Government for continuously failing to assist.
The survey found 9 in 10 police officers feel financially worse off than they were five years ago and nearly one in five officers plan on handing in their resignation as soon as possible or within the next two years due to reasons including unfair pay.
PFEW National Chair Steve Hartshorn said: “Police officers are reaching breaking point and are leaving the service in their droves as every element of their pay and conditions has been gradually eroded in the space of a decade.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
People in Wales have been urged to only dial 999 for life-threatening emergencies as around 1,500 ambulance workers go on strike for the second time in less than a month.
Paramedics, emergency care assistants, call handlers and other staff are staging a major walkout on Wednesday, picketing at 19 locations including in Wrexham, Cardiff, Pembroke Dock and Llandudno.
The Welsh Government say they have invited unions to discuss a one-off cash payment to NHS staff to try and break the deadlock.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said policing “must change” as he outlined sweeping plans for reform.
Sir Mark, who took over from Dame Cressida Dick in September last year, said the force has “a practical plan for turning things around” during a speech at the Institute of Engineering and Technology in Westminster on Tuesday evening.
It comes after a watchdog found that the force’s anti-corruption systems are not fit for purpose and a damning review of disciplinary procedures by Baroness Casey found officers and staff were getting away with misconduct and breaking the law, in a conduct system that is itself racist and misogynist.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The Thames Valley Police Federation says “a shocking 86 per cent” of officers feel ‘worse off’ financially now than they were five years ago.
And 19 per cent of Thames Valley Police officers ‘never’ or ‘almost never’ have enough money to cover all their essentials, according to the latest pay and morale report.
More than 1,200 Thames Valley Police officers responded to the Police Federation of England and Wales survey, which found that 97 per cent had seen living cost increases in the previous month and 86 per cent of respondents saying they were dissatisfied with their pay.
Thames Valley Police Federation vice-chair Aileen O’Connor said: “All we ask the Government to do is give each and every officer a meaningful and in line with inflation pay award so they can continue to live and work within the South East area of Thames Valley and to recognise they do a job like no other.”
[ more...]
Technology
Nearly 40 Tory MPs have joined a major backbench rebellion over the Online Safety Bill with a demand that social media bosses should face jail if they fail to protect children from online harms.
Thirty-seven Tory MPs – enough to overturn Rishi Sunak’s Commons majority – have signed an amendment that would give Ofcom, the communications watchdog, extra powers to prosecute tech bosses and hold them criminally liable for breaches of their duty to protect children.
At least 10 former ministers, including Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Priti Patel and Dame Andrea Leadsom, are backing the proposals, due to be considered by the Commons next week.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are to be given more powers to combat new tactics taken by protesters that are designed to cause maximum disruption.
Just Stop Oil’s most recent protests in the autumn involved slowly walking through streets in Shepherd’s Bush, west London, and Holborn, in central London, to bring traffic to a crawl.
Downing Street said that it was looking at what extra powers could assist police in stopping the tactics from causing disruption to people’s lives.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The total of £36 million will enable police and crime commissioners (PCCs) to increase the availability of domestic abuse perpetrator intervention schemes in their areas, such as behaviour change programmes, that aim to improve victim safety and reduce the risk posed by abusers.
Minister for Safeguarding Sarah Dines said: “I am fully committed to tackling domestic abuse and protecting victims from suffering the lasting impacts of these horrific crimes.
“Our vital Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Intervention Fund allows police forces to intervene early, and work with perpetrators to change their behaviour and reduce the risk they pose, in order to protect victims.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A record 40 per cent of Britain’s chief constables are now women as police leaders seek to drive sexism and misogyny out of the ranks.
19 of the 49 chief constable posts in England and Wales are held by women, nearly five times the number in 2019 when there were only four.
In the past two years four police forces - Merseyside, Avon and Somerset, Suffolk and North Wales - have made history by appointing their first-ever women chief constables.
[ more...]
Justice
Magistrates have accused police of undermining justice by dealing with violent offenders behind closed doors.
In a new report, the Magistrates’ Association said increasing numbers of more serious crimes, including repeat knife offenders, assaults on emergency staff, domestic abuse and even sex offences were being dealt with out of court by police officers without public scrutiny.
It warned the “inconsistent” use of out-of-court punishments risked undermining open justice as it included penalties such as fines and electronic tagging that were, in some cases, tougher than those allowed to magistrates.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Yvette Cooper promises more bobbies on the beat today as new Home Office figures show two in five cases are dropped without a suspect even being identified.
And Labour analysis of the statistics which go up to June last year reveal that more than nine in ten crimes are now going unsolved.
In an exclusive article for the Sunday Mirror, the shadow Home Secretary says Labour is the new party of law and order.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Nearly 900,000 offences including murder, kidnap, and child rape, have been committed by people on bail in England and Wales since the Conservatives came to power, a new analysis has found.
The latest government figures show more than 20,000 offences were committed by those released from custody as they awaited a hearing, equating to 55 offences a day.
More than 7,200 sexual offences, including some committed against children as young as 12, were also committed by people on bail since 2010, of which 260 were committed in the last recorded year of 2021.
[ more...]
Prisons
Prisons have spent more than £11 million on staff whose roles involve promoting equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in jails over the past two years, an investigation has found.
The number of diversity staff employed in the 103 public-sector prisons in England and Wales has increased by 7 per cent since 2020 to 145.
Examples of the staff’s responsibilities include ensuring prisons are run in line with the 2010 Equality Act, overseeing “equality-related training” for prisoners, setting equality plans, promoting the awareness of diversity and inclusion among prison staff and ensuring all employees take part in equality training.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Police Digital Service (PDS) has taken on Deloitte as capability partner for the Transforming Forensics Programme.
They have agreed on a short term deal, which came into effect in early December and will expire at the end of March, valued at £2.3 million for the consultancy to support a defined set of capabilities and outcomes for the programme.
This involves workstreams on selective extraction and examination, automation, validation services and enduring capability, and the contract notice states that this could be a starting point for further services over the term.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
More than 1,800 police officers recruited under Boris Johnson’s manifesto pledge to increase numbers have reportedly already resigned.
Johnson had promised to add 20,000 police officers to forces in England and Wales by March 2023 in an attempt to address the austerity cuts introduced by his Conservative predecessors.
With just three months to go before the deadline, more than 15,000 officers have been recruited, according to the government.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Cyclists taking rides into the countryside are being mugged for their high-end bikes by crime gangs exploiting historic lows in police detection rates, cycling chiefs have warned.
Cycling UK, one of the biggest charities, said there was increasing evidence of criminals targeting cyclists travelling out of London to Kent and the Surrey Hills and who may have unwittingly given away their plans on Strava, the app used by riders to map routes and times.
Duncan Dollimore, head of campaigns at Cycling UK, said the phenomenon was “on the radar” of the three police forces - the Met, Kent and Surrey - after a series of incidents where cyclists have been attacked for their bikes.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than 96 per cent of modern slavery crime reports in England and Wales do not result in charges, i can reveal.
Modern slavery is forced exploitation, which can include domestic servitude, forced labour, sexual exploitation, criminal exploitation and organ harvesting. It was made a designated offence in the UK in 2015.
Data obtained by i from 22 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales showed that on average just 3.2 per cent of modern slavery crime reports held by police resulted in charges.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
As debt soars for many people in the West Midlands after an expensive Christmas and a cost of living crisis that refuses to ease, a campaign warning about the dangers of loan sharks is due to be stepped up in January.
Led by Assistant Police and Crime Commissioner Tom McNeil, credit union CitySave, and the England Illegal Money Lending Team, it pushes for greater awareness of people who lend money illegally.
The campaign also raises awareness of the help that is available from legitimate and responsible lenders like credit unions.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Five police officers have been suspended from the Dorset force for allegedly sending and receiving offensive WhatsApp texts. Colleagues reported the sergeant and four PCs for the inappropriate messages.
The officers are part of a crack anti-crime team in Bournemouth. They were suspended in July.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Michael Gove is launching a massive crackdown on dark and unsafe streets after a spate of brutal murders of women after dark - including Sarah Everard.
Councils will be given a new legal duty to take the safety of women and girls into account with all new housing and planning projects.
It will mean new houses, streets and towns cannot be built unless they include things like street lights.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
New legislation will be introduced to tighten security at venues in the wake of the Manchester Arena bombing.
The new rules, dubbed Martyn's Law, will cover all of the UK and require venues and local authorities to have preventative action plans against terror attacks, the government said.
Martyn Hett was among 22 people killed in the 2017 attack and his mother Figen Murray has campaigned for the measures.
Draft legislation is due in early spring, the prime minister said.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
A surge in police recruitment will “inevitably” lead to poor vetting, a former Metropolitan Police Commissioner has said, adding that such surges are an “obvious danger” to standards in any area of the public sector.
Lord Hogan-Howe’s warning against recruitment surges came as the House of Lords debated a new report by the Public Services Committee entitled “Fit for the future? Rethinking the public services workforce”.
The committee’s chair, Baroness Armstrong of Hill Top, urged for a “step change” in the Government’s approach to the public services workforce, including a focus on prevention services, career progression, training and technology, among other things.
[ more...]
Police Demand
First-time users of cocaine and cannabis will avoid prosecution under a national blueprint being drawn up by police chiefs to treat it as a public health problem.
People caught in possession of illegal drugs, including class A and B, for the first time would no longer be prosecuted but instead would be offered the chance to undergo education or treatment programmes.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England has raised UK interest rates to their highest level for 14 years as it battles to stem soaring prices.
It increased them to 3.5% from 3%, marking the ninth time in a row it has hiked interest rates.
The rise will mean higher mortgage payments for some homeowners and those with loans at a time when many people are struggling with the cost of living.
[ more...]
Justice
A damning official examination into how police forces tackle rape has exposed persistent failings in the criminal justice system, including a failure to track repeat suspects, “explicit victim-blaming” and botched investigations.
The long-awaited independent report into the first year of Operation Soteria Bluestone – launched by the government after a catastrophic fall in rape prosecutions – also paints a picture of a over-worked, traumatised and inexperienced police workforce in England and Wales, which is struggling to cope with an increase in rape reports after years of austerity.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Under the provisional settlement, the Home Office said forces will receive an additional £287 million in cash terms from central government in 2023/24.
It will take overall spending to £17.2 billion – a 3.6 per cent cash increase on the current year, well below the rate of inflation, which remains above ten per cent although it is forecast to fall.
The figure assumes police and crime commissioners in England will take full advantage of their ability to raise the council tax precept to £15, bringing in £349 million.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England has raised UK interest rates to their highest level for 14 years as it battles to stem soaring prices.
It increased them to 3.5% from 3%, marking the ninth time in a row it has hiked interest rates.
The rise will mean higher mortgage payments for some homeowners and those with loans at a time when many people are struggling with the cost of living.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
More than half of Britain’s black police officers and staff suffered racial incidents from colleagues in the past year, a survey has found.
Those affected were much more likely to feel like outsiders and to want to leave, and many believed their bosses failed to punish wrongdoers, in effect creating a culture of impunity.
The survey was conducted for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) as it struggles to address a race crisis facing British policing, with black Britons having less confidence and trust in the service and being less likely to join.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Price rises slowed last month but the cost of living remains close to its highest level for 40 years.
UK inflation, the rate at which prices rise, fell to 10.7% in the year to November from 11.1% in October.
The drop was due to petrol prices falling from record highs, but was offset by price rises for alcohol in restaurants, cafes and pubs.
[ more...]
Fire
London fire brigade (LFB) has been placed into special measures by the chief fire inspector after a report revealing incidents of misogyny, racism and bullying.
The watchdog moved the LFB into an enhanced level of monitoring on Wednesday, citing concerns about “culmulative evidence” from its last inspection and later of unacceptable behaviour within the brigade.
His Majesty’s inspector of fire and rescue services, Matt Parr, said: “We should recognise that London fire brigade’s recent cultural review was commissioned by the brigade, whose leadership has accepted its findings without reservation.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The £70,000 Audi, penchant for Louis Vuitton and other hallmarks of a millionaire’s lifestyle seemed incongruous with Rasvinder Agalliu’s police constable’s salary.
She claimed that the funds came from her husband Julian’s work as a chef for professional footballers, but he was also a major drug dealer who used the Encrochat criminal app to trade in cocaine and cannabis.
Agalliu, a beauty queen who worked at the Metropolitan Police for more than 15 years, was sacked after a disciplinary panel rejected her claim that she did not know about his criminal activities. The case can be revealed after her husband, an Albanian who boasted to contacts about her job with the force, was found guilty on Friday for conspiracy to supply drugs.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Criminals are using burgers and warm coats to recruit hungry, cold children into “county lines” gangs in towns and cities across the UK, experts are warning.
Headteachers across the country say that the cost of living crisis is leading to increasing numbers of pupils being groomed by sophisticated gangs to run drugs from one city to other parts of the country.
With cuts to youth support and other public services in local areas, and problems recruiting enough school support staff due to low pay, many say they are fighting a losing battle to keep vulnerable children safe outside school.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Home Office knew for a month the head of the police watchdog was under criminal investigation for a sexual offence but he was told to keep working “as normal”, The Times has learnt.
Michael Lockwood, director-general of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), was ordered to resign last week by Suella Braverman when she found out he was accused of a sexual relationship with an underage victim.
One of her senior officials had been told on November 4 that Lockwood, 63, was facing a criminal inquiry. The IOPC said last night that he was advised to “continue in his role as normal”.
[ more...]
Justice
A 24-hour support line launched on Wednesday aims to end the trauma for rape victims of being unable to access help when needed.
The government-funded line, run by the charity Rape Crisis England and Wales, will operate seven days a week.
"This is the service I needed," said Emily Hunt, who was unable to find help after she was raped.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police are spending more than £10 million a year on staff who focus only on promoting equality, diversity or inclusivity in their forces.
On average each force in England and Wales employs five full-time members of staff in such roles, spending an average of £210,000 on their annual salaries.
In addition, police forces committed 24,100 staff days to “equality training programmes”, which cost the taxpayer a further £3.6 million.
[ more...]
Justice
A forensic scientist at the Metropolitan Police has been accused of jeopardising five separate rape investigations after “knowingly neglecting her duties”.
Ursula Collins, 43, “caused undue delay” when a man suspected of raping a 17-year-old girl was not identified for five years, a court was told yesterday.
[ more...]
Fire
The RMT union has rejected an offer from train operators aimed at preventing strikes over the Christmas period, the union has announced.
The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) said its proposed framework would have supported pay increases of up to 8%, covering 2022 and 2023 pay awards, while delivering much-needed reforms.
But the RMT, led by secretary general Mick Lynch, has turned it down.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Two in five manufacturers have been a victim of cyber-crime over the last 12 months according to new research.
One in five of 150 companies surveyed by manufacturers organisation Make UK reported substantial financial loss as the result of an attack, ranging from £50,000 to £250,000.
Virtually all respondents said cyber security measures were necessary for their company while two thirds said their importance has increased in the last year.
[ more...]
Police Demand
It was only when Dr Marie Gerval took her car to the garage that she knew for certain she was being stalked. Fixed under the bonnet of the car was a tracking device.
The incident was part of what she sees as a wider campaign of stalking behaviour by Kelvin James, 58, a man she had employed as a handyman and briefly dated. “The experience has shaken all aspects of my life,” she said.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than 100 reports of violent crime are being screened out by police every day, a damning investigation has found.
It comes as forces face a mental health crisis that accounted for 571,000 days off work last year.
More than half a million reports were dropped overall last year following an initial assessment, data shows.
[ more...]
Justice
Children who have been affected by domestic abuse will be treated as victims even if they were not present during violent incidents, it has been decided.
Under updated legal guidance, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) says children will get automatic access to support such as mental health and safeguarding services.
Prosecutors will also be asked to specifically consider the impact domestic abuse has on children when making a charging decision.
[ more...]
Justice
A woman who had been injected with morphine in a nightclub waited five months for test results after reporting the attack to the police.
Becca Collins, 20, said she was spiked while on a night out in Maidstone, Kent, on 30 October 2021.
She only received the result at the end of March, when she followed up her report.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Black children and teenagers’ trust in the police is “alarmingly low”, with only a third of black teenage girls having confidence in policing, a report says.
Researchers said 36 per cent of young black people aged between 10 and 18 trusted the police compared with 75 per cent of white people of that age.
[ more...]
Justice
The Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody (IAPDC) has today, 2 December 2022, published a report which brings together, for the first time, a wide range of policing practice across England and Wales to prevent deaths at the point of arrest, during and after custody.
The report finds that many police forces have forged partnerships with allied health and justice services to play to professional strengths, reduce inappropriate use of police time and prevent deaths in custody. However, practice is not uniform across England and Wales, with limited evidence that forces are sharing findings after a death, involving bereaved families in driving change or working with healthcare partners to provide effective support for vulnerable individuals following release.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Rishi Sunak has said it is "completely unacceptable" that people were having their lives disrupted by a "selfish minority" who join illegal protests.
Home Secretary Suella Braverman has met with police chief constables to discuss tactics used by some environmental protest groups, such as Just Stop Oil.
The prime minister said: "My view is that those who break the law should feel the full force of it."
[ more...]
Police Demand
Domestic abuse victims are reporting abuse to the police several times before appropriate action is taken, with those from black and ethnic minority backgrounds disproportionately dismissed and sidelined, according to new research.
The research has been carried out by the charity Victim Support – the country’s biggest provider of domestic abuse services. More than 1,000 women (1,004) who have experienced domestic abuse were polled, at least 150 of them women of colour.
The new data has been published to coincide with 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, led by civil society organisations and supported by the UN, which began on Friday.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police stations across the UK have been shutting their doors at a rate of more than one per week since 2010, an LBC analysis has revealed.
LBC submitted Freedom of Information requests to all 43 police forces in England and Wales and found that since 2010, a date synonymous with the election of the Coalition Government and the onset of the austerity-era cuts, at least 663 police stations in England, Wales and Scotland have closed.
Across England and Wales, this equates to approximately four-in-ten stations closing over this period.
Alarmingly, despite this sharp decrease in the number of police stations across the UK, the Home Office appears to be unaware of the scale of the issue.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Britain's biggest police force has launched an anonymous hotline for people to report corrupt or abusive officers.
The Metropolitan Police has been heavily criticised over failures in both its anti-corruption and disciplinary procedures, which have left hundreds of unscrupulous officers and staff still serving.
It will be the first force in the UK to have a hotline of this kind.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Over £200k (£202k) is to be invested in tackling anti-social behaviour (ASB) and violence against women and girls (VAWG) in Burton as part of the latest round of the Government’s Safer Streets Fund, following a successful bid by the Staffordshire Commissioner’s Office (SCO).
Round four of the Safer Streets Fund saw £750,000 allocated to areas in Staffordshire, including Burton, Stafford, Newcastle and areas of Stoke-on-Trent.
This funding is in addition to over £2 million already secured by the SCO through Safer Streets in rounds one, two and three.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Rishi Sunak will summon police chiefs to No 10 this week and urge them to take a more “robust” approach to managing disruptive Just Stop Oil protests.
He and Suella Braverman, the home secretary, want police officers to stop following a lengthy list of steps set out in a “conflict management” model before taking action.
[ more...]
Fire
A national inquiry into institutional misogyny and racism in the workplace has been rejected by the government.
The inquiry was called for by the authors of a damning report into London Fire Brigade's workplace culture.
It found "dangerous levels of prejudice against women" while those from minority backgrounds were "frequently the target of racist abuse".
[ more...]
Fire
The Home Office is facing demands from opposition MPs for a national inquiry into the culture of the UK’s fire services, as new details emerged from a damning report on London’s brigades that revealed widespread misogyny and racism.
Labour and the Liberal Democrats said the inquiry was necessary after the government overlooked previous warnings that fire brigades across the country were riven with bullying.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
One of the most senior figures in policing in England and Wales is calling for a new gold standard for gender-based violence investigations, saying women have been “systematically failed” by the criminal justice system. Andy Marsh, the chief executive of the College of Policing, said he wanted a new code of practice for the policing of violence against women and girls – the first since the police code of ethics was introduced eight years ago – saying the bond of trust between women and the police “must be mended”.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
A police force has gone from being ranked as failing five years ago to being given the highest ever grades in the modern era by the policing inspectorate.
Humberside police has been judged as outstanding in six out of nine categories by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS).
The chief constable of Humberside police, Lee Freeman, said one of his radical reforms was freeing up time for officers to fight crime by cutting the amount of mental health work done by police that was better managed by health professionals.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Campaigners have launched a super-complaint against the police over their approach to stalking.
The National Stalking Consortium has claimed officers are failing to identify offenders, properly investigate crimes or protect victims. Only 5% of stalking cases in England and Wales result in a charge, it added.
Clive Ruggles, whose daughter Alice was killed by an ex-boyfriend who stalked her, said better training was needed so officers could "do the right thing".
A BBC Breakfast Freedom of Information request found that four police forces in England, out of 28 who responded, do not have a single point of contact for stalking, despite a government recommendation.
[ more...]
Technology
A planned new law would make sharing pornographic deepfakes without consent a crime in England and Wales.
Tackling the rise in manipulated images, where a person's face is put on someone else's body, is part of a crackdown on the abuse of intimate pictures in the Online Safety Bill.
This law would also make it easier to charge people with sharing intimate photos without consent.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Families struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living are being warned of the dangers of loan sharks.
The Stop Loan Sharks agency said more than half of victims it helped last year had borrowed to pay for essentials like food and fuel.
The warning comes as UK prices rise at their fastest rate in 40 years.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A Metropolitan Police officer’s husband used the EncroChat system to trade large quantities of cocaine and cannabis including drugs packaged with the Hublot luxury watch brand, a court has heard.
Julian Agalliu, 47, is accused of being unmasked as a major supplier of class A and class B drugs when the encrypted phone network – popular with organised crime – was cracked by international law enforcement in 2020.
It is said he boasted to associates about being married to a Metropolitan Police officer and was even asked to seek inside information from her as the net closed in on the EncroChat system, Woolwich crown court heard.
[ more...]
Technology
Police will text 70,000 people to warn them they have been victims of a banking scam in the UK's biggest anti-fraud operation.
The Metropolitan Police have arrested an east London man accused of running an international service enabling fake phone calls to victims.
Victims lost thousands of pounds, and in one case £3m.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The public sector has faced some extremely harsh challenges over the past few years. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, local authorities had already been dealing with long-term funding challenges, coupled with rising demand for public services.
Now, as the pandemic recedes, soaring inflation and the energy crisis have left local authorities even more stretched.
The situation is not being helped by the government’s lack of a coherent economic vision and fears that savings will need to be made by public sector services.
[ more...]
Police Demand
About one third of non-emergency calls to Kent Police went unanswered between February and August, figures obtained by the BBC show.
In July more than 55% of calls to 101 were not answered, with callers spending more than 15 minutes on hold.
Kent Police have received more than 296,000 calls this year so far with over 191,000 being answered. A Kent Police spokeswoman said the force was recruiting more call handlers.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A victim of stalking has said she was one of the "lucky ones" because she escaped with her life.
Chloe Hopkins, from Prestatyn, Denbighshire, was stalked for seven years between the ages of 18 and 25.
An obsessed person bombarded her with abusive messages online, driving her to depression and bulimia.
Stalking was made a specific offence 10 years ago, but with just 7% of stalking complaints resulting in a charge, Chloe said police need to find new ways to tackle the crime.
"We are all entitled to live our life freely, and peacefully and quietly without having someone thinking it's acceptable for them to keep doing this," she said.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Merseyside’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has warned that increasing council tax payments wouldn’t even cover inflationary costs the force faces.
Emily Spurrell has joined with commissioners across the country to write to Home Secretary Suella Braverman MP, asking for greater financial support for police forces amid the autumn statement and cost of living crisis. Ms Braverman wrote to all police chiefs in England and Wales in September, which told them of the government’s expectation that they cut homicide and other serious crime, and neighbourhood crime by 20% which was met with anger in stations.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Increasing council tax bills next April will hit struggling residents, fail to lift the pressure on cash-strapped local authorities and will not prevent more cuts to key services, from social care to waste collection and libraries, local government leaders have said.
Average council tax bills could rise by as much as £100, to more than £2,000 for households in band D, from April, after the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, confirmed in the autumn statement that the cap on how much local authorities could raise rates would be relaxed.
Higher council tax bills will be expected to part-finance a planned cash injection for adult social care budgets of up to £7.5bn over the next two years, an announcement welcomed as a recognition by the government of the crisis engulfing the sector, but offering it only short-term respite.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Jeremy Hunt will unveil his Autumn Statement to the Commons tomorrow which will attempt to make over £50bn of savings.
The bulk of his measures are expected to be stealth tax rises, which will largely target income tax, national insurance and personal savings.
The Chancellor is also set to raise revenue by introducing a new tax on electric vehicles, allow local authorities to hike council tax, and delay the social care cap – all moves which are likely to anger Tory MPs.
[ more...]
Police Finances
There has been a higher than expected leap in the rate of inflation, to a 41-year high of 11.1% last month, led by the latest rise in energy bills.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed the increase, from 10.1% in September, as the cost of light and heating for homes rose further despite help from the government's energy price guarantee that limits wholesale charges for gas and power.
Food was cited as the other major element adding inflationary pressure during October, rising at the fastest annual pace since 1977.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than 100 serious knife crimes are committed every week in Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire, figures show.
Offences including robbery, assault and murder have more than doubled in the region in the past decade, according to the latest police data.
Campaigners claimed carrying a weapon had become as "normalised" among young people as using a mobile phone.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Speaking to PF, Whiteman acknowledged the government has repeatedly trailed “tough decisions” on public spending and potential tax rises in recent weeks.
“There has probably been some media management having taken place and I assume that the cuts will not be quite as harsh as signposted, and indeed nor will some of the speculation about tax increases come through,” he said.
“However, clearly we are going to have a very difficult statement for public services.”
Whiteman described the “double whammy” facing the sector, with costs increasing by about 10% while demand has also increased at the same time.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
APCC Lead on Fraud and Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Mark Shelford has called for clarity around fraud governance following the publication of a ‘Progress on Fraud’ National Audit Office (NAO) report released today, Tuesday 15 November.
The report finds that the Home Office has taken limited action to improve its response to fraud since the last NAO report was published five years ago. For the Government’s Fraud Strategy to succeed the report states that the Home Office must be vigorous in leading a cross-government response that is informed by a thorough understanding of what works in combatting fraud.
APCC National Lead on Fraud and Police and Crime Commissioner for Avon and Somerset Mark Shelford, said: “It is the role of Police and Crime Commissioners to hold forces to account for their response to fraud and we play a fundamental role in protecting individual businesses and safeguarding victims, however this is not identified or acknowledged in the report.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Rishi Sunak will announce a significant rise in the national living wage and give eight million households cost of living payments worth up to £1,100 as he prioritises support for the poorest over universal measures.
The Times has been told that the prime minister and Jeremy Hunt, his chancellor, will accept an official recommendation to increase the living wage from £9.50 an hour to about £10.40 an hour — a rise of nearly 10 per cent. The move will benefit 2.5 million people. One government source suggested that the increase could be even higher.
Sunak will also give those on means-tested benefits, such as universal credit, cost of living payments worth £650; disability benefit recipients £150; and pensioner households £300. The plans, which extend existing support, will result in some households benefiting from all three payments.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Home Office has an incomplete and out-of-date grasp of the cost of fraud in the UK and a poor understanding of who commits the crime, a public spending watchdog has found.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said the current estimate of the cost of fraud to individuals being used by the government is based on data and prices from six years ago.
The NAO found that the Home Office had no reliable estimate of the cost of fraud to businesses, or how much firms spend on tackling the crime.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Tuesday 15 November marks exactly ten years since the first cohort of Police and Crime Commissioners were elected by local communities across England and Wales. Today, four of the 43 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) are also responsible for fire governance in their area.
The role of the PCC is to be the voice of the people and hold the police to account. They are responsible for the totality of policing.
Marc Jones is the Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC). Launching the ’10 years of making a difference’ campaign earlier this year he said that PCCs were putting victims at the heart of the criminal justice system, working to cut crime and reducing reoffending. “We are more than ever holding the police to account for high quality policing and providing more transparency about how they deliver policing.”
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK appears to be heading into recession after the latest official figures showed the economy shrank between July and September.
The economy contracted by 0.2% during the three months as soaring prices hit businesses and households.
A country is in recession when its economy shrinks for two three-month periods in a row. The UK is expected to be in one by the end of the year.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Suella Braverman is to ditch a blanket requirement for all police officers to have degrees after a backlash from chief constables. The home secretary said there would still be a non-degree entry route to continue delivering “officers of the highest calibre”.
Her intervention comes after chief constables and police and crime commissioners said the degree requirement limited recruitment options. Since last year recruits have been required to have a degree or to join as an apprentice while they earn a qualification. The change has been criticised. The traditional route into the force did not involve higher education.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Government is planning to cut spending with reductions in budgets for schools, policing, transport and councils in the upcoming Autumn Statement, it has been reported. Reports suggest that the Government intends to slow increases in spending after 2025 from the planned 3.7 per cent to 1 per cent, leading to reductions in funding for non-protected spending areas.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Rishi Sunak’s government has been warned that Britain’s creaking public services will require at least £43bn a year in additional funding just to “stand still” amid the fallout from soaring inflation.
The Trades Union Congress said next week’s autumn statement needed to protect both public services and workers’ pay from the highest rates of inflation since the early 1980s to avoid a further collapse in the quality of support for health, social care, education, justice, and the environment.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth, the NPCC’s lead for VAWG, said police cannot solve it alone as “it’s a societal problem that needs societal input”.
She said there is an “enormous responsibility in policing and beyond to ensure that women and girls’ safety is central to all our plans”, adding: “We are only going to be able to tackle VAWG if we work together and commit to making it a priority.”
While positive steps have been taken in tackling VAWG, the NPCC said there is a “clear recognition from policing that there is a long way to go”.
Recent reports from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) have highlighted some of the areas in which policing is still letting down the public and victims, and at their annual Partnership Summit both the NPCC and the APCC said they are “determined to take action”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police leader has defended the “absolutely appropriate” response to Just Stop Oil after Suella Braverman called for tougher action.
Chief constable Chris Noble, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for protests, defended the approach taken to days of disruptive action targeting the M25.
It came after the home secretary told a conference of police leaders it was their “duty to take a firmer line to safeguard public order” and accused them of an “institutional reluctance” to use their powers against protesters.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Andrew Snowden said the decision by the Home Secretary to re-think policing as a “degree only” career will ensure recruitment is about the “calibre of those who apply”.
Speaking on the opening day of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners and National Police Chiefs’ Council Partnership Summit in London yesterday (November 9) Home Secretary Suella Braverman confirmed that she has asked the College of Policing to look at options for a new, non-degree, entry route, to complement the existing framework.
And she said she will “take the scissors to any red tape” that gets in the way.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Policing has long been known as a “job for life”. With low rates of leaving and high rates of loyalty, a career of 30 years or more was very much the norm. However, times have changed.
Government figures show that the number of voluntary resignations from the police service in England and Wales has increased by 72%, from 1,996 in 2021 to 3,433 in 2022. Voluntary resignations now account for 42% of all police leavers, compared to 33% in the previous year.
A decade ago in 2012, there were 1,158 voluntary resignations, accounting for just 18% of all leavers. In just ten years, voluntary resignations have increased by 196%.
[ more...]
Justice
Nearly 200 police officers accused of the most serious level of misconduct have not been allocated disciplinary hearings and cannot be dealt with, with many of them still working on full pay.
The police disciplinary system is plagued by delays because of a stand-off between legally qualified chairs, known as LQCs, who run the majority of hearings, and the Home Office. The LQCs are seeking indemnity against being sued by officers they dismiss, fearing they could face six-figure payouts in the civil courts. Until the Home Office agrees most of them have refused to take on new cases.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Police will be forced to provide further crucial care and health assistance during public sector strikes, which will hamper efforts to fight crime, Britain’s most senior officer has warned.
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, claimed officers were having to spend more time keeping an eye on mentally ill and vulnerable patients in A&E departments instead of catching criminals.
The comments came days after nurses voted to stage strikes across the UK – for the first time in their history – in pursuit of a better pay deal.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Jeremy Hunt will unveil his long-awaited Autumn Statement on Thursday, which he has confirmed will include tax rises and spending cuts.
The Chancellor has admitted “we will be asking everyone for sacrifices” as he said everyone will have to pay higher taxes to get the country’s finances back on track.
He hopes the measures will bring down inflation, control soaring energy prices and “get our way back to growing healthily”.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt are weighing up plans that would increase council tax and pull more people into the top rate of income tax as they “think the unthinkable” to balance the books.
The prime minister and his chancellor are expected in next week’s budget to prioritise increasing benefits and pensions in line with inflation, which will cost £11 billion next year.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Cash-strapped local authorities are at a real and metaphorical tipping point when it comes to tackling the criminal gangs exploiting loopholes in the law around the illegal dumping of waste.
They recognise there is a major problem for them but they can’t manage it without being able to measure it in the first instance, not to mention the fact that they also have to prioritise conflicting demands on the public purse during a cost of living crisis.
Even the Environment Agency (EA), which has pledged to get tough on waste crime and its perpetrators through deterrence and disruption strategies admits it does not know the full extent of the problem.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Treasury will this week submit plans to cut the deficit by as much as £60bn – more than previously thought necessary – to the UK’s budget watchdog, i understands.
Jeremy Hunt is set to cut spending by more than he increases taxes in next week’s Autumn Statement after Cabinet colleagues warned that tax hikes can only be a “last resort”.
But the Chancellor is also under pressure from senior Conservatives to limit public spending cuts as much as possible.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
This month marks 10 years since the first Police and Crime Commissioner elections in 2012. It is a moment for reflection on the lessons learned, what has been achieved and what the future will bring. I am a supporter of Police and Crime Commissioners and see the role as critical, not only to police accountability and strategic direction, but increasingly important in securing effective partnerships in the criminal justice system, providing good services for victims of crime, addressing wider community safety issues, preventing violence and reducing the harm caused by the criminal drug economy. I also want to see PCCs supporting a more joined up approach to planning for emergencies.
These are complex issues that are vital to the public. They require a focused, full-time effort, led by someone who is democratically elected and directly accountable to the people. Committees do not have the legitimacy or visibility to fulfil these functions. Appointed deputies, despite their abilities and efforts, do not have the crucial public mandate or the authority to effectively fulfil the role. That is why I am opposed to merging the PCC role into a mayoralty in the West Midlands. It is a commitment that I was elected on.
[ more...]
Prisons
Re the article by Deborah Coles and Jessica Pandian (In Britain, a jail sentence is often a death sentence. What’s going on in our prisons?, 31 October), at the turn of the century I received a ridiculous five-year prison sentence for allegedly allowing heroin into a homeless project that I ran. Local police and some vociferous local residents didn’t like my ideas about expansion of provision.
[ more...]
Police Demand
From anti-social behaviour and crime to illegal immigration, members of the public have one simple yet unanswered question. How do we, the law-abiding many, let them, the criminal few, get away with it?
There is, of course, vast complexity in these issues. To take illegal immigration as an example, we must consider our deregulated labour market, the black economy, our free-to-use public services, a lack of data sharing between public agencies, poor enforcement, modest budgets, legal complexity, international human rights obligations, court processes, organised criminality and relations with other countries.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
In the fourth in our latest series focusing on police workforce development in England and Wales, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett looks at the unique opportunity offered by the Uplift recruitment programme to increase diversity, the relatively small change that has resulted, and the more noticeable shift in workforce profile to a service that has become younger and less experienced.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Children of primary school age running drugs for gangs while young teenagers head up county lines operations has “become the norm”, according to Anne Longfield, the former children’s commissioner. A report by the Commission on Young Lives said that hundreds of thousands of children in England were at risk of violence, harm, crime and diminished life chances. Cllr Nesil Caliskan, Chair of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said exploitation is a “significant, increasing concern”.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it has begun two investigations into the conduct of the nine Civil Nuclear Constabulary officers.
It said the investigations will look into allegations that these officers “openly engaged in conversations of a discriminatory nature and either used, or failed to challenge, offensive language”.
“All nine have been advised they are under investigation for potential breaches of the standards of professional behaviour amounting to gross misconduct,” said the IOPC.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
An increase in migrants from Romania has helped push the number of people in England and Wales born outside the UK to ten million — or one in six of the population — for the first time.
Figures from last year’s census, released by the Office for National Statistics, showed that the number born in Romania and living in England and Wales had grown by 576 per cent since the previous census, from about 80,000 in 2011 to 539,000 in 2021. Working restrictions on those arriving from Romania had been lifted in 2014.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police chiefs have been covering up the misogyny suffered by female officers and staff, and must stop using gagging orders to silence victims, the leader of rank and file officers has revealed.
Steve Hartshorn, chair of the Police Federation, which represents 130,000 officers up to the rank of chief inspector, said there should be a “hostile environment” for corrupt officers. He told the Guardian that chief constables bore the brunt of the blame for the crises that were sapping the legitimacy of policing.
His comments follow a report by the official policing inspectorate that warned that “hundreds if not thousands” of suspect officers had passed a defective vetting system and should not be out on the streets with huge powers over their fellow citizens.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England has warned the UK is facing its longest recession since records began, as it raised interest rates by the most in 33 years.
In warned the UK would face a "very challenging" two-year slump with unemployment nearly doubling by 2025.
Bank governor Andrew Bailey warned of a "tough road ahead" for UK households.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Hundreds of police officers who should have failed vetting checks may be in the job in England and Wales, a damning report has found.
The police watchdog looked at eight forces and found decisions on officers which were "questionable at best".
One officer convicted of domestic abuse and one accused of sexual assault were among those accepted.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
APCC Prevention Lead Festus Akinbusoye appeared before the Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) on policing for the future today, Wednesday 2 November, where he addressed the deeply concerning findings in today’s HMICFRS report and spoke more broadly on issues facing policing and the vital role that commissioners play in setting local priorities.
National Lead for Prevention and Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire, Festus Akinbusoye, appeared alongside Chair of the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), Martin Hewitt and College of Policing Chief Executive, Andy Marsh.
The panel were rightly asked about the damning HMRCFRS report released today which highlighted a number of concerning findings around vetting, misconduct and misogyny in the police service.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Treasury has warned of "inevitable" tax rises as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak seeks to fill a "black hole" in public finances.
Mr Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt met on Monday to discuss options for the financial statement on 17 November.
They agreed "tough decisions" were needed on tax rises, as well as on spending.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners Marc Jones said:
“We strongly support the Government’s commitment to move future Police and Crime Commissioner and Mayoral elections to a First Past the Post system in line with other elections in England and Wales. The move also respects the outcome of the 2011 national referendum into the public’s preferred system of electing their representatives.
“As the public’s awareness of the important responsibilities that PCCs have over policing has increased, we have seen a welcome increase in voter turnout. However, a concerning amount of incorrectly completed ballots has remained an issue due to the confusion caused by the use of an unfamiliar voting system. The move to First Past the Post will be very positively received.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Cheshire Constabulary is one of the first forces in the country to introduce a new ‘perpetrator programme’ in its custody suites to support those committing domestic abuse-related offences to change their behaviour and prevent reoffending.
The force stressed it has a zero-tolerance approach to domestic violence and the programme is not a replacement for punishment.
Instead, it aims to break the cycle of offending and abuse by working with the whole family that is affected.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Incivility and petty disputes are being routinely recorded as crime, warping statistics and scaring the public, one of the country’s most senior police officers has warned.
Sir David Thompson, chief constable of the West Midlands, told The Times that crime was being measured in a “completely mad way”. Verbal arguments between neighbours, and people’s fear of violence, were being recorded as criminal acts, which distorted the public’s view, he said.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
More than a third of policing chiefs are urging Suella Braverman to ditch the blanket requirement for all officers to have degrees to stop forces missing out on veterans and older, experienced recruits.
Sixteen police and crime commissioners (PCCs) have written to the Home Secretary to warn her that recruits are spending so much time studying under the new all-graduate system that up to 10 per cent of their officers are stuck in classrooms rather than on the frontline fighting crime.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The government has been criticised for endangering children by failing to pass its online safety bill, after it confirmed that the change of prime minister had caused yet another delay to the proposed legislation.
With no known date for when the bill will return to the Commons, internet safety groups warned that any further delay would continue to place children at risk.
[ more...]
Justice
Police are solving the lowest proportion of crimes on record - as overall offences have hit a new high.
Only 5.4 per cent of all crimes resulted in a charge in the year to June, equivalent to just over one in 20 offences being solved, according to Home Office figures.
That represents a fall from 6.5 per cent in the previous year and is just a third of the charging rate of 15.5 per cent seven years ago, when records began.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of crimes recorded by police in England and Wales has hit an all-time high, with a big increase in violent and sexual offences.
A total of 6.5 million crimes were recorded in the 12 months to June, up from the previous record of 6.3 million in the year to March.
The figure is also up 12% compared with the year to June 2021, when crime levels were affected by COVID lockdown restrictions.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Britain’s borders are “overwhelmed” by Channel migrant crossings, Home Office officials admitted yesterday as they revealed that 10,000 Albanian men had arrived in small boats this year.
Dan O’Mahoney, clandestine Channel threat commander for Border Force, said that up to 2 per cent of the adult male population of Albania had travelled to the UK in small boats.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Rishi Sunak is considering a delay to next week’s planned statement setting out how the government will close a £40 billion black hole in the country’s finances, The Times understands.
The prime minister is expected to meet Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, today to discuss his proposals to increase taxes and squeeze public spending that are due to be unveiled to MPs and markets on Monday, which is Halloween.
But amid concerns that the plans will define his premiership, Sunak is considering postponing the update until next month to allow more time to scrutinise the options. The statement had been brought forward by the previous government from November 23 because of the market reaction to Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has defended the re-appointment of Suella Braverman as home secretary just days after she was forced to quit the job.
Ms Braverman resigned last week after admitting two data breaches.
Labour said her return to cabinet undermined new PM Rishi Sunak's pledge to have "integrity and accountability" in his government.
Mr Cleverly insisted Ms Braverman had shown integrity by apologising for breaking the rules.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Rishi Sunak is reconsidering tax rises and major public spending cuts after a dramatic improvement in the state of the nation’s finances.
The new Prime Minister on Wednesday delayed the medium term fiscal statement from next Monday to November 17 to allow Jeremy Hunt to rework the plans.
An analysis to be published on Thursday shows that the fortnight delay is expected to shrink the size of the black hole in the public finances by up to £15 billion.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
A much-anticipated plan on the UK's tax and spending has been delayed by more than two weeks.
It was due on Monday, but Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said moving it to 17 November would mean it was based on the "most accurate" economic forecasts.
Mr Hunt had already scrapped his predecessor's plans for huge tax cuts. This had sparked market turmoil due to fears over how they would be paid for.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
An extra 1,564 Uplift officers have been recruited over the last three months, according to Home Office figures which also revealed that women now make up 35% of the overall workforce.
The latest provisional data confirmed that a total of 15,343 Uplift officers have been recruited as of September 30 - up from 13,779 since June.
This increase is made up of 1,350 officers recruited between August and September, when the Uplift number rose from 13,993 to the latest total of 15,343.
[ more...]
Justice
At 8am, in the glass and steel police centre in Bridgwater, Somerset, DI Richard Horsfall takes a swig from an enormous mug of tea and kicks off the team briefing. “Right then, let’s get going,” he says. “We’ve got a lot to get through.”
Three reports of rape have been made overnight. A man is in custody, and in little more than 12 hours he will have to be charged or released. “The clock is ticking,” says Horsfall. “It’s going to be a busy day.”
This is Operation Bluestone. Its “Al Capone” approach to catching rapists puts suspects – not victims’ credibility – at the centre of investigations, say police, and aims to “disrupt” them by whatever legal means possible.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The staggering scale of criminality in police forces can today be laid bare as figures show hundreds of serving officers and staff have convictions.
There are 284 workers across England and Wales with convictions for crimes including corruption, sex offences, violent assaults and possession of child pornography.
It comes after the Metropolitan Police Commissioner said last week 'hundreds' of rogue officers were getting away with misconduct and criminal behaviour in the force.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Early morning in south Manchester - and a prolific burglar known to police is arrested for a spate of thefts.
Officers from Greater Manchester Police were granted a warrant to enter and search the home of the man, who is believed to have stolen items from student accommodation.
Enough evidence was seized and examined to charge him on the same day. This was clearly a successful morning for GMP's officers - something they're witnessing more frequently - but across the country it's a rarity.
[ more...]
Justice
The latest quarterly statistics from the CPS show rape charges have increased to 72.8 per cent, with rape referrals from police forces up by ten per cent.
Max Hill KC, Director of Public Prosecutions, said the figures are already beginning to show the “benefits of better joint working” under its national blueprint for prosecuting rape and serious sexual offences.
It comes as police and the CPS commit to a new programme of joint working to drive improvements right across England and Wales.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A chaotic day in Parliament has left Liz Truss's survival even more uncertain after the sudden resignation of her home secretary and angry scenes during a fracking vote in the Commons.
Opposition MPs alleged some Tories were bullied and manhandled into voting with the government on fracking.
A minister denied the claim, but many Tory MPs ended the day feeling angry and let down by their own party.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Liz Truss has resigned as prime minister after 45 days in office marked by turmoil, triggering the second Tory leadership election in four months.
Ms Truss said her successor would be elected by next week after a rebellion by Tory MPs forced her to quit.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said he would not run in the contest but other senior Tories are considering bids.
[ more...]
Justice
Britain’s most senior police officer has accused defence lawyers of adding to the courts backlog by encouraging suspected sex offenders to plead not guilty.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, said that there was as increasing trend of not guilty pleas that was notable in cases of rape and sexual assaults.
Rowley said that the recent strike by barristers over criminal legal aid fees had added to the backlog in the crown courts. The most recent Ministry of Justice figures show that the backlog has risen to more than 61,000 cases.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Grant Shapps has been appointed as the new home secretary, replacing Suella Braverman after her shock resignation.
The former transport secretary, who backed Rishi Sunak in the Tory leadership race and has been critical of some of PM Liz Truss' policies, has been confirmed by Downing Street as now heading the Home Office.
Speaking outside No 10 after his appointment, he admitted it has been "a turbulent time" for the administration, but "the most important thing is to make sure that people of this country know that they have got security".
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police and crime commissioners say they have been given no information on how the 20 per cent cut to murder and other crime types demanded by the prime minister and home secretary will work.
Liz Truss proposed the targets in July during her successful Conservative Party leadership campaign, when police sources lambasted the plans as “incoherent”.
The new home secretary, Suella Braverman, confirmed the government was pursuing the policy with a letter to all police forces in England and Wales last month.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
In this new article in our continuing series focusing on police workforce development in England and Wales, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett looks at the varying effects the Uplift recruitment programme has had on police officer numbers across different forces, and how potential new challenges around funding could significantly impact on some forces’ ability to meet both workforce and performance targets.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Plans to enforce buffer zones around abortion clinics in England and Wales have been backed by MPs.
Under the proposed law, harassing, obstructing or interfering with any woman attending an abortion clinic would become a criminal offence.
Protesters found guilty of breaching 150-metre buffer zones around clinics would face up to six months in jail.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The Home Office will launch a targeted review of police dismissals to raise standards and confidence in policing across England and Wales.
The internal review will be launched shortly and will help to ensure that the system is more effective in removing officers who are not fit to serve the public.
Baroness Casey’s interim report into the culture and standards at the Metropolitan Police Service, published today (Monday 17 October 2022) raises significant concerns, including that fewer officers are being dismissed, officers with multiple allegations made against them are still serving the public and police from ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented in the misconduct system.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has been urged to beef up the scrutiny system for elected police and crime commissioners after new research found the panels supposed to oversee their work are “toothless”.
PCCs are said to be running roughshod over “ineffective and impotent” police and crime panels, who are like “crocodiles with rubber teeth” and are powerless to hold them to account.
[ more...]
Technology
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is proposing to restrict how much Motorola can charge for the emergency services to use Airwave because of the overrun on closing down the end of life radio network and delays in the ESN roll out which the company is also a major contractor for.
The provisional findings of the CMA’s review found that the Home Office and police forces appear to be "locked in with a monopoly provider" and this lack of competition is allowing Motorola to make around £160 million excess profits a year.
Motorola has rejected the provisional findings as being an "unfounded and incorrect calculation of “excess” profits, which is based on an arbitrary time period of the Airwave project."
[ more...]
Justice
Lincolnshire Police have removed 72 people from the Sex Offenders Register in the last five years.
Those sentenced to more than 30 months for a sex-related crime can be required to register with police for life.
But in 2010 the Supreme Court ruled offenders should have the opportunity to prove they had reformed and could apply to get their name removed.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police forces have closed 172 county lines used by criminals to sell drugs across the country during a seven-day long intensification week, an increase of 65% from the previous intensification week when 104 lines were closed.
County Lines is the term used to describe drug dealing where mobile phones are used to supply drugs from large cities to towns and rural areas. County Lines are run by ‘Line Holders’ and the runners, often vulnerable people, deliver the drugs. The system of drug distribution leads to serious violence and exploitation.
Police forces across the country have taken part in the national county lines intensification week cracking down on drug traffickers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police is investigating more than 600 domestic and sexual abuse allegations against its officers, the BBC has been told.
They are the focus of a specialist team established to restore public trust in the force following a number of scandals, including the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer. Their work is similar to fictional unit AC-12 in the BBC drama Line of Duty, but focusing instead on abusive cops, not "bent cops".
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Concerns have been raised over public safety as some police struggle to make ends meet due to the rise in cost of living.
It comes after a report revealed some Gloucestershire Constabulary staff were relying on food vouchers.
Councillor David Willingham said officers' work may be affected if they are worrying about their next meal.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy unexpectedly shrank in August, strengthening predictions that it will fall into a recession.
The surprise 0.3% drop came as factories and consumer-facing businesses struggled, according to official figures.
Analysts thought the economy would stall in August but not shrink as costs mount for businesses and households.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Liz Truss has pledged not to cut public spending to balance the books in her first PMQs since the chancellor's contentious mini-budget - despite a leading economics-focused think tank warning the government is billions short of the sums needed.
The prime minister insisted she was "absolutely" not planning public spending reductions, but vowed that taxpayers' money would be used well.
It comes as cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested that Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng could ignore potential forecasts of low growth and rising debt in order to press ahead with his plans.
Ministers continue to be under pressure for the market turmoil that erupted after the government announced its £45bn package of unfunded tax cuts last month.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police have not fully clamped down on the Just Stop Oil protesters because their road blockages in London have not caused “serious disruption”, Scotland Yard’s commissioner has said.
Sir Mark Rowley said he was frustrated by the protest campaign, now in its 12th day, but the disruption had not met the legal threshold of disruption, which would allow officers to be more assertive.
Just Stop Oil protesters yesterday delayed an ambulance, a fire engine and cars carrying babies to hospital after they blocked traffic in west London. Drivers have taken action by dragging protesters from blockades.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The head of the Met Police has said he is reviewing recruitment targets after wondering if it is "wise" to speedily hire thousands of new officers.
The force is expected to bring in 4,557 extra officers by the end of March as part of the government's aim of hiring 20,000 more across the country.
Thousands of jobs were cut during austerity measures from 2010.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The chancellor will need to make "big and painful" spending cuts to put the country's finances on a sustainable path, the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank has warned.
With a weaker economy and promised tax cuts, there will be a large shortfall in revenue, the IFS predicts.
It calculates the government would have to spend £60bn a year less by 2026-27.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
We are inevitably going to be in a period of stagflation, and there is nothing government can do at this late stage,” says economist and former Cabinet secretary Lord Gus O’Donnell. It is a sobering analysis, especially for those who remember the last painful bout of stagnant economic growth and high inflation.
“[In the early 1970s], there was an underlying shock, not too different from what we have seen now, coming from commodity prices – and then wages started rising, and that spilled into inflation,” recalls Morten Ravn, professor of macroeconomics at UCL. Higher prices in turn stoked calls for further pay rises, creating a vicious circle.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Kwasi Kwarteng will bring forward his plan for balancing the government's finances by almost a month to 31 October, in a bid to reassure markets.
The fiscal statement is expected to detail how the chancellor intends to pay for £43bn of tax cuts and cut debt.
An independent forecast of how the economy will perform in coming years will be published at the same time.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police force's new 'hate crime officer' faced a barrage of abuse after introducing herself online.
Sumaya Bihi announced her new role in a Twitter post on October 3, saying she was the 'Hate Crime Officer for Leicestershire Police'.
Tweeting from the 'Leicestershire Police Stay Safe' account, she invited users to contact her with 'queries or concerns' as she shared a photo of herself wearing a hijab.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Downing Street has distanced itself from reports that Suella Braverman wished to reclassify marijuana as a class A drug amid sniping from parliamentary colleagues that the home secretary was failing to fall into line with government policies.
The prime minister’s spokesperson said on Monday that there were “no plans” to change the drug from class B, despite several reports claiming that those close to the home secretary said she supported the move.
“Our priority is on cracking down on illegal drugs and the crime they drive. We’ve launched a drug strategy backed by record investment to deliver a whole-system approach to tackling supply and demand,” the prime minister’s spokesperson said.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Cannabis prosecutions have fallen to their lowest rate on record as police have been accused by the Home Secretary of decriminalisation by stealth in parts of the country.
Home Office data show the proportion of people charged for cannabis possession has fallen from 26 per cent seven years ago - when the data was first compiled - to one in six (or 16 per cent) in the current year to March.
In some police forces, it has dropped below one in 10, with Surrey charging just 6.4 per cent of cannabis possession offences, Thames Valley 7.7 per cent and Hampshire 8.4 per cent.
This comes despite an increase in the number of people taking cannabis to its highest point since 2007, with one in 12 of the UK adult population admitting having used the drug in the previous year.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Radical ideas to reduce spending outlined by the Prime Minister’s economic advisor in 2010 could be considered as the Government look to find spending cuts of around £40 billion by 2026/27. Matthew Sinclair, an economic advisor to Prime Minister Liz Truss, published a book in 2010 titled How to Cut Public Spending (and Still Win an Election), which included suggestions such as freezing state pensions and slashing ‘non frontline’ NHS and school staff.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Suella Braverman is considering upgrading cannabis to class A amid concerns it has become a “gateway” drug for more harmful substances.
The home secretary has told allies she is on the “same side” as a group of Conservative police and crime commissioners (PCCs) who in recent days have called for the drug to be put on a par with cocaine.
A source familiar with Braverman’s thinking said she is strongly opposed to calls to decriminalise cannabis, which she believes sends a “cultural” and “political” signal that using the drug is “acceptable behaviour”.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Kwasi Kwarteng, Chancellor of the Exchequer, will reportedly tell the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) that public spending will not rise by more than economic growth in future. The OBR’s official forecasts are expected to show that annual borrowing will be £110 billion at the end of the forecast period in 2026-27, according to the Resolution Foundation.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Officers and staff voted to accept the offer from the Scottish Police Authority after months of wrangling that led to a work to rule.
The Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland had offered a 5% pay increase, backdated to April 2022 – but still below the rate of inflation.
It brings to an end months of negotiations that started in May and included a 3.4% offer in July which was rejected.
[ more...]
Justice
Claire Waxman, Victims' Commissioner for the capital, warned barrister strikes over pay would cause even greater record backlogs and more pain to victims. There are 4,105 cases waiting at Snaresbrook Crown Court in east London while just 2,110 are pending trial in Wales.
Ms Waxman has experienced the torment caused by a backlog - as she waited for a stalker, who has pursued her for two decades, to be convicted last month.
She said: "It takes over your entire life. You worry, you are anxious and stressed for weeks before the trial.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More than 100 people have been arrested by the Metropolitan Police after a weekend of protests by environmental groups in the capital.
Officers in Green Park arrested two people from the Animal Rebellion group who were accused of stealing milk and damaging two shops in central London on Friday afternoon.
Stephen Bone, 40, of Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, and Sofia Fernandes Pontes, 26, of Copenhagen Street, Islington, north London, were both charged in the early hours of Sunday with two counts of criminal damage and two counts of theft.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A return to "old-fashioned, common sense policing" will help the public feel safer, said Suella Braverman. The Home Secretary told the Daily Express it was "wrong" chiefs stopped sending officers to every burglary.
And Ms Braverman said she wants officers to focus on “catching criminals, not filling in forms, telling people what to say on Twitter, or looking into so-called ‘non-crime hate incidents’.” She said anything that distracts officers from focusing on keeping people safe “or undermines that cause” is unwelcome.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Rank-and-file officers have welcomed a pledge by police chiefs to attend every residential burglary but warned that they were “struggling to deliver” a service the government wanted to give the public.
All 43 chief constables of police forces in England and Wales announced yesterday that officers would visit each victim. Some forces already attend the scene of every home burglary but others do so only when victims are vulnerable or elderly, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said.
The move comes after the Daily Mail said a report found that 774 burglaries went unsolved every day. Separate Home Office data shows only 6.6 per cent of robbery offences and 4.2 per cent of thefts in England and Wales resulted in criminal charges last year.
[ more...]
Police Demand
There were 155,841 offences recorded in the year to March, up 26 per cent from the previous year. This was also the biggest annual rise since 2017, according to Home Office data.
Forces recorded 109,843 race hate crimes, 8,730 religious hate crimes, 26,152 sexual orientation hate crimes, 14,242 disability hate crimes and 4,355 transgender hate crimes.
Some crimes are recorded as having more than one motivating factor.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Audit fees in local government in England are expected to rise by 150% for the 2023/24 accounts according to the outcome of the procurement programme announced today by Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSAA).
The PSAA said that it understood that this “dramatic increase” in total audit fees would represent a “significant funding challenge” for local bodies already facing a range of financial pressures.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A group of Conservative police commissioners is calling for cannabis to be reclassified from a Class B to a Class A drug.
This would put it in the same category as heroin, cocaine and ecstasy.
It would mean tougher penalties for possession, and potential life sentences for suppliers and producers.
Police and crime commissioners are elected to hold forces to account in England and Wales, but do not control criminal law or police operations.
[ more...]
Justice
Burglary victims are being denied the “justice they deserve” as an average of 3.5 per cent of house break-ins resulted in criminal charges, figures reveal.
Police have recorded 1.76 million residential burglaries in England and Wales in the past five years — but 1.41 million victims had their case closed without the suspect being identified.
Just 1.7 per cent of break-ins reported to West Mercia police and Hampshire police ended with a suspect being charged in the year to March, according to data obtained by the Liberal Democrats.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police chiefs in England and Wales have pledged to send an officer to every single burgled home.
The pledge commits forces to sending an officer to investigate every report of home burglary, regardless of location and what has been stolen.
All 43 forces agreed to the commitment at last week's meeting of the National Police Chiefs' Council.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police chiefs' have today, Wednesday 5 October, announced that police will attend all home burglaries.
In response to the announcement, APCC Chair Marc Jones, said:
“We welcome the decision taken by police chiefs which will see police attend all home burglaries.
“As police and crime commissioners, we have been engaged with all policing bodies on this issue as we know that burglary is an incredibly invasive crime. We know how important prioritising action in this area is to the public.
“As part of this, we strongly support the view that the way in which crime is recorded must be reviewed. We must be transparent with the public and ensure the statistics reflect the true nature of crime occurring in our neighbourhoods.
“We also want to work with our partners to ensure that the role of our police service is made clear. The pressures on police forces, including from dealing with mental health issues, continues to have a profound impact on police resources, and this must be addressed if we are to ensure forces have the resources and ability to deliver on this commitment.
“PCCs will continue to hold forces to account, and we remain committed to investing in initiatives and schemes to prevent burglary and support victims in our local communities.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police pledge to attend all home burglaries has prompted warnings that it could pile pressure on officers and risks becoming another “box-ticking exercise” unless “proper resources” are provided.
Police chiefs in England and Wales have promised forces will attend all residential thefts in a new set of standards they hope will result in more crimes being solved and more criminals prosecuted.
But some have questioned how the plan will work, warning that without proper resources it could put additional pressure on already stretched officers.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Burglaries could be cut by up to 60 per cent if police forces go ahead with their pledge to visit every victim, research by The Telegraph shows.
Forces that have already made the commitment to send officers to every burglary have succeeded in slashing the number of house thefts by thousands a year.
Northamptonshire, which pledged to visit every burglary victim and set up two teams that sit within the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to achieve that, has slashed domestic break-ins across the county by 48 per cent since launching Operation Crooked - from 3,899 burglaries in 2018/19 to 2,007 in the 12 months to July.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The final list of firms that can sign off accounts has been confirmed by Public Sector Audit Appointments but fees will increase next year.
CIPFA and ICAEW backed the announcement but warned the cost increases would need to be looked at by the government.
Only six auditors will be competing for business out of 10 potential suppliers.
The PSAA said this was due to the challenging backcloth of a troubled audit profession, a turbulent market and a local audit system that is facing unprecedented difficulties including large volumes of delayed audit opinions.
But there was also a warning that work to improve the quality of accounts will need to happen as fees could increase by up to 150%.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Kwasi Kwarteng’s hastily rewritten speech at the Conservative Party conference was packed with mentions of growth and the need to bring down the UK tax burden, but commentators have expressed concern over his fiscal plans.
The chancellor received a standing ovation in the auditorium after making the speech just hours after announcing he had backtracked on one of the headline-making measures in his much-derided £45bn package of tax cuts: abolishing the top rate of income tax.
The chancellor was speaking to an audience that mainly consisted of party members who voted for Liz Truss. The audience outside the conference are, according to the latest opinion polls, less convinced.
The pound fell in value against the dollar and gilt yields shot up following his original announcement of the so-called Growth Plan nearly two weeks ago, forcing the Bank of England to announce it would buy billions of pounds of assets less than a week after it vowed to reduce its holdings.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
After 24 hours of confusion, the Treasury has confirmed that it has brought forward the publication date of long-awaited financial plans. The economic forecasts could be published later this month.
This is despite both Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and PM Liz Truss saying that the publication date is 23 November.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng met with OBR chair Richard Hughes, and the Treasury confirmed they “discussed the process for the upcoming economic and fiscal forecast, which will be published on 23 November” alongside the Medium-Term Fiscal Plan.
The statement was released after Treasury select committee chair Mel Stride wrote to Kwarteng asking for the forecast to be published in the next few weeks, after Hughes confirmed in a letter to Stride that the first draft will be given to the chancellor on 7 October.
“It is clear from this and my earlier correspondence with him that a full forecast can therefore be provided by the end of October, and a meaningful forecast prior to then,” wrote Stride.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
As few as one in six crimes involving a knife, including murders, rapes and grievous bodily harm, are being solved by police as the number of offences hits a record high in parts of England and Wales.
Analysis of police data by The Telegraph revealed that seven police forces – a quarter of the total in England and Wales – saw knife crime hit a record high in the year ending March 2022.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Suella Braverman has pledged to "hold the police to greater account", as sources said the new Home Secretary believes that the concept of operational independence has been taken too far.
Mrs Braverman has signalled that she will "set direction" and "priorities" for forces as she draws up plans for a league table showing whether forces are meeting a new target to cut homicide, serious violence and neighbourhood crime by 20 per cent.
[ more...]
Technology
A new camera system which uses AI to catch drivers using mobile phones behind the wheel is being trialled by Devon & Cornwall Police.
The technology, which can also detect whether drivers are wearing a seatbelt, is being rolled out across the two counties over the next two months.
The 'Acusensus' system is housed in a police van equipped with multiple cameras which record footage of passing motorists.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The cost of local authority borrowing from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) has increased significantly following the financial uncertainty of the past two weeks.
On 28 September, fixed interest rates on a 1-year loan were 5.31%, compared to 3.98% on 14 September. This is a dramatic increase from interest rates of 1.17% seen at this time last year.
In addition, before chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announced the mini-budget on 23 September, interest rates were set at 4.33%. The event introduced the biggest tax cuts in 50 years, which included the abolition of the 45% top rate of income tax.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police chiefs across Britain will be urged to send officers to every burglary, the head of police training has promised.
College of Policing boss, Chief Constable Andy Marsh, has vowed to write to every chief constable and crime commissioner, insisting it was ‘the right thing’ to attend every break-in.
Mr Marsh said that evidence showed that house visits reduced burglaries and discouraged raiders from targeting the same area more than once.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The International Monetary Fund has launched a stinging attack on the UK’s tax-cutting plans and called on Liz Truss’s government to reconsider them to prevent stoking inequality.
In rare public criticism of a leading global economy, the Washington-based fund said Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget risked undermining the efforts of the Bank of England to tackle rampant inflation amid the cost of living emergency.
It said a statement planned by Kwarteng for 23 November presented an “opportunity for the UK government to consider ways to provide support that is more targeted and reevaluate the tax measures, especially those that benefit high income earners”.
[ more...]
Prisons
Almost 3,000 prisoners in England and Wales stuck behind bars under an abolished “irredeemably flawed” indefinite sentencing scheme should be re-sentenced, MPs and peers have said.
The indefinite nature of jail terms under the imprisonment for public protection (IPP) scheme has contributed to feelings of hopelessness and despair that has resulted in high levels of self-harm and some suicides among prisoners, according to the justice select committee.
It says that despite IPPs being scrapped in 2012, there remain 2,926 legacy prisoners. These include 608 who are at least 10 years over their original minimum tariff, of whom 188 were originally given a minimum sentence of less than two years.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A third of people who called Thames Valley Police's non-urgent 101 line waited more than 10 minutes to be answered last month.
Its police and crime commissioner (PCC) Matthew Barber said it intends to employ more call handlers in what will be a "big increase" of staff.
In 2019, when callers had an average eight-minute wait to get through, he said its performance was "dreadful".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police force has been criticised by the home secretary for "policing pronouns" after it said it would not tolerate hateful comments about a child sex offender's gender identity.
Suella Braverman intervened after a row erupted about jailed Sally Ann Dixon.
Dixon had committed the crimes as a man, and some Twitter users objected to police referring to Dixon as a woman.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The government’s choice to not go ahead with a Spending Review this year means departments will need to make difficult decisions on services as inflation erodes their budgets, experts have warned.
[ more...]
Justice
Judges wrongly blamed the government for not ending the barristers’ strike when deciding to release potentially dangerous offenders from custody, the High Court has heard.
A judicial review is taking place at the High Court that could determine whether or not suspects on remand, including for serious offences such as murder or sexual offences, should be released while trials are delayed by the strikes. A judgment is expected soon and, if the Crown Prosecution Service loses, dozens more suspects on remand could be released.
Prosecutors have been asking judges to allow suspects to be kept in custody beyond statutory limits while awaiting delayed trials, but judges in Leicester, Isleworth, Bristol, Manchester and Oxford have refused, stating that strikes are not a “good or sufficient reason” to delay release.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Children as young as nine years old are being arrested for dealing drugs in the UK, as police forces and charities warn the cost-of-living crisis could see more young people targeted by criminal gangs.
An ITV News investigation has found 5,425 children under 16 have been arrested for drug offences since 2018.
A Freedom of Information request to police forces in England and Wales also revealed some of the shocking ways that children were getting exploited by criminals, including:
a nine-year-old arrested in Derbyshire for drug dealing.
a 13-year-old in West Yorkshire arrested for supplying heroin and crack cocaine.
a 14-year-old in Liverpool arrested for producing their own cannabis.
a 15-year-old child in North Wales arrested for dealing heroin.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The decline in the value of the pound has steadied due to market expectations that the Bank of England will intervene. The pound hit an all-time low versus the dollar of $1.0327 early on Monday but had settled around $1.0767 early on Tuesday.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Millions of public sector workers face a two-year pay squeeze before the general election, after Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng said he would go further in cutting taxes. The Government has reportedly abandoned plans for a new spending review, despite forecasts that inflation may remain in double figures for the next year, meaning that public sector workers will have real-term pay cuts before 2024 and schools and hospitals will have to make tough choices about budgets.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Dispersing rough sleepers from town centres fails to stop so-called antisocial behaviour and wrongly criminalises homeless people, a study of 10 towns by criminologists has found.
Councils in England and Wales using public space protection orders (PSPOs) to levy £100 fines to control or ban behaviours such as drinking, pitching tents and sleeping in public simply see homeless people come back later, according to research by Sheffield Hallam University with recommendations for fairer treatment endorsed by Crisis, the homelessness charity.
The orders are also being wrongly used to target behaviour that could not be considered antisocial – such as being “in a position to beg” or sleeping at night – where a detrimental effect was unlikely. And in some cases homeless people have described physical and verbal abuse from enforcing officers.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The pound has fallen to a record low against the dollar as markets react to the UK's biggest tax cuts in 50 years.
In early Asia trade, sterling fell close to $1.03 before regaining some ground to stand at about $1.07 on Monday morning, UK time.
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has promised more tax cuts on top of a £45bn package he announced on Friday amid expectations borrowing will surge.
The pound has also been under pressure due to strength of the dollar.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Millions of public sector workers face a two-year pay squeeze before the general election after Kwasi Kwarteng said he would go further in cutting taxes.
The government has abandoned plans for a new spending review, despite forecasts that inflation may remain in double figures for the next year. This means that public sector workers will have real-term pay cuts before 2024 and schools and hospitals will have to make tough choices about budgets.
[ more...]
Justice
The use of pre-recorded evidence of victims and witnesses to crimes has been introduced at crown courts in England and Wales.
The Ministry of Justice said that from Monday the technology would be available at a final 20 crown courts in Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, East Anglia, Essex, London and the south-east, marking the end of a national rollout.
The recording of evidence as close to the time of the offence as possible while memories remain fresh will help victims avoid the stress of giving evidence under the full glare of a live trial setting, which many find traumatic.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Labour will hire an extra 13,000 police officers if it wins the next election, the shadow home secretary has said.
Yvette Cooper said on Sunday that a Labour government would recruit more police officers, PCSOs and special constables in an effort to cut crime and restore confidence in the police.
She told a fringe event at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool that the party would also bring back the last Labour government’s focus on neighbourhood policing.
[ more...]
Justice
A £300 million technology upgrade for criminal courts has been described as a disaster by a senior judge who says it is “a car crash about to happen”.
The so-called common platform is a cloud-based system designed to replace outdated software programs in the criminal courts. It is meant to allow judges, the Crown Prosecution Service, the police and the prison service to find case details in one place.
Officials began introducing the platform two years ago. So far it has cost more than £300 million and is being used in 143 courts, about 60 per cent of all those in England and Wales.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The police should focus on catching burglars and violent offenders rather than wading into social or political issues that are not criminal, the head of the College of Policing has said.
Andy Marsh said forces could lose their legitimacy by taking sides on contested issues. “Our new guidance on managing non-crime hate incidents, for example, is very clear: the police should not be involving themselves in spats on Twitter,” Marsh told The Sunday Telegraph. “It is not where the public want the police to be . . . We cannot pick sides on social issues, we have a job to do: to police without fear or favour, to prevent and detect crime.”
[ more...]
Police Demand
Patrols around mosques and Islamic centres in Greater Manchester are being stepped up after reports of a disturbance in the city centre, police have said.
Officers were called to reports of a disturbance involving a large number of people at an Islamic Centre in Sidney Street at around 11.20pm on Sunday night.
A man suffered a cut to his face while the walls of the building and a vehicle parked outside were vandalised with graffiti referring to ongoing protests in Iran.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The home secretary has written to police chiefs calling for change to the "culture and standards" in policing.
In a letter to forces in England and Wales, newly-appointed Suella Braverman said public trust had been shattered.
She said there is a perception that police "have had to spend too much time on symbolic gestures, rather than actually fighting crime".
[ more...]
Police Demand
Ongoing clashes between Muslims and Hindus threaten to "spread all over Britain”, faith leaders have warned, after 100 protesters descended on a Hindu temple.
A crowd of Muslim demonstrators reportedly threw fireworks and missiles in the direction of police in the industrial town of Smethwick on Tuesday night as the disorder seen in Leicester over the weekend appeared to spread across the Midlands.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has unveiled the biggest package of tax cuts in 50 years, as he hailed a "new era" for the UK economy.
Income tax and the stamp duty on home purchases will be cut and planned rises in business taxes have been scrapped.
Mr Kwarteng said a major change of direction was needed to kick start economic growth.
But Labour said it would not solve the cost-of-living crisis and was a "plan to reward the already wealthy".
[ more...]
Technology
Every Metropolitan Police officer is to be issued with a work smartphone to help crack down on misconduct and improve their access to technology, The Times has learnt.
In a first for the force, the phones will be handed out before the end of the year under an initiative by Sir Mark Rowley, the new commissioner.
Until now thousands of officers in Britain’s biggest force have often had to use their own phones to communicate with each other, conduct basic investigations and collect evidence, such as video.
[ more...]
Justice
A quartet charged over the fatal stabbing of a 40-year-old man in his back garden are to become the first defendants accused of murder to be released from jail because of court delays from the barristers’ strike.
Justice Ian Pringle, Oxford’s most senior judge, on Wednesday refused to extend the amount of time the four can be kept inside after they reached the six-month remand limit.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
An article looks ahead to Friday’s mini-Budget, where the Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng will outline plans to deliver promises made by Prime Minister Liz Truss during her Conservative leadership campaign to cut taxes. The mini-Budget is expected to reverse a 1.25 per cent increase in National Insurance and scrap a 6 per cent rise in corporation tax at a cost of £30 billion. It is also reported a cut in the basic rate of income tax is being considered.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The nation has paid a final farewell to Queen Elizabeth II, with a state funeral and military procession.
World leaders and foreign royalty joined King Charles III and the Royal Family in the congregation at Westminster Abbey.
Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets as the coffin was taken to Windsor where she was laid to rest.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The most complex security operation London has ever seen is under way.
The Queen is lying in state, and thousands of people are on the streets of the capital queuing to pay their respects, with many more to come.
In the hours and days ahead of the funeral on Monday, the Japanese emperor, kings and queens, the US president, and heads of state from across the globe will assemble in London. They will then all go to Westminster Abbey, which does not have any permanent security perimeter, for a very public funeral.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Kwasi Kwarteng will deliver his emergency mini-budget to bring in winter tax cuts for millions of people and set out more detail on energy support next Friday, according to sources.
Although normal politics has been paralysed by the death of the Queen, the chancellor and his team have been putting the final touches to the budget with the aim of announcing it once the country emerges from national mourning.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Government will announce plans to cut taxes as well as measures to mitigate the impact of the cost of living crisis in a fiscal event before the end of the month. The Commons will not sit again until September 20 at the earliest, the day after Her Majesty The Queen’s funeral. It is due to rise again on September 22 for the Labour and Conservative party conferences. MPs will not return to Westminster until October 17
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Inflation has fallen to 9.9 per cent, the first time the rate has fallen in nearly a year. Data from the Office for National Statistics showed petrol prices dropped by more than 14p a litre in August, although the cost of food is still increasing.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Firearms officers are reportedly threatening to hand in their guns after their colleague who fired the fatal shot that killed unarmed black man Chris Kaba was suspended.
Rapper Mr Kaba, 24, was fatally shot by police in Streatham Hill, south London, after a police chase on September 5.
On Monday, Scotland Yard confirmed that the officer in question had been suspended from frontline duties.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Scotland Yard’s new Commissioner yesterday said masterminding the Queen’s funeral will be the biggest security operation in British history.
On his first day in office, Sir Mark Rowley acknowledged the scale of the task ahead as he said his first priority would be to enable mourners from all over the world to safely pay their respects to the Queen.
After becoming the UK’s first police chief to swear allegiance to King Charles III, Sir Mark said he would pour thousands of officers into the security operation to protect the one million people expected to descend on the capital over the mourning period.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police and football clubs will continue urgent talks on Monday as the potential for wide scale postponements of matches this weekend looms large.
With officers from across the country set to be drafted into London to work on Monday’s funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and events surrounding it, resources will be stretched both in the capital and beyond.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Hundreds of extra officers have been drafted in to help support the huge policing operation following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, a senior Metropolitan Police officer has said.
After the Queen died on Thursday, the Met Police said it initiated "well-rehearsed" policing plans.
About 10,000 police officers could be on duty every day in London as the nation continues to mourn the Queen.
[ more...]
Justice
A domestic abuse victim is slowly rebuilding her life thanks in part to a forensic marker spray she has been given by West Yorkshire Police. The gadget is to be used if her abuser shows up, and other police forces are under growing pressure to adopt similar measures.
Sarah (not her real name) found herself trapped in her own home during the first Covid lockdown.
Her abuser arrived one day "for a chat", she says, and she simply could not get rid of him. It was her flat, but he moved in and forced her into a relationship.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A new approach is urgently needed to ensure children who may be involved in County Lines drug dealing are safeguarded from the criminals exploiting them, according to a new report from Crest Advisory.
The study, funded by the Hadley Trust, says young people trafficked to deal drugs should be returned to their home area for a “crisis intervention” and calls for an end to the practice of ‘exile’ – in which children are placed in care a long way from where they live.
Researchers from Crest Advisory, the criminal justice consultancy, used police records, local intelligence, information from support agencies and interviews with staff to analyse the cases of 13 boys suspected of involvement in County Lines gangs in England.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Michael Gove has said the Government’s counter-extremism Prevent programme is “inept” and “inefficient” because of Whitehall fears of being branded racist or Islamophobic.
In his first policy intervention since stepping down, the former Cabinet minister said that, as a result, civil servants working on Prevent had not been given the “tools” to counter Islamist extremism.
This meant that organisations promoting extremism had received government funds because analysis of their ideology had not been properly undertaken.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Prime Minister Liz Truss has appointed her new cabinet, hours after taking over at 10 Downing Street.
For the first time none of the great offices of state is held by a white man, with Suella Braverman as home secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng as chancellor and James Cleverly as foreign secretary.
Here is a guide to the new faces and role changes.
[ more...]
Technology
Police officers across a county will be the "first in the world" to ride a new fleet of three-wheeler petrol-hybrid motorcycles, a force has said.
Northamptonshire Police has boosted its road units with eight of the vehicles in a bid to be more environmentally friendly.
It has developed the bike over the last three years alongside a local firm.
[ more...]
Justice
Court cases are being delayed until 2025 and dangerous criminals released on to the streets as the barristers' strike starts to bite, MPs have been told.
Leaders of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) cited cases of lengthy trials that had been adjourned without a date for a restart and faced “little chance” of being listed before 2025.
They told MPs on the Justice Committee that judges had already ruled that defendants should be released from custody because of the time they had spent in jail awaiting trial because of delays in their cases.
[ more...]
Justice
An IT project rolled out by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to make the sharing of information between courts, lawyers and police easier has been accused of putting the justice system “at risk”.
The UK courts’ Common Platform software system, a quarter-of-a-billion pound project, was rolled out in the past few years to provide a streamlined digital resource for legal professionals to access case information such as charges, evidence and results.
However, a report from the BBC’s Radio 4 File on 4 exposed that the project is now being accused of unlawful detentions and causing wrongful arrests, as whistle-blowers told the programme the system is faulty, unsafe and unfinished.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The inquiry, led by Tom Crowther QC, concluded in July that more than 1,000 children were sexually exploited over at least 30 years in the Shropshire town amid “shocking” police and council failings.
Conservative MP for Telford, Lucy Allan, told the Commons she hopes the inquiry can be “disseminated right across the country”.
As MPs debated the findings, DUP MP for Strangford, Jim Shannon, said: “It is always very hard to listen to stories because they are really heart-rending, they are very personal and I think we all accept the issues are real for her and for her constituency.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
An 81-year-old grandfather has been left bloodied and bruised after police went to the wrong address to investigate reports of a disturbance in the early hours of Friday morning.
He was arrested after two uniformed officers came to his home in response to reports of a disturbance in Potton, Bedfordshire, at about 5am.
The elderly man was taken into custody and left with bruises and bloody wounds to his wrists and arms.
[ more...]
Fire
Firefighters across the UK are set to vote on whether or not they will strike over pay.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) said 32,500 of its members across the UK will vote in the next few weeks on whether to launch a campaign of industrial action.
The union said the move follows a 2% pay offer made in June, which has not been increased despite the soaring rate of inflation.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Priti Patel announced on Monday, 5 September, that she will resign as home secretary ahead of a potential cabinet reshuffle by the new Conservative Party leader Liz Truss.
The cabinet minister tendered her resignation in a letter to the outgoing prime minister, Boris Johnson, saying that it is her “choice” to return to the backbenches.
[ more...]
Justice
Court cases are being delayed until 2025 and dangerous criminals released on to the streets as the barristers' strike starts to bite, MPs have been told.
Leaders of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) cited cases of lengthy trials that had been adjourned without a date for a restart and faced “little chance” of being listed before 2025.
They told MPs on the Justice Committee that judges had already ruled that defendants should be released from custody because of the time they had spent in jail awaiting trial because of delays in their cases.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The police watchdog is assessing whether officers given bravery awards for tackling a man wielding a samurai sword could have stopped him stabbing two men.
Ali Bhatti, 33, was high on drugs when he knifed Irfan Malik, 39, in the chest and slashed another man after crashing a motorbike a mile from his home.
He called 999 three times to say he was armed with the weapon and wanted to kill members of the public on October 22 last year.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More than three-fifths of UK motorists have not read recent updates to the Highway Code, according to the AA.
The motoring group's survey of 13,327 members suggested 8,090 (61%) drivers had not read changes made in January.
Some 6,972 motorists had heard about the new rules but had not read them yet, while 1,118 drivers were completely unaware of the changes.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A proposed armed police training facility would cost an estimated £14.8m.
The centre earmarked for Stafford would replace old blocks in poor condition and no longer fit for purpose, the Staffordshire police commissioner said.
Plans include a 50m indoor firing range and training rooms.
[ more...]
Justice
Barristers in England and Wales are starting an indefinite, uninterrupted strike, in an escalation of industrial action over pay which began in April.
The Criminal Bar Association (CBA) walkout is likely to worsen existing court delays, with tens of thousands of cases already waiting to go to trial.
The CBA wants a 25% rise in legal aid fees for representing defendants who could not otherwise afford lawyers.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police are reportedly preparing for a 'tidal wave' of violent crime and public disorder as the UK battles an ever-worsening cost of living crisis fuelled by Vladimir Putin's energy war.
Chiefs are said to be drawing up contingency plans to deal with the potential fallout that may come as millions of Britons face financial hardship this winter.
The chiefs are concerned that 'economic turmoil and financial instability' has the potential to spark a rise in crime, specially 'acquisitive' offences, a leaked national strategy paper has revealed. Authorities fear the UK will see a tick in shoplifting, burglary, vehicle theft, online fraud, blackmail and other crimes that 'rely on exploiting financial vulnerability'.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
More than 43,000 of the 140,000 police in England and Wales have less than five years on the job, new HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke has revealed. He said the large number of recruits is the result of a Home Office drive to deal with a low of 126,300 full-time officers in 2019.
Another 20,000 are to be recruited by next year to fill gaps left by experienced officers leaving. Mr Cooke said inexperienced staff require “intensive” supervision from seniors at a time when serious crime rates are soaring.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The proposed new indoor facility will be built at the force’s headquarters in Stafford at an estimated cost of £14.8 million, subject to further scoping activity, replacing existing blocks which are old, in poor condition and no longer fit for purpose.
The training centre will provide specialist officers with a purpose-built soundproofed facility that meets national standards and their current and future needs, offering state-of-the-art facilities including a 50m indoor firing range and training rooms.
Staffordshire Police currently leases an outdoor range, but due to issues with the suitability and long-term availability of the site, a detailed review was conducted to understand the force’s future requirements and evaluate a range of alternative options to meet them. The review included practical options for sharing a facility with neighbouring forces, but these proved unfeasible.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
John Campbell, who has been chief constable since 2018, said: “At the end of March 2023, my term as chief constable concludes, and after four years in the post, over 13 years within the force and more than 35 years in the policing, I have decided it is the right time for me to retire.
“Making this announcement now allows plenty of time for a smooth transition to the new chief constable in the spring. I remain fully committed to leading the force over the next seven months.”
He added: “It has been an honour serving the communities of the Thames Valley, and I am immensely proud of the officers, staff and volunteers who work around the clock, every single day, to keep our communities safe.”
[ more...]
Justice
A plan to encourage rapists and abusers to hold face-to-face meetings with their victims as part of an expansion of restorative justice has been condemned as dangerous by dozens of women’s aid groups.
Trauma experts and campaigners throughout Scotland have signed an open letter to the first minister Nicola Sturgeon warning that her plan will allow abusers to resume their manipulative hold over their victims, who may have struggled for years to escape a relationship. Signatories include academics from Strathclyde University and Glasgow Caledonian University, a Glasgow city council social worker and gender-based violence experts from NHS Lanarkshire.
In the letter, the groups say they are deeply concerned that the plan risks putting pressure on women to resume contact with abusers who may “thrive on secrecy, manipulation and shaming”.
[ more...]
Technology
Four tech firms face prosecution for endangering children online in the first-ever investigations into online harms by John Edwards, the Information Commissioner.
John Edwards revealed on Friday that the four social media and tech firms are being investigated for potential breaches of the children’s code that was introduced to protect children from inappropriate and harmful content unsuitable for their ages.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Edwards said that the four, if found guilty, could face fines up to £17.5 million or four per cent of their global turnover (whichever is higher), reprimands or enforcement notices.
[ more...]
Technology
It’s time the police ended their investigations into people’s supposedly offensive online posts and focussed on preventing real crime.
In a film for The Telegraph, Steven Edginton explores whether the UK faces a free speech crisis after a string of arrests over online memes.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Children as young as 11 have been subjected to brutal attacks by teenagers in a Lancashire town - with the assaults filmed and shared on social media.
Victims' mothers say police aren't doing enough to stop the group and have taken matters into their own hands.
The mother of one girl said she was told her daughter could have been one blow away from losing her life.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Stores have been forced to recruit a private service to catch and prosecute the thieves because they say police fail to take shoplifters to court, even when they turn up at the crime scenes.
TM Eye, the private company set up by a former senior detective in the Metropolitan Police, has so far successfully prosecuted 130 shoplifters but, in one recent case, was blocked from doing so by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Even though the thief was caught on CCTV stealing £640 worth of perfume from a top London store and recorded confessing to the crime, the CPS decided it was not in the public interest for TM Eye to prosecute the alleged shoplifter.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police officer accused of having sex with a drunk woman in his car while on duty was cleared of misconduct after a disciplinary panel accepted he was actually the victim.
Lee Cocking, 41, a former sergeant with Avon and Somerset Police, was charged with misconduct in public office following the incident in the early hours of Christmas Eve 2017.
He was found not guilty by a jury at Gloucester Crown Court but subsequently appeared before a police disciplinary panel accused of breaching professional standards.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police leaders have hit back at claims they are “more interested in being woke than solving crimes” as prosecution rates stand at a record low.
A report by the Policy Exchange think-tank said officers should “consider the potential impact” of dancing or engaging with members of the public at protests and events.
It said recent polling found “the public were almost twice as likely to agree than disagree with the statement that ‘the police are more interested in being woke than solving crimes’”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police boss from Scotland has been chosen as the next Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police.
Will Kerr, Deputy Chief Constable at Police Scotland, has been chosen by the Police and Crime Commissioner to take up the role.
PCC Alison Hernandez said Mr Kerr was an "exceptional strategic leader".
[ more...]
Justice
The number of women dropping out of rape cases has doubled to four in ten in six years amid increasing court delays, figures show.
Home Office data shows that the proportion of rape victims deciding to withdraw their support for a prosecution has increased from 19.7 per cent in 2015 to 42 per cent in 2021 and 2022.
The drop out rate has contributed to a collapse in the number of rape investigations resulting in a charge from seven per cent in 2015/16 to 1.3 per cent, just one in 70.
[ more...]
Police Finances
It follows a recent report by the Justice Committee that warned limited progress has been made in developing alternatives to custodial sentences for women amid concerns that the female prison population may rise by a third in the next three years.
With more than 60 per cent of women in prison having experienced domestic abuse and 50 per cent having drug addictions, almost £21 million will be invested in women’s services to tackle the causes of female offending and cut crime.
A further £3.6 million will be allocated to help local services, such as mental health support and drug experts, work more closely to support female offenders. This will include funding local coordinator roles, who would help to bring government and third sector organisations together to provide a better service.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Think tank Policy Exchange acknowledged in its proposal the new PM will be “faced with a police service which has, over the last decade, lost its way”.
The paper’s author, ex-Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) detective chief inspector David Spencer, made 11 recommendations he said would help the Government ensure “the safety of its citizens from those who would commit crime and disorder”.
The College of Policing, which had an annual budget of £71 million in 2020/21, was established in December 2012 as the professional body for policing in England and Wales with locations in County Durham, Coventry, Harrogate and London.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Home Secretary should use their powers to reform "failing" police forces and replace the chief constable if necessary, a report has found.
Policy Exchange, a centre-right think tank, says some common offences are "in essence almost entirely decriminalised" because policing has "lost its way".
The report's author, former detective chief inspector David Spencer, said significant intervention was needed.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police in Liverpool have made more than 30 arrests in 24 hours as part of a crackdown on organised crime after the fatal shooting of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel.
Merseyside Police made 32 arrests, carried out 66 stop and searches, executed 11 warrants and seized eight vehicles on Monday.
The action was part of Operation Miller, the force’s effort to tackle organised crime in the area.
[ more...]
Prisons
Prisoners are to get “pay” rises double the rate of those given to nurses, police officers and firefighters.
Offenders leaving jail will see their subsistence payment increase by 8.4 per cent, in recognition of the rising cost of living.
Their payout - which increases to £82.39 from £76 this month - is being linked to the Consumer Prices’ Index for the next three years.
It follows the lifting of 26-year freeze on the value of the handout, which increased from £46 to £76 last year. It was also renamed from the discharge grant to the subsistence payment.
[ more...]
Justice
Court “chaos” is resulting in criminals going free, the victims’ commissioner has warned, as barristers move to an all-out strike.
Record backlogs, which are already seeing cases scheduled late in 2024, are expected to be worsened significantly by a continuous walkout starting on Tuesday that will bring most crown court hearings to a halt in England and Wales.
The government has refused to negotiate with the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) through two months of escalating action over the payments for representing people who cannot afford defence lawyers.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police officers took a record 500,000 days off because of mental ill health, new data have revealed, as a former watchdog blamed the trauma of dealing with the sick and dying during pandemic.
Figures obtained through the Freedom of Information Act from police forces showed that the number of days taken off because of mental ill health rose by nine per cent in a year, from 457,154 in 2020 to 497,154 in 2021.
An increase in mental health problems among their officers was reported by 24 of the 37 police forces that responded to the FoI.
[ more...]
Justice
Confidence in the police in England and Wales has been shaken by a series of scandals, recorded crime rising to a 20-year high and the proportion of offences leading to court action hitting a new low. In 2021-22, only 5.6% of offences led to a suspect being summonsed or charged, compared with 16% in 2014-15.
Offences at record highs include rape, up to 70,330 in 2021-22, all sexual offences (194,683) and stalking and harassment offences (722,574), despite the government’s tackling violence against women and girls strategy and apology to survivors in its rape review. The charge rate for rape was at a record low of 1.3%.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
A police force has launched a campaign to try to stop its officers being poached by the Metropolitan Police.
"Keep it Kent" has been launched after Kent Police said 70 officers expressed an interest in leaving the force to take up the Met's offer of a £5,000 joining bonus.
Kent Chief Constable Alan Pughsley said the numbers of officers wanting to transfer to the Met was "exceptional".
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
There is a risk that police officers will be scared of having “banter” because of the focus on inappropriate comments and behaviour on WhatsApp, according to the senior officer in charge of tackling violence against women and girls.
Maggie Blyth was appointed last year to co-ordinate police action on the issue after concerns sparked by the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Metropolitan Police officer.
Blyth, deputy chief constable of Hampshire Constabulary, said it was important to have a “call-out culture” within policing and “safe conversations” about behaviour that made colleagues feel uncomfortable.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Civil Nuclear Police Authority has jioned the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners as part of plans to extend the remit of the CNC to help other forces.
The government recently supported proposals to enable the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) to provide ‘special demand’ assistance to territorial forces, in line with BTP and MoD Police powers.
Ideas for expansion of the CNC to emerge from a consultation exercise included ‘backfilling’ specialist policing roles during the pandemic in order to free up territorial forces to support enforcement of health protection regulations.
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Police and Crime General
Traditional police hats are to be reintroduced as a force is to scrap baseball caps that were a “backward step” for officers.
Lancashire Constabulary is to spend £40,000 bringing back traditional flat caps for all male officers with women given the option of wearing bowler hats with the force’s insignia on them.
Traffic officers will get white caps - to make them clearly visible - while community support officers will get caps with a blue band. Baseball caps will only be used when officers are deployed to tackle public order disturbances.
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Police Finances
The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) and Home Office are jointly investing £6 million in an approach known as focused deterrence, which combines communicating the consequences of violence with support to help people move away from crime.
Research from the YEF shows that focused deterrence strategies have been highly effective – on average reducing crime by 33 per cent.
However, most of this evidence is international, which is why the YEF and Home Office are making a multi-million investment to build an evidence base in England.
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Justice
Tyson Fury's call for higher sentences will not stop knife crime alone because perpetrators do not consider jail when offending, a former police chief said.
World champion boxer Fury made the plea after his cousin died in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, on Sunday.
Ex-chief constable Sir Peter Fahy told Sky News the "main issue" was a court backlog caused by Covid-19, and this had led to a higher reoffending risk.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Six weeks on from the disappearance of Owami Davies, the Metropolitan police say they still have 40,000 hours of footage from CCTV cameras and other devices to go through in its search for the student nurse.
If not quite seeking a needle in a haystack, the force insists it is devoting huge resources and elite detectives to finding one person in a city of more than 8 million, unsure if any crime has been committed.
Davies, 24, with a future seemingly full of promise, left her home in Grays, Essex, on 4 July.
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Recruitment and Retention
Retired chief superintendent Kevin Moore said the lack of experience was having a 'detrimental impact' on the quality of policing in the UK and blamed Government cuts post 2010
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Police Demand
Police are dropping fraud investigations if victims have been warned about scams and dismissing complaints if further inquiry is not considered “cost effective”, The Times has learnt.
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Police Demand
Ken Marsh, chairman of the Police Federation for rank and file officers, said last night: “Mental health call-outs for policing are becoming a very dangerous scenario.
"More and more of my colleagues are being used instead of health professionals in the field. It is dangerous for the patient and my colleagues as we do not have the expertise required but are expected to deal with it as if we do.”
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Recruitment and Retention
Rookie officers with less than five years experience now make up almost half of some police forces.
The proportion of inexperienced officers making up total numbers across the country has doubled since 2016. Meanwhile the number with more than 20 years under their belt has fallen.
Kevin Moore, a retired chief superintendent and former head of CID at Sussex Police, said: “The lack of experience is having a detrimental impact on the quality of policing.
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Economy & Public Finance
Gang members are to be called in to meetings with police on neutral turf in a trial of a US scheme that has reduced serious crime by a third.
Five police force areas will each get more than £1 million of government cash to trial a strategy known as “focused deterrence” pioneered on gangs in Boston, Chicago and Cincinnati but now widely deployed across US cities. It has reduced gun and knife crime by as much as 50 per cent.
Warring members of major gangs known to police are called into meetings on neutral territory with officers, community and faith leaders, parents of victims and social services, to be persuaded to stop their violence because of the impact it is having on their communities and their lives.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police are dropping fraud investigations if victims have been warned about scams and dismissing complaints if further inquiry is not considered “cost effective”, The Times has learnt.
Forces were accused of “victim blaming” with cases given a lower priority if detectives assessed that a complainant’s conduct and found they may have “contributed to the loss” by being alerted about a transaction.
Several forces in England and Wales, including the Metropolitan Police, may also screen out fraud cases “where the consequences of an investigation in terms of length of sentence or financial penalty are not considered to be cost-effective”.
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Police Demand
The chiefs of poorly performing police forces should be sacked, Liz Truss said last night, and she has pledged to ensure greater accountability.
The frontrunner to succeed Boris Johnson told a Tory party hustings hosted by GB News in Manchester that police spent too much time investigating posts on social media instead of crime on the streets.
She said: “We need to make sure our police are policing the streets rather than Twitter, and focusing on the crimes the public are concerned about. I would have league tables . . . police and crime commissioners are an important part of that. We don’t have enough transparency on exactly what the police are doing and we also need the right leadership in the police and the right leadership in our big cities. Frankly, Sadiq Khan has let down London.”
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Government borrowing was £3 billion higher than expected in the year to July, putting pressure on the next chancellor to keep costs down to meet fiscal targets.
Borrowing since April came to £55 billion, compared with the £52 billion forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the official forecaster.
The government is under pressure to deliver more support for households facing the worst cost of living crisis in decades, while an impending economic downturn is expected to eat into tax revenues.
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Justice
A former TV news anchor has called for an overhaul of stalkers’ treatment by the justice system after a gardener who waged a “campaign of vengeance” against her was spared jail.
Isla Traquair said she suffered nightmares and was forced out of her home on the edge of the Cotswolds after being pursued by Jonathan Barrett.
The former presenter on STV, ITV and Channel 5 broke down yesterday as she told a court how Barrett’s behaviour had been more terrifying than “confronting murderers” in her work as a journalist. Traquair, 42, said the ordeal left her unable to eat or sleep properly.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Stop and searches in central London increase by more than a fifth on weekends when protests take place, according to civil liberties campaigners who say police are misusing the tactic to deliberately target demonstrators.
Except in special circumstances, stop and search can be used only for a handful of specific reasons, mostly covering drugs, weapons and stolen goods, suggesting, according to activists, that police are stretching the limits of their powers.
“Our research shows an alarming pattern of police disproportionately using existing powers to deliberately target people exercising their right to protest,” said Mark Johnson, legal and policy officer at Big Brother Watch (BBW).
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The PEEL assessment framework (PAF) was revised early in the 2021/22 PEEL cycle following feedback from routine evaluation and consultations.
Changes have additionally been made after the pilot - the core questions have been adapted so that the strategic policing requirement and armed policing has been moved to a thematic approach and therefore will not be assessed through PEEL.
Meanwhile, serious and organised crime will be reported on regionally and counter corruption/vetting/professional standards nationally - although in both cases individual force graded judgements will still be included in PEEL reports where available.
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Economy & Public Finance
Millions of public sector workers are expected to vote on strike action over pay this autumn in what could be the biggest wave of industrial action since the 1970s.
The walkouts could see shortages in hospitals, fire stations, schools and on the transport network, if negotiations over pay rises cannot be resolved.
Unions say pay offers are not keeping pace with the soaring cost of living, but the government says it must tackle rising inflation and says hiking up pay now could result in prices increasing even more.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners Transparency and Accountability Lead and Police and Crime Commissioner Giles Orpen-Smellie, said: “We welcome the updated guidance for police misconduct proceedings published by the College of Policing today.
“It is our priority as Police and Crime Commissioners to ensure that the public has the upmost trust in the police service, and we are committed to ensuring chief constables and all involved in the misconduct process are robustly tackling misconduct within police forces.
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Police and Crime General
The College of Policing said any undermining of trust should be at the heart of decision-making in disciplinary proceedings.
The college called for a misconduct system that is “transparent, timely, and isn’t afraid to show the door to shoe who betray our values” as it published the new guidance on Wednesday.
A new specific section on violence against women and girls says that such cases will always have a “high degree of culpability, with the likely outcome being severe”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
An office worker who was accused by the Met Police of “partying” during the pandemic when he was sat at his desk at work has been cleared of breaking Covid rules.
Gregory Vooght, 30, said he was working late preparing an important presentation in March last year when police officers arrived and accused him of involvement in a St Patrick Day celebration.
He said it was a “slap in the face” when he was handed a fine over the incident, and took the case to court in order to prove his innocence.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Pay fell at the sharpest pace on record between April and June, official figures show, as soaring inflation continued to weigh on earnings.
Wages - when taking into account rising prices - fell by 3% on the year, said the Office for National Statistics.
Household budgets are being hit by soaring energy bills as well as higher food and fuel costs.
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Recruitment and Retention
Police officers in Scotland have agreed to an improved pay offer weeks after rejecting an initial "derisory" offer of £565.
All ranks will get a 5% pay rise, backdated to 1 April, as well as a similar increase in allowances.
It was welcomed by Police Scotland's Chief Constable Sir Iain Livingstone.
[ more...]
Police Demand
County lines is the name given to drug-dealing networks connecting urban and rural areas, using phone lines, across the UK. Former gang members and those trying to support them claim the rising cost of living is being used by organised criminals to exploit those struggling to make ends meet.
[ more...]
Police Finances
All dog section vehicles across the TVP and Hampshire force areas will now be kitted out with first aid equipment following funding from the two PCCs.
Defibrillators, awirway management equipment and equipment to deal with catastrophic bleeds will be among that provided by £48,992 worth of funding.
The two PCCs have said that dog handlers are often first on the scene of calls and that it is therefore important they have the equipment to make lifesaving interventions.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy shrank between April and June as experts forecast a gloomy outlook with recession on the horizon.
The economy contracted by 0.1% in the second quarter of the year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
This was partly due to Covid schemes like Test and Trace ending, retail sales falling and the Queen's Platinum Jubilee bank holiday in June, it said.
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Justice
Almost 1.5 million victims of crime in England and Wales have decided not to pursue their cases, feeding concern that public confidence in the criminal justice system has collapsed.
Home Office figures unearthed by Labour show there were 1,411,650 victims who did not support continuing action after they had reported a crime in the year to March 2022.
The figures come after the police’s official inspectorate said that a failure to stop thieves and burglars threatens police’s “bond of trust” with the public.
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Police Demand
The Metropolitan Police abandoned investigations into nearly 40 per cent of domestic burglaries within 24 hours last year, data seen by The Times suggests.
Britain’s biggest police force “screened out” 16,150 of 40,485 cases on the day the report was made, meaning officers had decided quickly that there were no fruitful further lines of inquiry.
The force also closed 10 per cent of robbery reports that day, more than 37 per cent of vehicle offences, 29 per cent of bike thefts and a quarter of cases of personal theft. Conversely the “screening out” rates for sexual offences were tiny, with just 67 of 14,899 reported crimes, or 0.4 per cent, abandoned in the same time period.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The Police Federation has called for the Home Office to be stripped of the power to set terms of the Police Remuneration Review Body.
The first formal response to the government since the pay award urged the Treasury and Home Office to reset relations with officers – and opened the terms for negotiations with the new ministerial team.
It contained an analysis of how the flat 5% pay increase had impacted on officers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Most victims of burglary, robbery and theft in England and Wales are not being given the justice they deserve, the police watchdog says.
Her majesty's chief inspector of constabulary, Andy Cooke, calls current low charge rates "unacceptable and unsustainable".
Some forces tackle these crimes well - but many do not, his report says.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
APCC response to HMICFRS ‘Finding time for crime’ report - The police response to burglary, robbery and other acquisitive crime
APCC Joint Local Policing Leads and Police and Crime Commissioners Steve Turner and Jeff Cuthbert said: “Acquisitive crime makes up a significant per cent of crime and the profound effect it has on victims should not be underestimated.
“This is a comprehensive report which highlights fundamental areas for improvement when it comes to how police respond and investigate acquisitive crime such as robbery, burglary and theft.
“Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary’s labels the low charge rates across forces as ‘unacceptable and unsustainable’. As Commissioners we will continue to hold our forces to account and we will be monitoring these figures very closely going forwards.
“We will ensure these recommendations receive the necessary attention and action they require, with a view to supporting forces in their compliance of the victims’ code of practice.
“We know that prevention can also be key and as PCCs we are best placed to deliver on this locally. We will continue our work around funding services and initiatives to support all victims of crime and reduce crime in our communities.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Aine Davis, who was allegedly a member of an Islamic State cell known as The Beatles, has been charged with terrorism offences.
The British man was charged after he was deported to England by Turkish authorities, the Crown Prosecution Service said.
The charges follow an investigation by the Met's Counter Terrorism Command.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Sessions to educate people accused of committing hate crimes have been cancelled after an intervention from a police and crime commissioner (PCC).
Donna Jones, PCC for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, scrapped the course after a man was arrested for sharing an anti-LGBT post on social media.
The post showed Progress Pride flags in the shape of a swastika.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Armed police are being sent to save the lives of people in cardiac arrest because ambulances “can’t cope” with demand, The Independent can reveal.
Officers are spending up to a third of their time on non-policing matters, a watchdog has warned, including responding to mental health crises and transporting patients to A&E as ambulance services face a “chronic crisis situation”.
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Police Demand
Police forces are sending officers to as few as one in four burglaries despite government calls to visit every one.
Constabularies that have pledged to send police to the scene of every break-in have cut burglaries by up to half and seen detection rates treble.
However, data obtained by The Telegraph under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws show that two forces, Northumbria and Avon & Somerset, last year visited just 26.3 per cent and 25 per cent of homes respectively.
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Police Finances
The Bank of England has warned the UK will fall into recession as it raised interest rates by the most in 27 years.
The economy is forecast to shrink in the last three months of this year and keep shrinking until the end of 2023.
Interest rates rose to 1.75% as the Bank battles to stem soaring prices, with inflation now set to hit over 13%.
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Fire
Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) is to be taken over by the county's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).
It follows a decision from the Home Secretary as part of the Local Government Reform programme that will see power of the fire service transferred to Cumbria PCC Peter McCall.
Currently Cumbria County Council is responsible for the fire service, but from next spring this will change as the council is due to be replaced by two unitary authorities.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
There has been a sharp increase in the rate of deaths from drug misuse in Wales, according to new figures.
There were 210 deaths recorded in 2021, compared with 149 in 2020 - an increase of 41% - Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures showed.
The figure was also the highest since records began in 1993, with the previous record being 208 in 2018.
[ more...]
Fire
Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) is to be taken over by the county's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).
It follows a decision from the Home Secretary as part of the Local Government Reform programme that will see power of the fire service transferred to Cumbria PCC Peter McCall.
Currently Cumbria County Council is responsible for the fire service, but from next spring this will change as the council is due to be replaced by two unitary authorities.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Priti Patel has told the new head of Scotland Yard that tackling officers’ bad behaviour must be his first priority.
The Home Secretary met with Sir Mark Rowley, the incoming Metropolitan Police Commissioner, on Monday to spell out the need to restore trust in officers by cracking down on declining standards of behaviour and driving down neighbourhood crime.
Sir Mark is due to take charge of the Met at the start of next month when he will institute a 100-day plan to start turning round the force, which was placed under special measures by HM inspectorate of police in June.
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Prisons
The rule change is part of measures introduced to protect the public and would allow ministers to override judges’ fixed-term sentences that set automatic release dates at halfway or two-thirds through offenders’ jail terms.
Instead, ministers will be able to refer offenders to the Parole Board so they can serve out their full prison sentences if they are deemed to have become a “significant public protection concern” and pose “a very high risk of serious harm”, according to the Telegraph.
It had been thought that the new power would only apply to criminals who were radicalised in jail and who had posed a threat if freed.
[ more...]
Police Finances
More than £1m of government funding has been secured to help tackle neighbourhood crime and anti-social behaviour in Derbyshire.
The money would be spent on free home security upgrades for 900 properties and programmes to support young people.
It would also go towards CCTV and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras in the county.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The police approach to recording non-crime hate incidents has at times “caused people to question whether we know what we’re doing”, one of the most senior chief constables has said.
Stephen Watson, who heads Greater Manchester Police, said that officers needed to be given the confidence to tell the public that some things were “just not a police matter”.
He welcomed new guidance by the national standards body, which emphasised that people contributing to social debate must not be “stigmatised simply because someone is offended”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
If councillors on North Yorkshire CC and York City Council back the deal the area’s 818,000 voters will elect a mayor in 2024.
The deal also includes £13m for new homes on brownfield land, £7m for green economic growth - subject to approval of an investment case - and the power to set up mayoral development corporations.
In addition, the new mayor will take on the powers of the police, fire and crime commissioner and the York and North Yorkshire local enterprise partnership will be integrated into the new mayoral combined authority that will be created under the deal.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than £1m of government funding has been secured to help tackle neighbourhood crime and anti-social behaviour in Derbyshire.
The money would be spent on free home security upgrades for 900 properties and programmes to support young people.
It would also go towards CCTV and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras in the county.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it was so concerned by the force's delay in passing on the details, it would examine more cases to see if they were being handled properly.
The IOPC is investigating five of the most serious cases, including Child Q, and considering three more, and has asked the Met itself to review its own actions in another six.
Four Met officers are facing gross misconduct charges over Child Q, a 15-year-old black girl who was strip searched at her east London school on suspicion of carrying cannabis in December 2020.
The incident was widely condemned, with Child Q having been on her period and left traumatised.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A new Chief Executive with nearly three decades of experience in the criminal justice system has been appointed.
Phil Golding, 44, will take up the prestigious role later this year after six years as head of the Law Commission – leading the commission through significant change.
Phil’s experience of the justice system stretches back to 1994 when he joined the then Lord Chancellor’s Department. Since then, he has progressed through the ranks via Ministerial Private Offices and various roles.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The recent story of Child Q, the 15-year-old black schoolgirl who was accused by her teachers of smelling of cannabis and subjected to a strip-search at her school in Hackney, London, without an appropriate adult present, has rightly elicited outrage.
The Metropolitan Police Service and the child’s school have apologised. Her headteacher has stepped down. Four police officers face gross misconduct charges and eight similar cases have since been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Racism among police has been “taken out of canteens and put on WhatsApp”, a leading officer has warned after “vile” messages exchanged by officers were exposed in court.
Andy George, president of the National Black Police Association, said racism had not gone away in the past 20 years but had simply been pushed underground.
Speaking to The Independent, he asked: “How many times can we say it’s a few bad apples, we’ve dealt with them, things are great? There’s a wholesale systemic issue with culture.”
Fresh concerns have been sparked by evidence heard in the trial of three current and former Metropolitan Police officers, over jokes about rape, domestic violence, Muslims and racial minorities in a WhatsApp group containing Wayne Couzens.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
It’s a Saturday night in Swindon and I’m racing with Wiltshire police, “blues and twos” wailing, to Wichelstowe, a residential estate on the southern edge of town, where a man has reportedly been stabbed in the stomach. Several 999 callers have described him as being half-naked and apparently mentally disturbed, but he is nowhere to be seen. Two patrol cars search while police dogs are brought in, but we don’t find him — neither do we find any blood.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Scotland Yard is strip-searching hundreds of children a year, according to analysis that will revive concerns about the force’s treatment of minors in the wake of the Child Q case.
Officers in London have strip-searched between 500 and 800 children each year between 2018 and 2021, research shows. Between 100 and 200 had “intimate parts” exposed in the process, according to an analysis for The Conversation online network.
There has been increased scrutiny of the issue after Child Q, a 15-year-old black girl who was menstruating, was strip-searched by officers after she was wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis at her east London school.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Devon and Cornwall Police has a new high performance sports car it will modify to teach young drivers about road safety.
In collaboration with a popular YouTube channel, officers are asking for ideas on which modifications to make.
The Ford Focus is a popular choice among young drivers and modified car enthusiasts, the force said.
[ more...]
Justice
A police and crime commissioner (PCC) has criticised her own force for sending officers to investigate an alleged offensive social media post.
It follows videos posted by political activist Laurence Fox showing Hampshire Constabulary officers attempting to make an arrest in Aldershot.
Donna Jones, PCC for Hampshire and Isle of Wight, said she was concerned about the "necessity" of the police response.
[ more...]
Police Demand
West Midlands Police has had to make sacrifices to deliver the Birmingham Commonwealth Games but can still be depended on by victims of crime, the force's boss says.
Up to 3,000 officers will be working the Games, leaving some people concerned regular policing will suffer.
A car-jacking victim told the BBC she felt let down by police pressures.
But Chief Constable Sir David Thompson said support had been drafted in for the Games from other police forces.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The Met Police has lost its bid to sack a senior officer previously dismissed and later reinstated for possessing a child abuse video.
In November 2019, Supt Robyn Williams was sentenced to community service for having the clip on her phone. She was dismissed by the Met four months later.
A tribunal later ruled she should be reinstated. The Met appealed against this decision but has been overruled.
The Met would "carefully consider the judgements", a spokesperson said.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police will be told to cut murder, violence and crimes such as burglary by a fifth if Liz Truss becomes prime minister.
The foreign secretary said that her government would publish league tables showing how each force was performing against the national trend on a set of key crimes.
Chief constables who failed to achieve 20 per cent reductions would be hauled in front of ministers to explain how they intended to improve their figures. After attending a meeting of the National Policing Board, their plans would be published to allow local residents to hold them to account.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Boris Johnson's flagship police pledge is in danger as a record number of officers leave their jobs.
In his first speech as prime minister in July 2019, Mr Johnson vowed that he would put “another 20,000 police on the streets” by the end of March 2023.
New figures published on Wednesday show that just 234 extra officers were recruited between April and June this year, and the figure will now have to average 690 officers a month to hit the 20,000 target.
[ more...]
Justice
English legal history will be made today when television cameras broadcast from a crown court for the first time.
At the Old Bailey, Judge Sarah Munro QC is expected to be recorded sentencing Ben Oliver, of Bexleyheath, southeast London, for the manslaughter of his grandfather last year.
Broadcasters will now be allowed to apply to film in crown courts across England and Wales.
[ more...]
Technology
According to the complaint made to the Information Commissioner’s Office, the surveillance system “uses novel technology and highly invasive processing of personal data, creating a biometric profile of every visitor to stores where its cameras are installed”.
The group said the independent grocery chain had installed the surveillance technology in 35 stores across Portsmouth, Bournemouth, Bristol, Brighton and Hove, Chichester, Southampton and London.
The safety of our colleagues and customers is paramount and this technology has made a significant difference to this, in the limited number of high-risk locations where it is being used
[ more...]
Police Demand
Nine in ten cases of bike theft and almost all those of theft from a vehicle were closed last year without a suspect having been identified, official figures have revealed.
A total of almost two million cases were closed by the police in the past year without a culprit having been identified.
The figure represents 40 per cent of all crimes that were assigned an outcome by police forces in England and Wales between April 2021 and March. They were recorded as “investigation complete — no suspect identified”, according to an analysis of official figures by the Liberal Democrats.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Liz Truss would return to national crime targets – pledging a 20% reduction in murders, other violence and burglaries within two years if she became prime minister – under a plan immediately condemned as a “failed approach” and political meddling.
[ more...]
Technology
Police are investigating evidence that paedophiles are using drones to watch and record children at school, after receiving reports of more than 300 suspicious flights in the last two years, i can reveal.
A total of 333 flights have been recorded over or close to school premises since October 2020. Schools have become the third most common location for reports to police of nuisance or suspect drone use.
Sex offenders are feared to be among those responsible, and the problem is part of a wider rapid increase in the use of quadcopters by criminals for offences from burglary to voyeurism.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Fifteen minutes of police patrols can reduce violent crime by 70 per cent, according to analysis that boosts the new Metropolitan Police commissioner’s case for more bobbies on the beat.
Proactive patrols in crime hotspots also resulted in significant drops in wider crime, as well as fewer calls to emergency services, researchers said.
Although police forces are spending more money on the latest artificial intelligence to predict crime patterns, the findings underline the effectiveness of old-fashioned policing.
[ more...]
Justice
Police forces that fail to hand back rape victims mobile phones within 24 hours are to be named and shamed.
Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, said the Government is determined that by 2024 no victim will have to wait more than 24 hours for their phone to be returned after being examined by police investigators.
The delays have been blamed for the collapse in convictions with as few as one in 70 rapes resulting in an attacker being brought to justice.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan police force has taken the unprecedented step of writing to parents of school-age children, urging them to look out for signs of radicalisation because it fears the six-week summer holiday could lead to a rise in extremism.
Det Supt Jane Corrigan, of the Met’s counter-terrorism command and lead officer in the anti-terrorist Prevent programme, sent a letter to primary and secondary schools in London – the first time such a step has been taken – to distribute to parents last week. In it she expresses concern that children would be spending more time online during the summer holidays, and that this would create the risk they could come into contact with those attempting to radicalise young people.
[ more...]
Prisons
Drug and alcohol addicted prisoners will get special rewards such as gym sessions and TVs if they go cold turkey to kick their habit in jail.
Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, is to create 100 units within jails where offenders agree to regular drug tests and are rewarded with incentives such as extra gym time, in-cell TVs, additional family visits and cooking facilities if they stay clean.
The incentivised substance-free living (ISFL) units are part of a £120 million cash injection to promote an abstinence-based approach to rehabilitate addicts.
There are concerns that traditional methadone or other opiate treatments are leaving offenders “indefinitely” reliant on the drug.
[ more...]
Justice
A rape victim who will have been waiting five years by the time her case comes to court has said navigating the justice process has had a worse impact on her mental health than the crime itself, leaving her feeling “suicidal”.
The woman, known as Debbie, recently had her case listed but it was pulled the day before she was due to appear in court. She now faces a further eight-month wait.
She is among thousands of victims, witnesses and defendants affected by the record-high backlog of 58,653 crown court cases in England and Wales, set to further increase this summer amid strikes by barristers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Recorded crime in England and Wales has hit a 20-year high as the proportion of offences leading to court action fell to a new low, official figures show. Only 5.6 per cent of offences reported to police led to a suspect being charged or summonsed in 2021/22, down from 7.1 per cent the previous year and from 16 per cent in 2014/15, Home Office figures reveal.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Accepts the PRRB’s recommendation in full to award a consolidated increase of £1,900 to all police officer pay points for all ranks with effect from 1 September 2022
Accepted the recommendation that the Police Constable Degree Apprentice minimum starting salary should be raised to pay point 0 (£23,556 with effect from 1
September 2022).
Accepted the recommendation to increase to London Weighting and the Dog Handlers’ Allowance by 5% with effect from 1 September 2022.
The Home Office will provide forces with additional funding for pay
over the Spending Review period of at least £70m in 2022/23, £140m in 2023/24 and £140m in 2024/25. This will mean funding allocations to policing this year of £17 billion,
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Policemen should tackle street crime not Twitter jokes, Rishi Sunak said as he put a crackdown on sexual exploitation at the centre of his law and order approach.
The Tory leadership contender and former chancellor promised to create a new criminal offence for belonging to or facilitating grooming gangs, leading to tougher sentences.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A police force is to start sending bills to the local authority after revealing that officers spent more than 50,000 hours last year dealing with mental health related calls.
Bedfordshire Police said the demand from non crime related calls meant officers were unable to do the job they signed up for.
Festus Akinbusoye, the local Police and Crime Commissioner, said the force had received more than 10,000 calls for mental health related matters in 2021, equating to 53,000 police hours.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police are bracing for a spike in crime across Britain linked to the ongoing heatwave and the cost of living crisis.
Police and crime commissioners (PCCs) have been urging forces to make preparations for expected increases in vandalism, fights, theft, shoplifting and anti-social behaviour.
Calls to 999 and 101 are already said to be “going through the roof” across the country, without any clear cause.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Welsh Government today announced it will revalue all 1.5 million properties in the country under bold plans to modernise the council tax system.
Wales’s minister for finance and local government Rebecca Evans announced a 12-week consultation on a revised regime.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Cleveland's police and crime commissioner (PCC) says he fears the force is not being quick enough to make improvements.
Steve Turner said he was not assured by information given to him and was concerned about the "pace of change".
Cleveland Police was placed in special measures in 2019 when it was the first in England or Wales to be rated as failing in all areas.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The new Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley is unlikely to take a tough stance on tackling racism in policing, a former superintendent fears.
Mr Rowley, the former National Police Chiefs Council’s counterterrorism lead, retired from policing in 2018 but was confirmed to be returning as the Met Police’s chief on Friday.
However, Leroy Logan, 65, said he was not “enthralled” upon learning of his former colleague’s appointment, claiming he was “more of the same” and no different from his predecessor Cressida Dick.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More than a thousand children in Telford were sexually exploited over decades amid the failure of authorities to investigate “emboldened offenders”, an independent inquiry into the scandal has concluded.
The three-year independent inquiry into child sexual exploitation (IICSE) found that abuse was allowed to continue for years and children, rather than perpetrators, were often blamed.
Issues were not investigated because of nervousness about race, the inquiry’s final report said, and teachers and youth workers were discouraged from reporting child sexual exploitation.
[ more...]
Justice
Scotland Yard has “effectively decriminalised” theft from cars, putting pressure on the new commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to take action.
An analysis by The Telegraph of Home Office data has shown that the Metropolitan Police solved just 0.5 per cent, 271 out of nearly 55,000 thefts from vehicles in London ast year.
Because of the size of the Metropolitan Police’s area, it accounts for nearly a quarter of all car thefts recorded by police in England and Wales.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson is attempting to install Lord Hogan-Howe as head of the National Crime Agency before he leaves No 10, The Times has been told.
The recruitment process for the post, one of the most prestigious in law enforcement, was reopened in May after Hogan-Howe, Johnson’s top pick, was overlooked. The prime minister is understood to have been unhappy that the former Metropolitan Police commissioner did not reach the final round.
The reopening of applications prompted a backlash because Hogan-Howe, 64, oversaw Operation Midland, Scotland Yard’s bungled child abuse investigation. He has supported the prime minister politically and took the unprecedented step in policing of backing him during the last Conservative leadership contest in 2019.
[ more...]
Justice
Prisoners convicted of serious crimes who may be the victims of miscarriages of justice are being blocked from access to crucial forensic information that could prove their innocence, experts have warned.
Campaigners are calling for legal reforms to provide improved access to evidence that may help prove the innocence of the wrongly convicted. They say a supreme court ruling in 2014 is effectively being used to deny access to police files and evidence.
The Law Commission, the statutory independent body that reviews the law in England and Wales, confirmed this weekend it is reviewing the law around criminal appeals.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The new Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has been criticised for failing to mention violence against women or race in the statement addressing his appointment.
Leading charities in the women’s sector told The Independent the decision to appoint a new leader of Britain’s largest police force “means nothing” unless misogyny and racism within policing was explicitly “named”.
Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, said Sir Mark, the former National Police Chiefs Council’s counterterrorism lead, will be policing a city “where confidence in the police – especially among women and people of colour – has plummeted”.
[ more...]
Justice
Senior lawyers are blocking police misconduct hearings because of the risk of being sued by officers for “unfavourable” decisions.
The lawyers in charge of the disciplinary panels are refusing to take on new cases until the Home Office guarantees them the same immunity from legal claims as other courts and tribunals.
It follows cases where decisions to dismiss officers for gross misconduct face legal challenges that could expose panel members to six-figure damages claims for which they will be personally liable.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Scotland Yard has “effectively decriminalised” theft from cars, putting pressure on the new commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to take action.
An analysis by The Telegraph of Home Office data has shown that the Metropolitan Police solved just 05. per cent, 271 out of nearly 55,000 thefts from vehicles in London ast year.
Because of the size of the Metropolitan Police’s area, it accounts for nearly a quarter of all car thefts recorded by police in England and Wales.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Tom Pursglove MP is to serve as the new Policing Minister following the resignation of Boris Johnson and over 50 MPs
[ more...]
Justice
The Rowan Project received a cash-boost from the OPCCN in November 2020 to offer specialist support for victims of sexual abuse, sexual violence, rape, and recent and historic child sexual abuse.
The service officially launched in February 2021 – during the Covid-19 pandemic – as a two-year pilot scheme.
Norfolk’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Giles Orpen Smellie visited the charity in June to find out more about the project and how it has helped meet demand created by the pandemic.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Theft offences in some of the Cleveland’s most vulnerable neighbourhoods have dropped significantly following a £1m investment in crime prevention measures.
A successful bid by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) secured £1.034m from the Home Office’s Safer Streets fund. Cash paid for targeted work in Burn Valley, Hartlepool, Newport, Middlesbrough and South Bank, Redcar and Cleveland.
The project, which ran from 2020 to 2021 aimed to cut acquisitive – or theft-related – crimes such as burglaries and robbery.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Following a successful bidding process working with Local Authority partners, the OPCC will receive an additional £706,608 over a three year period from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), which will then be awarded to Safe Link to employ three ISVAs and Next Link to employ three IDVAs.
This follows existing funding by the OPCC from the MoJ, meaning that across Avon and Somerset, there are now an additional 26 IDVAs and 12 ISVAs supporting individuals with lived experiences of domestic and sexual abuse.
The newly appointed ISVAs and IDVAs will have a particular focus on supporting those with protected characteristics specifically children and young people.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police have been urged to take a zero-tolerance approach to fuel campaigners amid fears that “go-slow” protests on motorways could continue throughout the summer.
Senior government sources said Priti Patel, the home secretary, expected forces to use new powers to prevent a repeat of yesterday, when convoys of protesters brought parts of the road network to a standstill.
The action mainly targeted motorways, with vehicles crawling at below 30mph along two lanes, leaving the outside lane free. Among roads affected were the M4 and Prince of Wales bridge over the River Severn, the M5 in Devon, the M32, the A38, the M180 in Lincolnshire, the A12 in Essex, the A92 in Scotland and the A64 near York.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police should look to downsize, according to the Sussex police and crime commissioner.
Conservative Katy Bourne, also the former chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, said the Met had behaved "selfishly".
Her comments come amid a row over the Met's offering of £5,000 incentives to officers from outside forces.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said Operation Talla brought out the “professionalism, capability and reliability of the entire UK police service in response to a critical incident unlike any other in living memory”.
It added: “The objectives of Operation Talla sought to preserve life, maintain law and order, and prevent crime, all while maintaining the core policing service during a period of uncertainty, and assisting colleagues in the NHS as they fought the worst effects of this pandemic.
“These awards view the pandemic from a national perspective not often spoken about, commemorating those who led, shaped and delivered the national response – working to equip those on the front line.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Mr Hartshorn has spoken out after a week that saw three additional forces put under special measures by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, bringing the total to a record number of six.
The Metropolitan Police Service was placed into special measures on June 28, the first time since it was established in 1829. Other forces placed under special measures are Cleveland, Gloucestershire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire and Wiltshire.
Inspectors said the MPS was being “closely scrutinised” having faced extensive criticism following the death of Sarah Everard, who was abducted and murdered by serving officer Wayne Couzens, and the Charing Cross police station scandal.
[ more...]
Prisons
Criminals who leave prison with a job, accommodation and bank account are up to 10 times less likely to reoffend, according to research by the think tank set up by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith.
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) said linking prisoners up with an employer, ensuring they did not end up rough sleeping or sofa surfing and “simple” support such as ensuring they could get to work and had a bank account, slashed reoffending rates from 64 per cent to 4.6 per cent.
The approach, established by charity Tempus Novo, sees prisoners mentored for two years to help them find and hold down a job. Just 16 per cent were unemployed after a year, compared with 65 per cent for all ex-prisoners.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police forces are allowing officers under investigation for sexual misconduct and corruption to resign and take up public-facing jobs elsewhere, an investigation has found.
Since 2017, officers sacked for gross misconduct have been placed on the College of Policing’s “barred list”, which bans them from future jobs in policing. Details are also available to members of the public and prospective employers and can show up on enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks.
But officers who resign or retire while under investigation are merely placed on the police “advisory list’, which is made available only to other police forces, the Home Office, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services. If an officer is sacked at the end of the investigation, they are moved to the barred list.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than 22,000 crime suspects are on the loose after failing to appear in court, the Daily Mail can reveal today.
Fugitives accused of assault, rape and even murder remain at large, sometimes decades after their alleged offences.
Many are thought to be at their given addresses but police are too stretched to arrest them. The Mail investigation even managed to locate two suspects at their own homes.
[ more...]
Justice
Criminal cases in courts across England and Wales face further disruption as barristers enter a second week of strike action.
The walkouts began last week in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.
Members of the Criminal Bar Association have rejected a proposed 15% fee rise, saying some junior barristers currently make less than the hourly minimum wage.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Black and ethnic minority parents are more likely than their white counterparts to back stop and search to crackdown on cannabis, new research has found.
The study of more than 1,000 parents showed 80 per cent of black and ethnic minority families believed police should use stop and search to help remove cannabis from being sold or used on the streets, compared with 70 per cent of white parents.
They were also more likely to back a tough approach to cannabis by the Government and for schools to routinely test older children for the drug, according to the survey by Deltapoll for the think tank Civitas.
[ more...]
Justice
Refuges providing sanctuary to victims of domestic violence are facing severe strains as a result of the cost of living crisis, a charity has warned.
Rising prices are creating a greater demand for refuge spaces, as increased financial pressure acts as a trigger for abusive partners, while making it more costly for those already in refuge to leave, according to Hestia, a charity providing support to those fleeing domestic abuse in London and south-east England.
The charity’s referral line has had a 30% increase in requests for accommodation in the first three months of 2022, with the situation expected to worsen as inflation rises.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
There are "substantial and persistent concerns" about the Metropolitan Police's performance, a letter from a police watchdog reveals.
HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has placed the force into a form of special measures, it emerged on Tuesday.
The letter, seen by the BBC, outlines various concerns, including about a "young" and "inexperienced" workforce.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A record six police forces are currently judged as failing so badly that they need special help as a furious political row erupted over the placing of Scotland Yard into special measures.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary confirmed on Tuesday that the Metropolitan police had been placed into special measures as it waits for a new commissioner to reverse plunging public confidence.
But the full extent of one of the worst ever crises gripping policing across England and Wales is much more widespread and has not yet been made public.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Pride in London says uniformed officers should not march in the parade, following calls from LGBTQ+ campaigners to bar them due to Scotland Yard’s “homophobic” handling of the investigation into the serial killer Stephen Port.
The move came after the human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said the case, which the independent police watchdog recently announced it was reinvestigating, showed that “institutional homophobia is alive and kicking in the Metropolitan police”.
Tatchell added that the case, as well as other recent revelations of homophobia, racism and misogyny in the force, meant Pride in London needed to take a stand on police officers’ participation in the parade.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police officers have insisted public safety will not be compromised as they prepare to "withdraw goodwill" in a pay dispute.
The Scottish Police Federation (SPF) is set to begin its "most overt" action in a century at 17:00 on Friday.
Scottish officers are protesting about a "derisory" £565 pay rise offer.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Met Police has been placed into an advanced stage of monitoring, in what Home Secretary Priti Patel has described as "special measures".
Recently the force has been hit by a series of scandals including the murder of Sarah Everard, the strip-search of Child Q and officers being caught exchanging offensive messages.
In February Dame Cressida Dick quit as commissioner.
Ms Patel said she backed the move taken by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary.
[ more...]
Technology
They may not look especially high tech but, last week, smart doorbells again proved their potential for solving serious crimes. Footage from a doorbell in Fitzwarren, Somerset, was crucial to the murder conviction of Collin Reeves, sentenced to a minimum of 38 years in prison last Tuesday for killing his neighbours Jennifer and Stephen Chapple.
The Reeves case is just the latest example of how evidence acquired via a smart doorbell is becoming as crucial to the police as DNA and phone data-tracing.
“The reach of digital evidence is massive,” says Dave Tucker, faculty lead at the national College of Policing. Smart doorbells are “a potential source of evidence,” he adds, “quite similar to CCTV.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The activist known as Stop Brexit Man faces prosecution after police officers attempting to shut down his regular protest near parliament seized his equipment as controversial new protest laws came into force.
Steve Bray, a former coin dealer and unsuccessful Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, posted videos on Twitter showing officers approaching him near Parliament Square on Tuesday. His sound system was seized.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which came into force on Tuesday, introduces an offence of intentionally or recklessly causing public nuisance, in an attempt to crack down on disruptive guerrilla protests of the kind used by climate change activists.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Met Police has been placed into an advanced stage of monitoring, in what Home Secretary Priti Patel has described as "special measures".
Recently the force has been hit by a series of scandals including the murder of Sarah Everard, the strip-search of Child Q and officers being caught exchanging offensive messages.
In February Dame Cressida Dick quit as commissioner.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A new policing model has launched in the hope of enabling officers to respond quicker to emergencies.
The plan from Staffordshire Police will see emergency response officers operating from the same ten local areas as neighbourhood officers and PCSOs.
Ch Const Chris Noble said it would enhance the officers' local knowledge.
[ more...]
Technology
The UK's communications regulator is calling on young people to help protect each other by reporting harmful content online.
Ofcom says two-thirds of youngsters aged between 13 and 17 see harmful content online but only 16% report it.
As it waits for the government's Online Safety Bill to go through parliament, it has called on young people to help tackle online harms themselves.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A new policing model has launched in the hope of enabling officers to respond quicker to emergencies.
The plan from Staffordshire Police will see emergency response officers operating from the same ten local areas as neighbourhood officers and PCSOs.
Ch Const Chris Noble said it would enhance the officers' local knowledge.
[ more...]
Justice
Barristers will walk out of courts across England and Wales on Monday in a dispute over legal aid funding.
During the strikes, they will not accept new cases or take on work for colleagues whose cases have overrun.
The Criminal Bar Association (CBA) said around 81.5% of its more than 2,000 members who voted in a ballot supported the action.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The mother of a 14-year-old Black boy who was thrown to the floor and handcuffed by a group of police officers on his way home from school in a case of mistaken identity feared her asthmatic son would be the next George Floyd, and be killed while being restrained by the police.
De-shaun Joseph was stopped by police in south London on Thursday after officers said he matched the description of a suspect in a nearby robbery.
The officers, who were looking for a Black youth in a blue hoodie, handcuffed De-shaun, who was wearing a grey top over his school uniform, and forced him face-down to the ground outside Blackhorse Road tram station in Croydon.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
This would mean the government did not collect 5.1% of the tax it was due in theory – the same percentage HMRC estimated for 2019-20, and slightly higher than the record (since the measurement began in 2005-06) low 4.9% estimated in 2018-19.
In absolute terms, the latest tax gap was £2bn lower than in the previous year, but this was in line with the fall in the amount of tax HMRC believes should have been collected amid lockdown restrictions.
“On the face of it, the pandemic has not had a significant effect on the tax gap, although as HMRC themselves note, the estimates for 2020-2021 are subject to even more uncertainty than usual due to Covid-19,” said John Barnett, chair of the Chartered Institute of Taxation’s technical policy and oversight committee.
“The figures suggest HMRC are still collecting about 95% of tax due, which compares well internationally.”
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Interest payments reached £7.6bn, up 70.4% from the same month last year, figures from the Office for National Statistics show.
The ONS said the rise was because of high Retail Prices Index inflation – this week it was revealed RPI inflation reached 11.7% year-on-year in May – to which about one-quarter of UK government debt is linked.
“On an accrued basis, this month saw the third highest debt interest payment made by central government in any single month and the highest payment made in any May on record,” the ONS said.
[ more...]
Justice
Detectives should be paid “bounties” to help boost crime-solving rates, the head of the police watchdog has said.
Andy Cooke, HM chief inspector of police and former Merseyside chief constable, said forces should consider offering bonuses to detectives to combat a national shortfall of up to 5,000 investigators.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Prices are continuing to rise at their fastest rate for 40 years as food, energy and fuel costs continue to climb.
UK inflation, the rate at which prices rise, edged up to 9.1% in the 12 months to May, from 9% in April, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
The figure is now at the highest level since March 1982, when it also stood at 9.1%.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Local audit is a vital part of public accountability and transparency, and timely publication of audited local authority financial statements is a very serious issue.
Without it, there is no proper independent assurance over the billions of pounds spent by local authorities.
Last year’s National Audit Office report on local audit timeliness found that in 2019-20, 55% of audits did not meet the extended statutory deadline.
The following year, Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSAA) reported that only 9% of local audits were completed by the extended deadline of September 2021.
[ more...]
Justice
Victims and survivors of violence have shared their views with Merseyside’s Police and Crime Commissioner on plans to tackle VAWG across the region today.
Emily Spurrell hosted two focus groups to listen to the views of those who have first-hand lived experience of VAWG on how it can be best tackled.
The forums follow on from a VAWG Summit held in April when the PCC brought more than 80 specialists, including frontline staff and voluntary organisations together, to discuss the creation of a delivery plan for making our region safer for women and girls.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police waging the relentless battle against dangerous crime gangs often arrest children for drug dealing. The BBC has been given rare access to a new team of prosecutors who have to decide whether these young suspects are criminals or victims. The choices they face are often complex and controversial.
CCTV footage captured the moment just before a teenager was gunned down in the street in the middle of the afternoon. Abdul Xasan, 19, was walking in the Hillfields area of Coventry in March 2020, when he was shot in the back. He died on the pavement.
His killer, who was armed with a pump action shotgun, was the same age as him. The car was driven by a 15-year-old accomplice. Both occupants were linked to the C2 gang in Coventry. Abdul was connected to a rival group, known as RB7. The day after the shooting, armed police arrested one of the suspects at his home.
[ more...]
Justice
Police have failed to solve a single burglary in neighbourhoods covering nearly half the country over the past three years, a Telegraph investigation has found. Of more than 32,000 neighbourhoods analysed, 16,000 of them (46 per cent) had all their burglary cases in the past three years closed with no suspect caught and charged by police.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police officers are using supermarket poverty vouchers amid warnings that the cost of living crisis could increase the risk of corruption in the ranks.
The Police Federation in Gloucestershire has handed out 120 vouchers in just three days to hard-pressed officers to help with food bills.
The organisation, which represents rank-and-file officers, claims that since 2010 its members have suffered a 20 per cent real-terms pay cut.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
New laws mean from March any officer completing their three-year probation will have gained a graduate-level qualification
[ more...]
Police Finances
Vulnerable children were left exposed to sexual exploitation in Oldham because of “serious failings” by the police and council, a damning independent review has found.
The report found there were multiple missed opportunities to prevent abuse stretching back to 2005, including offences committed by a council welfare officer who was later convicted of 30 rapes.
The review also suggested senior police and council officers may have misled MPs on the Commons home affairs select committee when denying wrongdoing over the “profound sexual exploitation” of a 12-year-old girl.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Black people in Merseyside are twice as likely to face arrest than white people, a police report has revealed.
A scrutiny meeting heard that black people across the region were 2.3 times more likely to be detained, which represented a downturn since 2019.
It comes after Police and Crime Commissioner Emily Spurrell agreed Merseyside Police was institutionally racist.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
MPs and peers have accused ministers of creating a “hostile environment” for peaceful protests with its proposals for new policing powers.
The draft public order bill includes a new offence of “locking on”, which relates to demonstrators attaching themselves to something so they cannot be removed. It carries a maximum sentence of up to 51 weeks in prison.
The joint committee on human rights has said it is concerned the offence could encompass demonstrators who simply link arms with each other, and that it should be amended.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
David Sidwick, police and crime ccommissioner for Dorset, said the majority of his fellow PCCs are against the idea and it will only create more crime and public health problems.
He told MPs on the Home Affairs Committee inquiry into drug use: “The last time there was a state-sanctioned drug like this it was called Thalidomide.”
The panel also heard from senior police officers and other PCCs speaking about drug policy, policing and the law on illegal substances.
Panel members were asked for their opinions on decriminalisation and regulation of some drugs, notably cannabis, after they had taken evidence at previous hearings in favour of the move.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The Met Police practice of posting photographs of seized knives on social media could be encouraging knife-carrying, according to a new study.
The University of Strathclyde research also found that sharing such images risked creating "a culture of fear" and "perpetuating negative stereotypes".
London Assembly member Caroline Russell said the study's findings meant Mayor Sadiq Khan needed to take action.
[ more...]
Justice
Rape victims are being forced to wait more than three years on average for the first time, new Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data has revealed.
The figures, broken down into local police force areas, showed that rape victims in Nottinghamshire faced an average wait of 1,222 days - three years and four months - from reporting the offence to the verdict in crown court.
That comprised 736 days for the police and prosecutors to conduct the investigation and bring a charge before a further 486 days on average waiting for their case to be brought to court.
[ more...]
Technology
The police and crime commissioner for Avon and Somerset has said that “not enough” is being done to fight fraud, despite it being a bigger crime priority in recent years.
Mark Shelford told the Fraud Act 2006 and Digital Fraud Committee that it was an “uphill struggle” to tackle fraud, which now makes up 40 per cent of crimes.
Pete O’Doherty, the National Police Chiefs’ Council Coordinator for Cyber and Economic Crime, City of London Police, echoed his points.
[ more...]
Police Finances
CIPFA’s recent report, Internal Audit: Untapped Potential, lifts the lid on internal audit in public services. For some chief financial officers and chief executives, it will confirm the value and contribution of internal audit teams. The report found 87% of clients recognised the contribution internal audit makes, which is good news. However, for some leadership teams it might come as a surprise that internal audit can do more than provide a basic service at minimal cost.
Whatever the scope of your organisation, internal audit deserves attention. But, getting the most out of the function requires honest conversations and long-term planning. If the risks are not addressed, high quality internal audit in public services may become a thing of the past. Chief financial officers, chief executives, audit committee members and heads of internal audit need to talk about internal audit more. But what exactly should those discussions be about?
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Met today said it was “absolutely focused” on the criminal investigation into the Grenfell fire on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the tragedy.
Scotland Yard said it has 180 investigators working on the case examining whether charges including corporate manslaughter and fraud can be brought in connection with the blaze which ripped through the building in north Kensington, killing 72 people, on June 14, 2017.
The probe was launched after it was revealed that the cladding on the tower was flammable and the roles of 36 companies which were involved in the refurbishment of the tower is being examined.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police have been forced to apologise after smashing the car window of a man who had accused the force of racial profiling.
Ryan Colaço’s window was shattered by an officer after he was wrongly stopped on suspicion of carrying drugs near Cannon Street station in central London during lockdown on 29 May, 2020.
The ,location manager for the television and film industry was pulled from the vehicle, put against a wall, then driven to a police station and strip searched, where nothing illicit was found.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy shrank again in April as businesses felt the impact of price rises and the NHS Covid Test and Trace operation was wound down.
The economy contracted by 0.3% in April after it shrank by 0.1% the month before, official figures showed.
April was the first time all main sectors of the economy - services, manufacturing and production - had shrunk since January 2021.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police should stop and search people who smell of cannabis, the new policing watchdog chief declares today.
In a wide-ranging interview, Andy Cooke risks the wrath of senior colleagues by saying officers should crack down on the class B drug.
The Chief Inspector of Constabulary believes such action could curb drug-driving and other crimes.
[ more...]
Justice
Female protesters have raised fears the policing bill will increase officer violence towards them, warning the legislation could embolden some police officers to be more misogynistic and racist.
Campaigners told The Independent it is worrying that the controversial legislation was rolled out even when officers were being criticised for failing to stop violence against women in their own ranks.
The policing act, which became law in April, has been widely criticised by campaign groups. Opponents to it warn that the legislation cracks down on citizens’ right to protest and exacerbates over-policing and the criminalisation of marginalised communities.
[ more...]
Justice
The criminal justice system had long been accused of failing women before grainy CCTV footage emerged of Emma-Jayne Magson walking down a darkened street being attacked and pushed over by her boyfriend, James Knight.
Just hours later Magson killed Knight with a single stab to the heart in what she claims was an act of self defence. After twice having been convicted of the bodybuilder’s murder, the 29-year-old has launched an appeal against her life sentence by arguing that, as a victim of domestic violence, she should have been allowed to use “disproportionate force”.
It is the same “householder” defence that saw farmer Tony Martin finally walk free after he was jailed for shooting dead a teenage burglar at his Norfolk home in 1999.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The former head of Britain’s equivalent of the FBI has said she fears ministers’ plans to cut civil servant posts could have a “devastating” impact on tackling serious and organised crime.
Speaking to Policing TV, Dame Lynne Owens, the former director general of the National Crime Agency (NCA), said she was keeping a “keen eye” on discussions about proposals to axe 90,000 jobs and how they may affect the agency she led for five years.
Owens, who retired last year, also revealed that she had not “ruled out” applying to become Metropolitan police commissioner in the future – despite deciding not to after Dame Cressida Dick resigned in February.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of child cruelty offences in England jumped by a quarter last year, according to police data collected by the NSPCC.
The child protection charity blames the stress many families felt during the pandemic for the rise, and backs recent high-profile calls for earlier help.
"This must be a priority for government," said NSPCC chief executive Sir Peter Wanless.
[ more...]
Police Finances
With policing resources under continuing pressure, the 2022/23 financial year is now underway, prompting renewed focus on how police forces are funded across the UK; in this second of two articles, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett focuses on the income raised locally by the forces of England and Wales through the policing precept.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The global order of the last 40 years is changing.
Russia’s unprecedented invasion of Ukraine is the biggest geo-political event since the Second World War. European security architecture is shifting before our eyes, with the historically militarily unaligned Baltic states Sweden and Finland now moving to join NATO to better protect themselves. The Western sanctions slapped on Russia in retaliation, as well as the West’s weapons pouring into Ukraine, have been equally unprecedented.
These changes are seismic and will have ramifications for a long time to come. The future is looking increasingly uncertain and volatile, but what does this mean for the public sector? How should it best guard against future challenges and mitigate any risk to its role in supporting communities with essential services?
Good decision making is central to ensuring the public body will be able to weather any storm – but this cannot happen without accountability, transparency and good governance arrangements in place. This is where internal audit plays a key role. CIPFA believes that internal audit is vital in supporting public bodies reach their goals. Better audit means better public services.
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Prisons
A failed government plan to transform the system for electronically tagging offenders wasted £98m of taxpayers’ money, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has found.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said attempts to upgrade HM Prison & Probation Service’s (HMPPS) tagging system were abandoned in March after 11 years and a net spend of £153m.
Ministers still do not know if electronically tagging criminals is helping to cut reoffending because of failings in the system, the NAO report says.
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Technology
Digital fingerprints of a million images of child sexual abuse have been created, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has said.
The UK charity, which is responsible for finding and removing such material online, said the fingerprints, known as hashes, would help companies and police find copies of the images.
It is hoped that by doing this, the reuse of the images can be prevented.
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Police and Crime General
Youth violence experts have said they had no involvement with a police scheme that collects children’s personal data, despite the Met claiming to have consulted them.
Project Alpha, involving more than 30 staff and launched in 2019 with Home Office funding, scours social media sites looking at drill music videos and other content. It has prompted concerns about racial profiling and potential privacy violations.
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Prisons
Criminals will be barred from transferring to an open prison unless they pass three tough new tests, Dominic Raab will announce on Sunday.
The Justice Secretary is to shift the burden of proof onto serious offenders to justify why they should be allowed to move to the more liberal open prison regime in readiness for release.
The three steps – introduced from Monday – will require them firstly to prove that they are highly unlikely to abscond based on their adherence to rules and restrictions during their time in a closed prison.
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Police and Crime General
Andy Cooke, the former chief constable of Merseyside Police, said he wanted forces to re-evaluate their priorities amid personal concerns that too much time was being spent dealing with mental health issues and truanting children.
He said police should instead be attending every house burglary, and called for a return to having officers based within schools. Mr Cooke, 57, told the PA news agency: “Prioritisation is really important. But at the moment, the focus, in my own personal view, isn’t necessarily on some of the right things.”
Mr Cooke, who is two months into his role of trying to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of police forces and fire services, said he wanted to see a return to neighbourhood policing in an attempt to deter criminals, build intelligence, and win back the trust of communities. “Neighbourhood policing isn’t about walking down streets kissing babies on the head and waving to shopkeepers, you’ve got to have an edge. The neighbourhood officers have got to be seen to be taking action against problems that are there, whether that’s through problem-solving, whether that’s through putting doors in to catch people.
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Recruitment and Retention
The Metropolitan Police has been accused of acting “selfishly” by poaching experienced officers from surrounding forces with a £5,000 payment.
Britain’s biggest police force announced the one-off inducement after it failed to meet its targets in the government’s uplift programme, which will deliver 20,000 new officers in England and Wales by the end of March next year.
The Met is struggling to recruit 4,500 officers, its share of the total.
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Justice
New research from the Victims’ Commissioner, Dame Vera Baird QC, brings into sharp focus the impact online abuse has on its victims.
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Police and Crime General
Sadiq Khan has described the Metropolitan Police as a force facing "real challenges" and "real problems".
London's Labour mayor told Sophie Raworth on BBC One's Sunday Morning that evidence of "systemic sexism, racism, homophobia, discrimination, misogyny" had emerged in recent months.
While he "recognised the dedicated, decent, brave officers" on the force he said its new commissioner would need to work at restoring trust and confidence.
The role has yet to be filled.
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Police and Crime General
Police forces are routinely failing to answer "life and death" 999 calls within target times, new data shows.
Only one force in the UK - Avon and Somerset Police - is meeting the standard to answer 90% of 999 calls in under 10 seconds.
Forty-three police forces failed to meet it over the six months from November 2021 and April 2022.
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Justice
Police and prosecutors should immediately stop collecting large amounts of personal data about rape and sexual assault victims, the UK's information commissioner says.
In a new report, John Edwards says many victims are treated as "suspects".
They are asked for an "extraordinary" amount of information, he says - such as medical records and school reports.
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Police Demand
Just one police force in England and Wales is meeting its 999 call-answering target.
Home Office data shows Avon and Somerset Police is the only force answering 90% of 999 calls in less than 10 seconds.
Forty-three police forces in England and Wales failed to meet the standard from November 2021 and April 2022.
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Police Demand
BBC research indicates forces are taking an average of three minutes longer to attend serious offences in England and Wales compared with six years ago. And while the government has repeatedly said crime is a key priority, some forces are facing criticism for not investigating lower-level offences.
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Police and Crime General
Road safety is a key priority for Wiltshire’s communities. It’s also a key priority for Wiltshire PCC Philip Wilkinson in the latest police and crime plan – the strategic policing blueprint for the county.
And, yesterday, he was delighted to spend time with Wiltshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit for a targeted day-of-action on the county’s roads.
Officers from the team dealt with 140 motoring offences in just 12 hours during the special operation.
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Police and Crime General
Factsheets giving details of the different measures contained in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
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Police and Crime General
A review into the deaths of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson has called for dedicated child protection teams made up of police, healthcare staff and social workers to be set up in every local area.
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel said the way child protection is approached in England needs to "change fundamentally".
Its national review found that the fatal abuses suffered by Arthur, six, and Star, 16 months, "are not isolated incidents", but reflective of wider problems with poor information sharing and weak decision-making.
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Police Finances
Darryl Preston, Police and Crime Commissioner, has launched a new Safer Communities Fund to tackle local issues of crime and disorder.
Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) within the county will be able to bid for up to £5K for initiatives which provide a swift response to crimes such as anti-social behaviour, road safety, bike theft and fly tipping.
“People repeatedly raise with me their concerns about so called low-level crime,” Darryl Preston said. “It’s not low-level when it has such a big impact on the lives of so many.
“Everyone has a part to play in tackling and preventing local crime concerns – this is where CSPs come in.
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Justice
“Today’s announcement is welcomed by Police and Crime Commissioners. It enshrines the Victims’ Code into law, putting victims front and centre in the criminal justice system. We are pleased by the prominent role of PCCs in drawing together partnerships, ensuring the voice of victims is heard, and in monitoring compliance across the system locally. Each are critical areas of work.
“We look forward to working with partners to deliver quality services for victims under a new duty to collaborate. This is a real opportunity to assess need and work collaboratively to ensure we are delivering the very best services for victims.
“PCCs play a central locally in monitoring performance through chairing our Local Criminal Justice Boards. We look forward to working with our partners to closely scrutinise code compliance data to identify areas of challenge and success, putting victims first.
“We will be working closely with our colleagues in government on the pre-legislative scrutiny of this draft legislation and look forward to the Bill being introduced to Parliament at the soonest possible opportunity. Resourcing must match the demands placed upon PCCs, their offices, and the services we commission, to continue delivering the high quality of services that victims are entitled to receive.”
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Police Demand
Police have urged drivers to be vigilant following a rise in catalytic converter thefts, warning "it doesn't matter where you park".
In the West Midlands, the vehicle part has been reported stolen from easily accessible areas like hospitals, shopping centres and driveways.
The BBC has also seen footage of catalytic converters being taken from a car dealership.
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Justice
Following a storyline on Eastenders, which sees Ben Mitchell experience a serious sexual assault by a friend, the PCC wants to raise awareness of the emotional, psychological and practical support available to male rape survivors through Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs) and Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs).
SARCs offer a range of services including crisis care, medical and forensic examinations, emergency contraception and testing for STIs. They can also arrange access to an ISVA as well as referrals to mental health support and sexual violence support services in your local area.
If the victim is thinking about reporting an assault to the police, the centre can arrange for the survivor to speak to a specially trained police officer who can explain the next steps.
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Police and Crime General
The four police and crime commissioners (PCCs) for Wales have welcomed the Welsh government’s proposals for a devolved justice system.
They said it would be “the logical next step in the devolution journey” with the work of policing and the criminal justice system “inextricably linked with a range of devolved responsibilities”.
A document published on Tuesday (May 24) by the Welsh government highlights the “increasing development” of a distinct Welsh justice policy based on “prevention through tackling social challenges and rehabilitation, instead of a more punitive approach”.
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Justice
The Government has promised to put the “needs and voices” of victims “firmly at the heart of the justice system” with a series of legal reforms.
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab is publishing draft legislation which could pave the way for the first victims’ law in a bid to provide better support and increase the conviction rate.
In an overhaul of the current provisions, prosecutors will be told they need to meet victims in certain cases before a trial to hear their views.
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Police Demand
Police forces have begun planning for disorder over the summer amid fears that the cost-of-living crisis and other pressures could trigger civil unrest.
Chief constables and policing organisations are sharing intelligence about potential disorder, a senior source said. They have also been assessing mutual aid, the process by which forces share officers to bolster their numbers during major incidents.
The policing source stressed that there was no “specific intelligence” about disorder but said that it was increasingly under discussion.
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Police and Crime General
PCC’s response to National Police Chiefs’ Council Race Action Plan..
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Police and Crime General
A father who lost his son to a stabbing says the closing down of youth centres across the country is "pushing children to violence".
Dwayne Roye, a community activist from Croydon, hosted his seventh annual football tournament today to raise awareness about knife crime.
During the past seven years, he's lost five close people in his life to knife crime.
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Justice
Four in 10 of all violent crime victims end up dropping out of the justice system because police are unable to gather enough evidence to convict their attackers, official figures show.
Last year a record 1.3 million people abandoned their complaint to the police, including 800,000 victims of violent crime and 60,000 people who had suffered a sexual offence.
Labour accused the Government of letting down victims by repeatedly delaying the Victims Bill, which was promised in the Queen’s Speech more than a year ago but was not delivered on time.
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Police and Crime General
As the new police watchdog, Andy Cooke makes no apologies about his "back to basics" agenda for forces. After all, his fictional detective hero was the straight-talking Flying Squad DI Jack Regan from the television series The Sweeney.
Mr Cooke, the former chief constable of Merseyside, a detective by trade and commander of Britain’s first "Matrix" gun and gang fighting unit, believes police forces need to get back onto the front foot so that they again instill fear in criminals.
He favours traditional methods that have lost currency in recent years: more covert policing, recruiting informants, neighbourhood policing "with teeth", identifying and targeting criminals via stop and search, and investigating or at least assessing every crime even if the value is under £50.
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Justice
Rape victims’ trials are being delayed for up to nine months by “tenuous” and “disproportionate” searches of their medical, council and even school records, a review by the Attorney General has found.
Some victims are waiting months while police and prosecutors carry out “intrusive” searches of “third party” records for personal details that turn out to be irrelevant to the trial.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Suella Braverman, QC, cited the case of a rape victim where searches of her carer’s records added nine months to the case yet the resulting evidence was “not relevant to the trial.”
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Police and Crime General
Priti Patel will tell MPs that “we do not make policy through mob rule in this country” as she urges them to give their support to the new public order bill.
It represents the home secretary’s latest attempt to introduce measures that have previously been blocked by the House of Lords as part of the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill.
The measures include introducing a new offence of obstructing major transport networks, which carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail, an unlimited fine, or both.
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Police and Crime General
Recreational cocaine users face random testing and could lose their passports under plans to cut demand for Class A drugs in Britain.
Ministers are considering copying a colour-coded system that has reduced consumption in Hawaii since its introduction in 2004.
Under the system, individuals caught in possession of Class A drugs or who test positive for them would be assigned a colour, such as red, blue or green.
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Police and Crime General
Competitive sports like boxing can stop children turning to crime, Dominic Raab has said, as he launched a £300 million bid to catch troubled teenagers teetering on the edge of criminality.
In an interview with The Telegraph, the Justice Secretary revealed how boxing and karate helped him overcome the loss of his father at the age of 12.
Speaking on a visit to a boxing scheme for deprived children in Blackpool, he said: “If a middle class boy from Buckinghamshire benefited from it, can you imagine what that formula will do for a working class kid in Blackpool or someone who comes from a working class home in Newham?
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Justice
The government's independent adviser on tackling violence against women and girls has suggested her calls for street harassment to be made a crime are being blocked.
Nimco Ali, a friend of Boris and Carrie Johnson, told the BBC's Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast that her plan had endured "pushback".
She also hinted the prime minister had not fully supported it.
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Police and Crime General
Police detectives are investigating rapes and murders from home, including in areas with some of the worst crime rates in the country, The Telegraph has learned.
Several forces now have official “hybrid working” policies which allow officers to carry out inquiries without leaving their homes.
Simon Kempton, the national treasurer at the Police Federation, said that although many duties need to be done in person, there are “some, like detectives, that are still working at home”.
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Police and Crime General
Football fans convicted of selling or taking class A drugs such as cocaine at matches could face five-year bans, the government has announced, in a bid to tackle rising violence and disruption.
The new rules, announced on Thursday by the policing minister, Kit Malthouse, could also see anyone convicted ordered to surrender their passports when their team is playing abroad.
Boris Johnson claimed the drug habits of “middle-class cokeheads” are driving crime across the UK, adding: “Their habit is feeding a war on our streets driving misery and crime across our country and beyond.
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Police Finances
UK inflation, the rate at which prices are rising, jumped to 9 per cent in the 12 months to April, up from 7 per cent in March. The rise came as millions of people saw an unprecedented £700-a-year rise in energy costs last month.
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Fire
The most comprehensive plans for fire reform in decades have been set out today in the government’s Fire Reform White Paper, which will help strengthen the emergency services and seek to ensure people feel safer in their homes.
Today (18 May), the Home Secretary visited Old Kent Road fire station alongside the Minister of State for Building Safety and Fire to announce the package which will build upon changes following the Grenfell Tower fire and findings from independent inspection reports.
The changes announced include the commencement of the Fire Safety Act 2021 which will make sure all blocks of flats are properly assessed for fire safety risks and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 which will help ensure people feel safe in their homes.
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Police and Crime General
Youth workers will visit the homes of pupils who are absent from school in a bid to prevent them "falling prey" to gangs, a police commissioner said.
Bedfordshire police and crime commissioner, Conservative Festus Akinbusoye, will pilot the scheme at six secondary schools in the county.
Mr Akinbusoye said 90% of young offenders had been "persistently absent from school".
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Police and Crime General
The cost of living crisis will trigger an increase in crime and officers should use their “discretion” when deciding whether to prosecute people who steal in order to eat, the new chief inspector of constabulary has said.
“The impact of poverty, and the impact of lack of opportunity for people, does lead to an increase in crime. There’s no two ways about that,” Andy Cooke said as inflation hit a 40-year high of 9%.
When asked how policing could avoid being seen as the arm of an uncaring state, he said forces across England and Wales were skilled in dealing with the tensions and dynamics of their communities.
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Police and Crime General
Volunteer police officers in England and Wales will be authorised to use Tasers, the home secretary is to announce.
Priti Patel will say in a speech to police that special constables should be able to use the electric stun guns if they complete the specific training.
The Home Office said it would ensure they are not "at a disadvantage" when facing attackers.
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Police Demand
Mental health campaigners have sounded the alarm over a leaked review of anti-extremism programme Prevent, which suggests those without extremist views are being referred to the programme to access faster mental health services.
Draft extracts of the leaked report by William Shawcross, seen by the Guardian, warn of a “serious misallocation of resources” and that the programme is being misused because of the strain on mental health provision.
“In my assessment, Prevent is carrying the weight for mental health services,” the report says. “Vulnerable people who do not necessarily pose a terrorism risk are being referred to Prevent in order to access other types of much-needed support. This is a serious misallocation of resources and risks diverting attention from the threat itself.”
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Police and Crime General
New laws planned to tackle protesters who block motorways and interfere with national infrastructure have been welcomed by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Hertfordshire.
The powers were outlined in the Queen’s Speech and include a new criminal offence of protesters locking on and also tougher court orders against repeat offenders.
In recent years protesters repeatedly held up traffic on the M25 in Hertfordshire; targeted the Buncefield oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead and prevented lorries delivering national newspapers from the printing presses in Waltham Cross.
Police and Crime Commissioner David Lloyd said: “I recognise and respect the right to protest as a corner stone of everybody living in a free country. But over the last few years Hertfordshire in particular, has seen a rise in protester activity purely aimed at causing maximum disruption to many thousands of people who are just trying to go about their everyday business.
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Prisons
Almost 20,000 attempts to smuggle illegal contraband behind bars have been intercepted since the latest cutting-edge technology was installed across the prison estate in England and Wales.
This includes X-Ray scanners, drug-trace machines and metal detection archways at the “most challenging prisons”, said the Ministry of Justice (MoJ.
“Over the past two years, more than 70 cutting-edge X-Ray body scanners have been installed in all closed male prisons, producing super sharp images of concealed contraband so staff can easily find and stop dangerous items from entering jails,” said the MoJ.
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Police and Crime General
The Home Secretary is to permanently lift restrictions on police in the use of stop and search powers. Priti Patel announced the changes in a letter to police forces, saying they are part of the Government’s strategy to tackle violent crime.
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Police and Crime General
The home secretary is permanently lifting restrictions placed on police in the use of stop and search powers.
Priti Patel announced the changes in a letter to police forces on Monday, under Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, saying they are part of the government's strategy to tackle violent crime.
The law gives police officers the right to search people without reasonable grounds when serious violence is expected.
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Police and Crime General
A police chief has called on the government to look at the evidence around decriminalising drugs amid a rise in deaths.
Dyfed-Powys Police’s chief constable Richard Lewis said the issue should be seen as a public health problem rather than a criminal justice problem.
It comes after Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, faced backlash when he announced plans for a commission to consider decriminalising cannabis after visiting a “fascinating” marijuana farm in the United States.
Mr Lewis told the BBC it was “important that we do take evidence from other countries” to inform domestic policy.
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Police and Crime General
Police forces are not “the thought police” and should focus on dealing with actual offences and keeping the public safe, the new HM chief inspector of constabulary has said.
Andy Cooke, who took over last month, said chief constables should avoid “politics with a small P” and remember there is a clear distinction between what is and is not a crime.
“We’re not the thought police, we follow legislation and we follow the law, simple as that,” he told the Times. “Policing is busy enough dealing with the serious offences that are going on, busy enough trying to keep people safe.”
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Police and Crime General
Women have spoken about their experiences of sexual assaults and violence in and around city centre venues.
Police in Southampton have said tackling violence against women and girls is now their top priority.
The latest safety survey found that more than 80% of females feel unsafe in the city centre after dark.
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Economy & Public Finance
Boris Johnson has promised to get the country "back on track" as the government unveils its plans for the year ahead in the Queen's Speech.
The speech is expected to focus on boosting economic growth, but the PM will say that the UK cannot spend its way out of trouble and will need to grow the economy.
In all, 38 parliamentary bills are due to be unveiled.
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Justice
It will be illegal for protesters to lock themselves to buildings and large objects to make it harder for police to clear them under a new law being announced in the Queen’s Speech.
Demonstrations that “interfere with” infrastructure such as airports, railways and newspaper printing presses will also be outlawed, while anyone who blocks the construction of major transport projects such as HS2 could face six months in prison.
The law changes were originally introduced as part of the mammoth Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill but were struck out by the House of Lords.
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Justice
Courts are set to be given powers to hand out tougher punishments for serious animal cruelty crimes, under proposed new sentencing guidelines.
Updated guidance in England and Wales will affect sentences for crimes like causing unnecessary suffering, tail docking and animal fighting.
Cruelty for money, as part of organised crime or particularly "sadistic" cases, will be considered the most serious.
It follows the maximum penalty being raised in 2021 to
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Prisons
Hundreds of severely mentally ill prisoners in urgent need of hospital treatment are being left in prison cells due to bed shortages in secure NHS psychiatric units, an investigation has discovered.
Freedom of information (FoI) responses from 22 NHS trusts reveal for the first time that just over half of the 5,403 prisoners in England assessed by prison-based psychiatrists to require hospitalisation were not transferred between 2016 and 2021 – an 81% increase on the number of prisoners denied a transfer in the previous five years.
In some areas, the majority of mentally ill prisoners were not admitted, which could be the result of long delays or a trust refusing to take certain patients. Norfolk and Suffolk NHS foundation trust, which was rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission last month, only admitted 16 of 41 prisoners referred in 2021. Essex Partnership University NHS foundation trust only admitted 24 of 57 prisoners referred in 2021. Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS foundation trust only accepted 18 of the 38 prisoners referred in 2021.
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Police and Crime General
New laws to outlaw guerrilla-style climate protests that have caused misery for the public are being unveiled in a bumper Queen's Speech.
A new offence of "locking-on", targeting activists who lock or glue themselves together or to buildings, is planned by Home Secretary Priti Patel.
Her crackdown comes in one of 38 new bills, which also include a bonfire of EU laws in post-Brexit reforms and levelling-up measures to revive town centres.
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Police and Crime General
The government will try again to ban what it calls "guerrilla protests" through new legislation announced in the Queen's Speech.
The Tories tried to introduce measures in its policing bill aimed at those who glue and lock themselves to structures, but it was rejected by the Lords.
The new Public Order Bill revives the policies, which could see some protesters facing up to a year in jail.
Critics have called the plan "an attack on the right to protest".
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Economy & Public Finance
High inflation could remain until 2024 and will be a “massive shock to the system” for a generation, a former chief economist at the Bank of England has warned.
Andy Haldane, now a government adviser, said inflation had “surpassed my worst expectations” and was likely to exceed 10 per cent. He also said the Bank should have acted sooner than last autumn when raising interest rates.
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, admitted yesterday that the government “can’t do everything to help” but confirmed that he was preparing to do more. He told BBC Look East: “We are not the only country facing higher energy prices or higher inflation. We can do things to support people and we are going to do what we can. I wish I could make it completely go away, but I can’t.”
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Justice
Under new guidance, the police will have 28 days to disclose information about someone’s violent or abusive behaviour, down from the current guideline of 35 days.
This will mean victims and potential victims should have the information that could be critical to their safety faster, says the Home Office.
The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS), commonly referred to as ‘Clare’s Law’, was implemented across all police forces in England and Wales in March 2014. It means that members of the public can ask the police for information on their partner’s criminal history and therefore know if their partner poses a risk to them.
Minister for Safeguarding Rachel Maclean said: “We have to make sure victims and potential victims of domestic abuse have all the protection and information they need to stay safe.
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Justice
In this Zoom call, four men are looking at a list of family duties and marking which they do themselves and which they have been leaving to their partners. Earning money. School run. Laundry. Ironing. Cooking. Cleaning the bathroom. Buying school uniform. Putting children to bed …
Next, they discuss why that may be. “It’s just how we operate,” says one, a man who is no longer living with his partner, but spending a lot of time with her and their new baby. “She loves cooking. I don’t iron. She does iron …” He runs out of steam.
“The way I look at it, I’ve been married 20 years and you evolve into what you do,” says another. “That’s how you decide what your jobs are. I do cook a meal occasionally but 95% of the time, she does the cooking and plans the shopping because she knows what she needs to feed the family. I earn the money to pay for it.”
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Technology
Thieves are targeting digital currency investors on the street in a wave of “crypto muggings”, police have warned, with victims reporting that thousands of pounds have been stolen after their mobile phones were seized.
Anonymised crime reports provided to the Guardian by City of London police, as part of a freedom of information request, reveal criminals are combining physical muscle with digital knowhow to part people from their cryptocurrency.
One victim reported they had been trying to order an Uber near London’s Liverpool Street station when muggers forced them to hand over their phone. While the gang eventually gave the phone back, the victim later realised that £5,000-worth of ethereum digital currency was missing from their account with the crypto investing platform Coinbase.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Metropolitan Police are believed to have begun issuing more fines to Downing Street staff over gatherings held in government offices during Covid lockdown curbs.
Scotland Yard is starting to hand out fines over a Christmas party held at No 10 on 18 December 2020, according to the Daily Mirror.
The festive bash, details of which first emerged at the end of last year and sparked the Partygate scandal, was said to have been attended by dozens of Boris Johnson’s staff.
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Police and Crime General
She joined MDP in February this year as assistant chief constable, Nuclear and Marine, having spent two years as a commander in the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS).
Ms Dales said: “I am proud to take up post as the first female deputy chief constable of the MDP, based in the new headquarters in Cambridgeshire, which is the county where I began and have spent most of my policing career.
“Since joining the MDP, I have learnt so much about the unique capabilities of the force and our role in contributing to the Defence Plan and Defence Tasks.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England has raised the base rate of interest to 1% - the fourth consecutive increase as it continues to move against surging inflation - despite issuing a warning about a recession ahead.
The Bank forecast that the UK economy will shrink later this year in the face of double-digit inflation and an unprecedented squeeze on household incomes.
In its first forecast since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Bank said it now expected the energy price crunch to leave a lasting scar, pushing up unemployment and contributing to weak or negative growth throughout 2023.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Phineas Harper questions the rationale behind removing park benches to reduce antisocial behaviour (Removing benches, blocking cycle paths: why are police interfering in the UK’s public spaces?, 2 May).
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Recruitment and Retention
Two police officers have been dismissed for gross misconduct after they "engaged in sexual activity" on a "number of occasions" while on duty.
The officers, who worked for Cambridgeshire Police, admitted the behaviour took place at "differing locations", a misconduct hearing was told.
The officers were referred to only as "PC A" and "PC B" during the hearing due to "concerns about their mental health".
[ more...]
Police Demand
T
he number of people wanting rape to be prioritised by police is greater than for any other crime, a new survey revealed on Tuesday in a new reflection of public concern about sex attacks on women.
The Ipsos Mori poll shows that 61 per cent of the public believe that rape and other sexual offences should be treated as a priority by the Met and other forces.
By contrast, only 40 per cent cited terrorism or organised crime as among the three types of offending that they think should be prioritised.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police and crime commissioner (PCC) who pledged to crack down on speeding was caught breaking a 30mph limit five times in four months.
Conservative Caroline Henry, the PCC for Nottinghamshire, appeared before Nottingham magistrates earlier after previously admitting the offences.
The 52-year-old, who was elected in May 2021, was caught speeding in four locations around the county in March, May and June 2021.
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Police Demand
More than 500 burglaries are going unsolved every day, official figures show, as the proportion resulting in a charge has fallen to a record low of just one in 33.
Home Office data reveal that 241,736 burglary cases were closed in 2021, of which 190,895 had no suspect identified. That equates to 523 unsolved burglaries a day, or 3,661 every week.
It means that nearly 1.5 million burglaries have gone unsolved in the past six years amidst warnings that cuts to neighbourhood policing are leaving homeowners at the mercy of criminals.
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Justice
Magistrates have had their sentencing powers doubled in a bid to tackle the courts backlog – but barristers warned yesterday the move could trigger a flood of appeals.
Criminals will now face sentences of up to a year from today for a single offence, compared with a previous six-month maximum at a magistrates’ court.
The plans are part of a bid to relieve the huge crown court backlog of cases built up over the pandemic. Until now, magistrates have sent cases to crown courts for sentences longer than six months.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Fewer than four in 10 senior police leaders would recommend joining the service following a series of scandals that has left morale among officers at its lowest-ever point, the Telegraph can reveal.
A survey conducted among superintendent ranks found many long-serving officers lack motivation and feel betrayed by the despicable behaviour of colleagues who have brought shame on the uniform.
The abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by serving Met officer Wayne Couzens and revelations of appalling racism, misogyny and homophobia among some officers based at Charing Cross station in London, has rocked policing and left many senior cops disillusioned.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police forces have been urged to ‘decolonise’ their training material in a bid to attract new recruits.
The College of Policing, which sets guidance for the training of police officers, issued the call in a jargon-filled equality manifesto sent to forces nationwide.
It wants trainers to ‘review curriculums to ensure “decolonisation” of learning content’ and check that teaching methods ‘implement culturally sustaining pedagogy’.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The country’s first scheme to provide a direct pathway for military personnel to join the police service has been launched by Nottinghamshire Police with support from the College of Policing.
Currently, there is no specific national pathway for serving members of the Armed Forces to join the police – despite lots of military skills translating well into policing.
Nottinghamshire Police’s pioneering new Military Widening Access Course means serving military personnel will now be supported to transition into an exciting new career in policing.
[ more...]
Justice
Just one in 16 crime suspects were taken to court last year as the rate of offences that led to a charge fell to a new record low.
Suspects were charged or ordered to appear in court relating to 274,421 offences last year, just 5.8 per cent of all crimes reported to the police, according to Home Office figures.
It is the lowest rate since records began six years ago and was down from a 7.5 per cent rate in a year.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Black children are more likely to face tougher punishments at school because they are viewed as "less innocent" and more adult-like, a report says.
This process of "adultification" means black children can feel unsafe and over-policed at school, the Commission on Young Lives in England report says.
This can lead to black children being disciplined more harshly - including being more likely to be excluded.
The government said it had strengthened safeguarding guidance for schools.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
This means that the candidate who wins the most votes in each constituency is elected rather than the “confusing multiple voting systems” currently in use.
Marc Jones, chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, said this is better understood by the public than the ‘supplementary voting system, and will make it easier for voters to express a clear choice at the ballot box.
“Whilst we have seen big increases in turnout for PCC elections, we know there has been confusion amongst the public who are having to use multiple voting systems,” he said. “This is demonstrated by the higher percentage of rejected ballots at PCC elections in comparison to other elections using first past the post.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of home invasions across Northamptonshire has reduced by over 50% and commercial burglaries have gone down by nearly 60% since Northamptonshire Police’s dedicated burglary team was launched three years ago.
Operation Crooked is the Force’s campaign to reduce burglary - a focus for Northamptonshire Police since Chief Constable Nick Adderley joined in 2018.
As part of the operation, two Burglary Teams covering both the north and west of the county, sit within CID, and they ensure that every burglary victim in Northamptonshire gets a visit from the police.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police-recorded sexual offences reached their highest level in a 12-month period (183,587) in the year to December 2021. This was a 22 per cent increase on 2020 (150,748) and up 13 per cent from 2019 (163,067).
Numbers of crimes recorded were lower during lockdowns but there have been “substantial increases since April 2021”, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Some 37 per cent of sexual offences recorded (67,125) were rapes – a 21 per cent rise from 55,592 in the 12 months to December 2020.
The ONS said the latest statistics may reflect a “number of factors”, including the “impact of high-profile incidents, media coverage and campaigns on people’s willingness to report incidents to the police, as well as a potential increase in the number of victims”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A new deputy police and crime commissioner has been appointed following the resignation of his predecessor.
Portsmouth councillor Terry Norton will cover the role across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
His appointment comes as his predecessor Luke Stubbs resigned after saying the number of women in some fire service departments should be reduced.
Mr Norton described his new role as "a huge honour and privilege".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Responding to the Home Affairs Select Committee’s report on spiking, Joint Leads for the APCC’s Addictions and Substance Misuse Portfolio, PCCs Joy Allen and David Sidwick, said:
“We were pleased to have contributed to the Committee’s important inquiry on spiking.
“The report includes several recommendations that could bring improvements to the way spiking incidents are reported and investigated, such as improved data collection by police forces, better access to forensic testing, and development of a national anti-spiking strategy to promote best practice.
[ more...]
Justice
Recent cases involving serious sexual offences have taken the longest time on record to go through Crown Courts in England and Wales, the BBC has found.
Exclusive data compiled by the BBC found such cases took an average of nine months to complete in 2021, with huge variations between regions.
Criminal barristers say the delays are due to funding cuts and a decision to reduce how many days judges could sit.
[ more...]
Technology
Britain’s biggest police force will root out rogue officers with new advanced technology that monitors their computer and phone messages, checks their movements on police premises and even tracks tasks such as photocopying.
The multimillion-pound investment aims to identify patterns of bad behaviour and misconduct in the Metropolitan Police, which has been rocked by a series of racism, sexism and corruption scandals.
Sir Stephen House, the acting commissioner, revealed that the software would use algorithms to monitor officers’ phones and computers for “alarming” key words.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of criminals being arrested by police has halved in a decade to a record low despite increasing numbers of offences, new figures show.
The number of arrests has fallen every year from 1.3 million in 2010 to 632,000 in 2021, according to Home Office data.
This comes despite more than a million additional incidents being reported to the police during that period - up from 4.3 million in 2010 to 5.4 million in 2021.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police constable lied to his superiors about his handling of two domestic violence incidents, a tribunal has heard.
PC Edward Greevy, who was based at Southampton, is accused of not followed correct procedures during the cases.
In one instance the disciplinary panel heard he failed to check a baby for possible injuries.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Football fans are set to be allowed to drink alcohol while watching matches for the first time in 37 years, under government plans to be published this summer.
Ministers have agreed to review the current ban on alcohol consumption during matches, which has been in place in the top five tiers of English football, since 1985.
And they will sanction a pilot scheme to test the safety of drinking alcohol in view of the pitch, which could pave the way for at-seat drinking at the highest levels of the game for the first time in almost four decades.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A police station closes every fortnight, figures show, amid accusations that “criminals are getting away with it.”
At least 217 stations with front counters allowing the public to talk to officers have been shut down since 2015.
It represents a quarter of the total closed in the past seven years, with the south of England hardest hit. It leaves fewer than 600 police stations that are still open, down from nearly 1,300 a decade ago.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Online child sexual abuse is at record high levels, according to exclusive figures given to ITV News.
An Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) report says the greatest threat to children online is self-generated content where perpetrators groom and coerce children into creating images and videos of themselves. The offender records that content and shares it on the web.
The IWF, which searches and removes vile abuse, says it has seen an “explosion” in this type of crime over the past two years, with an increase of 374%.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Stalking offences have soared by 400 per cent in London in just two years, police said.
Scotland Yard on Tuesday launched a new crackdown targeting offenders to coincide with a national awareness week.
Officers received more than 1,000 stalking reports this month, compared with 200 in April 2020.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Serious violence increased by nearly a quarter after Covid-19 lockdown restrictions were eased in England and Wales last year, a study suggests.
The 23% rise is the biggest since records began, say researchers.
Serious violence almost reached pre-pandemic levels last August, however, the Cardiff University report suggests 2021 levels were below previous years.
[ more...]
Prisons
The NHS mental crisis means women are being sent to prisons instead of hospitals because the health service cannot cope, a report has warned.
Women with acute mental health problems are being remanded to prison “for their own safety” because of the lack of secure NHS beds to treat them, according to a report by the all party parliamentary group (APPG) on women in the penal system.
A survey of just three women’s prisons found dozens of cases of women being remanded to jail for their own safety because their acute mental ill health puts them at risk of harming themselves or others.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Hundreds of crimes have been reported at royal palaces in the past three years including offences involving weapons, drugs, violence and robbery.
A total of 470 crimes were recorded at Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, St James's Palace and Clarence House - either inside or immediately outside the grounds - between 2019 and 2021, the Metropolitan Police revealed.
They included hundreds of thefts along with reports of arson and criminal damage, burglary, robbery, possession of weapons and violence against the person offences.
[ more...]
Prisons
Terrorism laws are to be strengthened to make it easier and quicker for convicted terrorists to be separated from the rest of the prison population, The Times has learnt.
Dominic Raab, the justice secretary, is expected to accept a series of recommendations from the terrorism watchdog next week to stop prisons becoming breeding grounds for extremism. He is also expected to announce the creation of new offences to target acts of terrorism being committed in jails in England and Wales that are going unpunished at present.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police force is not providing good custody services and its care of detainees is poor, inspectorates say.
Food and drink were not proactively offered or provided by West Mercia Police and people's access to other care, such as washing, was "limited".
Information logs about officers' levels of force were "often inaccurate", the police inspectorate found.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police are transporting patients to hospitals as the ambulance service crisis worsens, officers have warned.
The National Police Chief’s Council has sent a warning about patient safety due to a lack of ambulances.
The caution comes as an NHS ambulance service began a pilot to use volunteers to take patients with less acute health needs to hospital, according to reports on Monday.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Acting Met Commissioner Sir Stephen House has admitted cultural problems in the force are "not a few bad apples".
Sir Stephen, who is temporarily leading the Met after Dame Cressida Dick's departure, said there were efforts to root out unacceptable behaviour "as fast as possible".
Dame Cressida quit after losing the confidence of the Mayor of London.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Inflation is back. If you are under 35 years of age you were probably still in school when it was something that had to be taken seriously so it’s fair to say that corporate memories are fading.
A little bit of inflation can actually be desirable for the economy. It incentivises investment and allows the real value of debt to fall.
However, it is a very delicate balancing act. Once the inflation rate outpaces wage growth, workers experience a pay cut (in real terms).
How can treasurers in the public sector manage inflation challenges?
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Stop and search is a legitimate policing tactic, and we recognise the value of having a power that allows officers to detain a person, who is not under arrest, to search them or their vehicle for an unlawful item. The powers have been described as an important tool in dealing with knife crime and drugs, in particular. However, its disproportionate use against people from a Black, Asian, or other minority ethnic background, [1] particularly young Black men, has been a concern for many years and it remains one of the most contentious policing powers.
This report brings together evidence from our work, stakeholder engagement and published research to highlight concerns about transparency, legitimacy, scrutiny, and disproportionality that must be considered and addressed by the police service and others. Our aim is to support change and improvement in policing practice to help increase public confidence.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Civil servants must stop working from home and return to the office to ensure government buildings are at full capacity, ministers have been told.
Cabinet Office minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has written to cabinet colleagues urging them to send a "clear message" to the civil service about returning.
The FDA union said his comments were out of step with practice in the private sector.
[ more...]
Justice
One of the UK’s biggest police forces has historically failed children and was “borderline incompetent” in the way it previously dealt with organised grooming gangs, its current chief constable has said.
Stephen Watson, the head of Greater Manchester police, last week apologised in person to three women who were victims of gangs in Rochdale more than 10 years ago. It came with “substantial” damages and after a long, attritional campaign to get the force to admit failures.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Britain’s economy is at growing risk of falling into a summer recession amid the biggest squeeze on household incomes since the mid 1950s, as soaring inflation curtails consumer spending power, forecasters have said.
Economists said the double blow from slowing post-lockdown growth and rising living costs after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could result in a fall in gross domestic product (GDP) for two consecutive quarters, which is the definition of a recession.
After a weaker-than-expected growth performance in February, and with the inflation rate reaching the highest levels since 1992 last month, City forecasters said UK GDP was now on track to grow by about 1% in the first quarter of 2022 before slipping into reverse this summer.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Last month Transport for London launched a new campaign, amid at tackling sexual harassment of women and girls which included upskirting, cat calling and staring.
Posters have now been place in tube stations across the capital stating: "Intrusive staring of a sexual nature is sexual harassment and is not tolerated."
[ more...]
Technology
Online child sex abuse has increased by 27 per cent in just two years, as the NSPCC called for tougher laws to combat “digital breadcrumbing” that signposts paedophiles to illegal content.
Police data obtained by the NSPCC through freedom of information laws shows the number of offences rose from 24,964 in 2018/19 to 31,600 in 2020/21.
These included 6,319 grooming offences - a new crime of sexual communications with a child - and more than 25,000 paedophiles caught with child abuse images.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Labour has pledged to “restore” neighbourhood policing after warning that under the Conservatives the number of “bobbies on the beat” has fallen by a third, leaving the service “decimated”.
The party is highlighting figures from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), which it says show the number of neighbourhood officers or police community support officers (PCSOs) per 1,000 residents has been cut by around a third in 10 years in England and Wales.
In Cambridgeshire and Surrey there is only one neighbourhood officer or PCSO per 5,000 residents or more, the party said.
Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Police out on the beat and visible in local neighbourhoods are vital for stopping crime and keeping communities safe.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Prices are rising at their fastest rate for 30 years, driven by a sharp increase in petrol and diesel prices.
The UK inflation rate rose to 7% in the year to March, the highest rate since 1992 and up from 6.2% in February.
Prices are rising faster than wages and there is pressure on the government to do more to help those struggling.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The annual rate of inflation shot up to a fresh 30-year high of 7% in March reflecting, for the first time, the immediate effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The largest contributors to growing inflation were increased fuel prices and energy bills, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The consumer prices index (CPI) rose from 6.2% in February and was higher than expected, with economists having predicted a rate of 6.7%.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The annual rate of inflation shot up to a fresh 30-year high of 7% in March reflecting, for the first time, the immediate effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The largest contributors to growing inflation were increased fuel prices and energy bills, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The consumer prices index (CPI) rose from 6.2% in February and was higher than expected, with economists having predicted a rate of 6.7%.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Bedfordshire Police has become the first force to be graded ‘outstanding’ for the way it manages offenders and suspects following an inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS).
Inspectors found that 72 per cent of those under Bedfordshire Police’s Integrated Offender Management scheme had stopped or reduced offending in 2020/21, including a 91 per cent reduction among known burglars. The approach is estimated to have saved society more than £2.3 million across all crime in that 12-month period.
Chief Constable Garry Forsyth said: “It’s fantastic to receive an ‘outstanding’ grade and is testament to our commitment to proactive prevention rather than just responding to crimes.
“By working with people caught in the cycle of crime and guiding them to help and support it not only saves society money, but ultimately reduces the number of victims.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A job advert to find Dame Cressida Dick's successor as head of the Metropolitan Police has been published.
The advert says the successful candidate will be responsible for addressing "serious failings" within the force.
The appointment, for an initial five-year term, has an annual salary of £292,938. Applications close on 4 May.
[ more...]
Police Finances
At least 40% of child-to-parent violence and abuse incidents are unreported to police, according to research.
The study into the “hidden harm” commissioned by the London mayor’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) found that the rate of violence and abuse against parents and carers was highest among those aged 19-25, and 81% of perpetrators were male.
It found that 89% of victims of recorded incidents such as attacks, coercive control, financial abuse, threats, intimidation and harassment were a parent of the accused. Experts said figures were probably greater than those reported, and were expected to rise.
[ more...]
Justice
The government needs "much more ambition and focus" to tackle the "shocking collapse" in rape prosecutions, a group of MPs has said.
Police forces in England and Wales recorded the highest number of rapes and sexual offences in a 12-month period in the year to September.
However, at the same time, the proportion of suspects being taken to court has fallen to a new record low.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The force’s dementia safeguarding scheme has been using the technology on a limited basis since 2015 but will now offer them to 30 people it considers to be the most vulnerable, based on risk assessments.
According to data gathered by the University of East Anglia, 70 per cent of dementia sufferers are at risk of going missing at least once while 40,000 are reported missing for the first time each year. Some may go missing several times, the research found.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Councils could be stripped of responsibility for Britain’s counter-terror programme under recommendations in a long-awaited review of Prevent.
William Shawcross, the former chairman of the Charity Commission leading the review, is expected to propose an independent network of Prevent professionals free from council control and with a greater focus on national security.
It follows growing criticism that the programme has failed to stop numerous terrorists in the past five years, including Ali Harbi Ali, the killer of Sir David Amess who was referred to Prevent but left unchecked after only one meeting to carry out the attack.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The Operation Naseby disruption hub was formed in April 2020 by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) to “get under the skin” of local gangs after 25 firearms discharges had been recorded in the previous 12 months.
The “prolific impact” of the operation has seen 279 arrests, 297 vehicle seizures, 118 house searches and the recovery of nearly 50kg of drugs, and shootings are now down by 72 per cent, with just seven recorded in the past year and 15 in the year before.
Originally intended to be a standalone “six-week blitz” on organised crime, funding is now expected to see the taskforce “continue to the foreseeable future”, said the force.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Teachers said they no longer want police to be stationed in schools after outrage over the treatment of Child Q, as National Education Union members voted for the removal of the senior Met police officers involved in the case.
Delegates to the NEU’s annual conference backed a motion that said calling the police to deal with pupils “must be a last resort” for schools and teachers.
A succession of speakers told the conference that Child Q’s experience – where she was strip-searched by police at her school – was not an isolated case for black pupils, who were more likely to be affected by police stationed under the safer schools officer (SSO) policy.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Holidaymakers fleeing the capital for the Easter weekend face a double whammy of environmental protests and rail upgrade works as police admit they cannot help travellers plan their routes.
After a week of delays and cancellations at airports and ferry ports, Extinction Rebellion is planning to bring parts of central London to a standstill over the weekend.
The Metropolitan Police said it is unable to offer guidance to travellers because it does not have information about the nature of the protests.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The human rights group Liberty is threatening to sue the government and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) over the bitterly contested law of joint enterprise, arguing that it is discredited and racist in the way the authorities pursue it.
Under the law, people present when a person is killed can be convicted of murder despite not committing any serious violence themselves, if they are found to have “encouraged or assisted” the perpetrator. Liberty is acting for the campaign group Joint Enterprise Not Guilty By Association (Jengba), which supports approximately 1,400 people in prison who believe they have been unjustly convicted of serious crimes perpetrated by somebody else.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Twenty more people have been arrested following protests at oil terminals in Essex.
Essex Police said it had now made a total of 192 arrests in relation to the demonstrations in Thurrock.
The protesters are demanding the UK government stops new oil and gas projects.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Changes to legislation brought about by the Offensive Weapons Act 2019 mean that from today (April 6) it is illegal for anyone under 18 to buy online and have delivered to residential premises corrosive substances used in so-called “acid attacks.”
The provisions also make it a criminal offence to possess a corrosive substance in a public place and introduce minimum custodial sentences for those convicted of a second or subsequent possession offence.
Chair of the NPCC Corrosive Substance Working Group DCC Kearton said the changes “reflect almost 5 years’ worth of police-committed, multiagency work”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police and fire and rescue service staff could be drafted in to help tackle the chaos at Manchester Airport, the region's mayor has said.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is meeting airport bosses to discuss the "concerning" current situation.
Travellers have criticised long delays and missed flights over the weekend.
Mr Burnham said he would be seeking reassurance about what is being done to bring the situation under control, but will also offer his support.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Downing Street staff have been issued with fines by police over a party that took place the night before Prince Philip’s funeral, in the first decision by Scotland Yard that Covid laws were broken inside No 10 at the heart of government.
After the Guardian revealed that fixed penalty notices were handed out to those who attended a leaving do for an aide to Boris Johnson in the Cabinet Office in June 2020, sources said those who partied into the early hours in No 10 on 16 April 2021 had also been warned they would receive fines.
The event caused consternation due to the contrast between it and the Queen’s strict adherence to social distancing rules by sitting alone at the funeral of her husband of 73 years.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Policing strength is behind major European countries and not enough to tackle crime, a political think tank has warned.
In what is a clear blow to the government, the influential Social Market Foundation think tank said 70,000 more officers are needed on top of the 20,000 Uplift intake. And it calculated the cost would be £8bn of expenditure by central government and Police and Crime Commissioners.
As crime experts are beginning to warn of an increase in offending due to the cost of living crisis, a cross-party think-tank calculated that England and Wales now have 228 police officers per 100,000 people.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Metropolitan Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick will leave her post on 10 April, it has been confirmed.
In a statement on Twitter, the outgoing head of Britain's largest force said it had been "a tremendous honour to serve the people of London and the UK".
Dame Cressida quit in a surprise move in February - but agreed to stay on until arrangements to find a replacement were finalised.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The recently retired chief constable of Leicestershire Police has died, the force has said.
Simon Cole, who held the position for 12 years, was found dead at his home address in Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, this morning.
The 55-year-old announced his retirement in January before stepping down last week.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Nearly two million anti-social behaviour reports have gone unattended by 34 police forces in England and Wales over the past three years, new figures show.
The figures were released to the Liberal Democrats, who accused the government of being "soft on crime".
They show that 55.2% of all anti-social behaviour incidents recorded between 2019 and 2021 were not responded to.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Branch staff at banks, building societies and Post Offices have worked with the police to stop £202.8 million of fraud through the Banking Protocol rapid scam response scheme since it launched in 2016, according to the latest figures from UK Finance. Last year £60.7 million was stopped through the scheme, 34 per cent more than in 2020.
The Banking Protocol is a UK-wide scheme, developed by UK Finance, National Trading Standards and local police forces. Branch staff are trained to spot the warning signs that suggest a customer may be falling victim to a scam, before alerting their local police force to intervene and investigate.
The latest figures, detailed in the table below, show that branch staff made 10,072 Banking Protocol calls to the police during 2021. The scheme led to the arrest of 162 suspected criminals last year, bringing the total number of arrests to 1,005 since the protocol began.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Areas tackling gangs, knife crime and other violent crime have a funding pipeline beyond the next election.
The Home Office has confirmed the 18 forces with Violence Reduction Units can put long-term plans in place after funding increases were confirmed with commitments until 2025.
And Humberside is also joining the scheme.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Employers and the PRRB have been challenged by the staff side to put forward a recommendation for salary increases that reflects soaring living costs.
And one of the unions representing support staff revealed they are now considering strike action after being offered 2.1%.
It follows the government announcement slipped out on the final Parliamentary day before Westminster’s Easter recess that public sector workers should get a 2% pay rise – and employers must argue for a possible extra 1%.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
National Board member and Firearms & Taser Lead Steve Hartshorn has been confirmed as the second National Chair to be voted in by police officers in England and Wales.
Steve joined the Metropolitan Police in 1995, before moving to the Met’s Firearms Command. He became a Federation rep because he wanted to help colleagues that were going through a difficult time.
He said: “I feel incredibly honoured to have been elected the next National Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A Metropolitan police officer has been charged with grievous bodily harm after a black man was shot with a Taser and left paralysed from the chest down.
Jordan Walker-Brown was shot with the electronic device in May 2020 in Haringey, north London, leaving him with serious life changing injuries, including damage to his spinal cord.
The decision by the CPS to bring charges against the officer, who has not been named, follows an investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) last year. The IOPC’s inquiry determined that there was an indication the officer may have committed grievous bodily harm.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The last of 47 police officers to be investigated over their handling of historic allegations of child sex abuse in Rotherham has been cleared of misconduct.
Former Det Sgt David Walker had been accused of not following up tip-offs about grooming gangs in the town.
A misconduct panel found he had acted appropriately with any information.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Nearly two million anti-social behaviour reports have gone unattended by 34 police forces in England and Wales over the past three years, new figures show.
The figures were released to the Liberal Democrats, who accused the government of being "soft on crime".
They show that 55.2% of all anti-social behaviour incidents recorded between 2019 and 2021 were not responded to.
[ more...]
Justice
The plan aims to tackle perpetrators, prevent offences from happening in the first place and help all victims and survivors by improving the systems and processes that underpin the response to domestic abuse across society.
Government figures show around 2.3 million people in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse in the past year, and around one in five homicides were related to domestic abuse.
APCC joint victims leads, Donna Jones and Sophie Linden, said it was time to say “enough is enough” and to adopt a “whole system approach” to preventing domestic abuse from happening in the first place.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Home Office will today unveil plans for a register of domestic abusers that will require them to tell police when they change address or open a joint bank account. It will be modelled on the sex offenders register, targeting violent perpetrators who pose a big risk of reoffending.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Uniformed police officers in Jersey will be allowed to carry Tasers, the states confirmed.
Members agreed to make the eight-month trial scheme permanent in a states meeting on Tuesday.
Officers who complete a Taser course to the national standard and complete their probationary period will be allowed to carry and use electric stun guns.
[ more...]
Justice
Domestic abuse is the most common form of violence against women and girls.
In England and Wales, 2.3 million people are known to have experienced it in one year, 1.6 million of them women. It is likely that we all know someone who is
being hurt in this way, at the hands of a person who is supposed to make them feel safe and secure. Despite being such a pervasive and insidious crime, it too
often goes unnoticed by others.
The COVID-19 pandemic made domestic abuse loom larger in the public’s
conscience. We must not lose that focus. Through this Plan, we will deliver the practical steps needed for the whole of society to say, ‘enough is enough’.
[ more...]
Police Finances
This report continues the UK Government’s commitment to publishing the costs incurred in the delivery of Police and Crime Commissioner elections.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Wales' four police forces should be scrapped and replaced with a single nationwide service, according to Dyfed-Powys Police's new chief constable.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Tougher guidelines will be brought in for schools after the “hugely distressing” strip-search of a black schoolgirl.
Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, promised to set out a new policy “very soon” after the “appalling” incident involving a pupil aged 15, known as Child Q, who was wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis and removed from an exam hall at her school in Hackney, east London.
Teachers called police despite not finding drugs and two female officers searched the girl, who was menstruating, and told her to remove her sanitary towel.
[ more...]
Justice
Women will be alerted by the police if they buy a house or open a bank account with a convicted domestic abuser.
The move will be announced by Home Secretary Priti Patel this week under plans to tackle the growing problem of violence in the home.
It will involve the establishment of the first national register of domestic abusers.
[ more...]
Justice
MPs will debate a call for specialist support for black domestic abuse victims.
More than 106,000 supporters signed a petition for Valerie's Law, triggering a Commons debate.
The campaign is named after Valerie Forde, whose former partner murdered her and her baby girl, despite previously reporting him to police.
[ more...]
Justice
The first fines for breaches of Covid-19 lockdown rules as part of a police inquiry into government parties will be issued soon, the BBC has been told.
The Metropolitan Police will issue at least 15 fixed-penalty fines initially and could start on Tuesday, Westminster sources suggest.
The investigation of 12 events held across government began in January.
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Police and Crime General
Police and Crime Commissioner, Darryl Preston, is today (Sunday 27th March 2022) announcing that Cambridge Street Pastors are to receive £4,000 for new uniforms for volunteers.
The funding is available as part of the third round of Government’s Safer Streets Fund. In October 2021 Cambridgeshire was successfully awarded £471K from the Fund to tackle violence against women and girls.
Cambridge Street Pastor volunteers are trained to help those who wish to enjoy the Cambridge nightlife on Fridays and Saturdays and find themselves needing assistance. They also operate NightLite on Saturday nights at Downing Place URC, a place where people can rest, recover, wait in safety for a lift home or paramedics, recharge their phone or have a hot drink.
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Police and Crime General
An average of five children per day are being strip-searched by the Metropolitan Police across the capital, figures revealed today.
Data released following the outrage over the treatment of Child Q showed that 5,279 children were subjected to the searches in the last three years.
A total of 3,939 — or 75 per cent — were from ethnically diverse backgrounds, while 22 per cent were white.
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Recruitment and Retention
Inexperienced officers will make up nearly 40 per cent of the police workforce by next year, a report has warned.
Trainees brought in as part of a drive to replace the 20,000 officers lost to austerity cuts since 2010 were an “operational burden” on more experienced officers responsible for training them, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.
The police “uplift programme” will mean that at least 38 per cent of police officers nationally will have less than five years of experience compared with 12 per cent in 2014-15.
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Police and Crime General
London mayor Sadiq Khan has published a plan to restore the reputation of the Met Police after public trust in the force hit a record low.
The most recent figures indicate only half of London's population believe the Met does a good job.
Strategies to reduce and prevent crime, to offer victims more support, and strengthen the response to the drugs trade have also been outlined.
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Economy & Public Finance
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has set out measures aimed at combating soaring energy, food and fuel prices, in his Spring Statement.
He cut fuel duty by 5p but resisted calls to scrap April's National Insurance rise of 1.25p in the pound.
He warned the UK's post-pandemic recovery had been blown off course by the war in Ukraine.
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Police and Crime General
Criticism of the Metropolitan Police’s approach to tackling corruption within its ranks is “alarming”, the policing minister has told MPs.
A watchdog’s findings that the force’s procedures for rooting out corrupt officers and staff were “fundamentally flawed” and “not fit for purpose” were “troubling”, Kit Malthouse said.
The Met had not learned lessons from the notorious unsolved 1987 murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan and had a “degree of indifference” to the risks of corruption, according to damning conclusions published on Tuesday by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS).
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Justice
Twenty-year old Chay Bowskill had subjected his partner Angel Lynn to “prolonged abuse” and chief executive Farah Nazeer said judges must send out “a clear message that domestic abuse will not be tolerated”.
She warned that lenient sentences in domestic abuse cases send “a dangerous message” about how seriously violence against women is treated.
Bowskill, from Leicestershire, was originally jailed for seven years and six months on January 26 after being convicted of kidnap, coercive and controlling behaviour, and perverting the course of justice, following a trial at Leicester Crown Court.
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Recruitment and Retention
The police have failed to "bring in enough talent from black communities and ensure they thrive," the lead for tackling racism within UK forces says.
Sir David Thompson, chief constable of West Midlands Police, told BBC Newsnight racist incidents involving officers had been damaging.
He added it was a shame the police were not "an employer of choice for many communities".
A plan on how best to solve the issue will be published in April.
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Technology
Campaigners have warned that new guidance from the College of Policing on the use of facial recognition technology means victims of crimes and potential witnesses could be placed on police watchlists.
The college said the new advice for forces in England and Wales will make sure use of facial recognition technology is "legal and ethical", but civil liberty groups branded it as an "atrocious policy and a hammer blow for privacy and liberty".
They claim it could mean people with mental health problems are placed on a list if sought by police.
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Police and Crime General
Online shopping scams and auction fraud are the most reported types of fraud, according to figures from Which?
The consumer group has identified 12 "emerging fraud threats", and, even though online shopping scams and auction fraud are the most reported, investment frauds were responsible for the biggest losses.
The average investment fraud victim loses more than £50,400 to pyramid or Ponzi schemes, according to figures based on findings from Action Fraud reported in the latest Office for National Statistics crime survey for England and Wales.
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Police and Crime General
Trainee police officers are too scared to speak to the public, run away from violence and get their parents to try to get their birthday off, senior officers say.
The drive to appoint 20,000 officers has resulted in some recruits who are “surprised” they have to work weekends and lack confidence because of training shortfalls, it is claimed.
Ché Donald, the vice-chairman of the Police Federation, told The Times that recruits who “don’t have a scooby” were being hired. “You’ve got parents phoning up the chief inspector to say, it’s my son’s birthday tonight, he’s not going to work the night shift, you can put him on a day shift.”
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Recruitment and Retention
More than 1,000 police officers and staff accused of domestic abuse are still serving in law enforcement, it emerged yesterday, with eight out of ten able to keep their jobs after the allegations were made.
Police employees across the country were also more likely on average to avoid prosecution, with only 3.4 per cent of reports leading to a conviction. The conviction rate for the general public is about twice as high at 6.3 per cent.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that 1,080 of 1,319 police officers and staff who were reported for alleged domestic abuse during a three-year period were still working. The investigation analysed data from 41 forces across the UK.
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Police and Crime General
Nearly 250 suspects have been arrested by the Met Police and dozens of county lines networks out of London have been smashed as part of a fresh crackdown.
The raids were part of the Met's ongoing Operation Orochi and ran from 7 March to 13 March.
They joined forces across the UK carrying out synchronised dawn raids seizing cash, drugs and firearms from properties used to run drug operations.
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Justice
Tech bosses face up to two years in jail if they cover up child sexual abuse on their platforms under proposed new laws to combat online harms.
The Online Safety Bill will place social media firms under a new legal duty to report child sexual exploitation and abusive content on their platforms to the National Crime Agency (NCA).
This will replace the current voluntary reporting regime, with firms that fail to do so facing multi-million pound fines by Ofcom, the watchdog, which has powers to impose penalties worth up to 10 per cent of the companies’ global turnovers.
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Recruitment and Retention
Up to one in five police recruits are dropping out during their probation period, according to statistics that raise concerns about the government’s scheme to increase officer numbers.
On average, more than 9 per cent of recruits have left forces before becoming fully fledged officers, the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) said.
In some force areas the attrition rate is far higher, however. In Northamptonshire, since April 2020, 19.3 per cent have left before completing probation.
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Police and Crime General
New forensic technology has been developed to spot specks of blood on dark clothing in a matter of seconds, which can quickly identify or eliminate suspects.
Traditional methods, which have been used for 100 years, involve hours of painstaking examination under a microscope - which could take days and even weeks.
Developed by the Metropolitan Police, the new infrared (IR) technology speeds up the process, spotting blood almost immediately in some circumstances, even if it is less than a millimetre in diameter.
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Police and Crime General
Only five stalking protection orders were issued in Wales last year despite more than 7,000 reported offences.
The number of reports more than doubled from 2020 to 2021 and campaigners want better education so police officers can recognise when an order is needed.
Stalking victim Sara Manchipp said she was "concerned about the message it's sending out".
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Police and Crime General
The new head of the policing inspectorate will be Andy Cooke, the former chief constable of Merseyside, the Guardian understands.
Cooke is said to have impressed in interviews for the post of Her Majesty’s chief inspector of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) by pledging to get forces better focused on detecting more crime and locking up more criminals.
It is a position that impressed the home secretary, Priti Patel, although delivering on it will be trickier than promising it, some police leaders believe.
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Police Demand
Reports of drink-spiking have trebled over the past three months in Merseyside, officials have said.
Nearly 200 cases were reported to police in February, compared with 68 in November, a report to Liverpool City Council has said.
There were four arrests from the 198 reports made, but all resulted in no further action being taken.
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Justice
Ballot to refuse return cases in England and Wales from 11 April follows independent review’s recommendation of 15% increase
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Recruitment and Retention
Police should introduce quotas to increase the number of ethnic minority officers, says Britain’s first and only black chief constable.
Calling for “positive discrimination”, Mike Fuller, formerly Kent’s chief constable and a non-executive director of the Home Office, said Northern-Irish style recruitment quotas for black and ethnic minority candidates could be seen by the community as “righting a wrong”.
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Recruitment and Retention
Extramarital affairs should be considered “dangerous red flags” when hiring police officers, the head of the watchdog has told the Times.
Michael Lockwood, director-general of the Independent Office for Police Conduct, said that vetting of recruits must be “more intrusive and diligent” in order to get rid of “baddies”.
“Many individuals are attracted to policing because of the power. Many of the people that are getting in can exhibit what I call ‘red flags’,” Mr Lockwood said.
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Police and Crime General
Number plate recognition cameras are to be used in Shropshire villages for the first time in a bid to catch speeding drivers.
The £40,000 scheme covers Pontesbury, Minsterley and Hanwood on the A488.
It has been jointly funded by the West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) and the parish councils.
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Police Finances
The police and other emergency services in London have made “very substantial progress” following the 2017 attacks on Westminster Bridge, London Bridge and outside Finsbury Park Mosque according to a major review by Lord Toby Harris
His 250-page report said the number of police officers in the Met was now on the rise, but thanks to the national “exodus” over the past decade or so, forces “will have a disproportionately high number of officers with limited experience”.
And he said youth provision, mental health services, and the voluntary and community sector remains in some cases “woefully” under-resourced.
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Police Finances
In November 2021, the Home Office published a consultation on Public Service Pensions: Police Pensions (Amendment) Regulations 2022, to enact the first phase of the McCloud remedy (prospective).
The Home Office has published a summary of responses to the consultation on proposed amendments to the Police Pension Scheme (England and Wales) 2015 regulations as part of the first phase, which will move all members (including those formerly protected) to the 2015 scheme (‘the reformed scheme’) on 1 April 2022 and close the legacy schemes to future accrual from 31 March 2022. This will mean that all members are treated equally in respect of any pensionable service accrued after 31 March 2022.
Having considered the responses, the Home Office will proceed with amending the Police Pension Scheme (England and Wales) regulations 2015. This is necessary to comply with the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices (PSPJO) Bill and the Court of Appeal’s ruling in 2018 in the McCloud/Sargeant litigation.
The consultation response included on this page also provides the updated equality impact assessment of any potential impacts on those with protected characteristics as a result of the proposed amendments.
Subject to the necessary parliamentary approval, the changes will come into effect from 1 April 2022.
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Justice
Victims in 53,000 cases will still be waiting for justice in three years under Dominic Raab’s “meagre” plans to reduce “unacceptable” court delays, MPs have said.
MPs on the Commons public accounts committee said that the Justice Secretary’s aim to reduce the backlog by less than 8,000 cases to 53,000 by Mar 2025 was unlikely to end the delays to justice for victims, witnesses and defendants.
They said that since Mar 2020 alone, the number of cases waiting longer than a year had increased by more than 300 per cent – a quadrupling from 2,830 to 11,379.
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Police and Crime General
More funding is needed to tackle online safety for children and police must tackle fraud and restore public trust, according to a report by the Chief Inspector of Constabulary.
In his final annual report before retirement after 10 years in the job, Sir Tom Winsor said public trust in policing must be repaired and raises concerns over online crime.
Fraud is now the UK's most prevalent crime, but police treat it with an "indefensibly low priority", the Chief Inspector of Constabulary said.
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Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson’s promise to hire 20,000 more police officers has increased the risk of introducing misogynist and racist recruits, a police watchdog has said, amid concerns that a discriminatory culture exists in forces across England and Wales.
Sir Tom Winsor, in his ninth and final annual review, said that police must confront a series of problems, including the aftermath of Sarah Everard’s murder by a police officer, if damage to public confidence is be restored.
The report comes a month after Dame Cressida Dick’s resignation as Met commissioner which followed a damning inquiry by another police watchdog into a culture of violently misogynist, racist and homophobic messages at Charing Cross police station in central London.
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Police and Crime General
“The Report highlights the complex environment that policing operates in and recognises the fact that, over the last two years during the pandemic, policing faced extraordinary new challenges in keeping the pubic safe. On behalf of all PCCs and wider policing governance bodies I want to commend the courage and commitment of all our police officers and staff who have showed extraordinary bravery and resilience on behalf of us all..."
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Recruitment and Retention
A proposed “licence to practise” for police officers in England and Wales is “unnecessary” and “fraught with danger” according to a group that represents 130,000 rank-and-file officers.
The Police Federation of England and Wales said it had “always been against the introduction” of the licence, which would be renewable every five years once officers demonstrate professional development.
It was one of 56 recommendations made by the Strategic Review of Policing in England and Wales on Tuesday to redress a “crisis in policing” and instigate a root-and-branch overhaul to instil public confidence.
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Police and Crime General
Dame Cressida resigned last month after London Mayor Sadiq Khan made it clear he had no confidence in her plans to reform the service.
Speaking at a conference in Dublin to mark International Women’s Day, she reflected on the social changes in the force since she began her career nearly 40 years ago, walking the beat in London’s Mayfair and Soho districts.
She told the International Association of Women in Policing event: “Like many other services, we have seen a drop in confidence in our service and we have seen policing becoming more politicised.
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Justice
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) says the “pioneering approach” will better support victims of domestic abuse and help ensure they are not further traumatised by the court process.
The scheme is being piloted at family courts in North Wales and Dorset as part of the Government’s drive to tackle domestic violence and improve victim support.
The emphasis will be on “investigating and addressing” allegations of abuse before a case gets to court. This could include local domestic abuse professionals sharing risk assessments with the court to spare victims and other parties the trauma of having to unnecessarily repeat their experiences.
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Police and Crime General
Taxi drivers and rail staff are among transport workers who face criminal record checks under a government plan to protect women from violence.
All “public-facing” transport staff from ticket collectors to taxi and private hire drivers should be vetted for previous convictions or offences through the Government’s Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), says a Department for Transport (DfT) report.
It follows a survey commissioned by DfT that found nearly half (49 per cent) of women had felt threatened when making a journey on public transport and 46 per cent had seen women or girls subjected to verbal aggression.
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Police and Crime General
Policing attracts some men who want “to exert and coerce” vulnerable people, the new national police lead on violence against women has admitted, as she urged officers to create a “call-out culture” to tackle sexist and misogynistic behaviour.
Deputy chief constable Maggie Blyth, who took up the post of national lead for violence against women and girls (VAWG) at the National Police Chiefs’ Council five months ago, said it was wrong to dismiss abusive, violent or sexist officers as a “few bad apples”.
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Police and Crime General
"Today, I am pleased to set out to the House a package of measures in support of this Government’s manifesto commitment to expand and strengthen the role of our directly elected police and crime commissioners (PCCs), and those mayors with PCC functions, including the findings from the second part of our internal review into the role of PCCs."
"Our two-part review will ensure PCCs can focus more sharply on local crime fighting, with stronger accountability to those they serve. As set out in the Government’s beating crime plan, PCCs allow the public’s voice to be heard on local policing and crime matters and hold chief constables to account for delivering what communities need. As such, PCCs continue to play a critical role in reducing crime and reoffending."
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Recruitment and Retention
A quarter of officers banned from policing because of gross misconduct were dismissed for sexual offences or domestic violence, new figures show.
A report by the College of Policing disclosed that 257 officers were placed on the barred list in the year to March 2021, meaning they must not be employed or appointed into the force.
More than a quarter of them were dismissed because they abused their position for sexual purpose or committed child sex offences, domestic abuse, sexual misconduct or harassment.
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Recruitment and Retention
Metropolitan Police officers have been warned they face disciplinary action if they travel to Ukraine to help fight the invading Russian army, according to internal posts seen by The Telegraph.
Police chiefs at the force have told officers that they could also be at “greater risk” than other volunteers and could become a “significant target” for Russian forces.
In a post on the service’s intranet, entitled: “The Met position on travel to the region,” officers are warned they also risk prosecution on their return.
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Police and Crime General
Police are losing public confidence because of a failure to grip an “explosion” in fraud and low-level crime such as burglary and car theft, a landmark report has found.
This week an independent review will call for the creation of a government agency as part of a rethink on crime prevention, linking current failings to the long-term erosion of public trust.
The Strategic Review of Policing, the most comprehensive police report in decades, will suggest the trend is being driven by a growing disparity between the volume of some crimes and the number of cases resulting in prosecution.
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Police and Crime General
Police officers in half of the forces around Britain are currently having their conduct probed due to allegations they wielded their power for sexual purposes, troubling new figures show.
The fresh data comes a year after Sarah Everard, a 33-year-old marketing executive, went missing while walking home in Clapham, southwest London, on 3 March 2021.
It later emerged Ms Everard had been kidnapped, raped and murdered by Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, who was sentenced to a whole-life prison term in September.
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Police Demand
Maurine Sweeney’s bright orange racing bicycle was locked outside the café in Bristol for a matter of minutes before an opportunist made off with it.
For Sweeney, who had travelled from Denver, Colorado, it was a disaster. She was visiting with her husband, Richard, before she was due to compete in the over-70s category at the Masters Cyclo-Cross world championships in Ipswich.
What neither she nor the thief had anticipated was that Avon and Somerset police is the best force in the country for solving bike thefts.
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Justice
The number of rape cases collapsing because victims drop out has risen sharply in six years, figures show.
The latest data suggests that in the 12 months to last September, 40 per cent of people who reported to the police that they had been raped dropped the accusation, despite a suspect having been identified. That equated to 25,759 people voluntarily withdrawing their allegation.
The rate was 77 per cent higher than in 2015, when less than 25 per cent of rape cases ended because the victim no longer sought further action.
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Justice
Almost half of the Nightingale Courts temporarily set up to help manage the significant backlog of cases caused by the pandemic, are set to close, the Ministry of Justice has announced. Eleven of the centres will close but 12 will remain open in England and Wales for a further year to reduce waiting times for criminal trials. There are currently around 59,000 criminal trials waiting to go before a judge.
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Police Demand
Prisoners who go on drug-free wings and submit to regular testing could be given privileges such as pool tables, gym and work placements, Justice Secretary Dominic Raab has revealed. As part of a strategy to promote abstinence from drugs for addicted criminals as a replacement for heroin substitute medication methadone, the major expansion will also offer counselling and therapy to offenders.
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Police and Crime General
Greater Manchester Police is still falling short of expected standards but has improved at recording crime, a new watchdog report said.
England's second-largest police force has been rated inadequate in three areas including investigating crime and how it responds to the public.
A review between February and November found the force was "not achieving the expected level of service".
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Police Demand
60 per cent of women believe tougher sentencing for sexual assault and domestic violence would be ‘very effective’ in making the UK safer for women and girls
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Police Demand
The number of people contacting a helpline to stop them or another person viewing child abuse images online more than doubled last year.
A total of 165,225 people contacted Stop It Now! by phone or online with concerns about their own behaviour or that of someone close to them in 2021, up from 79,868 the previous year.
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Police Finances
Police leaders in England and Wales will decide not to accept that their forces are still institutionally racist, as they try to battle their way out of a race crisis.
Chief constables began considering a public admission in December and have held a series of private meetings among forces to try to find agreement.
Multiple sources with knowledge of discussions say plans expected to be released in March by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) will contain no acceptance that institutional racism should be admitted.
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Police Finances
Women must no longer bear the responsibility for keeping themselves safe on the street, says Priti Patel as she launched her new strategy marking the anniversary of Sarah Everard’s murder.
The Home Secretary unveiled a multi-million pound publicity campaign that will urge people to report street harassment and other abuse of women whether by friends, relatives, work colleagues or strangers.
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Justice
Rape survivors who report their attackers are being systematically failed by the criminal justice system resulting in an average wait of nearly two years before a trial begins, a damning official report has found.
A joint inspection by two government watchdogs has identified multiple failings in the process from reporting a rape to a possible trial and conviction of an assailant.
A lack of collaboration between police and prosecutors has led to months of delays and poor communication with accusers, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) said.
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Police and Crime General
Merseyside’s Police Commissioner has set and approved a budget which will allow Merseyside Police to continue to rebuild during 2022/23.
The Commissioner, Emily Spurrell, held a special public budget meeting with the Chief Constable Serena Kennedy at her offices on Mather Avenue today at which the financial plans for the year ahead were consider and approved.
Over the last two years, the Commissioner and the Chief Constable have accelerated the force’s recruitment drive to bring 665 new police officers into the force – well ahead of Government targets.
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Police and Crime General
Labour is urging the government to fast-track plans to clamp down on economic crime, amid pressure over UK links to Russia.
Sir Keir Starmer called for long-promised legislation to be introduced in the coming days, adding there's "no reason to delay".
The Economic Crime Bill is expected to bring in new transparency measures for UK firms and property.
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Police and Crime General
The mayor of London has been accused of not following due process over the resignation of outgoing Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick by her second in command.
Deputy Commissioner Sir Stephen House praised his boss and criticised Sadiq Khan for how she has been pushed out.
Calling for a review of events, he said: "I feel extremely sad. We've seen matters played out in the media."
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Justice
Inadequate exempt accommodation regulations led to a murderer being mistaken for a victim, MPs heard as they called for laws to be "toughened up".
Carers or support staff are meant to be on hand to help residents within this style of housing, but this is not always the case.
Instead, Shadow Housing Secretary Lisa Nandy said "these shameless profiteers are leaving vulnerable people languishing in disgusting, unsafe housing".
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Recruitment and Retention
The police are so stuck in the past they are failing to keep up with modern crime, the chairman of a major strategic review will say on Tuesday, as he likened forces to Betamax video recorders operating in a world of “blockchain criminals”.
Sir Michael Barber, who has led a two-year independent review of policing in England and Wales, is due to present his full findings next month.
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Economy & Public Finance
Rising inflation led to government interest payments hitting a record high for the month of January, figures show.
Interest payments hit £6.1bn last month, the highest amount for a January since records began in April 1997 and up from £4.5bn last year.
The payments are pegged to the Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation - which reached 7.8% in January. January's interest payments were, however, below the all-time high of £9bn in June last year.
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Police and Crime General
Sir Michael Barber, who is leading a review of policing, is expected to make the warning during a talk on Tuesday.
His comments come just weeks before the Police Foundation publishes the findings of his Strategic Review of Policing, which is set to make more than 50 recommendations for the future of forces in England and Wales.
Billed as the most comprehensive review of policing for a decade, Sir Michael hopes the report will mark a “fundamental turning point in the modernisation of a public service that matters deeply to us all.”
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Justice
The low number of rape cases that end up in court has led to a "crisis in public trust", the director of public prosecutions (DPP) has said.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has today set out how it plans to boost the number of cases coming to court in an update on a five-year plan launched in July 2020.
Figures released earlier this year showed that in the 12 months to September 2021, only around 820 (1.3%) of the record 63,136 reported rape offences logged by police resulted in a suspect being charged.
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Recruitment and Retention
West Midlands Police is recruiting more officers to help crackdown on crime and boost the visible presence across the region.
The force is hiring full time PCSOs to serve as a "crucial link" between local communities and the police as officers deal with over 2,000 emergency call outs per day.
New recruits, spaced across eight neighbourhood policing units in the West Midlands, will earn between £24,546 and £26,169 per year.
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Recruitment and Retention
Fifty new recruits have been sworn in as the latest degree level officers to join Lancashire Constabulary. Two ceremonies were held at Lancashire Constabulary HQ near Preston this week for officers who joined through the Degree Holder Entry Programme.
Mr Rowley said: "It's fantastic to officially welcome these new officers..they have been through a rigorous selection and training programme and I am immensely proud of what they have achieved so far."
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Police and Crime General
Anti-vaxxers will be banned from “harmful and disruptive” protests outside schools and vaccination clinics after Priti Patel accepted an amendment to a bill due to be debated in parliament this week.
An opposition motion to grant councils the power to take tougher action to dispel anti-vaxx campaigners was passed by peers in the House of Lords last month. On Monday, the home secretary signalled that she would not seek to strike out the amendment when the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill returns to the Commons this week.
The bill is undergoing “ping-pong”, whereby changes to the proposed legislation are debated by each house until MPs and peers come to an agreement.
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Police and Crime General
Snooping traffic cops have taken to sitting on buses in a bid to spy on badly-behaved drivers using their mobile phones at the wheel.
Officers from Dorset Police hopped on a loaned-out double-decker to peer down into the vehicles of motorists driving around the seaside town of Bournemouth.
After spying someone breaking the law, they radioed colleagues parked up ahead in unmarked cars and they pulled the offenders over.
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Technology
The police are so stuck in the past they are failing to keep up with modern crime, the chairman of a major strategic review will say on Tuesday, as he likened forces to Betamax video recorders operating in a world of “blockchain criminals”.
Sir Michael Barber, who has led a two-year independent review of policing in England and Wales, is due to present his full findings next month.
But he will tell an event today that the British tradition of policing by consent is at serious risk and only fundamental reform can reverse the current crisis in confidence.
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Police Demand
Victims of fraud and scams are nearly 50 times more likely to have their case solved in some parts of the country than others, a Telegraph analysis shows.
Official data shows that victims in North Yorkshire face just a one in a 500 (or 0.15 per cent) chance of their case being solved.
It is the force with the lowest charging rate and compares with a one in 15 (or 7.22 per cent) chance of a fraud prosecution in Dorset, the police force with the highest rate. That is 46 times higher.
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Police and Crime General
The Government must toughen up regulations on the gambling industry to help protect communities and vulnerable people from gambling-related harm, councils and Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) are urging today.
Ahead of the publication of the Government’s white paper on the future of the Gambling Act, the Local Government Association and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) are calling for tougher powers for councils to determine where and how many gambling premises can open in their areas, alongside a crackdown on the current volume of gambling advertising and marketing.
Evidence shows that gambling and betting premises are typically located in more deprived areas, where residents may be more vulnerable to issues stemming from gambling and betting.
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Police and Crime General
The justice secretary has revealed plans to create 4,000 prison places at 16 sites in a bid to deliver on the government's promise to increase capacity by the middle of the decade.
Dominic Raab's plans, which are subject to planning permission being granted, will involve building new wings and refurbishing old prison space.
The government wants to create 20,000 prison places by 2025.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
In recent months the lack of a dedicated RPU team has attracted criticism from local MPs, coroners and council leaders. However, following a review by the constabulary, supported by police and crime commissioner Donna Jones, residents will now benefit from an enhanced roads policing service.
Ms Jones has committed to an additional 600 police officers across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight by 2023. As part of the officer uplift commitment for the next financial year, additional roads policing posts are being created across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. This gives the force the capacity and flexibility to invest in this specialist area of policing on the Island.
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Police and Crime General
The Cabinet Office has told the Metropolitan Police not to publish 300 photos linked to a criminal investigation into Downing Street parties.
Scotland Yard received the request after aides at No 10 expressed concern that publication of the images could harm their reputations, The Times understands.
It means that hundreds of photos of the Downing Street parties — some of which are believed to include Boris Johnson — are unlikely ever to be published. In one photo, the prime minister is said to be pictured holding a can of beer at his birthday party in the Cabinet Room in June 2020.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
After more than a decade of pay caps and freezes, the Police Federation of England and Wales’s (PFEW) pay and morale survey reveals a worsening morale crisis in policing and acts as a health warning for anyone considering joining the service.
The survey results make clear the financial pressure on police officers and their families, and the stress this places on them just to make ends meet. Policing is a uniquely challenging profession with the growing demands and dangers officers face – the Government and police leaders can no longer bury their heads in the sand.
Police officers more than stepped up during the pandemic and faced rising levels of assaults and continually changing rules and legislation. The reward for their efforts – a zero percent pay award. Police officers heard the warm words of thanks, they saw government ministers queuing up on television to give thanks. Yet that thanks was quickly forgotten the moment it came to recognising their efforts in their salary.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than four in 10 repeat knife crime offenders are being spared jail despite “two strike and out” laws requiring immediate prison terms.
Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures showed 41 per cent avoided an immediate custodial sentence despite the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, which requires courts to impose a jail term “unless it would not be in the interest of justice to do so”.
They were instead handed suspended sentences, community service, fines, cautions or conditional discharges.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Dame Cressida Dick suggested random spot checks of officers’ phones and social media accounts to uncover inappropriate police behaviour in a last-ditch effort to save her job, The Times has learnt.
The commissioner of the Metropolitan Police also called for an “urgent” review of the misconduct system after officers at Charing Cross police station escaped being fired following a misogyny and racism scandal.
Dick also told Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, she had launched an independent review on the Met’s policy of promoting officers after they went through the misconduct process.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police are resisting pressure for chief constables to declare that policing is institutionally racist, despite warnings that they cannot repair broken relations with the black community without the admission.
Police leaders have been in high-level talks about making the declaration to show black and minority communities that they accept that racism and discrimination are ingrained in the service, and will take radical steps to fix it.
The Times has been told that the Met is one of several police forces opposed to the admission in reforms by the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC). Helen Ball, an assistant commissioner and one of Dame Cressida Dick’s staunchest allies, spoke out against it at a meeting this month.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The Police Federation’s annual morale survey revealed the depth of dissatisfaction among rank and file officers and that included their relationship with senior command.
Of 29,587 officers who responded, 95 per cent said their treatment had a negative impact on their morale, while 93 per cent stated they did not feel respected by the government
But the urgent issue is pay. The zero per cent increase last year is now hitting even harder because of rising energy, fuel and food bills.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Just 24 text scam cases have been prosecuted by police despite more than 70 per cent of people saying they get at least one a month, new data show.
The figures suggest that as many as 36 million are afflicted by text scams on their phones every month, with an estimated 6.5 million of those getting more than 10 every month.
However, the latest Home Office data shows only 24 text scam cases were charged for fraud by false representation in 2020 under the Fraud Act 2006. Eleven were prosecuted as the primary offence with only seven resulting in a conviction.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police boss is proposing to change the name of the force to include Rutland.
Rupert Matthews, the police and crime commissioner for Leicestershire and Rutland has started a survey asking for people’s views on reinstating Rutland into the name of the force.
If the change was to go-ahead, the force would be called Leicestershire and Rutland Police, instead of Leicestershire Police.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, ousted Cressida Dick as Met chief to deflect from his own failings, the chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation has said.
Ken Marsh, who leads the body representing rank-and-file officers in Britain’s largest force, claimed his members had no faith in Khan and needed to support any changes otherwise they would not work.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
T
he Met Police will lift its requirement that applicants must have lived or studied in London to join the force as part of a new recruitment drive.
It comes as part a Police Uplift programme which will see an additional 1,800 officers recruited into the force by March 2023.
As part of the plans, the Met will temporarily lift its London Residency Criteria (LRC) - meaning those who wish to join the force do not need to have spent time living in London.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Priti Patel is to introduce a new law that will prevent Sadiq Khan from summarily sacking or suspending the next Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
The Home Secretary is planning the legal change to prevent police and crime commissioners (PCCs) dismissing chief constables, including the Met Police Commissioner, for political or personal reasons.
The move was already being planned before the Mayor of London forced the resignation of Dame Cressida Dick amid concerns within the Government that a pattern has been emerging of Labour PCCs disposing of policing chiefs.
[ more...]
Police Finances
There’s a well-known saying in team sport that the league table never lies. I therefore get deeply frustrated when my police officer colleagues are lambasted each time the Home Office releases crime statistic tables.
While politicians judge these tables similarly to those in sport, the reality is they don’t adequately reflect the fantastic work done by colleagues in preventing many number of crimes, time spent with victims, or in assisting vulnerable people.
I’d be the first to admit not everything has been rosy in the world of policing, and that from the recent headlines claiming police are solving the lowest proportion of crimes on record it’s no wonder the public questions our role. However, these figures don’t provide any context about non-crime issues, such as helping individuals suffering from mental health crises, or following time consuming procedures like the new CPS Guidance, which now adds 3 hours (on average) to every file for court, taking officers off the streets and back into the office.
While there is undoubtedly much work to do in improving criminal justice outcomes for victims, every failing of the criminal justice system should not be placed solely at the door of individual police officers; however, slow justice is no justice and will certainly impact on victims and their confidence in reporting crime.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy rebounded last year with growth of 7.5% despite falling back in December due to Omicron restrictions, official figures show.
It was the fastest pace of growth since 1941, although it came after a dramatic 9.4% collapse in 2020 as the pandemic forced parts of the economy to shut.
In December, the economy shrank 0.2% as Omicron restrictions hit the hospitality and retail sectors.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A row is growing between the Home Office and London City Hall as Sadiq Khan is accused of playing politics over the ousting of Dame Cressida Dick.
Priti Patel, who is responsible for appointing the Metropolitan police commissioner, is furious that the mayor did not tell her he was withdrawing support from Dick and effectively forcing her out.
Home Office sources said it was “rude and unprofessional” that Khan did not inform Patel he was calling a crunch meeting with Dick to discuss her future. Dick did not attend the meeting at 4.30pm yesterday, having been told by Khan he did not have confidence in her plans to rid the Met of its toxic culture. She chose to resign instead.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Half of police employees who committed gross misconduct were not dismissed, analysis of three years of police watchdog reports shows.
Out of 118 cases where the standards breach was proven by force disciplinary panels, 55 led to the sack.
The panels were held after the Independent Office for Police Conduct found a case to answer for misconduct.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
New training is underway to equip pub, bar and transport workers in the city with the skills needed to support and protect women needing help in their venues.
The sessions, designed and delivered by the specialist charity Equation, are funded by Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Caroline Henry through the Home Office’s Safety of Women at Night (SWaN) Fund.
They are part of a whole package of measures being employed in Nottingham to reduce women’s vulnerability on a night out. These include extra night patrols on the city’s tram and transport network and a ‘Safe Space’ facility with trained medical professionals for revellers needing urgent assistance or safety advice.
Commissioner Henry secured a grant of almost £250,000 in partnership with Nottinghamshire Police and Nottingham City Council.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police will email more than 50 people as part of its inquiry into lockdown parties at Downing Street and Whitehall.
A questionnaire will be sent to those alleged to have been at events on eight dates between May 2020 and April 2021.
It will ask for their account of what happened and "must be answered truthfully", the Met said.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie are expected to be among the people being emailed.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More than one in six speeding offences detected by police forces in England and Wales is cancelled, new figures show.
The highest proportions of cancelled speeding cases during 2020/21 were in Greater Manchester and Warwickshire, both at 39%.
Wiltshire, which has no fixed speed cameras, saw the lowest proportion of dismissed cases, at just 2%.
According to forces number plate cloning is becoming a real issue in avoiding speed camera fines.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A woman who helped convict her former partner after he broke her ribs during a three-hour attack has urged people in abusive relationships to seek help.
Hannah Martin, from Northampton, was repeatedly assaulted by Hayden Wykes during their 18 months together.
The 32-year-old secretly contacted a police domestic violence unit after the assault left her wanting "to die".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More than 150 complaints or allegations against former police officers involved in the Hillsborough disaster are still being investigated 33 years later.
Details emerged after the West Midlands branch of the National Association of Retired Police Officers met the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
They were told 68 complaints and six misconduct cases involve staff and retired officers from West Midlands.
[ more...]
Technology
Cyber security experts from the UK, US, and Australia are warning of a "growing wave of increasingly sophisticated ransomware attacks" which could have "devastating consequences".
Chief executive officers and board members are being strongly encourages to familiarise themselves with the risks and "ensure their IT teams are taking the correct actions to bolster resilience".
KP Snacks confirmed last week that a ransomware attack was expected to lead to a shortage of several popular crisp and nuts brands on grocery store shelves.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Ten years ago, as police minister, I drove work to establish the College of Policing. My ambition was to improve leadership, standards and professionalism in the service. Today, it is sobering to see that many of the challenges remain, and in some cases have increased.
Successive incidents have revealed troubling cultural issues in parts of the service which tarnish the reputation of policing and obscure the good, often brave, work done by the vast majority of committed officers. Every institution knows that the behaviour of a few can reflect badly on the whole. The time has long passed when these issues could be dismissed.
Quite apart from these concerns, the police service faces myriad challenges, from the way it engages with black communities and protects women, to the need to respond to ever changing crime threats and the advent of transformative technology. Meeting the growing demands facing this vital public service requires an exceptional generation of police leaders.
[ more...]
Police Demand
County lines gangs are targeting university campuses and trying to take control of the student drug trade.
Vice-chancellors are alarmed that previously isolated incidents of gangs operating on campuses accelerated during lockdown when students were often confined to halls of residence and seen as a “captive market”.
Senior figures in the sector told The Times they were aware of students being intimidated into “cuckooing” — allowing their rooms to be used for storing and dealing drugs. They are also concerned that gangs organised lockdown parties in student accommodation blocks to begin offering recreational drugs to students.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A Met Police officer who tasered a 10-year-old girl should face gross misconduct proceedings, a watchdog has found.
The officer fired the weapon at the youngster in southwest London following reports she was threatening a woman with garden shears and a hammer.
After the incident in January last year, the force said it had reviewed what happened and "no misconduct was identified".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
North Yorkshire Police is using a rising number of force tactics – including drawing stun gun devices – on children, figures reveal.
The Howard League said police forces across England and Wales should reduce the "worrying" rise in use of force incidents involving children.
Home Office statistics show North Yorkshire Police used force tactics on under-18s on 1,015 occasions in 2020-21 – with 16 involving children under 11.
This was up from 602 the year before, and 467 in 2018-19 – the first year such figures were recorded at police force level.
[ more...]
Prisons
A female prison governor is facing prison after admitting sending WhatsApp messages to a prisoner.
Victoria Laithwaite was found to have sent messages to James Chalmers, an inmate who was sentenced in 2019 for his involvement in a violent burglary.
During a short hearing at Northampton Crown Court on Monday, Judge Adrienne Lucking QC said although the messages only gave a “snapshot”, they suggested a “wider relationship” between the pair.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
County lines gangs are targeting university campuses and trying to take control of the student drug trade.
Vice-chancellors are alarmed that previously isolated incidents of gangs operating on campuses accelerated during lockdown when students were often confined to halls of residence and seen as a “captive market”.
Senior figures in the sector told The Times they were aware of students being intimidated into “cuckooing” — allowing their rooms to be used for storing and dealing drugs. They are also concerned that gangs organised lockdown parties in student accommodation blocks to begin offering recreational drugs to students.
[ more...]
Technology
Porn websites in the UK will be legally required to verify the age of their users under new internet safety laws.
The legislation, which is part of the draft Online Safety Bill, aims to give children better protection from explicit material.
The measures, to ensure users are 18 or over, could see people asked to prove they own a credit card or confirm their age via a third-party service.
[ more...]
Technology
Internet trolls who send death threats online and people who deliberately share dangerous disinformation about fake Covid cures could soon face a prison sentence, the government has said.
Ministers are creating criminal offences to make the law “fit for the digital age” as part of changes it is adding to the Online Safety Bill that it says will bring “a new age of accountability for tech”.
Nadine Dorries, the culture and digital secretary, said the government wants to be able to bring “the full weight of the law” against those who use the internet “as a weapon”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Record numbers of stalking cases were reported to the police during lockdown but just one in 20 resulted in a suspect being charged, worrying data uncovered by the Telegraph have revealed.
The pandemic saw a huge surge in the number of people being targeted by obsessive stalkers, especially online, with cases rising as much as 200 per cent in some areas.
Official crime statistics reveal there were almost 150,000 reports made to police forces in England and Wales between April 2020 and September 2021.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police officers are being recruited without face-to-face interviews, as a watchdog warned it left forces exposed to sexual predators joining without proper checks.
At least four forces - West Midlands, Hampshire, Wiltshire and Avon and Somerset - have continued to use special online centres set up during the pandemic to carry out assessments, pre-job checks and job offers.
One recruit said the first time he had any face-to-face contact with anyone from the force was when they came in to get fitted for their uniform.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Spiking is to become a specific criminal offence to prevent hundreds of offenders from escaping prosecution, Priti Patel has signalled.
The Home Secretary told MPs on the Commons home affairs committee that she had asked officials to establish how the Government could create a criminal offence to target the “appalling” increase in spiking using needles to inject people or lacing drinks with date rape drugs such as GHB.
It follows the disclosure that police received more than 1,300 reports of needle spiking in less than six months since the mode of attack came to the fore last year. This compared with 1,903 for the whole of 2019.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A "furious" Sadiq Khan has put the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick "on notice" after a shocking report revealed racist, misogynistic and homophobic messages sent by officers at Charing Cross.
The London Mayor told Ms Dick she most "drive out" the culture of racism, homophobia, bullying and misogyny within the force, as he sought urgent reassurance that such behaviour was not being repeated elsewhere in the Met.
“The mayor and the commissioner had a very frank discussion which lasted for well over 90 minutes," a spokesperson for Mr Khan said on Wednesday.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The drug, which counters the effects of overdose from opioids such as heroin, has been carried by officers as part of national trial project starting in 2021. During 2020, 1,339 Scots lost their lives as a direct result of drugs.
Drugs policy minister Angela Constance spoke to a joint meeting of Holyrood committees on Wednesday.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The number of drug seizures made by police in England and Wales rose by 21% during the coronavirus pandemic, figures show.
Police and Border Force made a total of 223,106 drug seizures in the year to March 2021 compared with 183,646 the previous year, according to Home Office data.
A report, published on Thursday, described it as the third consecutive annual increase in seizures, “reversing a downward trend” over the decade.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The head of the official statistics watchdog has reprimanded Boris Johnson and the Home Office for incorrectly saying crime has fallen by 14%, when this excludes the fastest-rising category of crime.
Sir David Norgrove, the head of the UK Statistics Authority, said he would be writing to the offices of Johnson and Priti Patel, the home secretary, to highlight what he called a “misleading” use of statistics.
Replying to a letter about the claims from Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson, Norgrove said Johnson and Patel had been incorrect to claim that crime was falling.
[ more...]
Technology
Anonymous social media users who fail to provide their ID should be blocked under the Government's duty of care plans to help curb online abuse, say MPs.
Social media firms should also face fines if they fail to prevent online abusers from setting up new accounts to continue harassing their victims, according to a committee of MPs.
The recommendation comes as the Government finalises its proposed new online harms Bill, due to be presented to Parliament this spring.
It follows petitions to Parliament backed by some 700,000 members of the public demanding verified ID be made a compulsory condition for opening a social media account. It included more than 500,000 who signed after racist abuse of England footballers after the 2020s Euros final at Wembley.
[ more...]
Justice
The typical delay between an offence of rape and the completion of the resulting criminal case rose to 1,000 days in 2021 for the first time, figures have revealed.
The Ministry of Justice said the median time between offence and completion in rape cases was 1,020 days, or over two and a half years, in the first nine months of 2021, up by more than a quarter from the previous year.
The data, published in response to parliamentary questions from the shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, also showed that 576 rape cases had been waiting for more than a year to come to court as of the end of September 2021, well over double the average of the previous five years.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Armed counterterrorism officers are to be deployed on British ferries for the first time this summer, The Times has learnt.
Firearms police from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) will be posted on cross-channel ferries from Dover and on passenger ships between Newcastle and the Netherlands.
While there is no known plot against British ferries, a senior counterterrorism source said that they were seen as extremely vulnerable as they were currently “completely unguarded”. Boarding passengers are not individually searched or given body scans unlike those on planes or Eurostar trains.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The decline of the “bobby on the beat” has informed a slump in public confidence in police, the head of Neighbourhood Watch has told The Times.
In an annual poll commissioned by the charity, the number of respondents who believe that police do an excellent or good job dropped from 42 per cent to 33 per cent despite overall reductions in crime due to the pandemic.
John Hayward-Cripps, chief executive of the Neighbourhood Watch Network, said: “With the cuts to policing budgets over the past few years, many forces reduced their community policing presence to focus on other priorities. Given that our members have historically enjoyed a positive and close working relationship with local police officers, they have acutely felt this reduction in police focus.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
An app collecting data about assaults on officers is being trialled by the City of London Police.
The National Police Assaults Data app forms part of Operation Hampshire and will be rolled out to all forces in England and Wales.
There were 36,969 assaults reported on police officers in England and Wales in the 2020 to 2021 financial year – an increase of more than 20% on the previous year.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England is widely expected to increase interest rates for the second time in two months this week as it continues to try to get inflation under control.
Consumer Price Index inflation hit 5.4% year-on-year in December – the biggest increase in 30 years, and far higher than the BoE’s 2% target.
At its last meeting on 16 December the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee voted to increase the bank rate from 0.1%, where it had sat since March 2020, to 0.25%.
It said at the time it expected inflation to remain “around 5% through the majority of the winter period, and to peak at around 6% in April”.
[ more...]
Technology
An emergency service radio system that was due for replacement in 2019 will be used for another four years, costing the taxpayer a further £1.6 billion.
Airwave has supported police, ambulance and fire service communications since 2000 but the network is “reaching the end of its lifetime” and has “limited capability” to make the most of technological advances. However, the Emergency Services Network, its planned replacement, has been beset by delays.
The system, which will use the 4G mobile phone network to carry emergency service traffic, was supposed to have been introduced in 2017, with a full switch-over taking place in 2019. Instead, a contract obtained by Tussell, the public spending specialist, shows that support for the legacy Airwave system has been extended to 2026, with “significant setbacks and delays” involving ESN said to be the reason.
[ more...]
Technology
Four wanted men were arrested by police using live facial recognition technology during an operation n over the weekend.
The suspects, including a 32-year-old man wanted for extradition for drug and violence offences, were detained on Saturday at various locations in Westminster, London by officers using the controversial technology.
The vehicle-mounted scanning system uses cameras and biometric software to check the identity of passers-by in real-time against a database of wanted or vulnerable individuals. Signs and notices are put in place to warn the public of the presence of the cameras and officers move in to make an arrest as soon as the system makes a match with its database.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The percentage of solved burglaries has nearly halved in seven years across England and Wales, and in some areas fewer than one in 30 crimes are reaching court, The Times has learnt.
Police solved just over 5 per cent of burglaries last year compared with nearly 9.4 per cent in 2015, analysis of official statistics reveals.
In total there were 268,000 burglaries between April 2020 and April last year, of which only 14,000 were solved while 243,000 cases were abandoned, largely because of evidential difficulties such as problems securing CCTV recordings or a failure to find a suspect. By comparison police solved close to 32,000 of 342,043 burglaries seven years earlier in 2014-15. That year more than 301,000 were not solved and more than 8,000 have not been assigned an outcome in government statistics. The statistics comprise residential and commercial burglaries.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police force has two new recruits to help investigate cyber-related crime. The two springer spaniels have been specially trained to assist Wiltshire Police officers at crime scenes and in cases such as drug investigations.
The so-called 'Digi-dogs' are able to sniff out USB sticks, hard drives, and even mobile phone SIM cards.
[ more...]
Technology
UK organisations are being urged to bolster their defences amid fears cyber attacks linked to the conflict in Ukraine could move beyond its borders.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued new guidance, saying it is vital companies stay ahead of a potential threat.
The centre said it was unaware of any specific threats to UK organisations.
It follows a series of cyber attacks in Ukraine which are suspected to have involved Russia, which Moscow denies.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police has asked senior civil servant Sue Gray to make "minimal reference" to events they are investigating in her report.
Ms Gray's inquiry into lockdown parties in Downing Street had been due to be released this week.
But the Met has asked her to leave out details of parties they are investigating for Covid rule-breaking.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Cyclists who kill pedestrians could face prosecution in the same way as drivers.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, who is a keen cyclist, said the changes could come as soon as a consultation on updating road-safety laws had been completed. He said of the plans: “It’s to make sure we’re able to prosecute cyclists who, for example, cause death by their own dangerous cycling. The injuries and deaths that take place because of cyclists are also unacceptable.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
With fewer bobbies on the beat, people have been tackling crime themselves, but it's unclear how far they can go if they step in to help
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A PCSO has pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice are falsely making a report that his force-issue tablet computer had been stolen.
Necati Mert Gulec, who is attached to the Met’s Roads and Transport Policing Command (RTPC), appeared at Wood Green Crown Court on Friday, 28 January where he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment suspended for 12 months and ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
On 9 August 2021, Gulec made a report to police that his MPS tablet had been stolen from him while off duty.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The number of households being made homeless because they were fleeing domestic abuse has risen by more than a third in England since the start of the pandemic, according to the latest official figures.
Between July and September of 2021, 6,310 households were accepted as homeless by local councils because of domestic abuse, an increase of 13.7% from the 5,550 recorded in the same quarter last year, and up 34.3% from the 4,700 in the third quarter of 2019.
They accounted for nearly one in five households (17.3%) made homeless during the period, second only to those whose family or friends were no longer willing to accommodate them, which accounted for 30.4%.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Chief Constable of the West Midlands Police will step down from his post by the end of this year.
Sir Dave Thompson, who's been in charge of the force since 2016, announced his retirement this morning (27 January). He'll oversee policing the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in July but he told ITV Central that'll be his last big job.
[ more...]
Justice
The proportion of crimes prosecuted in England and Wales has plummeted to a record low of 6 per cent, with only 1.3 per cent of rapes resulting in a charge.
At the same time, the number of sex attacks recorded by police have rocketed to record numbers, sparking accusations that “rape victims are being failed in ever-increasing numbers”.
New figures published by the Home Office on Thursday showed that in the year to September, figures fell for all types of offences.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A woman deceived into a relationship with an undercover police officer has been awarded almost £230,000 after a tribunal ruled her human rights had been breached.
Environmental activist Kate Wilson, 41, started a relationship with Mark Stone in 2003 and had a "whirlwind romance" for nearly two years before breaking up.
She found out in 2010 he was a married policeman called Mark Kennedy - part of Metropolitan Police's public order intelligence unit - who was undercover to spy on activists.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Between October 2021 and January 2022, more than 30 reports were received from members of the public who had either been visited or contacted by individuals claiming to be Police Scotland officers.
On each occasion, the victim was contacted by telephone from someone claiming to be from a bank fraud department and advised that their bank account had been compromised, said Police Scotland.
They were then requested to either transfer money remotely to another account online or attend at a bank and remove cash, which would later be collected by a police officer.
[ more...]
Technology
The first AI system used by UK police to decide if criminals should be prosecuted or offered rehabilitation has proved algorithms are more accurate than human officers.
The scheme, run for five years by Britain’s most successful police force, found computer algorithms were better than experienced officers at identifying whether criminals were likely to reoffend after being caught.
The system, known as the Harm Assessment Risk Tool (HART) and deployed by Durham Constabulary, was used to rate offenders as being at low, medium or high risk of returning to crime.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police will ask aides of Boris Johnson named in Sue Gray’s report as having attended parties during lockdown if they are guilty and therefore accept a fine under regulations passed by the government they work for.
Some could be asked in writing to accept or dispute Gray’s findings, while others will have to be interviewed under caution. The investigation is expected to take at least several weeks, with detectives prepared to expand their inquiry if further evidence emerges.
The Metropolitan police will take Gray’s evidence and ask those she finds to have attended gatherings in Downing Street and Whitehall whether they have a reasonable excuse, sources say.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More offenders will be let off without even a caution for “low-level” crimes such as drug possession, shoplifting and criminal damage under government reforms, says a former chief constable.
Dr Peter Neyroud, the chief constable of Thames Valley Police between 2002-07, said that the shake-up risked frontline police officers using community resolutions to “get rid” of cases rather than going through with a full caution.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police forces in the UK seized 25 per cent more cannabis in 2020 than the previous year after taking advantage of stay-at-home orders to target people manufacturing and cultivating the drug, data has revealed.
Officers at 38 forces carried out at least 9,145 cannabis seizures in 2020 compared with 7,240 in 2019. Nearly 80 per cent of forces seized more cannabis during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic than the previous 12 months.
Police made at least 44,037 seizures of the Class B drug between the calendar years of 2015 and 2020, according to data obtained by i under Freedom of Information (FOI) laws.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More offenders will be let off without even a caution for “low-level” crimes such as drug possession, shoplifting and criminal damage under government reforms, says a former chief constable.
Dr Peter Neyroud, the chief constable of Thames Valley Police between 2002-07, said that the shake-up risked frontline police officers using community resolutions to “get rid” of cases rather than going through with a full caution.
He said that officers would opt for “cheap and cheerful” community resolutions to get cases “out of the way” because the Government’s legislation enacting the changes created more bureaucratic “hoops than a game of croquet” around more effective alternatives that could rehabilitate offenders.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The Premier League will meet with police this week to discuss concerns over increased incidents of crowd behaviour and disorder.
Last weekend there were incidents in two separate matches of objects being thrown at players while, overall this season, there has been an increase of 47 per cent in football-related arrests.
The number of cases is up to 802 from 547 in 2019-20, the last campaign from which comparable data is available due to behind-closed-doors matches.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police has launched an investigation into parties held in No 10 during the coronavirus pandemic.
Officers were looking into "potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations" in Downing Street and Whitehall since 2020, Commissioner Cressida Dick said.
She added that the investigation was launched after an internal inquiry led by civil servant Sue Gray passed information to the force.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Over 600 organised crime groups have been disrupted and more than 13,000 people supported in drug treatment interventions delivered by outreach workers just one year on from the launch of the Project ADDER programme, which was set up to cut drug-related crime and harm in England and Wales.
The Home Office has revealed some early successes of the trailblazing project as the Minister for Crime, Policing and Probation, Kit Malthouse, gathered Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) representing ADDER areas from across England and Wales, at a meeting to underline the importance of cracking down on drug misuse and ensuring this threat receives the resource and focus it needs locally.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Located in Hardwicke in Gloucester, the scheme sees prisoners released on temporary licence from Leyhill Prison help build affordable, eco-friendly housing pods that will be situated on various meanwhile use sites across the South West. The modular housing will provide accommodation for prison leavers and refugees, as well as act as refuges for domestic abuse victims.
The project, run by MMC Homebuilding Limited, has a number of aims including providing prisoners with transferable skills that will aid them in finding jobs when they leave prison and helping alleviate the national lack of affordable housing.
Finding suitable accommodation for offenders is a key factor in terms of reducing and preventing further offending. Sourcing and supporting individuals to live in suitable and settled accommodation on release from prison can reduce reoffending by up to 50%.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Anti-social behaviour can devastate lives.?Yet BBC Panorama has found an important tool to help repeat victims is rarely being used.
What starts as nuisance can quickly escalate to a more serious crime.?
"I heard noises at the front of the house," says Paul, who has asked us to conceal his real identity. He saw more than 20 youths outside his house, some as young as nine.? "[They] began to throw big pieces of concrete at my house and myself."??
Paul's ordeal started last August after challenging a group who had climbed on a nearby roof. After that, he became a target.???
[ more...]
Justice
After having £25,000 stolen by fraudsters, 74-year-old Janet from Essex was told the police would not investigate her case.
BBC Radio 4's Money Box programme has discovered she is one of 69 known victims of one particular scam which has seen criminals steal £3.9m since 2018 - but only one of their cases has been investigated.
Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, Matt Parr, has described the police response as "woeful".
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police officers who guard Downing Street have been interviewed by Sue Gray for the “partygate” investigation.
Members of the Metropolitan Police’s Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection Command who were on duty when a string of lockdown-breaking gatherings are alleged to have taken place have provided detailed testimonies about what they witnessed.
The statements, described by one source as “extremely damning”, are expected to form a key part of Ms Gray’s report, which is due to be published within days.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Last year was the worst on record for teenage murders in London. There were 30 in total, and five happened in Croydon - more than any other borough in the capital. But the community is fighting back. The killings have sparked the birth of a new movement.
[ more...]
Technology
A Home Office-backed campaign against the rollout of ultra-secure messaging apps by social media firms has been criticised by the UK data watchdog.
The No Place to Hide campaign says Facebook should abandon plans for end-to-end encryption in its Messenger app, saying it helps to hide child abuse.
But the Information Commissioner's Office argues the technology strengthens children's online safety.
A delay "leaves everyone at risk, including children," it told the BBC.
[ more...]
Justice
Victims are having to wait nearly two years for justice, with cases now taking more than 700 days on average to be completed amid court backlogs, official figures show.
With a crown court backlog of nearly 60,000 cases, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data revealed that the number of days that victims are having to wait from the time of offence to the completion of the trial has risen to 708 days for the three months to September 2021, the longest on record.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police stations that closed during years of austerity should be reopened to bring back confidence in law enforcement, a police and crime commissioner said yesterday.
In March the Daily Mail revealed that more than half of Britain’s police stations had closed in the past ten years.
At least 667 facilities with front counters, at which people could talk to an officer, have been shut in England and Wales since 2010 to cut costs.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The government has announced plans to tackle what the head of the Environment Agency has called the "new narcotics" of fly-tipping and waste crime.
The proposals would see checks on who is able to handle and dispose of waste, as well as a digital tracking system.
Fly-tipping is the illegal dumping of rubbish, like mattresses and bags of waste, in parks, or on pavements.
There were 1.13 million fly-tipping incidents in England in 2020-21, a rise of 16% on the previous 12 months.
The cost, which includes clear-up and lost taxes, has been estimated to be £1bn a year.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Arrests at football matches across the top five English leagues are at their highest levels in years, with fan disorder "getting worse", according to the UK's football policing lead.
The latest data covers the first half of this season - which has seen the return of fans to capacity stadiums after a year of lockdowns and restrictions.
There have been more than 800 football-related arrests in the first six months of the season, alongside more than 750 reported incidents of disorder.
[ more...]
Technology
The interactive video software, which uses cutting-edge gamified simulation technology, gives learners the opportunity to take on the roles of both officer and investigator in a simulated CSE case.
The modules feature a combination of written content and videos on a range of topics from unconscious bias to recognising risk factors, conducting thorough searches of a missing person’s home and using the appropriate language policy.
Each module concludes with an interactive scenario in which the user is given decisions to make as part of a simulated investigation. Their choice dictates what happens next in the simulation, giving officers the opportunity to test potential decision-based outcomes around complex investigations to improve problem-solving and decision-making in a safe learning environment.
[ more...]
Justice
People caught with cannabis should be spared prosecution, says the public by a two-to-one majority, as they backed rehabilitation rather than punishment for drug possession.
Of the 2,000 adults polled, 45 per cent backed out-of-court disposals for cannabis possession, such as community resolutions, which do not bring a criminal record. Only 25 per cent were against.
There was a similar level of support for sparing shoplifters prosecution, with 43 per cent of those polled backing out-of-court settlements.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Thousands of children have “fallen off the radar”, a government tsar has warned as she launches an inquiry to track down youngsters who are not in the classroom.
School attendance has dropped in the wake of lockdown and is a major “red flag”, according to Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner for England.
Following two prolonged periods of school closures during national shutdowns, some youngsters have dropped off the school roll altogether, meaning they are not even captured by Department for Education (DfE) data.
[ more...]
Police Demand
There is no evidence women were spiked on nights out through needles in the past few months, a former police chief has told MPs.
Paul Fullwood, who serves as the director for inspections and enforcement at the Government’s Security Industry Authority, told the Commons home affairs committee that the department found “no intelligence” of spiking through needles.
Reports of young women being spiked with drugs through needle injections in nightclubs and bars across the UK had soared between September and October 2021.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police is facing legal action if it fails to investigate reports of the Downing Street Christmas party in 2020, according to campaigners.
The Good Law Project last week said it had put the force on notice that it would take legal action if it did not investigate the gathering.
[ more...]
Justice
Domestic abusers are being put on curfews which require them to stay at home with their victims, according to a report.
Inspectors raised serious concerns about the findings and said parts of the Probation Service’s electronic tagging programme required “urgent improvements” to keep people safe.
The Inspectorate of Probation report said: “Most concerningly, we saw incidences of curfew requirements being made that resulted in domestic abuse perpetrators being electronically curfewed to reside with potential victims.”
[ more...]
Technology
Priti Patel is backing a campaign that accuses Facebook of “blindfolding” police to paedophiles, as its encryption plans would mean 14 million child abuse reports could be lost each year.
The Home Secretary is supporting a hard-hitting public awareness campaign, entitled No Place to Hide, to alert parents to the dangers of end-to-end encryption in preventing police from tracking down potential abusers.
The adverts, backed with £500,000 Home Office funding and to run in newspapers and on radio and television, are aimed at winning over public opinion against encryption, which Meta, Facebook’s parent company, plans to extend across all its platforms.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The government's attempt to introduce laws to contain protests has been dealt a major blow after the House of Lords voted down a number of the controversial proposals.
The government had been moved to act after the disruption caused by eco-activists such as Insulate Britain.
But the Lords rejected several of the proposed powers, including:
• Allowing police officers to stop and search anyone at a protest "without suspicion" for items used to prevent a person being moved, known as "locking-on"
• Allowing people with a history of causing serious disruption to be banned by the courts from attending certain protests
• A proposal to make it an offence for a person to disrupt the operation of key national infrastructure, including airports and newspaper printers
[ more...]
Justice
Magistrates in England and Wales will have greater sentencing powers to enable them to take on more cases, under plans to clear court backlogs.
The government plans to let magistrates take on cases where the maximum sentence is a year, rather than the current six months.
It would allow magistrates to hear cases often held in Crown Court.
But criminal lawyers warn the plan may backfire, and defendants would still have the right to go before a jury.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The government has suffered a series of defeats in the House of Lords over its plans to clamp down on disruptive and noisy protesters.
Opposition peers voted against a range of measures in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, with Labour calling some of the plans "outrageous".
Peers also voted to make misogyny a hate crime in England and Wales in another government defeat.
The bill will now go back to the Commons for MPs to have their say.
[ more...]
Police Demand
There has been a 15% fall in how many officers are tasked with enforcing road laws full-time since 2016, according to figures obtained by BBC Panorama
The programme also found that nearly 50% of fixed speed cameras do not work.
Meanwhile, the number of people killed on Britain’s roads each year was stable between 2010 and 2019, following three decades of decline.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Policing Minister Kit Malthouse said officers would use GPS data to "forensically identify" areas and blitz them with frequent high-visibility foot patrols over short periods. The Home Office scheme was piloted by Essex Police in 20 areas over three days. It led to a 74 percent drop in violent crime and 32 percent fall in street crime on days when the patrols visited.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Assaults against paramedics and emergency workers leapt by 30 per cent in the first year of the pandemic compared to five years ago.
Figures from nine of England's ten ambulance services show there were 11,548 physical assaults on staff between January 2018 and October 2021.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Hundreds of clinical psychiatrists and psychologists have warned that the police and crime bill reaching its final stages in parliament “will have a profound negative impact on young people’s mental health”.
“We cannot think of better measures to disempower and socially isolate young people,” they say in an open letter signed by more than 350 academics and clinicians and published online.
The intervention comes as the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill reaches the final stages of its journey into law. It has been widely opposed by human rights activists, racial justice groups, former home secretaries and parliament’s joint committee on human rights, which called the proposals “oppressive and wrong”.
[ more...]
Police Finances
T
he failure to reduce road deaths over the past decade has been linked to a cut in the number of dedicated traffic police officers.
There has been a 15% fall in how many officers are tasked with enforcing road laws full-time since 2016, according to figures obtained by BBC Panorama
The programme also found that nearly 50% of fixed speed cameras do not work.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Hundreds of people marched across the country in "Kill the Bill" rallies, calling on the House of Lords to reject the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill which they say would restrict their right to protest peacefully.
Demonstrations took place in cities including London, Bristol, Coventry, Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Plymouth on Saturday.
The action came ahead of a crucial vote on the bill by peers on Monday.
[ more...]
Justice
Offenders whose crimes are motivated by misogyny should spend longer in jail, Sir Robert Buckland, the former justice secretary, has said.
Sir Robert is urging the Government to seriously consider an amendment to its policing bill due before the House of Lords on Monday, which would give courts power to treat misogyny as an aggravating factor in any crime and increase sentences accordingly.
The amendment is being championed by Baroness Newlove, a Tory peer and former victims’ commissioner, who has campaigned against injustice since her husband, Gary, was murdered after confronting a gang of drunken youths vandalising her car.
[ more...]
COVID-19
COVID passes for certain events and venues are reportedly set to be scrapped this month as the Omicron Wave eases, with health secretary Sajid Javid telling MPs he shared their “instinctive discomfort” at the policy. Plan B guidance is set to be reviewed on 26 January, where work from home guidance could also be lifted.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Britain’s economy bounced back to pre-pandemic levels in late 2021, according to Office for National Statistics data. Gross Domestic Profit (GDP) had risen 0.9 per cent during the month of November 2021, meaning the economy was 0.7 per cent larger than in February 2020. However, the outbreak of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is likely to have impacted this increase in December and into January 2022.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Owners of second homes who abuse a tax loophole by claiming their often-empty properties are holiday lets will be forced to pay under tough new measures.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police officers are wasting hours – even days – pixelating body worn camera footage over privacy fears, the policing minister has revealed as ministers pledged to investigate the problems.
Kit Malthouse said that officers had complained they were being distracted from frontline duties by having to spend time blurring the faces of people irrelevant to their investigation when preparing their evidence for court.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police and Crime Commissioner, Donna Jones has been successful in securing the government’s support for her bid to change the name of Hampshire Constabulary to include the whole police force area by adding, ‘Isle of Wight’ to the formal legal name.
The campaign, which started early in 2021 has taken a big step forward, following a letter from the the Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Probation, Rt.Hon Kit Malthouse MP.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Policing Minister Kit Malthouse said officers would use GPS data to "forensically identify" areas and blitz them with frequent high-visibility foot patrols over short periods. The Home Office scheme was piloted by Essex Police in 20 areas over three days. It led to a 74 percent drop in violent crime and 32 percent fall in street crime on days when the patrols visited.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The Metropolitan Police is facing demands for an explanation of how officers guarding 10 Downing Street could have been unaware of the “bring your own booze” garden gathering.
Baroness Jones is to write to the force and the national police watchdog to ask whether officers witnessed the event on 20 May 2020, and if so whether they reported it.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The Metropolitan Police was refusing last night to open an investigation into the Downing Street party as experts said that possible legal breaches could be complicated by the fact it took place at Boris Johnson’s home residence.
The Met said its stance had not changed despite the prime minister’s admission in parliament yesterday that he had attended the garden drinks on May 20, 2020.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Former HM Inspector of Constabulary Zoë Billingham has been appointed as the new Chair of the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) and the National Crime Agency Remuneration Review Body (NCARRB).
She will take up her appointment on 13 January, on a term of 3 years but leads a body which has little credibility left with the service due to a series of pay award recommendations which have been ignored by the Home Office.
The Police Federation and the Police Superintendents’ Association abandoned the review board last year in protest at the 0% pay rise and say they are now focused on deciding how they want a new negotiating system to work.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police officers are wasting hours – even days – pixelating body worn camera footage over privacy fears, the policing minister has revealed as ministers pledged to investigate the problems.
Kit Malthouse said that officers had complained they were being distracted from frontline duties by having to spend time blurring the faces of people irrelevant to their investigation when preparing their evidence for court.
He admitted it was not clear where the guidance requiring it had come from, but he said he was investigating to see “whether it is actually needed”. The Attorney General Suella Braverman is also reviewing the problem to "minimise" the strain on police.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The Metropolitan police have been accused of “deferring to the powerful” by not investigating Downing Street parties held in apparent breach of lockdown rules.
The force on Monday said it was in touch with the Cabinet Office in light of “widespread reporting relating to alleged breaches of the Health Protection Regulations at Downing Street on 20 May 2020”.
[ more...]
Justice
Burglaries have been cut by up to a half and detection rates have trebled after police sent officers to the scene of every break-in.
All forces have now been urged by ministers to adopt the policy after Greater Manchester, Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire constabularies publicly pledged to send an officer to every burglary.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Drink- and drug-spiking has reached “epidemic” levels in the UK and is now so common it can happen to anyone, campaigners have told a new parliamentary inquiry into the problem.
The home affairs select committee was told that up to 15% of women and 7% of men have been spiked with alcohol or drugs.
Hannah Stratton, a 51-year-old from Cornwall, told the committee that she was “violently ill” when her drink was drugged at a “quiet bar” in Newquay.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police is facing demands for an explanation of how officers guarding 10 Downing Street could have been unaware of the “bring your own booze” garden gathering.
Baroness Jones is to write to the force and the national police watchdog to ask whether officers witnessed the event on 20 May 2020, and if so whether they reported it.
“This garden party raises big questions for the Met Police, as their officers must surely have monitored this gathering via their security cameras and been aware of the rules in place at the time,” the Green Party peer told The Independent.
[ more...]
Prisons
A prisoner who gave birth to a stillborn baby in the toilet of a cell has said she "will never forgive the prison" for the "horror death".
Louise Powell, 31, who did not know she was pregnant, said she begged for an ambulance before her baby died at HMP Styal in Cheshire in 2020.
She told BBC Newsnight she was left alone when she was "crying for help".
[ more...]
Technology
Women’s safety campaigners have called the Home Office’s backing of an app that allows users to track their friends’ journeys home “insulting to women and girls”, arguing that it does nothing to tackle the issue of men’s violence against women.
The new app provides anyone walking home at night with a monitored route on their phone. If the walker moves more than 40 metres from the route or stops for more than three minutes, the app asks if they are OK. If there is no reply, nominated “guardians” – normally friends and family – receive a notification on their phones to say there has been a deviation. They can then check on the person in question and alert the police if they are unable to do so.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers and staff are said to have covered up more than 100 cases of misconduct by colleagues in an 18-month period, according to figures obtained by freedom of information requests.
Dozens of police have been accused of failing to act in cases where their colleagues behaved inapropriately, such as by making discriminatory comments or engaging in sexual misconduct.
Officers did nothing when two constables, who have since been jailed, took photographs of the bodies of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry, who had been murdered, and sent them via WhatsApp.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A number of police forces have stopped issuing new gun licences, it has emerged, amid claims the system has fallen into chaos.
“Untenable” delays to the processing system mean that in some areas, firearms holders are waiting more than six months for their five-year licence to be renewed.
Several forces including North Yorkshire, Thames Valley, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Hampshire have all announced temporary pauses to new licences in recent months.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Stories of the disintegrating relationship between the police and young black people are endless, but an artist behind an unlikely new project hopes he can help break down barriers.
Kay Rufai was enlisted by West Midlands police last year to be their artist in residence – thought to be a first for a police force. He has spent several months taking photographs and film of officers and young, mostly black people who have had dealings with the police. The images were then presented to police in order to spark a conversation and “challenge their preconceptions”.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police failed to exploit a “Covid dividend” to take out gangland bosses as lockdowns freed up officers from their normal day-to-day demands, a new study has found.
The research project, by two leading crime think tanks, said there had been an expectation that forces could have been more “proactive” while policing during lockdowns, as the normal “reactive” daily demands of 999 calls and street crime fell dramatically.
It was anticipated that this “Covid dividend” would mean officers would be freed up to generate intelligence, pursue investigations, and interrogate leads particularly in tackling drug gangs which “often make up a substantial proportion of the open cases on an officer's desk,” said the researchers.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A government anti-fraud team has recovered more than £1bn from tax offenders and criminals in the five years since it was set up, according to HM Revenue and Customs.
[ more...]
Justice
Protesters cleared of toppling Edward Colston’s statue could have their case reviewed under moves being examined by ministers, the Telegraph understands.
Suella Braverman, the Attorney General, has powers to ask the Court of Appeal to determine if the law was applied correctly, to avoid setting a dangerous precedent for future cases.
However, she can only do that if it is referred to her by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). It is understood she is open to such a move and the CPS is said to be considering its options.
[ more...]
Technology
The Investigatory Powers Commissioner, Sir Brian Leveson, has published his Annual Report on the use of covert investigatory powers by public authorities.
The report covers activity carried out by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office (IPCO) throughout 2020. It details the first full year for Sir Brian as Investigatory Powers Commissioner, who took up the role in October 2019.
IPCO independently oversees the use of investigatory powers, ensuring they are used in accordance with the law and in the public interest. The Report outlines IPCO’s oversight of the use of these covert powers by more than 600 public bodies, including UK intelligence agencies, police forces and local councils. Inspection findings and recommendations are documented in the report, alongside errors and breaches.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A motorist was caught using his mobile phone while driving an incredible nine times between 2018 and 2021 according to a new investigation. The man was one of 932 people convicted more than once over the period for the offence which falls under the description of ‘driving while distracted.’
That offence, known as ‘CU80’ was also committed by twenty-seven drivers between three and five times over four years according to the figures from a Freedom of Information request to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).
904 drivers were caught twice and 90,057 were caught a single time.
[ more...]
Justice
Led by the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme (VKPP), the new Voice and Experience of the Victim research project is asking officers and staff to take part in a national online survey to examine how experiences of vulnerable victims are understood within investigative practice.
It opened on 22 November 2021 and closes 28 January 2022. The survey will take around 20 minutes and is anonymous.
Hosted by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), the VKPP was created to work with force violence and public protection (VPP) leads to identify current interventions and approaches to vulnerability and related serious violence, develop the evidence base and improve responses.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Four people accused of illegally removing a statue of Edward Colston have been cleared of criminal damage.
Sage Willoughby, Rhian Graham, Milo Ponsford and Jake Skuse were charged after a monument to the 17th Century slave trader was pulled down and thrown into Bristol's harbourside last June.
It happened during a Black Lives Matter protest in the city.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Three London boroughs could be part of a pilot scheme aimed at diverting young people caught with a small amount of cannabis away from the justice system.
The targeted pilot would apply only to 18-24 year olds found in possession of a small amount of cannabis in three of London’s 32 boroughs.
Lewisham council commissioned a consultancy report into the negative impacts of low-level drug offences. The report recommended that the borough pilot pre-custody drug diversion for 18-24-year olds found in possession of a small amount of cannabis.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Constabularies say increase is needed to help meet the cost of getting new recruits and to avoid cuts in services.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers, staff and volunteers from forces across the country have been recognised in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.
People of all ranks and several roles have been awarded honours in a year where we all continue to deal with the practical realities of living during a pandemic. Throughout 2021, policing has continued to play a valuable role in supporting communities and keeping people safe.
The 2022 list includes a total of 50 police personnel honoured for their extraordinary contributions to policing.
[ more...]
Justice
Victims of domestic violence will be given two years to report crimes as Dominic Raab said that he wants to put the “fear of God” into abusers.
The Justice Secretary said that victims would no longer be denied justice simply because they failed to report their domestic assault to police within the current six-month time limit.
Writing exclusively in The Telegraph, below, he said that the current rule meant that perpetrators in “too many cases” evaded punishment because by the time the victim had recovered and built up the courage to go to police, they were “timed out”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Sadiq Khan is to begin decriminalising drugs in London and plans to end the prosecution of young people caught with cannabis, The Telegraph has learned.
Under-25s found with Class B drugs in some boroughs will be offered speeding course-style classes or counselling instead of arrest, under a pilot scheme to be launched.
The boroughs of Lewisham, Bexley and Greenwich will be subject to the rules of the new scheme, with police officers told not to arrest young people caught with cannabis, ketamine or speed.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Met Police have been slammed for their 'invasive' policing after officers took to the streets of London to carry out random drugs swabs on clubbers during a 'week of action' tackling violence against women.
Footage posted to social media by the force showed officers walking through Shoreditch, which has seen a spike in incidents where women and girls have been made to feel unsafe, and swabbing revellers to ensure a safe 'night time economy'.
The force revealed that the operation on the night saw one woman arrested on suspicion of possession of Class A drugs after she was observed disposing of a suspicious package.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Aman gets a call from a police officer. He is told that, while he has done nothing criminal, his social media posts have offended someone, so the police have recorded them as a non-crime hate incident that may show up on criminal record checks. The officer warns that if he continues to “escalate” matters, the police may take criminal action against him, a message later reinforced by his superiors.
It may sound like something out of a police state. But this happened in Britain in 2019, in a case that led the high court judge who later ruled the actions of Humberside police force unlawful to warn them, “in this country we have never had a Cheka, a Gestapo or a Stasi”. Despite there being no evidence that Harry Miller, the man in question, might ever stray into unlawful speech, the police took action that reasonably led him to believe that he was being warned not to exercise his right to freedom of expression on pain of potential criminal prosecution; they also opined to the press that Miller’s tweets were “transphobic”...
[ more...]
Technology
Vulnerable women walking home at night could be protected from stalkers and sex attackers by drones under plans to be submitted to the Government.
Women in fear of an attack will be able to use a phone app to summon a drone, which could arrive within minutes armed with a powerful spotlight and thermal cameras to frighten off any potential assailant.
The drone system will be initially trialled on a university campus to protect students and staff, but its inventors believe unmanned drones could ultimately take over many of the search and surveillance functions of police helicopters at a fraction of the cost.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Bobbies on the beat are being reintroduced by police forces after accusations that they have disregarded anti-social behaviour and minor thefts for nearly a decade.
Two of Britain’s largest forces, the Metropolitan Police and West Midlands Police, are deploying an extra 1,100 officers to restore neighbourhood policing which police chiefs admit has been decimated since 2012.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Domestic abuse services are preparing for a surge in victims coming forward for help in the first week of January after spending Christmas with abusive partners.
The new year often brings an increase in violence due to family confinement, higher alcohol consumption and money worries.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Priti Patel will warn police to do more to protect freedom of speech after judges ruled that recording “non-crime hate incidents” risked interfering with people’s right to express their opinions.
The home secretary will try to enshrine in law a new code of practice that controls the way officers record such incidents after Harry Miller, a former PC, won a court battle over his right to tweet about transgender issues.
Police guidance had described non-crime hate incidents as when a victim, or anyone else, perceived prejudice “because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or because they are transgender”.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Sexual harassment is “endemic” in universities and colleges, with one in 10 staff members saying they have experienced sexual violence in the past five years, according to a report.
Women were nearly two-and-a-half times as likely to experience sexual violence as men, while staff on insecure contracts, those with disabilities, LGBTQ+, or black, Asian or minority ethnic were also at greater risk, according to a survey of nearly 4,000 staff members by the University and College Union.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The head of the police officers' association has been suspended after he was accused of sexual misconduct.
John Apter, the national chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, has also been suspended by Hampshire Constabulary.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said it has started an independent investigation over four alleged incidents.
[ more...]
Justice
Police advice on non-crime hate incidents is to be overruled by Priti Patel, who believes forces should not investigate “hurt feelings”.
The Home Secretary has intervened to change the law and make police subject to a new code of practice to protect the right of people to speak out on contentious subjects such as transgender issues without facing the risk of criminal investigation.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Labour party has been urged to take advantage of a unique opportunity to vote down a raft of last-minute amendments to an already controversial crime bill, which human rights activists have described as “a dangerous power grab”.
The 18 pages of amendments to the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill were introduced by government peers in November, on the day nine members of the protest group Insulate Britain appeared in court charged with contempt.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Health and Social Care Secretary, Sajid Javid, has said fresh COVID-19 restrictions could be brought in before Christmas to slow the spread of the Omicron variant, with ministers set to make a decision in days. Government insiders reportedly expect an announcement to be made about whether social mixing will be curtailed ahead of the festive period, potentially including a cap on the number of families that can meet, or even hospitality closures.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The new version of the code replaces wording which previously guided UK local authorities away from borrowing ‘in advance of need’.
The new iteration creates three new categories of investments.
New restrictions on borrowing are focused on just one of these categories – investments that are made ‘primarily for financial return’, including commercial property.
Richard Lloyd-Bithell, senior policy and technical manager at CIPFA, said: “There has been a lot of misrepresentation about the code revision’s wording recently.
“The new code does not introduce any new restrictions on councils borrowing for purposes core to their core aims, such as for housing and regeneration projects, or for treasury management purposes.
“What it does do is state that it is not prudent for authorities to undertake borrowing that has the main aim of producing commercial income.”
[ more...]
Technology
Consumers will be better protected from attacks by hackers on their phones, tablets, smart TVs, fitness trackers and other internet-connectable devices thanks to a new world-leading law introduced today by the government.
[ more...]
Police Demand
New Year’s Day has seen the most domestic violence and abuse incidents for the last four years in the South Wales Police force area.
Many of these incidents happened in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
The highest number was on 1st January 2019 and 1st January 2020, with 162 reports of domestic violence and abuse incidents on both days.
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Technology
Police have recorded almost twice as many offences that are carried out over the internet since Boris Johnson pledged to introduce “world-leading” laws to combat online harms, analysis has revealed.
More than 200,000 online crimes have been recorded by police this year, up from 114,000 two years ago when the prime minister’s election-winning manifesto promised to “legislate to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online”.
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Police Finances
Core Funding, which is defined as the sum of Police Grant, Rule 1, the Welsh Grants and Ex-CLG funding has increased by 5.7%. The smallest increases in core funding were seen in City of London and Dorset with an increase of 4.8%, followed by Gloucestershire at 4.9%.
Today’s provisional settlement confirms what was announced in SR2021, that English PCCs, or their equivalents, will be able to increase Band D bills by as much as £10 without triggering a referendum. There remains no referendum mechanism in Wales.
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Police Finances
The Government has today published its Provisional Police Funding Settlement for 2022/23.
Commenting on the Minister of State for Crime and Policing's statement, APCC Finance Lead Roger Hirst said: "PCCs welcome this funding which will enable us to complete the recruitment of 20,000 new police officers. We are delighted that the uplift programme is fully funded which will mean that not only will we get the extra officers, but the necessary technology as well.
“This settlement will also enable policing to complete its shift towards a more prevention-based approach, getting crime down and tackling key areas like drug-driven violence and violence against women and girls. Additional resources given to projects like the Safer Streets Fund play a crucial role in this.
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Police Finances
Police have been told to crack down on burglary and neighbourhood crime in exchange for a £1.1 billion increase in funding.
Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, announced police funding will rise to £16.9 billion for 2022/23, a seven per cent cash increase.
Some £1.4 billion of the total has been earmarked for the Government’s national priorities of reducing neighbourhood crime, murder and serious violence.
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Technology
Operation Venetic ? dubbed the deepest ever into serious organised crime ? saw officers access Encrochat, a supposedly secure messaging service used by criminals. The National Crime Agency yesterday revealed 2,631 people have been arrested since the operation began in May 2020. Of these, 1,384 have been charged and 260 convicted already.
Police have seized 5,646kg of Class A drugs, 8,789kg of cannabis, 165 guns, 3,404 rounds of ammunition and almost £76million in cash. Gangs are also believed to have used the handheld devices to plot attacks on rivals, plan ways of enforcing drug debts and arrange for money to be laundered.
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Economy & Public Finance
Inflation surged more than expected to its highest level in more than a decade last month as households faced an even greater squeeze on living costs.
The consumer price index rose 5.1pc in November on an annual basis, up from 4.2pc in October. The figure was above forecasts of 4.7pc and marks the highest level since September 2011.
Inflation has jumped by 3.1 percentage points in the space of just four months – the fastest rise on record.
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Economy & Public Finance
Businesses will be supported with new state funding, including a potential return to furlough, if Boris Johnson orders further lockdown restrictions to tackle the Omicron variant, The Times understands.
It has been told that Rishi Sunak will increase the Treasury’s business support package again if pubs, bars and restaurants are ordered to close. Senior government sources said it was too early to say whether such measures might be necessary but that officials were working on a range of options.
A Treasury source said: “If we do get to a position where we are telling businesses that they have to shut their doors then it is not unreasonable for them to expect additional government support. That could mean a return to the furlough scheme but depending on what, if any, further restrictions are necessary there might be other ways of providing that support.”
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Technology
Scam financial adverts, “cyberflashing” and encouraging people to self-harm on social media are all expected to be made illegal after a group of MPs and peers said they should be included in a new bill designed to “call time on the Wild West online”.
A parliamentary committee has recommended a number of changes to the long-awaited Online Safety Bill, which is designed to regulate internet companies and social media platforms.
Its proposals include a requirement on all pornography websites to demonstrate what they are doing to stop under-18s accessing their content, and making it illegal to send flashing images to someone with epilepsy if the intention is to cause a seizure.
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Police and Crime General
The security services have warned ministers that plans to overhaul human rights laws could make it more difficult to fight terrorism at home and abroad.
Senior figures from GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 said moves to reform the Human Rights Act could make it harder for them to defend cases in the courts. Their stark warning was backed by Robert Buckland, the former justice secretary, who said his successor Dominic Raab should be “very careful” not to introduce changes that had the unintended consequence of making Britain less secure.
The concerns were voiced before the publication later this week of plans to amend the legislation that was introduced by Tony Blair in 1998. Raab is understood to be considering a new bill of rights or reform of the existing act. He is thought to want to remove the duty on British courts to adhere to European Court of Human Rights precedents.
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Police and Crime General
After the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer earlier this year, a dam burst. Women came out on to the streets of Britain to protest against male violence, only to be met with police violence.
That dam is still flooding: at least 133 women in the UK have died at the hands of a man in 2021 so far. Countless more will have taken their own lives as a consequence of male violence. Women are tired of reading the names of the women killed by femicide each year, they are tired of reading about the increase in the reports of sexual violence and domestic violence, and they are tired of the failure of the criminal justice system to tackle the problem – as the virtual collapse of rape prosecutions over the past three years shows...
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Police and Crime General
If I began talking about children with hearts heavy from exposure to prejudice, separated from their parents and forced to leave their homes, you could be forgiven for thinking I was referencing my past. I was part of the Kindertransport, one of 10,000 Jewish or partly Jewish children brought to the UK by Sir Nicholas Winton in the lead up to the Holocaust.
Yet I am not talking about the fear of the unknown that I experienced aged six, as I boarded a train bound for the UK. No – I am talking about children in 2021 who are British citizens. Children from ethnic minority communities as old as the Church of England, yet who must fight to belong in the face of constant discrimination. Children who, because of a bill working its way through parliament, could see their worldly possessions wheeled away, their warmth and shelter seized, their parents potentially imprisoned.
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Police and Crime General
Poor Boris Johnson. He faces a potential fine and up to 10 years in jail if he fulfils the promise he made in 2016 to lie in front of the bulldozers, in order to stop the third runway at Heathrow. This is because of the authoritarian, protest-crushing proposals contained in the Policing, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which Priti Patel, our most right-wing home secretary in generations, is currently taking through parliament.
The bill was withdrawn after the huge public outcry over the heavy-handed policing of the vigil marking the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer. It was then generally agreed that the bill’s punitive suppression of protests had no place in a supposed liberal democracy. But once the outcry had passed, Patel quietly re-introduced the bill – and with the government’s huge majority it has been progressing through parliament.
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Police and Crime General
Senior police officers have warned that public compliance with new Covid laws will be affected by the Downing Street Christmas party scandal.
Sources stated that anecdotal reports were coming in over terse exchanges between police and the public in recent days, and that officers fear any move to ban parties would prompt a significant backlash.
One senior police officer, speaking off the record, warned that if any new restrictions come in, the “public would try to comply … but would be rightly p****d off”.
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Police and Crime General
Further school closures will result in thousands of vulnerable children slipping through the net and being drawn into violent crime, drug dealing and sex abuse, campaigners have warned.
Nadhim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, has said he will do everything in his power to keep schools “protected and open”, but on Sunday was unable to guarantee that pupils would return to the classroom in January following the Christmas break.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy grew by just 0.1% in October, official figures show, despite a strong performance by the health sector and second-hand car sales.
A fall in people dining out and reductions in oil extraction and gas use meant growth came in lower than expected.
However, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the services sector returned to pre-pandemic levels.
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COVID-19
The Government have introduced their COVID-19 Plan B restrictions to help limit the spread of the Omicron variant. From Friday, face masks will be required in more public settings including theatres and cinemas; from Monday, people will be asked to work from home where possible and from Wednesday, the NHS Covid Pass will also be required for visitors to nightclubs, indoor unseated venues with more than 500 people, unseated outdoor venues with more than 4,000 people and any event with more than 10,000 people.
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COVID-19
The Metropolitan Police says it is not investigating allegations No 10 staff broke Covid rules in December of last year due to "an absence of evidence".
A video obtained by ITV shows No 10 aides joking about holding a Christmas party amid lockdown restrictions.
Following an angry backlash, the PM's former spokeswoman, who appears in the clip, stepped down from her role.
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Justice
Ministers have launched a consultation on a victims’ law for England and Wales, which aims to put victims at the heart of the criminal justice system and hold agencies to account. Performance scorecards are also expected to be published
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COVID-19
In response to a surge in rural crime in Wiltshire, members of the public with their own horses have joined a volunteer scheme with the police to patrol neighbourhoods and countryside areas on horseback.
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Police and Crime General
Almost half of all repeat knife crime offenders avoided a prison sentence last year, breaking the government’s “two strikes and you’re out” pledge.
Official statistics also show that almost one in five people convicted of a knife crime reoffend.
Last year’s reoffending figure — 18 per cent — was up from 12 per cent a decade ago, according to analysis by Steve Reed, Labour’s shadow justice secretary.
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Police and Crime General
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab set out plans for a first ever Victims’ Law that would guarantee greater consultation with them during the criminal justice process to ensure their voices are properly heard, and hold Agencies such as the police, Crown Prosecution Service and courts to appropriately account for the service they provide to victims.
Under plans set out in a consultation published today, victims’ views would be taken into better account at regular points during their case. Proposals include an explicit requirement for prosecutors to meet the victims of certain crimes before making a charging decision in order to understand the impact.
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Justice
Senior judges have warned of a “growing problem” with potentially violent offenders being wrongly released from custody because privatised prison escorts fail to understand sentences.
Lord Justice Haddon-Cave, the senior presiding judge for England and Wales, highlighted concern among colleagues after it emerged that four convicted offenders were released from court earlier this year because custody officers misunderstood the sentences.
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Police and Crime General
A record number of children were arrested on suspicion of terror offences in Great Britain in the last year, a development that investigators have linked to the shutdown of schools during the early stages of the pandemic.
Figures released by the Home Office show there were 25 such arrests of under-18s in the 12 months to September, the majority in relation to far-right ideology.
This was an increase from 17 arrests the previous year. Under-18s accounted for 13% of all terror arrests last year, up from 8%.
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Technology
A replacement for the creaking police national computer has been delayed by five years, with costs soaring to £1.1 billion, amid warnings that there is a “risk” of relying on existing technology.
A report revealed that the new national law enforcement database was not expected to be available until at least 2025-26 and that its cost had increased by 68 per cent. It said this compounded the Home Office’s “miserable record of exorbitantly expensive digital programmes that fail to deliver”.
It meant that police forces must continue to rely on the computer, a 47-year-old system that stores all criminal records information and was used 133 million times in 2019-20.
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Technology
A pilot scheme launched by a major bank and the police is using the proceeds of crime to fight fraud and support victims.
The first tranche of money seized amounts to around £7 million, Lloyds Banking Group said.
It has joined forces with the City of London Police to use the proceeds of crime to invest in projects protecting against fraud and supporting victims.
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Prisons
Prisons will be ranked in national league tables on how well they get offenders off drugs and alcohol and into education and employment on release.
The “zero tolerance” plans announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his deputy Dominic Raab today come as part of a crackdown on drugs that has been at the centre of the Government’s so-called “crime week”.
It has included a focus on cutting middle class drug users, with Policing Minister Kit Malthouse yesterday suggesting dinner party guests should call the police if they witness their companions taking drugs.
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Police and Crime General
Covert policing and more rail staff will be on trains across Wales this Christmas in a bid to tackle crime.
Sexual harassment, anti-social behaviour and alcohol-related crimes will be targeted through the British Transport Police (BTP) and Transport for Wales (TfW) scheme.
Passengers will also be reminded to wear face coverings on public transport, unless exempt.
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Justice
The Government has said it will dismantle 2,000 county lines gangs as part of a 10-year drugs strategy for England and Wales. It says this will see the largest ever increase in investment in treatment and recovery.
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COVID-19
Latest figures show the UK has recorded a further 86 cases of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant taking the total to 246. This compares with a total of 160 the day before, a rise of more than 50 per cent. Meanwhile a further 43,992 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the UK.
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Police and Crime General
Middle-class drug users are to be targeted as part of a 10-year strategy to be announced by Boris Johnson’s government with a heavy focus on war-on-drugs-era punishment.
So-called “lifestyle” users of class A drugs face losing their passports or driving licences under proposals designed to target wealthy professionals who the government will argue are driving exploitative practices with their demand.
Police officers will be handed powers to go through drug dealers’ phones and contact their clients with warnings about drug use in a bid to spook them into changing their behaviour.
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Police and Crime General
The government will aim to provide rehab for 300,000 drug users who carry out half of all thefts, robberies and burglaries, Boris Johnson has said.
The prime minister said the 10-year strategy for England and Wales would also tackle 2,000 county lines gangs.
The £300m gangs crackdown will be joined by the "largest ever investment in treatment", the government said.
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Police and Crime General
Sussex Police has launched a campaign to help men recognise sexual harassment and misogynistic behaviour - and to call it out.
The "Do The Right Thing" campaign has been initiated by a force currently led by women.
It has the backing of local celebrities such as Fatboy Slim, actor John Simm, and cricketer Tymal Mills, who have recorded videos of themselves encouraging men to call out inappropriate jokes and acts of harassment, if and when they see them.
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Technology
Young people face a crisis of online sexual violence, with unsolicited sexual images becoming “dangerously normalised”, academics warn.
A study involving young people aged 12 to 18 found that most girls had received an image of male genitalia, often from adult men who were strangers.
More than half of the boys and girls who received unwanted sexual content online or had their image shared without their consent did nothing. A quarter told a friend. Only 2 per cent reported the incident to school authorities, 5 per cent to parents and 17 per cent to social media companies.
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Police and Crime General
A "lethal cocktail" of police officer and social worker shortages, along with the COVID-19 pandemic, "allowed neglect to happen," the former West Midlands police and crime commissioner has said about the death of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes.
The six-year-old boy from Solihull, West Midlands, was abused, neglected and killed by his father, Thomas Hughes, and his stepmother, Emma Tustin.
Tustin was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison and Hughes was jailed for 21 years after being convicted of manslaughter.
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Police and Crime General
The APCC’s Addictions and Substance Misuse portfolio has welcomed the Government’s new three-pronged strategy to tackling drugs in communities across England and Wales.
Joint portfolio leads Durham PCC Joy Allen and Dorset PCC David Sidwick said: “Police and Crime Commissioners recognise the public’s high levels of concern about drugs in our communities. We welcome this comprehensive, long-term strategy to tackle a problem that drives so much crime and anti-social behaviour.
Problem drug users often turn to crime to feed their dependence. Open drugs markets and the sight of drugs paraphrenia strewn about our parks and alleyways lead to people feeling less safe where they live. Many murders and acquisitive crimes are drugs-related and so we are pleased to see the Government giving these issues the attention the public expects.
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Justice
A major review into the circumstances leading up to murder of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes has been launched by the Government to determine what improvements are needed by the agencies that came into contact with him in the months before he died.
The Government has separately commissioned four inspectorates, covering social care, health, police and probation to undertake an urgent inspection of the safeguarding agencies in Solihull to whom Arthur was known.
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Police and Crime General
Video evidence for rape victims will be rolled out nationwide, Dominic Raab has pledged.
The Justice Secretary said allowing victims to give their evidence in advance via video will not only reduce the trauma of going before a court, but it could also boost the prosecution rate and encourage early guilty pleas by the accused.
More than 1,500 victims have so far been allowed to give pre-recorded evidence after the process was trialled at courts in Harrow, Isleworth, Wood Green, Durham, Liverpool, Leeds and Kingston upon Thames.
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Police Demand
The police have urged victims of homophobic and transphobic abuse to come forward after figures showed the number of hate crimes hit their highest monthly level since the beginning of the pandemic. Reports of sexual orientation hate crimes recorded by police forces rose from an average of 1,456 a month from January to April this year to 2,211 on average from May to August.
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Recruitment and Retention
New police recruits are quitting, some within weeks, because they are too young and inexperienced to cope with the demands of the job, a chief constable has warned.
Nick Adderley, Northamptonshire’s chief constable, said the new degree entry scheme for the police had the highest dropout rates because of recruits' lack of life experience and hardiness to handle the violence and pressures that frontline officers face.
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Justice
Child abusers could face life behind bars as part of the government's proposed new crime legislation.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill currently going through Parliament, which would see an increase in maximum punishments for several child cruelty offences.
The tougher planned sentences could mean that anyone who causes or allows the death of a child or vulnerable adult in their care will face up to life imprisonment, instead of the current 14-year maximum.
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Justice
Teenagers at risk of gang violence are to receive NHS therapy as part of a £14 million plan to reduce knife crime.
The Home Office scheme will examine whether providing highly intensive talking therapy to an at-risk child at a “teachable moment,” such as after they’ve been arrested or the victim of a violent attack, can help turn them away from serious gang violence.
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Police Demand
Police chiefs from Britain's seven highest murder regions are being hauled to a crisis meeting this week to tackle the spread of dangerous crime.
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Police and Crime General
Police forces across the country are to ask crime victims to collect their own evidence in an attempt to cut down on face-to-face visits, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Twelve forces have signed up to use the program which allows officers to text or email a website link to victims asking them to upload evidence such as video clips or images.
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Police and Crime General
Nine in ten people living in the countryside have not seen a police officer in their local area in the last week, research has found.
The startling findings were revealed in a survey of those living in rural areas which painted a damning picture of crime in the countryside.
Rural crime including thefts, burglaries and fly-tipping cost an estimated £43.3million last year with thefts of agricultural vehicles remaining stubbornly high at a cost of £9.1million.
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Police and Crime General
Teenagers at risk of gang violence are to receive NHS therapy as part of a £14 million plan to reduce knife crime.
The Home Office scheme will examine whether providing highly intensive talking therapy to an at-risk child at a “teachable moment,” such as after they’ve been arrested or the victim of a violent attack, can help turn them away from serious gang violence.
The new initiative will be piloted in London, where £11.7 million will be ploughed into violence reduction units, children's services and the NHS to train people to deliver cognitive behavioural therapy to 1,800 young people aged 11-17 who are at risk of becoming involved in violence.
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Police and Crime General
Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6, must become more open in order to do its secret work effectively. That's according to its chief, Richard Moore, in his first major public speech since taking on the role in October 2020.
Artificial Intelligence (AI), quantum computing and digital technology have combined to completely transform the way human intelligence is gathered by spies, presenting MI6 with major challenges in the digital age.
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Police and Crime General
Forty-two police forces across England and Wales, as well as British Transport Police, took part in this year’s Operation Sceptre between Monday November 15 and Sunday November 21.
Officers seized a total 936 knives, including machetes, swords and hunting knives, while a further 8,703 were either surrendered or found in sweeps. The operation saw 1,977 people arrested, of which 773 were related to knife crime offences.
Other forms of criminality such as supplying drugs were also identified, including large scale cannabis farms.
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Justice
The pilot, called Project Shield, developed a new approach to ensuring vital information about the existence and conditions of victims’ non-molestation orders (NMOs) granted by the courts was easily accessible to safeguarding professionals and police officers.
Discussed in depth at a seminar hosted by North Yorkshire Police, attendees heard how solutions identified by the Project Shield team could be upscaled and rolled out nationally, so all police forces and safeguarding agencies could experience the same benefits. Vitally, they also heard how the national adoption of Project Shield could deliver a better level of service and safety to those who are most at risk of harm – the victims and survivors of abuse.
Chief Constable Lisa Winward said: “The new ways of working identified by Project Shield have enabled us to respond more effectively when victims report breaches of their NMO to us. Vitally it’s also allowed us to take early and decisive safeguarding action to prevent harm from occurring.
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Police Demand
A total of 28 teenage homicides have taken place in London so far in 2021 – making it the deadliest year in more than a decade.
This figure surpasses the 27 teenage homicides recorded in 2017, which had been the highest in recent years.
The previous peak was a record 29 teen homicides in the capital in 2008.
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Police Demand
Nine in ten people living in the countryside have not seen a police officer in their local area in the last week, research has found.
The startling findings were revealed in a survey of those living in rural areas which painted a damning picture of crime in the countryside.
Rural crime including thefts, burglaries and fly-tipping cost an estimated £43.3million last year with thefts of agricultural vehicles remaining stubbornly high at a cost of £9.1million.
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Prisons
Boris Johnson will order a crackdown on prison discipline, sex offences and drug use next month under plans to reassure the public that he is focused on tackling crime.
The Prime Minister will unveil a major law and order package as part of efforts to get back to bread-and-butter politics after weeks of turmoil triggered by U-turns and rows about sleaze.
The Government’s white paper on prisons will focus on improving discipline in jails.
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Police Demand
Police forces across the country are to ask crime victims to collect their own evidence in an attempt to cut down on face-to-face visits, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Twelve forces have signed up to use the program which allows officers to text or email a website link to victims asking them to upload evidence such as video clips or images.
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Police and Crime General
Police chiefs from Britain's seven highest murder regions are being hauled to a crisis meeting this week to tackle the spread of dangerous crime.
The meeting on Thursday called by policing and crime minister Kit Malthouse has come as the nation was rocked by the death of 12-year-old Ava White in Liverpool after she was stabbed following a row with four teenage boys.
Already 2021 has been one of the worst years for knife killings on record with 27 deaths in London alone.
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Police Demand
More than 130 pedestrians have been injured by electric scooters in the past year, figures have revealed.
Three riders of e-scooters were killed in the year to the end of June, while 199 were seriously injured in crashes. Thirty-seven pedestrians were seriously hurt, along with 15 cyclists who were involved in collisions with scooters. In total, scooters were involved in 931 accidents in the year, according to the Department for Transport figures.
The statistics represent the first full year since e-scooter trials started in July 2020. More than 40 towns and cities across the UK, including Manchester, and London, have started them in the last year. These will run until November 30 next year, at which point ministers will assess any nationwide rollout.
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Police Demand
Out of 3,045 people referred to the programme in 2019, 1,076 had a link to a domestic abuse incident, either as an offender, victim, witness or a combination of all three.
CTP said this is significantly higher than the prevalence of domestic abuse in the wider population, and the data “should not be ignored”.
Incidents ranged from a child witnessing domestic abuse in their household, to individuals with convictions for attempted murder.
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Police Demand
Figures from 16 wildlife organisations behind the report, published on Thursday (November 25), show there was a surge in crimes against “treasured species” such as badgers, fish, birds of prey and marine mammals last year.
And while reports of wildlife crimes against many species rose by between 35 per cent and 90 per cent in 2020, they say convictions on key types of offences fell by more than 50 per cent.
The groups are now calling for improved recording and monitoring, better targeting of resources and enhanced use of expert police and prosecutors to tackle wildlife crime.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of domestic abuse crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales in the year ending March 2021 increased by 6% on the previous year, new figures have shown.
New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found the police recorded 845,734 crimes, up from 798,607 in the year ending March 2020
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Justice
"Harper's Law" will be brought in after a two-year campaign by Lissie Harper, whose police husband Andrew was killed while responding to a burglary call in a tragedy that shocked the nation.
She was outraged at the sentences given to three teenagers responsible for his death in 2019.
Mrs Harper, 30, said: "It's been a long journey and a lot of hard work. I know Andrew would be proud to see Harper's Law reach this important milestone."
Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said the Government is "on the side of victims and their families" and that it has the back of emergency workers.
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Justice
Police and Crime Commissioner for Cheshire, John Dwyer has today welcomed Harper’s Law, which will see people who kill emergency service workers in the line of duty given a mandatory life sentence.
Harper’s Law was a campaign run by Lissie Harper following the killing of her husband PC Andrew Harper, who was dragged to his death by a getaway car in 2019. Following a trial, three teenagers were jailed for PC Harper’s manslaughter.
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Justice
The latest police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy (PEEL) inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found that the force was “good” in five areas, “adequate” in three areas and “requires improvement” in three areas.
The three classed as “requires improvement” were investigating crime, supporting victims and protecting vulnerable people.
Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Wendy Williams said: “I am satisfied with some aspects of the performance of West Midlands Police in keeping people safe and reducing crime, but there are areas where the force needs to improve.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Figures show record numbers of people have contacted the NSPCC with concerns about child abuse. There were 4,735 calls about child sexual abuse or exploitation made to the charity in the six months to October – up by a third (36 per cent) from the same period in 2020.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Sharon Bryan, Head of Partnerships at the National Centre of Domestic Violence, says she is concerned about how next year’s World Cup in Qatar could impact on those already experiencing abusive relationships. This follows the LGA issuing warnings and advice surrounding domestic abuse ahead of England’s opening match against Croatia in the Euros.
[ more...]
Prisons
Prisons should stop releasing inmates on a Friday because doing so fuels reoffending, drug addiction and homelessness, two Conservative peers have suggested.
More than a third of ex-offenders are currently set free just before the weekend, but as a result often struggle to access support services which are closed until Monday morning.
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Police and Crime General
Investigators are still struggling to pin down the motive behind the Liverpool bombing. The bomber’s ethnicity and religious history have led people to assume he was motivated by Islamic extremism, but no clear evidence of this has been found. Rather, people are scratching around his background, history of mental health issues, failed asylum claims and religious conversion as possible explanations for his attempted act of terrorism.
While this confusing picture can appear anomalous, it is increasingly an important part of the threat we face. But it is not clear that we should consider it terrorism.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Counterterror police fear potential threats may be flying below the radar because of the coronavirus pandemic, after the number of people flagged for radicalisation plummeted by a fifth in a year.
Senior officers had warned of a “perfect storm” for extremism, as lockdown left young and vulnerable people spending more time online amid a “rise in propaganda by all sides”.
But figures released this week showed that the number of people referred to the Prevent counter-extremism programme in the year to March had dropped by 22 per cent, to the lowest level in five years.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Violence against women and girls will be elevated to the same status as terrorism under a proposed government directive, The Times has learnt.
Chief constables will be mandated to increase resources and combine capabilities in a drastic effort to drive up rape convictions, which have reached historically low levels.
Violence against women and girls is set to be added to the strategic policing requirement, meaning that police will be required by government to treat it as a major priority. It is an acknowledgement by ministers that there is an epidemic of violence against women that needs to be one of the most urgent national crimefighting priorities.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
When the 1999 Macpherson Report into the killing of Stephen Lawrence described the Metropolitan Police as “institutionally racist”, then Prime Minister Tony Blair said a change was on the horizon.
He promised the report would ‘bring in a new era of race relations’ alongside a ‘fundamental shift in the way British society deals with racism’.
Watching the Prime Minister's Questions from his home in Toxteth, Liverpool, 21-year-old Kevin Maxwell, who had been just 15 when Stephen was killed in 1993, believed those words.
[ more...]
Justice
Victims could get a new independent right of appeal to challenge releases of criminals by the Parole Board after the recall to jail of Colin Pitchfork, the double child murderer, for approaching young women in the street.
Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, is considering proposals to refocus the board on “protecting the public”, which are likely to result in tougher rules to prevent the release of offenders such as Pitchfork, who raped and killed two teenage girls.
It could also see the Parole Board renamed to emphasise its refocussed role, with options already being canvassed such as “public protection” or “risk assessment” board.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
P
olice chiefs have dismissed accusations of there being a “male brotherhood culture” in the service.
The Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales levelled the claim at policing figures during a crime conference in Westminster on Wednesday as she called on forces to lead the “fight” against sexist culture.
Dame Vera Baird told delegates: “You can change the culture”, adding: “I hope to see police as modern men proudly leading the fight against sexist culture, speaking out like the bystander project volunteers.”
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Police Finances
Trust in the police has plummeted after the killing of Sarah Everard, with a majority of those surveyed wanting government ministers to do more to prevent violence against women and girls.
Research published today found that 47 per cent of women and 40 per cent of men said that their trust in the police had declined as a result of Everard’s kidnap, rape and murder in March by Wayne Couzens, who was a Metropolitan Police officer at the time.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The use of stop and search went up by 24% in the year ending March 2021, according to the latest Home Office figures.
The data for England and Wales showed there were 695,000 searches carried out by the police, 11% of which resulted in an arrest.
The data also showed black people were seven times more likely to be searched.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
According to the latest Prevent statistics published by the Home Office on Thursday (November 18), the number of people being supported through the programme fell to 4,915 in the year ending March 31, 2021 – a drop of 22 per cent compared with the previous year (6,287).
The Government said this decrease was likely to have been largely driven by the effects of public health restrictions that were in place throughout the year to control the spread of Covid-19. This included school and college closures caused by the lockdowns, with the proportion of referrals received from the education sector (25 per cent) having fallen to its lowest level since 2016. The police made the highest number of referrals with 1,770 (36 per cent).
Despite this, young people under the age of 20 continue to make up around half (48 per cent) of Prevent casework, with these new statistics showing that the proportion of young people adopted for Channel counter-radicalisation intervention has increased year-on-year.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Lancashire's Police and Crime Commissioner Andrew Snowden has met with Chief Constable Chris Rowley and members of his Chief Officer Team as he continues holding the force to account.
As part of this regular scrutiny session, Andrew and his Deputy, Andy Pratt MBE heard about the issues that officers are tackling and how officers are dealing with them. Just one example of the work being done to get tough on crime was how in a year, over 5,000 cars were seized by officers in just six months this year, in relation to potential offences.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
For the first time, serious and prolific offenders will be tagged with devices which monitor alcohol levels in sweat if their probation officer thinks they will be more likely to reoffend when drinking.
The tag will help probation officers keep a closer eye on offenders’ behaviour and support them to turn their backs on crime. It will also provide offenders with the incentive to break bad habits as breaching the ban could see them back in prison.
Alcohol plays a part in 39 per cent of all violent crime in the UK and roughly 20 per cent of offenders supervised by the Probation Service are classed as having an alcohol problem. Around 12,000 offenders will wear such a tag over the next 3 years.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Government has announced a £555,000 fund for technology companies to find new ways to tackle child exploitation and abuse online. The safety fund will aim to stamp out child abuse without affecting a user’s rights to privacy and data protection in their communications.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
T
he number of police officers in London has reached 33,000 for the first time in over a decade, new figures have revealed.
As of October 31, the Metropolitan Police Service had a total of 33,116 officers, the highest number since July 2010 when there were 32,995 officers.
The latest figures come as Mayor of London Sadiq Khan invites members of the public to have their say on his plans to tackle crime over the next four years.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
In the quiet early hours of 18 June this year, 23-year-old Gracie Spinks was tending to her horse, Paddy, at the Blue Lodge Farm in Duckmanton, northeast Derbyshire. Moments later, she received a fatal stab wound to the neck.
Derbyshire man, Michael Sellers, whom Spinks had previously accused of stalking her, is suspected by police to have killed her before killing himself in an apparent murder-suicide. An inquest into Spinks’ and Sellers’ death is still ongoing.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Indepedent Office for Police (IOPC) conduct today (16 November) released its annual complaints statistics, the first published since moving to a new system of recording complaints in February 2020 under new regulations within the Policing and Crime Act.
These figures are what the Office of National Statistics defines as ‘experimental statistics’.
In 2020/21 67,732 complaint cases were logged and 36,365 of these were recorded formally, containing 109,151 allegations.
Between 1 April 2019 and 31 January 2020 forces recorded 28,223 complaints.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The police have received a total of 274 reports of people being “spiked by injection” over the last two months.
A total of 274 drink spiking incidents involving “some form of injection” have been reported to forces across the UK during the period, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said.
It comes amid nightclub boycotts and calls for greater action to tackle spiking.
Police have urged anyone who believes they have been a victim or witness to spiking “in any form” to contact their local force for help and insisted all will be “investigated and taken seriously.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Some companies under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office are spending up to ten times more than Britain’s anti-fraud and bribery organisation on legal and investigation fees, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, leaving the fraudbusters outgunned and less effective.
Lack of funding, senior officials joining law firms representing the companies that the SFO is investigating and a perceived hesitation in prosecuting companies and executives all undermine the fight against economic crime, the bureau has found.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Some companies under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office are spending up to ten times more than Britain’s anti-fraud and bribery organisation on legal and investigation fees, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, leaving the fraudbusters outgunned and less effective.
Lack of funding, senior officials joining law firms representing the companies that the SFO is investigating and a perceived hesitation in prosecuting companies and executives all undermine the fight against economic crime, the bureau has found.
The agency, which operates on a £52 million annual budget, has dropped 30 investigations since 2018, the year Lisa Osofsky assumed office as director, three of them over two days in October. In the five years preceding Osofsky’s appointment, the SFO dropped 13 cases.
[ more...]
Justice
A woman who reported being raped by a stranger feels “let down by society” after a jury found the man not guilty despite compelling CCTV evidence.
Lucy, 30, who works for the NHS, said she felt the system was “rigged against victims” after she and her friend were allegedly raped at a hotel in Bristol following a night out.
In addition to hearing the accounts of the two women, the jury at Bristol crown court was shown CCTV from the hotel that showed the defendant in the corridor drunkenly trying to enter the rooms of random guests. He then went down to the lobby where he saw the two women enter the hotel after a night out, and followed them up to their bedroom. The women do not remember returning to the hotel but Lucy claims she awoke in the night to find a stranger on top of her friend. Afterwards, she claims he got on top of her and had sex with her as she drifted in and out of consciousness.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Experts are finding fifteen times as much child sexual abuse material online as they were a decade ago, figures show.
The online safety organisation the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), said its analysts were facing a “tidal wave” of abuse material. It called on the government to ensure the online safety bill, intended to improve internet safety, was used to protect children.
IWF figures show that this year it has acted against a record amount of more than 200,000 websites containing child sexual abuse material. That is 15 times more than in 2011, when there were just over 13,000 reports of abusive content.
[ more...]
Justice
The former head of a prominent justice charity has admitted being on a jury that acquitted a rape suspect because jurors were concerned about the length of sentence he might receive.
Frances Crook, who led the Howard League for Penal Reform for 35 years, posted on Twitter that she had twice served on juries that had cleared defendants because of “fear of the likely disproportionate prison sentence”.
Crook, 68, made the comments on Wednesday as MPs debated the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, despite the ban on jurors discussing cases or verdicts outside the jury room.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner has written to the region’s MPs to ask them to join a cross-party campaign for fair funding for West Midlands Police.
Simon Foster’s letter comes as the government starts a review of how police funding is distributed between forces.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Teachers are being targeted by abusive and humiliating TikTok accounts set up by students, prompting a warning from schools that parents may face police action over offending posts.
Officials at the Department for Education have said they are engaging with the social media giant after headteachers complained of dozens of cases of teachers being targeted.
The Association of School and College Leaders, which represents most secondary school heads, said it had received mounting complaints from its members.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Accumulated incidents of police intimidation, harassment and aggression towards activists at Cop26 are creating “an atmosphere of fear and repression” on the streets of Glasgow and have had a chilling effect on protest, campaigners and monitoring groups have said.
Organisers of Saturday’s Climate Justice march through Glasgow have also claimed that police risked “chaos” by failing to adhere to agreed arrangements, while Scottish immigrant groups and indigenous visitors have described their feelings of discomfort and threat prompted by “saturation policing” throughout the city.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The first ever cohort of part time officers for the force will be taking up the post of a regular police officer, working 20 hours a week on a job share basis - performing exactly the same role as other officers and work the same shift pattern.
Of the 28 new recruits, four are male and 24 are female.
The force said: “Policing is a 24 hour, seven-day-a-week responsibility which in the past has restricted some people applying to join the force, but it is hoped the new part time roles will open up policing as a career to suit a wider range of people.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The Welsh Government is being urged do more to tackle spiking in Wales.
The Welsh Conservatives are asking the Government to provide bottle stoppers and drinks covers for free at hospitality venues.
The party is holding a debate in the Senedd today (10 November) after hundreds of reports of drinks being spiked across the UK, including several in Wales.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The bids include initiatives such as drink spiking detection kits, a transport safety campaign and trained staff to support safe taxi journeys.
The fund was launched in July with up to £5 million available for projects and initiatives to improve the safety of women in public spaces at night. In all there were 22 successful bids from civil society organisations, local authorities, and PCCs across England and Wales.
Bedfordshire PCC Festus Akinbusoye, prevention lead at the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), said: “No one should be made to feel scared or intimidated while they enjoy our vibrant British night-life. PCCs are committed to making our communities safer, including reducing violence against women and girls. This money will enable us to support practical solutions which make people feel safer and build an evidence base for what works.”
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
PC Joseph Thompson, based in the Roads and Transport Policing Command, had only recently finished his probation having joined the force in October 2019.
He faced a misconduct hearing to answer allegation that on 6 October 2020, he published homophobic and sexist posts on his Facebook in the context of the most recent presidential election.
In the posts PC Thompson expressed the view that attempts to achieve equality between men and women do not work and are not adopted by “real men”, and that “real men” are masculine and heterosexual.
[ more...]
Prisons
Prisons are facing difficulties recruiting enough officers amid a surge in job vacancies, a union has said.
This comes as job adverts have soared to a record high in the run-up to Christmas, according to recruiters.
Driving instructors, prison officers and forklift truck drivers are among the jobs in highest demand, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) said.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Last month, authorities borrowed £282m from the PWLB, almost half the £522m financed in September, as long-term interest rates exceeded 2% for the first time since June.
David Blake, strategic director at local authority treasury advisors Arlingclose told PF that many local authorities fulfilled their borrowing needs in July and August, when rates dropped.
“Over The last four weeks or so, we have seen rates go up quite sharply, and it has put a lot of local authorities off,” he said.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A new high-quality CCTV camera has been installed in a busy Nottingham park as part of a six-figure project to tackle crime and make people safer.
The camera has been fitted in Bridlington Street Playground in Nottingham to prevent and detect robbery and theft in the area and reassure park users.
It has been funded through the City’s Safer Streets project and will be live-monitored at Nottingham City Council’s existing CCTV control room based at Woodlands in Radford, which has direct access to Nottinghamshire Police via radio link.
The camera, which cost £3,500 to install, will help to deter crime as well as secure vital evidence for police investigations.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Insulate Britain protesters blocked a road near the M56 as part of a series of demonstrations across the country.
About a dozen people joined the protest on the A538 Wilmslow Road, near Manchester Airport, with some gluing their hands to the road.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said 11 people had been arrested on suspicion of causing danger to road-users.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Met Police officers facing allegations of assault and harassment were allowed on patrol because of staff shortages, BBC News has been told.
A former internal investigations officer claims he was told the force did not have enough staff and restrictions needed to be eased.
He also said he witnessed interference in investigations during his work in 2017.
[ more...]
Technology
Judge Mark Lucraft QC made a series of recommendations to prevent future deaths after earlier this year hearing the inquests into the 2019 terrorist murders of Cambridge graduates Saskia Jones, 23, and Jack Merritt, 25.
In a report published on Wednesday (November 3), he laid out 22 areas of concern and proposed action he believes should be taken to prevent such an atrocity occurring again.
Ms Jones and Mr Merritt were murdered by extremist Usman Khan, 28, at an alumni event organised by prisoner education scheme Learning Together on November 29, 2019.
[ more...]
Technology
Two Labour peers have demanded greater parliamentary scrutiny of police plans to use surveillance cameras mounted on drones after it emerged that forces across England and Wales could deploy the technology.
Shami Chakrabarti, the former head of the civil rights advocacy group Liberty, has tabled an amendment to the police bill that would require the home secretary to approve the use of new “weapons, surveillance equipment or investigatory technology”. The amendment was due to be discussed on Wednesday night.
Last week the Guardian reported that police forces were seeking information about drone-mounted cameras capable of filming high-quality live footage from 1,500ft (457 metres) away, prompting civil liberties concerns.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Scotland Yard has pledged to regain the trust of women after being buffeted by an unprecedented crisis in public confidence since the murders of Sarah Everard, Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman.
Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick on Wednesday launched an action plan that aims to tackle violence against women and girls. She has already promised to root out sexual misconduct and domestic violence by her own officers and staff.
She is seeking to repair a “precious bond broken” by recent scandals that have led to calls for her to resign.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Londoners have been warned to be on alert to the potential threat of a pre-Christmas extremist attack, as Cressida Dick described the murder of Sir David Amess “a chilling reminder” of the continuing terrorist danger.
Writing in the Evening Standard, the Metropolitan Police commissioner said it was important the public showed the “courage and confidence” to report suspicious behaviour and said contacting police “won’t ruin lives, but it might just save them”.
The warning came with the number of counter-terrorism investigations across the UK at a record level, with 800 probes currently live, on top of 31 foiled plots since 2017.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Three days of Insulate Britain protests cost the economy almost £1 million, the High Court was told.
Environmental activists from the Extinction Rebellion offshoot have blocked major roads at least 14 times since September 13.
The first three days of the protests on the M25 and A20 on September 13, 15 and 24 were “incredibly dangerous” and “unpredictable”, lawyers for National Highways said in a submission to the High Court yesterday. They are applying for a nationwide injunction against the group.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has unveiled the contents of his Budget in the House of Commons.
Setting out the government's tax and spending plans for the year ahead, Mr Sunak said his plans were focused on the "post-Covid" era, and would pave the way for an "economy of higher wages, higher skills, and rising productivity".
Here is a summary of the main points.
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Police Finances
The Treasury has released a deluge of funding announcements, days before the chancellor delivers his Budget on 27 October.
Statements from the government setting out spending for transport, health and education have been put out in the past few days.
Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle is furious, telling MPs on Monday it was "not acceptable" to brief the media ahead of MPs and on Tuesday that the government was behaving in a "discourteous manner".
[ more...]
Justice
Dominic Raab has pledged to allow all rape victims to record their evidence in an attempt to boost prosecution rates.
Ministers angered campaigners for victims by agreeing this year to offer the possibility only for trials at three crown courts as part of a test of the plans.
However, Raab, the new justice secretary, told The Times that he would “certainly be looking to expand that right across the country”. He said initial tests had shown that the special measures had led to more guilty pleas because defendants were less likely to delay until the trial when deciding how to plead.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Home Secretary Priti Patel has ordered ‘woke’ police forces to stop recording offences by trans women in female crime statistics.
Home Office officials are working with police forces on a new procedure for officers to record the sex of criminals to ensure crime statistics are ‘more accurate’.
The ban follows cases where violent and sexual offences by men who call themselves female were recorded as being committed by women, prompting concerns that the practice is warping official data.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Earlier this year, the Beating Crime Plan detailed the Government’s commitment to reduce crime, protect victims, and keep our communities safe. A new report sets out how Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) across the country are committed to working with the Government, local authorities, and wider partners to improve how communities can report anti-social behaviour when it occurs and to ensure that action is taken.
‘ASB In Focus’, published today by the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), showcases some of the initiatives and projects that PCCs have been leading on. Some of these projects are preventative: investing in police visibility, security measures, and youth activities. Many are collaborative: bringing partner agencies together to form taskforces and other teams to respond to incidents of anti-social behaviour and find effective solutions to hyper-local problems. And PCCs are also leading work to enhance help and support for victims of anti-social behaviour. This includes some PCCs taking greater ownership of the under-used Community Trigger process which, when promoted properly, provides victims with a means to have their cases reviewed where they are dissatisfied with the partnership response.
[ more...]
Justice
Rape victims will be given a legal right to refuse to hand over their phones to police under new laws to end “digital strip searches” that have been blamed for plummeting conviction rates.
Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, and Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, on Monday put forward amendments to their policing Bill that any victim must be informed that refusal to hand over their phones will not automatically lead to a police investigation being dropped.
The amendments will also make it illegal for police to place “undue pressure” on a victim to agree to their phone being searched. Victims must also be told what information is being sought and what line of “reasonable” inquiry officers are pursuing.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Chancellor Rishi Sunak wants to make work pay by increasing the minimum wage to £9.50 and scrapping his public sector salary freeze. An estimated eight million workers, including more than five million nurses, teachers and police officers can look forward to receiving a salary hike next year. He also receiving a salary hike next year.
He also signalled an inflation-busting hike in the National Living Wage. The minimum hourly pay rate for employees aged over 23 will increase from £8.91 to £9.50.
Mr Sunak said: “The economic impact and uncertainty of the virus meant we had to take the difficult decision to pause public sector pay.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Almost 200 drink spiking incidents have been reported to police forces across the UK over the past two months, the National Police Chiefs’ Council said on Friday.
The NPCC said there have been 198 confirmed reports of drink spiking in September and October across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, plus 24 reports of some form of injection.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Former police chiefs have warned parts of a controversial Bill could further undermine trust in forces and “exacerbate” serious violence.
The group of ex-police leaders, senior officers and advisers has written to Home Secretary Priti Patel to express their concerns about some of the proposals contained in the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill – which the House of Lords will continue to consider on Monday.
The Bill contains a raft of measures aimed at overhauling the criminal justice system as part of the Government’s efforts to make the streets safer.
[ more...]
Justice
Home Secretary Priti Patel has backed calls to change the law to give victims of domestic abuse more time to report a crime, the BBC has been told.
There is currently a six-month time limit for a charge to be brought against someone for common assault.
But Ms Patel has agreed to extend the timeframe to up to two years.
It comes after the BBC revealed 13,000 cases in England and Wales had been dropped in five years because the six month limit had been breached.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A growing focus on investigating hate crimes risks distracting police from solving serious crimes including rapes and murders, a policing chief has warned.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Policing needs long term certainty on how much money it will have to tackle the huge increase in demand and retain experienced officers.
Ahead of next week’s Budget, police leaders warned the government there could be no repeat of the Comprehensive Spending Review which delivered a pay freeze that even its some of its own MPs have argued was a mistake.
Staff organisations and HM Inspectorate have warned that the single-year funding deal overseen by the Home Office is outdated.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
When I first met Andy, I got the sense that he hadn’t been born at all but rather quarried out of a mountainside: a big man with a warm smile who, as we spoke, was injecting medical-grade heroin into a line in his lower leg. As a serving chief constable, this was one of the more unusual introductions I’ve made with a member of the community.
Andy must have sensed my confusion at his apparent health and physical stature for a person on the heroin-assisted treatment programme in Middlesbrough, the first of its kind in England and Wales. “Heroin doesn’t make you skinny,” he said. “It’s just that heroin comes first and last and there’s never any money left for food. That’s why addicts are thin.”
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If the “war on drugs”, first declared a full 50 years ago, has an established fighting front, it’s Andy’s home town of Middlesbrough. The latest statistics from 2020 show that 123 people died from drug-related deaths on Teesside – the highest number since figures have been collated, and one of the highest rates in the country. Across England and Wales, there were more than 4,500 drug-related deaths in the same 12 months.
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Police and Crime General
A Northumbria Police operation to tackle cross-border drug dealing has seen 28 people arrested, more than £800,000 worth of Class A drugs seized and a number of deal lines shut down.
Last week, Northumbria Police, Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) and other organisations across the country joined forces to take on the practice known as 'county lines' as part of a national intensification period which ran from Monday October 11 to October 17.
County lines involves dealers using mobile phones to help transfer class A substances from large cities to towns and rural areas.
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Police Demand
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) said Leicestershire Police officers "shut down" investigations into allegations of child abuse against Lord Janner "without pursuing all inquiries". It also criticised Leicestershire County Council's over the abuse. Current council leader Cllr Nick Rushton said the local authority accepted the report’s findings and apologised for previous failings.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Home Secretary Priti Patel has said MPs now face a "substantial" threat level - meaning an attack is "likely" - following the killing of Sir David Amess. Ms Patel said there had been a "change in risk" after an independent review by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre after the fatal stabbing of Sir David.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Home secretary says MPs’ surgeries could get police protection but some raise concerns about deterring public
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Police and Crime General
Britain’s intelligence agencies have warned ministers of a potential new wave of terrorist attacks carried out by “bedroom radicals” bred during lockdown.
Officials believe the country is facing a new threat from “lone wolf” terrorists who were radicalised online while spending months at home, The Telegraph understands.
[ more...]
Justice
Victims of alleged domestic abuse are seeing their cases dropped at a rapidly increasing rate, according to data obtained by the BBC.
Police have six months to charge common assault cases, including domestic abuse, from when the alleged incident took place.
Campaigners say this is unfair because of the complex nature of many cases.
Figures show 3,763 cases were dropped for this reason in the past year, compared with 1,451 four years earlier.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The "canteen culture" that exists within the police in WhatsApp groups can impact the way officers conduct themselves, and in the worst cases can lead to them abusing powers for sexual purposes, a watchdog chief has warned.
Forces have been under the spotlight since the sentencing of serving Met Police constable Wayne Couzens, who is serving a whole-life term for the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.
Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick, who has come under huge pressure to resign in the aftermath of the sentencing, last week announced there would be an independent review of her force's culture.
[ more...]
Police Finances
There is no room for big spending announcements for hard-pressed public services such as local government, the justice system and further education in this month's Budget, the Institute for Fiscal Studies says. The influential think tank has published new analysis, suggesting borrowing will be lower than forecast but the Chancellor will still have to keep a tight rein on spending, despite planning the biggest tax rises for more than 25 years.
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Police Demand
Cyber attacks which see hackers get inside computer networks and lock the owners out until they pay a ransom present "the most immediate danger" to UK businesses in cyberspace, the head of the National Cyber Security Centre has warned. Speaking at a Chatham House Cyber conference, Lindy Cameron said these types of attack posed a threat to everyone from major companies to local councils and schools, while warning that not enough organisations were prepared for the threat or tested their cyber defences.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Chief constables are getting stuck with rogue officers they would rather sack because of leniency at misconduct hearings, one of the country’s most senior policing figures has warned.
Andy Marsh, the head of the College of Policing, the standards body in England and Wales, said he had been “frustrated” as a chief constable at having to redeploy officers who were guilty of serious misconduct, including using racist terms. He said that independent chairmen and women who oversaw the majority of the most serious misconduct cases were more lenient than chief constables would be.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police chiefs have been told to review all allegations of sexual misconduct, indecent exposure and domestic abuse involving their officers over the last two years.
The review comes after a fall in public trust over the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens while he was a serving Metropolitan police officer, and fears that forces were not doing enough to identify and stop offenders in their ranks.
The reviews – agreed by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), which represents the leadership of local forces, at a crisis meeting last Friday – will cover hundreds of officers in the UK.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Record numbers of hate crimes are being recorded by police, with around three-quarters of reported offences being racially motivated.
New figures released by the Home Office "paint a bleak picture for equality in the UK", the chief executive of the Race Equality Foundation said.
There were 124,091 hate crimes recorded in the year to March 2021, with numbers rising each year since records began in 2011-12.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are dousing pub and club lavatories with an anti-drugs spray that causes cocaine to stick to surfaces and adds a foul taste.
Durham is believed to be the first force in England to trial the spray to deter drug-taking in public, with the Essex, Merseyside and City of London forces considering following suit.
The clear substance is sprayed on surfaces that could be used by customers to cut and take drugs such as cocaine. The spray contains a powerful bittering agent which leaves a bad taste lasting for hours if a user tries to scrape drugs off a surface and take them.
[ more...]
Prisons
Children are being locked in their rooms for 23 hours a day in a youth jail, despite watchdogs warning nearly a year ago that confining youngsters in their cells for such long periods is “unacceptable”.
A monitoring report into Oakhill secure training centre in Milton Keynes by Ofsted, the Prison Inspectorate and the Care Quality Commission warns that “widespread failings” are having a “significant impact” on the care and well-being of child inmates.
Records published by the centre, which currently holds 46 boys between the ages of 12 and 17, show that children have spent approximately 19 hours per day on average locked in their rooms - increasing to 23 hours on some days.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan police shelved plans to reform its unit dedicated to protecting politicians and diplomats because of “resistant and uncooperative” officers, according to a former superintendent who was the force’s most senior woman of colour.
Nusrit Mehtab, who resigned in January last year, said the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command (PADP), where Sarah Everard’s killer, Wayne Couzens, once served, was “very male-dominated” and ripe for reform. The Met had had a chance to “put things right and they didn’t”, she added.
Mehtab is suing the Met alleging that a hostile and racist work environment forced her to leave. She claims the force harbours a culture that “enables and endorses people like [Wayne] Couzens to flourish”.
[ more...]
Police Demand
At least two-fifths of police forces in England and Wales do not have specialist rape and serious sexual offence (Rasso) units.
Campaigners against gender-based violence said the lack of such units was deeply worrying at at time of low public confidence in the police and with rape prosecutions running at historically low levels.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales has previously estimated 510,000 women are victims of sexual assaults or rapes in a year. Police recorded 55,696 rapes in the year to 2020-21 but only 3,539 were passed to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), leading to just 1,109 convictions.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Dame Cressida Dick has failed to get a grip on knife crime because of an over-reliance on stop and search at the expense of bobbies on the beat, a study by a Conservative think tank has found.
In a report backed by the UK’s former head of counter-terrorism, the Metropolitan Commissioner is slated for an “unusual and unjustified” strategy of relying on stop and search to stem record levels of knife attacks and deaths rather than neighbourhood policing and targeting drug traffickers.
It warned that the number of fatal stabbings in London doubled in the six years to 2019 when all knife crime offences increased by “only” 58 per cent, despite stabbing survival rates rising by 50 per cent.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson has infuriated the home secretary by overruling attempts to make public sexual harassment a crime. This has prompted concern at the Home Office that the prime minister views the issue as mere “wolf whistling”, rather than the aggressive targeting of women and girls going about their daily lives.
Sources say tensions have emerged between Johnson and Priti Patel, and other senior Home Office figures, after he blocked plans to make public sexual harassment a specific offence.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of people seeking support after experiencing a hate crime has jumped by almost 11 per cent in a year, driven by an increase in disability, sexual orientation and transgender-identity related crimes, a charity has warned.
Victim Support found that the “overwhelming majority” of hate crimes recorded were race and nationality-related (71 per cent), with a spike in referrals to the independent charity’s services following the Euro 2020 final between England and Italy.
The figures also showed a 22 per cent increase in the number of people seeking help for disability hate crimes and a 20 per cent increase in sexual orientation-related crimes.
Over the same period, the overall percentage of transgender identity-related crimes soared by almost 45 per cent compared to the previous year – although the numbers of such crimes remain lower than others.
[ more...]
Justice
The Metropolitan Police is the worst force in England and Wales for solving sexual and violent crime with just one in 20 offences resulting in a charge, a new database shows.
The analysis, based on official police data, shows the proportion of sex and violent crimes where a suspect is charged has fallen from 14 per cent (one in seven offences) in just five years to five per cent, as of August 2020.
[ more...]
Justice
The Metropolitan Police is the worst force in England and Wales for solving sexual and violent crime with just one in 20 offences resulting in a charge, a new database shows.
The analysis, based on official police data, shows the proportion of sex and violent crimes where a suspect is charged has fallen from 14 per cent (one in seven offences) in just five years to five per cent, as of August 2020.
[ more...]
Justice
The prime minister and the justice secretary have both said that they are anxious to improve the criminal justice system with reference to prosecutions and the time it takes to get offences concerning violence against women and girls to trial (Dominic Raab confuses meaning of misogyny in BBC interview, 6 October).
“Non-priority” cases backlogged in the crown courts are now listing into 2023-24. It is not good enough for victims of crime or defendants to have their lives on hold and to have to relive events in court months or even years after they took place.
Magistrates’ Association members hold the highest values of fairness, justice and the belief “that justice delayed is justice denied”. Many magistrates courts, after a period of fantastic commitment by volunteer magistrates throughout the pandemic, have little or no backlog of cases. We are well placed to stop sending cases to the crown courts if only our jurisdiction could be increased to a 12-month custodial sentence for a single offence. This would ease the burden on crown courts, speeding up justice for all.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police forces across England and Wales have been accused of letting down victims, after exclusive figures showed they resolved fewer cases of hate crime in 2020 than five years ago. Reports of hate crime have more than doubled in the same period.
An investigation by ITV News and Liberty Investigates found that the number of hate crime cases in which officers identified a suspect and took action against them fell from 14,866 in 2015 to 14,398 in 2020 – despite the number of reports climbing to more than 100,000.
The Freedom of Information requests looked at how many cases ended with a conclusive outcome such as a caution, charge, summons, penalty notice or community resolution.
[ more...]
Technology
A new phone app is being developed to allow women to ask CCTV operators in a city to monitor them as they walk home.
The app is part of a £400,000 project in Lincoln to improve street safety in the wake of a number of attacks on women across the UK.
Other measures will include expanding the city's CCTV coverage and a training scheme for bar and door staff.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A domestic abuse charity has called for an amendment to a new policing bill to recognise the seriousness of violence against women and girls.
Refuge wants sexual violence, domestic homicide and domestic abuse specifically named as crimes that police and other public bodies must develop strategies to prevent.
It wants the bill's "serious violence duty" to include those crimes.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners has welcomed plans to expand drug testing on arrest, and alcohol tagging on prison release, to prevent reoffending.
Dorset PCC David Sidwick and Durham PCC Joy Allen are the APCC’s Joint Leads for its relaunched Addictions and Substance Misuse portfolio.
Mr Sidwick said: “Police enforcement is only part of the picture to tackle addiction-related crime. Testing shoplifters and burglars for drugs when they are taken into custody means police can identify people who would benefit from drug awareness courses and treatment as part of their rehabilitation.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
It has been revealed that more than half of women in Merseyside feel unsafe using public transport at night.
That is according to a recent survey by Merseyside's police and crime commissioner, which was carried out in the wake of Sarah Everard's murder.
The figures show that 54% of 1,500 women felt unsafe using public transport in at night and nearly 42% had concerns about using it during the day.
[ more...]
Prisons
A scheme to stop jailed domestic abusers terrorising their victims from prison should be rolled out nationwide, a senior figure has said.
One woman, whose abusive ex enlisted other inmates to send her threatening letters, said she was left "terrified".
North Yorkshire Police has launched information-sharing in seven prisons to ensure victims cannot be contacted.
[ more...]
Justice
Rape conviction rates are "disgracefully low", Policing Minister Kit Malthouse has admitted, as he acknowledged that "there is a problem" with violence against women and girls.
Speaking ahead of Home Secretary Priti Patel's conference speech on Tuesday morning, Kit Malthouse told Sky News the government will "redouble our efforts" to make public spaces safer for women.
The policing minister also admitted that "too many feel unsafe in the public realm" and said the government has "apologised profoundly" for the drop in rape convictions.
[ more...]
Prisons
Criminals in England and Wales are being jailed for short terms that fail to prevent reoffending because of a lack of awareness and availability of community-based sentencing, a leading former magistrate has said.
Rather than jailing or fining someone, magistrates have the alternative of imposing a Community Sentence Treatment Requirement (CSTR), which can be for mental health problems, or alcohol or drug dependency.
However, short custodial terms are being handed out “by default”, according to John Bache, former national chair of the Magistrates Association. They fail to achieve the objectives of sentencing and impact offender’s families, he added, even driving children to follow in their footsteps in some cases.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Priti Patel is to introduce drug testing on arrest across all 43 police forces in England and Wales under a crackdown on recreational use and to prevent offenders’ habit spiralling into violent crime.
Setting out the £15 million plan in an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, the Home Secretary said it would better identify those breaking the law through drug use, but also those who were dependent and need help to kick their addiction.
Anyone testing positive after arrest for “trigger” crimes such as theft, fraud or drug possession would be required to be assessed for treatment. Those who refuse face prosecution with a maximum penalty of up to six months in jail or a £2,500 fine.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
An independent review is set to be carried out into the Met Police's standards and culture after the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard.
Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick, who has rejected calls to resign, said it would be led by a high profile person.
The force has faced questions ever since Wayne Couzens, a serving police officer, killed the 33-year-old.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was a "massive job" to do in restoring women's confidence in the police.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Courts will get new powers to stop climate activists blocking Britain's motorways, the home secretary will say.
Priti Patel will unveil the Criminal Disruption Prevention Orders aimed at stopping some activists attending demos, at the Conservative conference.
A Tory Party source said it will target people with a "history of disruption", or those likely to commit crime.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Indecent exposure must not be dismissed by police as an isolated offence but should be seen as a possible precursor to more serious sexual crimes, one of the country’s most senior female officers has said.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Every police officer in the country could be re-vetted in the wake of the Wayne Couzens scandal, police leaders have said.
There are growing concerns that the system intended to weed out corrupt and dangerous officers is not as effective as it needs to be and should be overhauled.
Public confidence in policing has been rocked by the appalling actions of Couzens, who used his police position to kidnap, rape and murder Sarah Everard.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Cracking down on people with fake Covid passes should not be a priority for police officers over serious crimes, a police and crime commissioner has said.
Dyfed-Powys Police commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn said there were concerns about the "practicality" of policing passes.
Covid passes could become mandatory in Wales from 11 October if the Senedd passes proposals on Tuesday.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police forces and local authorities across England and Wales, are to receive a share of £23.5million to make public spaces safer for all through projects to help women and girls feel safer on our streets as part of the Government’s Safer Streets Fund.
Created with the objective of tackling local acquisitive crimes like car theft and burglary, the latest round of the Safer Streets Fund has a particular emphasis on the safety of women and girls. The investment will go to police forces and local authorities across England and Wales as well as the British Transport Police to spend in the 21/22 financial year.
Crimes which take place in public places such as sexual harassment disproportionately affect women. Recipients of funding have submitted bids for innovative plans to increase the safety of public spaces, including projects which emphasise changing attitudes and behaviours in local communities.
[ more...]
Justice
Police forces in the UK must take women’s complaints more seriously in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder, a Labour peer has said.
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, who chairs the Working Group on Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland, said officers must not treat incidents of harassment or flashing as trivial.
Her comments came after Ms Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens, a serving police officer, was sentenced to a whole-life order for her kidnap, rape and murder on Thursday. The Metropolitan Police has faced criticism for allegedly failing to act on “alarm signals” spotted by Couzens’ colleagues in the force, which included a string of flashing incidents.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Accountancy firm Grant Thornton has been sanctioned by the Financial Reporting Council for failures in its audits of Patisserie Valerie before the café chain company collapsed, showing “a serious lack of competence”.
[ more...]
Police Demand
County lines drug operations will be eliminated in the next two years, the policing minister has pledged.
Kit Malthouse told the Roads Policing Conference on Wednesday that officers will help bring an end to the drug gangs "peddling misery".
County lines drug gangs operate across the UK. Dealers, often children, run drugs, taking buses or trains from cities into rural towns and villages.
[ more...]
Justice
Police have claimed it is “very difficult” to bring charges against environmental activists after 27 members of Insulate Britain were arrested for blocking a roundabout at a junction with the M25.
Lisa Townsend, Surrey’s police and crime commissioner, said the police were receiving “an enormous amount of flak” over their response but she insisted officers were “doing their utmost to prevent the disruption”.
It comes after the same junction was targeted twice in six hours. On Wednesday morning, police arrested 11 people who had glued themselves to the road on a roundabout at junction 3, the Swanley Interchange in Kent, at about 7.30am.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The defence industry has been asked to share ideas on developing new equipment to stop offenders using e-scooters to commit crime.
Arms companies, police suppliers and tech developers were invited to explain if it is possible to make a portable device that officers can deploy against offenders moving at speed on the bikes.
The Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) issued a call to market on whether the need for a stopping device could be met.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Two large prisons holding 3,430 inmates could be built on land around an RAF air base in Essex, according to Government plans.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has published proposals for the new jails at Wethersfield air base in Braintree.
The site will hold category B and category C adult male prisoners in two prisons that each have a total capacity of 1,715, according to documents setting out the plans.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Labour will be “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”, the shadow home secretary has said as he announced the party is readopting Tony Blair’s slogan as part of efforts to restore Labour’s reputation on law and order.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Conservatives were accused of “defunding the police” through a decade of cuts in a speech on Tuesday by the shadow home secretary which aimed to reposition Labour as the party of law and order.
Nick Thomas-Symonds told delegates at the party’s annual conference that he would not follow demands, usually attributed to the Black Lives Matter movement, to take money away from existing police forces.
But he said that successive Tory governments have cut cash payments to forces for more than 10 years.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police officers fear they could be drafted in to guard the pumps if the fuel crisis is not resolved in coming days.
Forecourts across the country have witnessed ugly scenes as motorists queuing for petrol have clashed.
In one incident in Welling, south-east London, a man appeared to pull a knife on another driver as tensions boiled over. There have been violent scenes elsewhere, with drivers accusing each other of jumping queues or taking too much fuel.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
CC Thompson told the force’s strategic policing and crime board today (28 September) that “quick law isn’t always great law”, as he was asked about the impact of the pandemic on policing.
The chief addressed the issue of £10,000 “superfines”, introduced by the Home Secretary Priti Patel to penalise those hosting large gatherings. A third-year Nottingham Trent University student was one of the first to pay a fine in full in January this year.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council advised forces in November 2020 to stop issuing the fines due to fears they would be challenged in court.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police body armour is being redesigned in an attempt to look less intimidating in the latest bout of political correctness.
MPs have reacted furiously to the proposal with one labelling the proposal as "woke".
An official request asking for assistance in "improving public perception of policing" was issued by the Government's Defence, Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL).
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The prospect of vaccine passports being used at indoor and outdoor venues in England this winter has been raised again by the Government.
The plans seemed to have been put on the backburner but on Monday night the Government launched a consultation, asking the public for views on the use of vaccine passports this autumn and winter if Covid-19 cases threaten to overwhelm the NHS.
The Plan B proposals also open the door to the number of venues being widened beyond nightclubs, music venues, outdoor festivals, concerts and sports events.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Labour is to invoke Tony Blair's "tough on crime" message and promise a crackdown on antisocial behaviour if it is elected.
In a speech to the party's conference, Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow home secretary, will accuse the Tories of being “soft on crime and soft on causes on crime”.
The comments are a knowing reference to Mr Blair's claim New Labour would be "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime".
[ more...]
Technology
He will spearhead the APCC’s work to ensure the police tackle online crime, fraud, harassment, hacking, economic crime and identity theft.
Mr Shelford said: “One in ten people fall victim to fraud and one in three become a repeat victim. It is because of such figures that I was inspired to take on the role of APCC lead for economic and cybercrime, because I feel that this is an area of work where I can make the most difference to the lives of residents of Avon and Somerset and beyond.
“I want to make sure that the profile type of this life destroying crime is raised, we need to get a grip of it and protect vulnerable people from harm.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Police and Crime Commissioner Lisa Townsend has welcomed news of a High Court Injunction that will give police more powers to prevent and respond to new protests expected to take place on the motorway network.
Home Secretary Priti Patel and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps applied for the injunction after a fifth day of protests were held by Insulate Britain across the UK. In Surrey, four protests have been held since last Monday, leading to the arrest of 130 people by Surrey Police.
The injunction granted to National Highways means that individuals staging new protests that involve obstructing the highway will face charges of contempt of court, and could see time in prison while held on remand.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
People caught with Class A drugs in Scotland could be given a police warning instead of facing prosecution. Officers can already issue a formal warning for possession of lower category drugs.
Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain told MSPs this would now include Class A drugs in a bid to address the underlying causes of Scotland's drugs death crisis. The Conservatives said the move amounts to "de facto decriminalisation" of deadly substances.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Priti Patel and Grant Shapps are seeking a court injunction to stop environmental protesters from targeting major motorways after five days of tailbacks and damaging headlines for the government.
The home secretary and the transport secretary have asked National Highways and the Government Legal Service to submit an application later this week.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Thousands of burglars, fraudsters and drug dealers are to have their criminal records wiped clean under government plans to help them find work. Criminals who have served prison sentences of more than four years will no longer have to tell employers about their past crimes, as part of the Ministry of Justice’s rehabilitation plans in its Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Councils and regional health chiefs have been given new powers to implement COVID-19 safety measures to use if the NHS in their areas become overwhelmed during the winter. These include enforcing mask wearing and social distancing in public spaces, buildings and transport and allow councils to close individual premises or events.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A Metropolitan Police trial aimed at stopping people as young as 12 from carrying knives has not resulted in a single court action during its first weeks. Knife Crime Prevention Orders have been piloted by using the courts to impose restrictions on people they believe are “on the cusp” of violence.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than 22,000 fraud investigations were dropped by police last year despite a surge in online scams during the coronavirus pandemic, official figures have revealed.
The number of cases reported to Action Fraud, the UK’s fraud and cybercrime reporting centre, soared by a third as criminals exploited the Covid-19 pandemic to target victims online.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than half of all police forces across England saw a surge in noise nuisance complaints during last year’s lockdown, with claims that years of cuts have left councils struggling to deal with antisocial behaviour. Figures from Freedom of Information data compiled by Labour found that the average rise in complaints across the forces which responded was 67 per cent, with some forces having received thousands more complaints last year than in 2018. Cllr Nesil Caliskan, Chair of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said councils were doing all they could to tackle persistently disruptive behaviour, but needed resources: “Dealing with increased reporting of noise nuisance has added to the pressure on council environmental health teams that are already overstretched. The Spending Review must commit to additional investment in regulatory services.”
[ more...]
Justice
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is being overhauled in anticipation of a “bow wave” of more than 20,000 extra jailed criminals who will push the prison population to a post-war high of nearly 100,000 by 2026.
Analysts at the department, now headed by Dominic Raab, have calculated that the recruitment of an extra 20,000 police officers, a potential post-pandemic crime rise and longer jail sentences will see prisoner numbers rise by nearly a quarter to a record 98,700 in five years’ time.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Rape victims and bereaved families are being left "traumatised" by having to clean up crime scenes in their homes, the Telegraph can reveal.
Relatives of murder victims have told of the "distressing task" of cleaning up blood stains left from an attack after police failed to follow protocol.
Dame Vera Baird QC, The Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, described the failure as "appalling and wholly preventable".
[ more...]
Police Finances
HM Revenue & Customs spending on scam warnings has fallen 99pc – from £242,000 in 2020 to £3,000 for the year to date, a Freedom of Information request lodged by Telegraph Money has revealed.
This is despite the number of reports of criminal gangs posing as the tax office to lure victims – known as “phishing” scams – doubling to more than a million a year.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Reducing violence against women and girls should be treated as an equal priority to countering terrorism, a police watchdog has said. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services called for "fundamental cross-system change" after identifying continuing failings and major inconsistencies between police forces in how they tackle the issue.
[ more...]
COVID-19
People will have to show a NHS COVID Pass to enter nightclubs and attend events in Wales from next month, the First Minister announced today.
The measure is being introduced to help control the spread of coronavirus in Wales. First Minister Mark Drakeford said that cases were currently very high in Wales but the alert level will remain at zero for the next three weeks.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Chancellor Rishi Sunak will reportedly tighten fiscal rules to help reduce borrowing, after Covid-19 support measures saw national debt spike.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police forces are to be given extra money to tackle violent crime this autumn using intensive, high-visibility police patrols.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Priti Patel faces a deepening rift with police officers over a pay freeze after she avoided a public appearance and defended the decision in a video.
The head of the Police Superintendents’ Association (PSA) said it was “disappointing” that the home secretary had not attended their conference and accused ministers of failing officers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Today, Minister for the Constitution and Devolution Chloe Smith has announced measures to apply the tried and tested system of First Past the Post to the election of council and ‘metro’ mayors across England, and to Police and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales.
In this May’s London Mayoral elections, the Supplementary Vote system saw hundreds of thousands void, wasted or blank votes cast, reflecting voter confusion and the complex system. Supplementary Vote also means that a ‘loser’ candidate can win on second preferences. In 1931, Winston Churchill described transferable voting as “the decision is to be determined by the most worthless votes given for the most worthless candidates.”
[ more...]
Justice
Boris Johnson has fired a string of cabinet ministers - and promoted new faces to replace them - in a major reshuffle.
The prime minister sacked under-fire Education Secretary Gavin Williamson and moved Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to the justice department.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Priti Patel keep their jobs.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Roger Hirst, APCC’s Finance Lead & PFCC for Essex: “The system as it stands does not account for the additional pressure on local services that comes from significant new developments. As communities grow, the result is that the emergency services’ capacity over the area is slowly diluted. This is not sustainable.”
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police are dealing with daily calls from families and friends who fear a loved one may be suicidal and do not know where to turn, mental health experts have warned.
The number of 999 and 101 calls to Gwent Police increased by a third between January and July.
However, more than half of calls did not report crimes, with many calls relating to mental health.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Children are increasingly being groomed or coerced by adults into sexually abusing themselves on camera.
MPs have warned of a 'disturbing' rise in so-called 'self-generated' child sexual abuse material, especially during the pandemic.
In the first six months of 2021, the Internet Watch Foundation recorded a 117 per cent increase in abusive images and videos created using webcams or smartphones.
[ more...]
Justice
Fed-up victims of crime are refusing to proceed with prosecutions in nearly a million cases as faith in the justice system dwindles, according to shocking new figures revealed in The Mail on Sunday.
Records show the number withdrawing cooperation has been rising year-on-year since 2014-15 when it accounted for just under seven per cent of all offences.
The level now stands at a staggering 21.8 per cent – or 945,000 cases – in the year to March 2021 for England and Wales.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A new policing bill that will be debated this week risks deepening racial and gender disparities in the justice system while forcing professionals to betray the trust of vulnerable people, hundreds of experts and a report have warned.
In a letter to the home secretary, 665 GPs, nurses, social, youth and outreach workers and teachers have warned that the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill is “oppressive” and would force frontline professionals to betray the trust of vulnerable people and become complicit in surveillance, ahead of a debate in the House of Lords this week.
A separate report has said it will put vulnerable young women at further risk of threat further violence, abuse and exploitation.
[ more...]
Technology
The Metropolitan Police commissioner has accused tech giants of making it harder to identify and stop terrorists.
The tech giants' focus on end-to-end encryption was making it "impossible in some cases" for the police to do their jobs, Dame Cressida Dick wrote in the Telegraph on Saturday.
On Wednesday, Home Secretary Priti Patel launched a new fund for technologies to keep children safe.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The home secretary, Priti Patel, is facing a growing revolt in parliament and the country over plans to restrict the fundamental right to protest, as controversial legislation that would increase police powers enters the House of Lords this week.
More than 350 organisations, including human rights groups, charities and faith bodies, have written to Patel and justice secretary Robert Buckland this weekend complaining that the measures would have a “profound impact” on freedom of expression, and represent “an attack on some of the most basic democratic rights of citizens”.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
In total, 9,814 police officers have been recruited across all 43 police forces in England and Wales. The recruitment is helping to increase diversity within the communities that the officers serve.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy grew by just 0.1% in July as the last Covid restrictions were lifted in England.
It was the economy's sixth consecutive month of growth, but the increase was much lower than in the previous month, which saw 1% growth.
Arts, entertainment and recreation activities helped the rise, but the "pingdemic" kept many workers at home.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police and crime commissioner has said trans women should not be allowed to use "private enclosed spaces such as women's prisons and female toilets".
Wiltshire PCC Philip Wilkinson was criticising the policies of LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall.
He said he would not support promoting a "narrow ideology that is exclusive, divisive and potentially dangerous".
[ more...]
Technology
Social media companies should be made legally responsible for removing scam adverts from their networks and protecting users from fraud, the head of a policing body has said.
James Thomson, chairman of the City of London Police Authority Board, will tell an audience, including security minister Damian Hinds on Thursday that tougher measures to tackle internet fraud should be included in the Online Safety Bill
He also wants fraud to be made a national priority across all local police forces in the UK, in the same way that tackling county lines drugs gangs has been a focus in recent years.
[ more...]
Justice
Victims are losing faith in the criminal justice system according to a new survey of victims, which suggests less than half of victims would report to the police again based on their experience of the justice system.
- Survey finds just 43% of victims would report a crime again based on their previous experiences of the criminal justice system. Just half would attend court again, down from 67% in 2020.
- Ethnic minorities are less likely to feel like they were treated fairly and respectfully by police.
- 66% of victims told the Commissioner they had to wait too long before their case came to court; only 9% of victims thought the courts dealt with cases promptly.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The head of the Metropolitan Police is expected to be given a two-year contract extension within days despite a string of controversies.
Dame Cressida Dick’s position has been questioned after a sharp rise in teenage murders in London, allegations of institutional corruption at Scotland Yard and the arrest of a serving police officer for the murder of Sarah Everard.
Though the deal has yet to be finalised, Dick, 60, is thought to have Home Office support to stay on as Britain’s most senior police officer. Sources said that the extension could be announced as early as Monday.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Heroic workers in the emergency services are being honoured for their life-changing work on 999 Day.
The national celebration - also known as Emergency Services Day - recognises both NHS and 999 workers for their hard work.
It is estimated that approximately two million people either work or volunteer across the six main branches: Police, Fire and Rescue, Ambulance, NHS, maritime and Search and Rescue - according to the event's site.
[ more...]
Technology
Police and Government agencies in the UK have adopted similar tactics to social media influencers and used targeted advertising to tackle crime, a recent report has found.
The study, published by the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR), showed that the National Crime Agency had carried out a six-month “influence operation” to tackle cybercrime involving surveillance, direct intervention and targeted online advertising messaging.
Researchers also found a Government Communication Service training podcast which claimed that the Home Office used the purchasing data of people who had recently bought candles to target them through their smart speakers with fire safety adverts.
[ more...]
Technology
Priti Patel has launched a worldwide hunt for tech wizards to crack Facebook’s encryption, so Britons are protected from child abusers and terrorists.
The Home Secretary is to pay the brightest industry brains through a new fund to develop technology that will prevent sex abusers and terrorists from hiding their crimes under the cloak of end-to-end encryption on social media platforms.
Security chiefs say Facebook’s encryption plan will deny the company itself and law enforcement investigators access to the content of communications between paedophiles and terrorists, leaving thousands of children at risk of sexual abuse and Britain more open to terrorist plots.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Federation will be lobbying House of Lords members next week for a change in the law which would rein in lengthy and damaging police disciplinary investigations.
Representatives will be meeting with peers on 14 September at New Scotland Yard to propose an amendment to the Police, Crime, Courts and Sentencing Bill to protect the mental health and welfare of police officers under investigation.
As part of our Time Limits campaign, we have been pressing for the urgent need for police disciplinary investigations to conclude in an appropriate timeframe, ideally within 12 months of an allegation being made.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
In total, 9,814 police officers have been recruited across all 43 police forces in England and Wales. The recruitment is helping to increase diversity within the communities that the officers serve.
In all, 6,033 female officers have been recruited since April 2020, making up more than 4 in 10 new recruits, while 1,557 (11.3%) of the new recruits are from ethnic minority backgrounds.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The public will be able to tell police about areas where they feel unsafe by reporting the locations on a new online map.
StreetSafe, a new digital pilot, will allow people to anonymously log areas of concern - such as poorly lit walkways, or places they have experienced harassment.
The data will then be collected and used to make areas safer, such as through night-time patrols or the installation of better street lighting.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More than half of Scotland’s police officers want to be able to carry a handgun on patrol.
The Scottish Police Federation (SPF), which represents rank-and-file officers, said that its research showed that those on the front line felt vulnerable while carrying out their duties. Of the nearly 1,700 staff surveyed, 53 per cent rated handguns in the top five items of personal protective equipment to which they would want access routinely. Almost 60 per cent said they would like firearms training.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Chancellor has today (7 September) launched Spending Review 2021 (SR21), which will conclude on 27 October 2021 alongside an Autumn Budget and set out the government’s spending priorities for the Parliament.
The three-year review will set UK government departments’ resource and capital budgets for 2022-23 to 2024-25 and the devolved administrations’ block grants for the same period.
When added to what we have already provided to invest in our future, our plans – including the additional funding for health and social care announced today (7 September) – mean core departmental spending will grow in real terms at nearly 4% per year on average over this Parliament. By 2024-25 that means that core departmental spending will be £140 billion more per year in cash terms than at the start of the Parliament.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
All frontline police officers could receive enhanced medical training to help them treat bomb blast and shrapnel injuries.
The development arose on Tuesday at the public inquiry into the Manchester Arena bombing atrocity of 2017.
A counter-terrorism expert said the National Police Chiefs' Council was 'actively looking' at providing further first aid for response officers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A recent Independent Office for Police Conduct report made a raft of recommendations based on a review of 101 cases of the police use of Taser over a five-year period; but the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Police Federation have both criticised the report for being ‘vague’, ‘statistically insignificant’ and failing to engage with policing, as Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter reports.
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Police Demand
A police force has revealed some of its most ludicrous requests from members of the public calling 999 in non-emegency situations.
Essex Police criticised the callers who have abused the service, saying that dealing with such calls results in delays in responding to people in genuine need of help.
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Police and Crime General
Wiltshire’s estates team is about to begin a review of its stations because current arrangements are not fit for purpose.
The force’s new Police and Crime Commissioner has ordered the force to re-look at station provision after concerns from the Fed and the public.
Philip Wilkinson said: “I’ve asked the Chief Constable, and his leadership team, to conduct an immediate review of operational police estate in Salisbury and the south of the county.”
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Police and Crime General
Home Secretary Priti Patel has announced the appointment of Roy Wilsher OBE QFSM as a new inspector of police and fire and rescue services at the independent inspectorate HMICFRS.
Mr Wilsher will take up the dual role of Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary in England and Wales and Inspector of Fire and Rescue Authorities in England. He will primarily oversee inspections in the eastern region, covering fire risk assessments across the East Midlands and East of England.
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Police and Crime General
According to The Telegraph, the Government is planning to persuade highly-trained professionals from the private sector – especially in fields such as cyber security and digital technology – to volunteer their time and skills during periods of increased demand.
Retired officers, or those who have left the service early, could also be retained for a period to bolster numbers, especially in experienced ranks.
PFEW national chair John Apter said: “Yet again we find out about a proposed piece of government policy through the media, and we have not seen any details on the reserve capability of volunteer officers.
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Police and Crime General
The unlawful possession of laughing gas could be made a crime in England and Wales. Ministers have asked independent advisers to review the harm caused by nitrous oxide.
Usually sold in small silver canisters and inhaled, it is the second most-used drug among young adults.
Home Secretary Priti Patel wants the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to review the harm caused by nitrous oxide.
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Police and Crime General
The public will be able to tell police about areas where they feel unsafe by reporting the locations on a new online map.
StreetSafe, a new digital pilot, will allow people to anonymously log areas of concern - such as poorly lit walkways, or places they have experienced harassment.
The data will then be collected and used to make areas safer, such as through night-time patrols or the installation of better street lighting.
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Recruitment and Retention
A newly-elected Police and Crime Commissioner has been urged to meet his force’s Fed reps in a bid to end what they have described as a "long-hours culture."
Mark Andrews, Wiltshire’s Federation Chair, called on Philip Wilkinson to meet him "as soon as possible" to help re-examine force policy on shift patterns.
Mr Andrews claimed already exhausted officers are working draining 12-hour shifts on weekends.
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Police and Crime General
Twenty-four police forces from England and Wales have been selected to join the Transforming Forensics (TF) Programme’s new £5m Rape Review Response Project (RRRP), part of its Digital Forensic Capability workstream.
The 24 forces were selected from a longlist of 33, following a rigorous, independently assured, two-stage assessment process. This means that TF will work with more than half of all forces and England and Wales, and all nine NPCC regions, to improve how they respond to rape and other serious crimes.
The project will provide a range of new digital services and portable tools, enabling forces to take technology to victims, examine mobile and digital devices at crime scenes, and give investigators faster access to the right digital evidence.
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Police Finances
Elected officials will be able to divert a police force’s funding to other areas, such as mental health trusts, under a government proposal.
Ministers say it would let elected police and crime commissioners (PCCs) ease demand on policing by funding areas such as domestic abuse initiatives and specific NHS projects.
However, the plan prompted anger from police leaders who said forces were already underfunded and that it would be wrong for them to prop up struggling public services.
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Police Demand
The limit on contactless payments will rise from £45 to £100 from October 15, in a bid to get people to spend more in shops.
It is the second time in less than two years the limit has been increased - in March 2020 the limit on contactless payments was increased from £30 to £45 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The increase had already been announced by the government earlier this year, but banks had not yet decided when to implement it.
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Police and Crime General
Police and Crime Commissioner for Lincolnshire Marc Jones has supported an article that criticises the role LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall plays in helping the police.
The article by the Daily Mail details Surrey Police Commissioner Lisa Townsend expressing her opinion that the police should stop working with Stonewall.
Ms Townsend says in the article that Stonewall has "a dangerous ideology that threatens the safety of our women and girls", and that she has had many messages from women who are "frightened that female-only spaces, including women's refuges and toilets, are being opened up to people who 'identify' as women, even if they have male genitalia."
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Police Finances
Currently, the discount rate used in the valuation of unfunded public service pension schemes to set employer contribution rates, is set at 2.4% above inflation.
However, in response to a consultation which concluded last week, pension body, the Association of Consulting Actuaries said the current methodology will “almost inevitably” overestimate or underestimate the value.
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Police Finances
A lack of funding for rural youth work in England is leaving young people exposed to the dangers of county lines drug-dealing gangs, it is claimed.
The amount spent per head on youth work for 11- to 19-year-olds in rural England, £47, is 25% less than in urban areas, and half the level a decade ago.
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Justice
Domestic abuse prosecutions have halved in three years and forces are failing to use measures designed to protect victims, watchdogs have said.
Women are subject to an “epidemic” of violence and abuse and officers are not seeking enough protection orders or ensuring that breaches are punished, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), the Independent Office for Police Conduct and the College of Policing warned a in joint report.
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Justice
On 19 March 2019, the Centre for Women’s Justice made a super-complaint to HMICFRS.
This super-complaint is about the police’s alleged failure to use protective measures to safeguard women and girls. It sets out concerns about four tools the police can use/are involved in:
- Pre-charge bail
- Non-Molestation Orders
- Domestic Violence Protection Notices and Orders
- Restraining Orders
The CWJ is concerned the police aren’t using these tools enough and in the right way.
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Recruitment and Retention
The Welsh Government have announced additional funding to provide a further 100 Police Community Support Officers (PSCOs) to tackle crime and support communities.
Wales’ First Minister, Mark Drakeford, and the Welsh Government’s Minister for Social Justice, Jane Hutt, have announced an extra £3.7m for additional PCSOs across Wales, bringing the total budget to over £22m.
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Police and Crime General
Two female PCs murdered in a gun and grenade ambush might have survived if they had both been issued Tasers, according to the chief constable who became the first to give the weapon to every frontline officer.
Nick Adderley, now the chief of Northamptonshire police, was in command of police constables Nicola Hughes and Fiona Bone when they were killed by the wanted gangster Dale Cregan.
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Police and Crime General
Stonewall is a LGBT rights charity that a number of police forces subscribe to receive guidance on issues around diversity.
But one force's PCC has publicly criticised Stonewall’s support of the right of transgender women to access female only spaces, calling it a "dangerous ideology that threatens the safety of our women and girls".
Surrey’s Police and Crime Commissioner Lisa Townsend told the Daily Mail: “Stonewall, which has drifted so far from its original mission is now a threat to women and risks putting feminism back 50 years.
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Police Finances
Chief constables have called for a Home Office review of crime recording because the “ludicrous” rules would count a threat involving a potato peeler as a knife crime.
Nick Adderley, the chief constable of Northamptonshire, said that police had to record incidents that were far below the prosecution threshold, distorting the crime figures. He said that if a child picked up a potato peeler during an argument with a parent this would be recorded as a knife-related crime even if they did not threaten to use the utensil.
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Police and Crime General
Extinction Rebellion protesters have blocked one of Covent Garden’s busiest junctions on the first day of the group’s latest wave of protests targeting London.
At about midday on Monday, activists from the group chained themselves together to block the roundabout at Long Acre as a van pulled up with a pink table structure. It was quickly assembled and hundreds of other activists streamed to the roundabout.
Activists said the 4 metre-high structure, emblazoned with the slogan “Come to the table”, is intended to stay in place for the duration of Extinction Rebellion’s planned fortnight of protest, which the group has said will target the City of London to highlight the role of high finance in the climate crisis.
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Police Demand
National chair John Apter spoke out after figures obtained by the BBC through a Freedom of Information request showed that up to 4.500 people in mental health crisis were unlawfully held in police custody during the course of a single year.
The figures emerged from a report commissioned by Theresa May’s government and given to ministers in 2018.
Mr Apter said: “It is deeply frustrating to see more headlines revealing members of the public in mental health crisis are being kept in police cells when they absolutely shouldn’t be as they are patients – not prisoners.
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Economy & Public Finance
Government borrowing fell in July compared with a year earlier as the removal of most Covid restrictions in England gave the economy a boost.
Borrowing - the difference between spending and tax income - was £10.4bn, official figures show, which was £10.1bn lower than July last year.
However, the figure was the second-highest for July since records began.
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Police Demand
Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix’s Policing Friendship Tour recently caught up with Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Festus Akinbusoye, to walk and talk about the policing challenges facing the county including the disproportionality in the number of Black and Asian stabbing victims and offenders, the importance of stop and search – done properly and lawfully – and the task of tackling county lines drugs.
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Justice
Average sentence lengths for violent and sexual offences in England and Wales fell steeply last year as the Covid pandemic also led to a huge slowdown in the number of people dealt with by the criminal justice system.
The average custodial sentence length for violent crimes fell by 22% to 18.5 months and the figure for sexual offences fell by 12% to 52 months, the lowest figure since 2011, according to official figures.
Sentence lengths fell in all categories, except for public order offences and “miscellaneous crimes against society”, which both increased slightly.
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Recruitment and Retention
Welfare leads across the country have begun work to identify former Armed Services personnel who have been affected by the withdrawal of Allied troops from Afghanistan.
Force leaders have ordered check-ins with officers who joined up after serving in the Afghan conflict and may be experiencing mental health episodes as a result of the country’s collapse.
Focus is on single crew officers on late shifts, people in high-pressure roles such as custody teams and those working in outlying stations.
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Police Finances
A man who reported his female partner to the police for coercive control has said not being taken seriously felt like another form of gaslighting.
Craig said his former partner "robbed me of my independence and slowly undermined my confidence". He also said that police concluded no further action was possible after he reported her and she was not charged.
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Economy & Public Finance
Cuts to youth services in England amounting to £660m over the past decade have fuelled antisocial behaviour and violent crime, Keir Starmer will say on Monday.
The Labour leader said his experience as a former director of public prosecutions showed that youth workers, youth centres and other services aimed at young people were a key plank of early intervention against the causes of crime.
He highlighted analysis from the House of Commons library showing cuts to youth services in England since 2011 under successive Conservatives governments were steepest in the most deprived areas.
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COVID-19
People in England and Northern Ireland who have had two COVID-19 vaccines will no longer be required to self-isolate if they have contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus. Instead of having to go into quarantine for 10 days, they are now advised to take a PCR test, but this is not compulsory.
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Recruitment and Retention
The requirement for UK police recruits to either be graduates or achieve a degree as part of their training is still a subject of much debate; but University of Sunderland lecturers Dr Jerry Pearson and Adrian Smiles – both former serving officers – believe one area of the PEQF that needs to be addressed is delivering a degree qualification which recognises the skills and experience of those serving officers who are currently non-graduates.
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Police and Crime General
Schoolchildren will be offered lessons on consent following the murder of Sarah Everard at the hands of a police officer in March.
The campaign group Reclaim These Streets and social enterprise Shout Out UK have teamed up to develop the lessons as they say the "current provisions are not enough".
The new lesson plans will cover a range of topics, including consent and its relationship to the law, myths relating to sexual harassments and assault and online harms.
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Police Demand
Ministers want an officer sent to the scene of every burglary to boost public confidence in the police.
Senior government sources said that this would significantly reduce burglaries because officers would be able to build a picture of offenders’ trends and tactics and take preventive action.
By visiting every victim they would also be able to spot safety lapses. Half of all burglaries happen because a householder has left a window or door open.
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Economy & Public Finance
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has pledged there will be “absolutely no return to austerity” in the upcoming Spending Review, as the UK recovers from Covid-19.
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Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson has made former cabinet minister Damian Hinds his new security minister, after deciding not to let Priti Patel take on the brief.
Less than 24 hours after the home secretary was reported to be adding security to her responsibilities, No 10 made an official announcement that Hinds would take the job.
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Police and Crime General
Middle-class drug users need to “connect themselves with the violence” of the drugs trade, the policing minister has said.
Kit Malthouse said that a new government strategy to crack down on illegal drug use will target recreational users to “illustrate the impact” of their demand for Class A substances, such as cocaine, LSD and ecstasy.
The strategy to be published in the autumn will seek to change the “perceived acceptability” of taking drugs.
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Police and Crime General
The public should be consulted on whether crime victims should be barred from getting compensation if they have an unspent conviction, judges say.
The High Court ruling against the justice secretary follows a legal challenge by a woman who was sexually abused aged eight but denied damages.
Kim Mitchell, who committed a minor public order offence 30 years later, waived her anonymity and said the rule was unfair and needed to be changed.
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Police and Crime General
Conditions attached to the use of Section 60 stop and search powers which were introduced by Theresa May in 2014 when she was Home Secretary have been scrapped by the current government.
The best use of stop and search scheme was announced by Mrs May in her statement to Parliament on 30 April 2014.
The scheme for participating forces introduced a number of measures designed to create greater transparency, accountability and community involvement in the use of stop and search powers.
Following the announcement in Boris Johnson's Beating Crime Plan on 27 July this year, the voluntary conditions relating to section 60 within this scheme are now no longer in place, the Home Office has confirmed.
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Police and Crime General
The US-UK Fulbright Commission, the National Black Police Association (NBPA), and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) today launched a new award aimed at furthering research into policing and criminal justice.
The Fulbright-Stephen Lawrence Scholar Award in Policing will give a UK officer or staff the chance to conduct research in a three-month programme hosted by three Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the United States.
The US-UK Fulbright Commission awards scholarships to American and British students who want to study across the Atlantic or others who want to carry out research in each other's countries.
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Police and Crime General
Assaults on front-line workers in Britain’s prison system have been “de-facto decriminalised”, a new report has claimed.
One in four staff has been physically attacked at work over the last year, with one in ten having been assaulted twice or more in the same period, the research by trade union Community showed.
The report, called Keep Us Safe, said that prisons are facing a worrying “spike in violence”, with assaults on prison staff in England and Wales increasing by 247 per cent since 2010. This equates to 21 prison officers being physically assaulted every single day, the report claimed.
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Police Finances
The Home Office has awarded £11.3 million to 25 Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales, to go towards domestic abuse intervention programmes.
The programmes focus on interventions encouraging behaviour change to help stop perpetrators from committing domestic abuse, with the ultimate aim of preventing further crimes from being committed.
Funding will also focus on key areas such as stalking prevention and supporting adolescent perpetrators.
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Police Demand
Reports of catalytic converter thefts across the UK have dropped by 57 per cent, as people opt to forensically mark their vehicles.
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Economy & Public Finance
UK economic growth rose by 4.8 per cent between April and June, according to official figures, slightly short of Bank of England forecasts of a 5 per cent rise in GDP over the period when most of the economy reopened from lockdown.
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Police and Crime General
Officers and staff at Derbyshire Constabulary have been told they have “let down” the victims of murders and their families and that “drastic changes” are needed in the way the force operates.
When logging on to their work computers this week, all employees are being greeted with a new screensaver featuring the word ‘vulnerability’ and the faces of four people who died following contact with the force.
The first was Gracie Spinks, who was stabbed to death in June by a former colleague who subsequently took his own life. The screensaver also depicted Helen Hancock and her partner Martin Griffiths, who were both murdered by her former husband on New Year’s Day 2020.
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Justice
The prospect of rape victims getting justice is half as likely in some regions compared with others, analysis of statistics shows. Victims of rape also have to wait twice as long for a prosecution in some counties.
The 94.4 per cent rape conviction rate in Gloucestershire is the highest in England and Wales. In Warwickshire, a neighbouring county, the proportion of convictions is 46.7 per cent, the lowest rate.
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Technology
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is to transform the way it deals with crimes involving computers, smartphones and other devices after announcing a collaboration deal with a major developer of digital investigation software.
The force has teamed up with Magnet Forensics, a developer of digital investigation software, which has created a new product that can speed up digital and data analysis investigations by a factor of three and enable non-technical investigators to take on more cases.
The rapid proliferation of digital devices and data relevant to investigations has put pressure on police agencies worldwide, creating backlogs in digital forensics labs, delaying cases and putting justice at risk. The highly technical nature of traditional digital forensics tools limits collaboration between digital forensic examiners and non-technical investigators, who have the full context of cases.
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Police and Crime General
In an effort to tackle violent crime, a ban on a wide range of knives, weapons and firearms came into force from 14 July.
This means that some articles that were previously legal to own in the home are now illegal. It’s now an offence to keep items such as knuckledusters, flick knives, throwing stars, zombie knives, telescopic truncheons and push daggers in your home.
The law will also change on safe retailing for buying knives in store and online. This provision will commence later in the year.
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Police Demand
The number of young criminals serving life sentences has increased by more than 50 per cent in under a decade amid rising youth violence.
Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data show the number of criminals aged 25 or younger sentenced to life with a tariff of at least 15 years in jail rose from 917 to 1,394 between 2013 and 2020, an increase of 52 per cent.
That means that in just seven years, almost 500 more young men and women have been sentenced to at least a decade and a half in prison, according to the figures obtained under Freedom of Information laws by criminologists at Royal Holloway and Cambridge University.
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Police Demand
When most people think about drugs as an issue in politics, the habits of individual politicians are probably at the front of their minds. My own attempt as Conservative leader to frame a “zero tolerance” policy collapsed when more than a third of my shadow cabinet admitted to once taking drugs themselves. David Cameron was bedevilled for a while with such questions about his past.
More recently, as public attitudes have changed, popular leaders have been able to breeze through the issue with a quick confession, from Boris Johnson’s admission that he tried cocaine at university — but “it achieved no pharmacological, psychotropical or any other effect on me whatsoever” — to Barack Obama’s “I inhaled: that was the point”.
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Police Demand
C
ounty lines drugs gangs could move back to using public transport to move crack and heroin as trains and coaches get busier in the coming months.
Restrictions linked to the pandemic last year forced drugs couriers to use cars as coach services stopped and train services were reduced, making them more identifiable and increasing the risk of being caught.
Police are now monitoring whether the gangs will return to trains and coaches as passenger numbers increase again, allowing them to blend in with crowds while moving consignments of illegal drugs.
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Police and Crime General
The best use of stop and search scheme was announced by Home Secretary Theresa May in her statement to Parliament on 30 April 2014.
The scheme introduces a number of measures designed to create greater transparency, accountability and community involvement in the use of stop and search powers.
Following the announcement in the Beating Crime Plan on 27 July 2021, the voluntary conditions relating to section 60 (pages 2 and 6) within this scheme are no longer in place.
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Police Finances
Ministers are completely unprepared to deal with the sharp rise in exclusions, and the subsequent exploitation of thousands of children, that could happen when schools reopen next month, the former children’s commissioner has said.
In a stark warning about the potential number of children who have fallen “off grid” since the start of the pandemic, Anne Longfield said that tens of thousands more children could be exploited by gangs and criminals because the state had failed to keep track of them.
In an interview with the Observer, she said she was concerned that a rise in the number of children apparently home schooled during the pandemic would also put significantly more children at risk. She said the scale of the problem would only become apparent with the return of schools in September, but warned the state was “absolutely not” equipped to deal with the problem.
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Police Demand
When a customer walked into a branch of TSB and asked to transfer £250,000 to a new fixed-income investment account, the staff went through their usual procedures. Was the customer sure he wanted to do this? He was adamant. An experienced investor, he showed them that the investment scheme was run by a firm registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). When the branch manager emerged for further checks, the customer became irate. He was frustrated that TSB’s workers did not trust his judgment.
So, in line with his wishes, the bank transferred the funds.
Three months later, as the first interest payment became due on the investment, it turned out that the firm no longer existed. The customer had been the victim of a sophisticated scam.
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Police and Crime General
The UK's first dedicated football hate crime officer is already investigating 75 hate crimes, police said. PC Stuart Ward took on the role for West Midlands Police in January.
Ahead of the return of the football season, the force said it would be cracking down on abuse at matches and on social media.
"There has been a national rise in hate crime linked to football over the last few years and there are absolutely no winners from it," PC Ward said.
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Police and Crime General
Children as young as 10 and an 87-year-old pensioner have been tasered by police amid a sharp rise in officers firing the devices in the last three years.
A Sky News investigation has revealed details of incidents where officers have fired the 50,000-volt stun guns at minors and elderly people between 2018 and June this year.
The findings come amid calls for the UK to ban the use of Tasers on under-18s.
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Police and Crime General
Fairness belongs to the silent majority, not those who shout the loudest.
As the Policing, Sentencing and Courts Bill makes its way through the House of Lords the clamour from the so-called “Kill the Bill” brigade is rising.
But the legislation does not seek to smother the legal and legitimate right of free speech – a freedom hard-won and cherished in the United Kingdom. Instead it will strengthen police powers to tackle non-violent protests and allow them to take a more proactive approach towards highly disruptive demonstrations.
I hope it will tip the balance back in favour of the majority of the population who want to go about their daily lives without the disruption, nuisance and fear caused by the illegal activity of a few.
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Police and Crime General
Criminals who offend to fund their drug addiction could be forced to wear monitors as a way of making them stop.
Ministers are exploring technology that would enable a device to sense when an illegal substance has been taken, sources have told The Times.
They would be similar to ankle tags that track offenders, or a medical patch, and would be an attempt to slash reoffending for drug-related crime and tackle soaring drug use in prisons.
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Police and Crime General
What began as a peaceful protest in London, over the killing of Mark Duggan, quickly turned into chaos.
Rioting spread through cities across England.
Cars and buildings were torched and roads barricaded. Missiles were thrown at police and crowds of people stormed their own communities, with looters helping themselves to everything and anything they could get their hands on...
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Police Finances
Residents of towns such as Burnley and Hartlepool pay around two per cent of the value of their property each year in council tax while people living in Kensington and Westminster pay just 0.1 per cent.
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Police Finances
HM Inspectorate’s repeat inspection found fraud continues to be treated as a low-priority or victimless crime by forces despite demands for change from the watchdog and victims of crime.
Although improvements have been made, the big problems remain unchanged it said.
City of London Police’s role as the national lead force for fraud is clearer than it was in 2019, and there is now a three-year national policing strategy for tackling fraud.
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Recruitment and Retention
Police bosses have renewed pleas for pay increases, telling Home Secretary Priti Patel that officers “deserve better”.
National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) chairman Martin Hewitt has written to Ms Patel off the back of heavy criticism and concern over a staff wages.
Last week police representatives marched on Downing Street after it was announced that officers who earn more than £24,000 will be subject to a pay freeze this year, compared with NHS staff who will receive a 3% increase, and firefighters and local government workers who will receive 1.5%.
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Police and Crime General
Drug-related deaths in England and Wales have reached their highest levels since records began as they rose for the eighth year in a row, figures show.
There were 4,561 deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales in 2020, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
It was the highest number since records began in 1993 and up 3.8% from the previous year.
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Police and Crime General
A new consultation launched today (August 3) looks to amend current regulations to allow naloxone to be supplied and administered by a wider group of people regularly coming into contact with drug users.
Currently, while naloxone can be legally administered by anyone during an emergency, its supply is tightly controlled and is available only through prescription.
Aside from an emergency situation, it is only commissioned drug treatment services that are able to obtain and supply naloxone to individuals without a prescription or other written authorisation. This consultation seeks to change that.
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Police and Crime General
Staffordshire Police has become one of the first forces in the UK, and the first in the West Midlands region, to roll-out body armour for its police dogs.
The lightweight armour is custom-made to better protect police dogs – both general purpose dogs and drugs dogs - and will give them protection against knives, bullets, spikes and impact from blunt objects.
The armour was chosen after the force evaluated different types – for their protection level, durability and design. They have been produced following feedback from extensive trials conducted by UK police forces.
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COVID-19
A major increase in attacks on police has been recorded during the pandemic, according to official figures revealing that there were more than 100 assaults on officers in England and Wales every day.
With senior police figures warning that officers have faced deliberate spitting and coughing since the start of the crisis, it has emerged that there were 36,969 assaults on police in the year that followed the outbreak in March 2020. It represented a 20% rise on the previous year.
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Police and Crime General
Seven in ten who reported an offence say officers were indifferent or uncaring about them or their family.
Their experience made them less confident about the ability of police to keep them safe.
One senior Tory MP said the “alarming” response showed that forces must work to earn public support.
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Police and Crime General
The proportion of people charged with violent crime has fallen to the lowest level in ten years, official figures show.
Last year only 6.8 per cent of reported crimes involving violence led to a suspect being charged.
The Home Office statistics, which run to March, showed that more than nine out of ten of all recorded crimes did not lead to a charge.
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Police Demand
New statistical analysis conducted by the Labour Party has found huge gaps in the police workforce with the proportion of officers working on the front line the lowest in a decade.
The party said its research found there were 8,433 fewer officers, 7,633 fewer police community support officers (PCSOs), and 7,502 fewer police staff than in 2010.
More than 10,000 officers and PCSOs have been lost from neighbourhood policing since 2015, while the proportion of frontline officers is at its lowest level in a decade.
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Police and Crime General
The Independent Office for Police Conduct today published its annual report on deaths during or following police contact in 2020/21.
Published for the 17th year, the statistics provide an official record setting out the number of such deaths, the circumstances in which they happen, and any underlying factors. Figures across the different categories can fluctuate each year, and any conclusions about trends need to be treated with caution.
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Police and Crime General
The home affairs select committee's report examines progress against some of the most important Macpherson report recommendations made following the unprovoked racist murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993.
The committee has called for a number of recommendations including achieving a police workforce that is representative of the population by 2030 and maintaining an institutional focus on structural imbalances that lead to unequal outcomes for individuals of different ethnicities.
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Police and Crime General
New changes to the Highway Code will give pedestrians greater priority over cars at junctions and crossings, the Transport Secretary has announced. The Department of Transport said the changes, along with an extra £338 million to boost cycling and walking, will help to sustain the increase in active travel during the pandemic.
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Police Finances
Criminals are to be guaranteed accommodation when they leave prison as part of a £20 million plan to reduce reoffending.
They will be housed in bedsits or hostels organised by the probation service in a bid to prevent them returning to crime.
Some 18,000 prisoners - or 30 per cent of those released - were in unsettled accommodation, rough sleeping or homeless last year, with a 50 per cent greater chance of reoffending than those who had secure housing.
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Police and Crime General
Responding to the announcement of Part Two of the Review, APCC Chair Marc Jones said:
“Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) welcome Part Two of the Government’s review into the role of PCCs, which was launched on Wednesday (27 July).
“PCCs have engaged constructively with the Review throughout, and it has provided an important opportunity to build on the learning and developments since the role was created nine years ago.
“We are already working closely with government and policing partners in delivering on the recommendations of Part One of the Review, and today we welcome the start of the second phase of the process of unlocking the full potential of the PCC role, with a strong focus on developing our role across criminal justice, reducing reoffending, anti-social behaviour (ASB) and prevention.
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Prisons
ITV News understands that Hashem Abedi, the Manchester Arena bomb plotter, is refusing to co-operate with a deradicalisation programme in prison - and is being held at a Separation Centre away from other inmates over concerns he could radicalise other prisoners.
Our cameras were given unprecedented access to HMP Frankland in County Durham and HMP Full Sutton near York where Abedi and some of the country's most dangerous criminals are being held.
The Separation Centre at HMP Frankland, where Abedi is an inmate, is reserved for the most radical terrorists - a 'prison within a prison'. It has never been seen before on camera until now.
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Recruitment and Retention
The government is nearly half-way to delivering on its pledge to put 20,000 additional officers on the streets by 2023, figures released today (28 July) show.
An extra 9,814 police officers have been recruited across all 43 police forces in England and Wales, where they are already having an impact in tackling crime and keeping communities safe.
The latest figures follow the launch of the government’s Beating Crime Plan yesterday (27 July), aimed at reducing crime, protecting victims and making the country safer.
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Police and Crime General
Police officers and staff who died on duty have been commemorated in a monument that has been unveiled at the National Memorial Arboretum.
The Prince of Wales was among those at a dedication ceremony at the £4.5m memorial and garden created at the Staffordshire site, where a minute's silence was held.
He paid tribute to the "valour and sacrifice" of those who had died.
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Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson has defended his plan to expand blanket stop-and-search powers for police forces – insisting it was a “kind and loving” way to get dangerous weapons off the streets.
The prime minister also said he wanted to see more “chain gangs” of people found guilty of antisocial behaviour out cleaning the streets in hi-vis jackets.
Campaigners have condemned the plan to widen the power to stop and search people without suspicion, deemed by many experts to be both “ineffective” and racially disproportionate.
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Police and Crime General
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised to cut crime by tackling drug misuse and using electronic tagging on more burglars after release.
The government is also proposing that every neighbourhood in England and Wales should have a named police officer for residents to contact.
Mr Johnson said his efforts to make society safer would be "unstinting".
But the Police Federation, representing rank-and-file officers, said fighting crime needed greater investment.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
“Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) welcome the Government’s new plan, published today, to reduce crime, protect victims and keep our communities safe. These priorities are at the heart of everything that PCCs do.
"We are pleased to see the strong end-to-end focus of the plan – from tackling serious violence and high harms, to driving down neighbourhood crime, to tackling anti-social behaviour. We know from the victims and community groups that we speak to, that these crimes destroy lives, and it is imperative that we work together at a local and national level to tackle them. We are particularly encouraged to see the strong focus on Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB), which for too long has been neglected. PCCs already work closely with local authority partners and community groups to tackle ASB but we want to do more and go further. We would like to use the platform of the Beating Crime Plan to galvanise local and national partners to come together to stop ASB in its tracks – ensuring we use all the powers available to us to tackle perpetrators, support victims and invest in local communities, and where we need more powers – to make the case to Government for them.
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Police and Crime General
National Chair John Apter has written a forthright letter to Downing Street expressing how our membership feels towards the Government, demanding it overturns its zero percent pay award decision and calling for a fairer pay review system, not influenced by government.
The action follows last week’s National Council meeting where those present voted through a motion of ‘no confidence’ in the Home Secretary and agreed to walk away from the ‘not fit for purpose’ Police Remuneration Review Body.
The letter states: “This is about much more than money, though for many the offer of a zero per cent pay rise, after all the police has been through in helping deal with the pandemic, was the final straw.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Frontline emergency service workers, including in policing, told to isolate by the Covid-19 app or by NHS Test and Trace will be able to continue working if they test negative in new daily testing scheme.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said new testing sites will be allocated for frontline police and fire services to ensure “critical staff can continue their vital work”.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “Our brave police officers and fire fighters have shown throughout the pandemic that they have worked tirelessly to keep us safe and serve their communities.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has suggested electronic tagging on more burglars after release, and wider use of public "chain gangs", as measures to combat crime and anti-social behaviour.
The government is also proposing that every neighbourhood in England and Wales should have a named police officer for residents to contact.
The PM said it meant victims could speak to someone who knew the area.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Tackling and preventing anti-social behaviour is a top priority for Durham Police and Crime Commissioner Joy Allen.
The PCC is committed to reducing the levels of anti-social behaviour responsible for causing residents of County Durham and Darlington great concern, alarm and distress and she is determined to work with partners to develop local solutions to local problems.
Signalling this commitment, the Commissioner will shortly be appointing an Anti-Social Behaviour Champion who will spearhead multi-agency action to address persistent anti-social behaviour and enabling victims to instigate a Community Trigger to seek redress.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
People arriving at A&E suffering a mental health crisis will receive urgent help within an hour under a new plan to bring in treatment targets for those with psychological and psychiatric problems.
NHS England wants to introduce five new waiting time standards specifying how long those in need should have to wait for care, in a drive to reduce what are often long delays.
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Police Demand
The Office for National Statistics has today released the latest crime statistics which show that there has been an overall fall in the number of recorded crimes over the 12 month period from March 2020 to March 2021.
Within South Yorkshire most areas of crime have fallen over the 12 month period – some significantly – though with some exceptions.
There have been large decreases in theft (-32%), residential burglary (-25%), robbery (-24%) and knife crime (-19%). Other crimes including sexual offences and overall crime have also fallen.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Rank and file officers have announced they have no confidence in Priti Patel, the home secretary, after the government froze police pay.
The head of the Police Federation of England and Wales said the move was the “final straw” for officers and said they were angry with the government and would no longer support the pay body responsible for setting police wages.
Patel confirmed yesterday that officers earning more than £24,000 would be affected by the freeze. Those earning less will be given an annual rise of £250.
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Economy & Public Finance
Public services could face a £17bn funding cut in the spending review, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned.
The IFS said that the chancellor's existing spending plans would mean up to £17bn less was spent on public services per year than was planned pre-COVID.
The economists warned Rishi Sunak has 'very little room for manoeuvre' in his forthcoming spending review due to permanent economic damage done by the pandemic and rising debt interest costs.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Encouraging self-harm online will be criminalised and people convicted of cyberflashing will be forced to sign the sex offenders register under proposals being put to ministers.
In a report published today, the Law Commission said it wanted to address “the harms arising from online abuse” by tightening laws on cyber-behaviour.
Commissioners said that existing legislation was “ineffective at criminalising genuinely harmful behaviour” but “in some instances disproportionately interferes with freedom of expression”.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
“We are the undisputed and unequivocal voice of policing, particularly for rank and file officers, so it is vital that we speak up for our members.
“Police officers have been on the frontline of this pandemic for 18 months and will now see firefighters and local government workers in England given a 1.5 per cent increase while they receive nothing. This is further evidence that not all public services are treated equally by this Government, and some are valued more than others.
“The current pay system for policing is not fit for purpose. We are forced to enter into an inherently unfair process from the start, with the odds weighted firmly in favour of the Government where, it seems, a decision has already been made when they set the parameters for the pay review body.
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Police Demand
Response times will rise due to the “pingdemic”, a police and crime commissioner has warned.
Steve Turner has called on the Government to review the self-isolation rules for workers after Cleveland Police was forced to cancel annual leave and rest days for some officers to fill gaps caused by staff contacted by the NHS Test and Trace app.
In one incident five officers were reportedly forced off-duty after they came into contact with a prisoner who tested positive for Covid-19.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The Government has said people attending nightclubs and other venues where large crowds gather in England will need to be fully vaccinated from the end of September. Latest figures show 35 per cent of 18 to 30-year-olds have not had their first vaccination. In the UK, there were 39,950 cases of coronavirus recorded on Monday, and another 19 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Public street harassment is likely to be criminalised under plans being drawn up by the government as part of its long-awaited strategy to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG) for England and Wales.
The use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in cases of sexual harassment and abuse in higher education settings could be also be banned after a review.
It had been briefed that home secretary Priti Patel would not look to introduce a new street harassment law – called for by campaigners and the government’s own adviser.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Some fully vaccinated people in critical roles in England will be able to continue working even if told to self-isolate after being in close contact with someone who has Covid.
Instead those eligible - including NHS and care staff - will be able to take daily tests, the government said.
A list of critical workers is due to be published, but the PM said it included food, utility and border staff.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police are bracing to deal with chaotic celebrations likened to “New Year’s Eve over and over and over again” as coronavirus restrictions are lifted.
Forces across England have been reporting increases in violence and anti-social behaviour linked to pubs and bars in recent weeks, and Euro 2020 was the worst football tournament on record for crime.
[ more...]
Police Finances
This publication brings together previously published police funding figures for England and Wales into a single definitive publication for the last seven years.
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Justice
Police and the Crown Prosecution Service are involved in a blame game over a drop in rape prosecutions, a watchdogs' report has said.
CPS figures for 2019-20 show 1,439 suspects were convicted of rape or lesser offences in England and Wales, the lowest level since records began.
This is down from 1,925 the previous year despite a rise in reports of rape.
The review by the police and CPS watchdogs calls for an urgent shift in the way rape cases are investigated.
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Justice
Officials investigating the leak of CCTV that led to Matt Hancock’s resignation raided two homes and seized computer equipment yesterday. Elected police chiefs said the investigation should become a criminal inquiry.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which is looking into a data breach after footage of Hancock kissing an aide was leaked, said that two raids were carried out in the south of England. Elected police and crime commissioners said the investigation should be referred to the police because it was a serious security breach.
[ more...]
Fire
As the Government prepares to consult on plans to change how fire services are governed, a new report sets out how Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners (PFCCs) are already delivering efficient and effective fire and rescue services in parts of England.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK inflation rate hit 2.5% in the year to June, the highest for nearly three years, as the unlocking of the UK economy continued.
The Consumer Prices Index measure of inflation rose from 2.1% in May, the Office for National Statistics said, driven by higher food and fuel costs. The rate is higher than the Bank of England's 2% inflation target for a second month.
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Police Finances
Cyclone knives, spiral knives and ‘rapid-fire’ rifles are among those covered by the ban, all of which have been associated with serious violence in communities across the country.
A new legal definition of flick knives, banned since 1959, also takes effect, resulting in more of these bladed weapons being outlawed.
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Police and Crime General
Home Secretary Priti Patel, together with senior policing leaders including the chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW), will join the first Police Covenant Board meeting to oversee the implementation of the Police Covenant today (July 14).
Delivering on the Government’s manifesto commitment, the Police Covenant will provide officers with long term-support and protection to carry out their duties, with a focus on health and wellbeing, physical safety and support for families.
Police forces across the country will be given a unified set of standards to adhere to protect the physical and mental health of officers. The National Police Wellbeing Service is working with forces to ensure the new standards are attainable.
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Technology
Currently, there is no requirement for witness statements to be recorded and in most cases the only record is the written statement – usually drafted by a police officer as directed by the witness.
The new report argues that this age-old practice fails to convey important information about how the police interview with the witness is conducted, which can unduly influence their statement.
BWV cameras are widely used by police forces in the UK and are increasingly used as evidence in court. In their report, the authors say that there are “good grounds” for requiring their use to record witness interviews, in addition to their use by officers to record arrests or other events during police operations.
However, the authors caution that more research is needed into the emotional impact of BWV camera footage and called for courts to be alert to how this might adversely influence people’s judgment.
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Fire
Councils will “strongly oppose” any proposals for Police and Crime Commissioners to take control of fire and rescue services.
England's most powerful council leaders made clear they won’t relinquish power or budgets to PCCs despite their claim to have government support.
The blunt warning came after the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners published a report arguing they were best-placed to improve services.
The report coincided with the start of a government consultation on oversight of fire services.
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Justice
A victim of crime says some people are put off reporting incidents because of delays in getting justice.
More than 57,000 trials are yet to be heard in crown courts across England and Wales due to a backlog made worse by the coronavirus pandemic.
This is despite investment by the UK government to reduce the backlog.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police forces across the country dealt with more than double the number of football-related incidents following the Euro 2020 final compared to any previous tournament matches.
The overwhelming majority of forces across England and Wales, including British Transport Police, saw an increase in demand overnight in relation to Sunday's England v Italy fixture.
There were at least 875 incidents overall. This is more than double the number of incidents recorded in relation to matches at previous tournaments - including England's World Cup semi-final clash with Croatia in 2018, when there were 335.
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Technology
The National Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) is urging more forces to utilise new guidelines which enables them to release body-worn video footage easier.
Last year National Chair John Apter raised his concerns to the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) over the public sharing selective video clips of police interactions on social media and the damaging impact it can have on public confidence and criminal justice processes.
As a result, John worked with the then NPCC lead on body-worn video Chief Constable Andy Marsh and the NPCC issued new policy to forces November last year, but further improvements need to be made in this area.
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Police and Crime General
Police and Crime Commissioners have backed calls for a whole system response to illegal drug use and its multi-billion pound cost.
Reducing illegal drug demand rather than focusing on arresting people with dependency issues is the only way to reduce the UK’s drug problem, a government-ordered review has found.
In the second part of her report, Dame Carol Black said central government had to lead a radical change of approach to problem drug users that viewed them as having a chronic health problem that needs long-term treatment.
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Police Demand
New laws limiting protest will be difficult to enforce and are unneeded, senior policing figures have warned.
The Police Crime and Sentencing Bill, which passed its third reading by MPs earlier this week, did not alter pans to give forces more powers to break up demonstrations.
The legislation includes giving officers new powers to set time limits on protests and intervene if they are judged to be too noisy.
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Police and Crime General
Police will be told to take offences such as indecent exposure and street harassment more seriously in the wake of Sarah Everard’s murder.
Wayne Couzens, a serving firearms officer, abducted the 33-year-old as she walked home in south London in March. Her body was found 50 miles away in woodland in Kent after a search lasting a week. Couzens pleaded guilty to her murder on Friday, having already admitted rape and kidnapping.
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Police and Crime General
A county-lines-style crackdown on rape, sexual offences and violence against women is needed to improve “indefensible” prosecution rates, the police watchdog has said.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services said that the “relentless focus” on pursuing offenders who use young and vulnerable people as drug mules must be applied to female violence.
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Technology
Motorola’s position as owner of the police and emergency services Airwave system and a key supplier for the hugely delayed Emergency Services Network could be investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority.
The CMA says it is particularly concerned that Motorola could stand to make excess profits of around £1.2 billion in the period from 2020 to 2026 because Airwave was supposed to have been switched off by 2019.
As it stands the company will continue billing forces until 2026 while the massively over-budget ESN continues to overrun.
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Police and Crime General
The police and crime commissioner for Leicestershire has said he has banned his staff from communicating with Black Lives Matter groups.
In a diary-style article for Conservative Home, Rupert Matthews wrote that on his third day in office he told his staff not to have any contact with BLM.
The subject had come up during an online staff meeting in which contact with activists from BLM was on the agenda.
“Why are we meeting an organisation that wants to defund the police, has put police officers in hospital, and desecrated the cenotaph in London?” he wrote.
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Police Demand
The UK is facing a worse threat from fraud than during the 2008 financial crisis and the Government’s efforts to fight it are falling far short, MPs have heard.
In a damning evidence session in Parliament expert David Clarke said there is a “major tsunami” of fraud coming, and the UK has created a “haven for fraudsters”.
Mr Clarke, who is a former City of London Police officer and now chair of the Fraud Advisory Panel, said a minister should be appointed to an economic crime portfolio in order to produce more accountability.
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Police and Crime General
A new drugs unit will be set up to help end illegal drug-related illness and deaths, the government has announced today.
The Joint Combating Drugs Unit will bring together multiple government departments – including the Department of Health and Social Care, Home Office, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Education and Ministry of Justice – to help tackle drugs misuse across society.
This joint approach recognises that treatment alone is not enough and wider support, including with housing and employment, is essential to aid recovery.
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Police and Crime General
A “staggeringly high” number of people with autism are referred to the government’s anti-radicalisation Prevent programme, a terror laws watchdog will say, calling for discussion about terrorism cases in which the disability features.
Jonathan Hall QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, will say autism and terrorism has not received much public attention due to “a very real and respectable fear that making any sort of link will lead to stigma”.
But in a speech as part of the thinktank Bright Blue’s Ludgate lecture series online, he will argue that the criminal justice outcome may not always be the right one for people with autism and needs scrutiny.
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Justice
Proposals for England and Wales mean people who claim to have been raped will still face pressure to hand over their phones to police and prosecutors, says the victims' commissioner.
The government's apology to rape victims has been "undermined" by the move, Dame Vera Baird told the BBC.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill sets limits to police access to victims' phone data.
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Police and Crime General
Policing in Britain today is an extremely difficult job. It is one that has been put under increasing pressure by rising street violence, cuts to policing and other public services, and most recently, the imposition of quickly changing — highly restrictive — Covid regulations.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which returns to parliament today, has been heralded by the government as a gift to officers, intended to relieve these enormous pressures. In reality, it contains dangerously oppressive components that will increase the politicisation of the police, pile even more pressure on front-line officers and put at risk the democratic legitimacy of British policing.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The new police and crime commissioner for Hampshire has pledged to add 600 more officers to the force by the end of 2023.
Donna Jones, who won the role for the Conservatives at the elections in May, said it was her "number one priority" when she appeared for the first time in front of the county's police and crime panel which scrutinises her work.
Commissioner Jones told members: “My vision as your commissioner, as a parent, and as a citizen is that Hampshire and Isle of Wight are places children and elderly people can walk the streets without fear.
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Police and Crime General
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) said the police have made vast improvements over the last decade in how they respond to these crimes – but while this progress should continue, fundamental system-wide change is needed, and the police cannot achieve this alone.
HMICFRS said there is an epidemic of offending against women and girls – for example, an estimated 1.6 million women in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse in the 12 months to March 2020 – and a whole-system approach is needed to tackle it, involving not only the police but also other partners such as the Crown Prosecution Service, health, social care and education.
The inspectorate’s findings are from its interim report, released now to help inform the Government’s violence against women and girls strategy, with its final report to be published in September.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Retired people could see a bumper rise in the state pension next year, according to official forecasters.
Predictions suggest that the link with earnings growth could mean an 8% rise in the amount paid from April 2022.
That would cost the government £3bn more than previously expected, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
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Police and Crime General
Arrests of under-18s for terrorism offences have almost trebled in the past year, with a “worrying” increase in the number linked to right-wing extremism.
Chief Superintendent Nik Adams, CTP’s national coordinator for Prevent, said these trends were “incredibly concerning”.
The ground-breaking partnership with the popular parenting website comes after a survey of Netmums users showed that only 28 per cent know how to spot the signs of radicalisation – even as the targeting of children by extremists online reaches record levels.
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Police and Crime General
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill allows the police to put conditions on certain protests as well as making changes to sentencing and introducing powers to more closely monitor terrorism offenders.
But new laws to crack down on noisy protests as part of the Bill were not requested by senior police officers.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The Housing Secretary, Robert Jenrick, has said England will enter a period without legal restrictions where the public will have to exercise “personal responsibility” including on face masks.
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Police and Crime General
A
ttempts to scrap “dangerous and draconian” curbs on protests have been voted down by Government MPs.
Labour and Liberal Democrat efforts to amend the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill fell short after their proposal was rejected in the voting lobbies of the House of Commons.
As part of efforts to overhaul the justice system, the Government has proposed a raft of changes in the Bill amid protests outside in Parliament Square.
These changes include plans to give police in England and Wales more powers to impose conditions on non-violent protests judged to be too noisy and thereby causing “intimidation or harassment” or “serious unease, alarm or distress” to the public.
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Police Demand
New guidance, issued to all 43 forces in England and Wales, urges a collaboration between police forces, local authorities and third sector organisations to tackle homelessness.
Although the number of arrests for ‘vagrancy’ are falling, the number of people sleeping on the streets is increasing.
The coronavirus pandemic revealed the number of people sleeping rough - or at risk of doing so - was much higher than previously accepted.
Councils sourced emergency accommodation for 37,430 people in England by January 2021 and 5,010 people in Wales were accommodated between August and December 2020.
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Police Finances
BlueLight Commercial, in collaboration with 13 police forces, has announced the launch of seven new tenders over the next four months, for the provision of healthcare services in custody. These latest tenders have an estimated contract value of £36m, over an average five-year contract term.
The 43 police forces of England and Wales, spend approximately £21m per year on healthcare services in custody and our pipeline indicates that a further 5 Forces will need to tender next year, 7 in 2023 and up to 9 forces will need to tender in 2024.
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Police and Crime General
Child sexual abuse is an “epidemic” affecting millions of people in the UK, survivors have said.
Patrick Sandford, who was abused by a schoolteacher at the age of nine, said society needed to “get real and wise up” about the scale of the issue.
“It’s an epidemic,” he told The Independent. “We are talking of millions of people walking around and trying to live with this.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Sexual predators are boarding trains with the sole intention of targeting female passengers, according to the first woman to be placed in charge of policing the nation’s railways.
Lucy D’Orsi, the chief constable of the British Transport Police (BTP), has urged commuters to create a “hostile environment” for perverts by reporting any incidents of leering, groping or other unwanted sexual behaviour.
“There are people who go from A to B, get a return train and come back immediately,” she said. “That’s not normal. We also know that there are people who go onto the network and are on it for a long time. If you’re on a journey for 12 hours, what are you doing?”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Priti Patel’s plans to curb protest have “dangerous and harmful implications” for democracy, former senior police officers have said.
They claim that the proposed legislation, which sparked widespread demonstrations including a riot in Bristol in March, will subject officers to “even greater political pressure” and potentially lead to more violence.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which returns for debate in the Commons today, introduces new powers for police to restrict protests and increases sanctions on those who breach such conditions. It will bring static protests in line with marches by allowing the police to impose time limits and maximum noise levels.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Priti Patel has been urged to abandon all-graduate police plans as officers would rather serve alongside former soldiers when breaking up a night-time brawl than people with “expressive dance” degrees.
Marc Jones, the incoming chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, said plans to make policing an all-graduate profession risked weakening the frontline by deterring older, experienced recruits like former soldiers.
Under the plans, devised by the College of Policing but yet to be formally mandated by the Home Secretary, recruits will be required to have a degree or join as an apprentice for three years and study for one while on the job.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Mobile phones will be banned from schools in England as soon as January under plans being considered by the Government, i can reveal.
The news came as the Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, weighed in behind ministers to support a ban.
Last week, the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson launched a consultation on behaviour in schools which will look at “creating mobile phone-free” days.
[ more...]
Fire
A new regulator will be set up with the power to prosecute property developers that do not meet safety standards, the government has announced.
The new safety regime is designed to prevent any repetition of the Grenfell Tower disaster, which killed 72 people in 2017.
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick will unveil the plans in the government's Building Safety Bill on Monday.
The new system would reassure "the vast majority" of residents, he said.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police breached "fundamental rights" in their handling of the Sarah Everard vigil in London and Kill the Bill protests in Bristol, a parliamentary inquiry has found.
The Metropolitan Police and the Avon and Somerset force committed "multiple failings" in their response to the two events, according to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Democracy and the Constitution (APPGDC).
Their report claims that both forces wrongly applied coronavirus lockdown laws and "failed to understand their legal duties in respect of protest".
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
A third of chief constables are now women, as police leaders say forces have become less The Sweeney and more Line of Duty.
Fifteen of the 46 UK forces including British Transport Police are now headed by a woman, the highest since records began and up from just four in 2019, according to an analysis by The Telegraph.
There are also an additional two female assistant commissioners in the Metropolitan police, who are of chief constable rank in a force headed by Dame Cressida Dick, Britain’s most senior officer.
[ more...]
Technology
Facebook is putting profit before child safety with its plans to introduce end-to-end encryption, says the police chief in charge of fighting child abuse.
Simon Bailey, the chief constable who leads for the National Police Chiefs’ Council on child protection, will say on Wednesday that the encryption plans will "turn the lights off" for investigators seeking to expose child abusers online.
He will say it means offenders will be free to upload, share and view indecent images in the knowledge that police and other law enforcement agencies will struggle to detect them because of encryption.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police face new restrictions over the use of Tasers after their watchdog found training gaps and a lack of scrutiny, The Times has learnt.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) wants forces to review the circumstances in which they deploy Tasers and raised specific concerns about their use against children and vulnerable adults.
While the death of the former footballer Dalian Atkinson has brought attention to the matter, there has been a series of controversial cases in recent years. Police deployed the stun guns on 32,000 occasions in the year to March 2020, double the number from two years earlier and a fivefold increase compared with a decade ago.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
An independent review into the UK's drug policies is likely to recommend a more health-based approach, the BBC understands.
"Health-based" approaches to drugs put a greater focus on treatment and recovery services for addicts.
The second part of the Dame Carol Black Review is set to be released early next month.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A leading travel body has urged the Government to scrap the traffic light system after it emerged just 75 police fines have been handed out in England and Wales for quarantine breaches since the programme came into effect.
Latest data from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) showed that 71 people in England have been issued fixed penalty notices for breaches of international travel rules since the traffic light system was introduced on 17 May, while a further four were handed police fines in Wales.
[ more...]
Justice
The Domestic Abuse Commissioner is calling for urgent long-term funding and more dedicated specialist court support after a new report revealed that 89 per cent of domestic abuse survivors don’t get any support when they go through the family courts.
The report also found that 71 per cent of domestic abuse survivors don’t get any support in any court at all including magistrates or crown courts.
Nicole Jacobs said it was time that Independent Domestic Abuse Advisors (IDVAs), who support and guide domestic abuse victims through the justice system, were seen as being an integral part of the family courts and criminal justice system.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Violence against retail employees has risen over the past five years, with even more reports during the pandemic, according to HAC report. Article features interview with a shop owner who is very disappointed with police response.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police are still issuing almost 70 Covid fines every day despite major relaxations in lockdown rules, according to NPCC data.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Fake delivery scams have soared during the pandemic with more than 60% of Britons reporting receiving at least one such text in the past year, research from the consumer rights group Which? has revealed.
The scams are so prevalent that even entirely new mobile numbers, which have not been shared, are receiving fraudulent texts within days of new accounts being created.
Thanks to the pandemic, e-commerce has boomed in Britain, in turn making fake deliveries a fruitful avenue for scammers seeking to trick unsuspecting shoppers into handing over personal details and draining their bank accounts. The texts, which usually claim that a package has missed its delivery window or requires a fee to be paid, are often the first toehold in an attack chain that can result in victims being tricked into draining their entire bank accounts.
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Police and Crime General
Manchester police officers have warned that they "would not report a crime to their own force" owing to serious failings, an investigation has found.
Officers from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said its "abysmal" track record on recording crime was "unforgivable" and had given criminals the upper hand because they are "literally walking the streets not being arrested".
The warning comes after GMP, one of the country's largest forces, was placed in special measures in December after an external report found it had failed to record 80,000 crimes in a 12-month period and had closed cases without proper investigation.
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Recruitment and Retention
More than 150 officers have applied to leave troubled Greater Manchester Police and transfer to a neighbouring force, the BBC has discovered.
A Freedom of Information request from Newsnight showed 155 officers have requested switches to Lancashire Constabulary so far this year.
GMP is in special measures after inspectors found it failed to investigate 80,000 crimes in a year.
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Police and Crime General
The new chief constable of Greater Manchester police has not ruled out scrapping the beleaguered force’s £27m crime recording system as it faced fresh accusations of failing victims.
The second largest police force in England and Wales launched the computer system only two years ago but it remains beset by problems, according to serving officers.
Stephen Watson, who took over as chief constable three weeks ago, said he had commissioned a review of the Integrated Operational Policing System (iOPS) but that “the information that I do have tells me that it doesn’t work”.
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Police Demand
The Home Affairs Committee said the “patchwork of existing offences” for prosecuting incidents of violence and abuse against retail staff is not adequate to address the escalating nature of these crimes.
In a report published today (June 29), the committee also calls for a much stronger policing response to tackle the problem, which it says is becoming “endemic in British society”.
Committee chair Yvette Cooper said policing leaders “must step up and make this a priority for local forces”.
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Economy & Public Finance
New Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid will today update MPs on when the remaining coronavirus measures will be lifted in England, coming less than 48 hours after it was announced he would take over following Matt Hancock's resignation. Boris Johnson has said the restrictions will ease on 19 July, but has also promised a data review to see if this can happen two weeks earlier on 5 July, with the Commons expected to be given the details of this review.
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Police and Crime General
Probation services in England and Wales will return to public control, seven years after Chris Grayling's changes that were later labelled as "flawed".
The former justice secretary's 2014 reforms saw the management of low-risk and medium-risk offenders contracted out to private companies.
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Police and Crime General
Two thirds of British people would be concerned by government plans to “criminalise protest”, polling shows.
Research seen exclusively by The Independent suggests that two thirds of the population also agreed with the statement that people “have the right to attend a protest to stand up for what they believe in”.
It comes as the government backs a suite of controversial protest laws that would increase police powers to impose restrictions.
Last week, parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights said proposals to restrict demonstrations on the basis of noise were “oppressive and wrong”.
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Police and Crime General
The Independent Review of Prevent is reviewing the government’s strategy for supporting people vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism and making recommendations for a future approach.
The Independent Reviewer of Prevent wants to hear from as wide a range of people as possible to help inform his final report and today announced plans for virtual public engagement events.
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Police and Crime General
Police in England and Wales have processed a total of 117,213 fixed penalty notices for breaches of Coronavirus restrictions up to 20 June 2021.
The latest provisional figures released by the National Police Chiefs’ Council show that 2,010 fines were processed in the latest reporting period.
The total processed in England is now 105,329 and 11,884 in Wales.
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Police Finances
The system, approved by the Mayor of London, means photographs, doorbell and dashcam footage, and CCTV material, can be uploaded.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Inflation will rise above 3 per cent this year but the unexpected surge will prove “transitory”, the Bank of England warned as Rishi Sunak played down concerns about rising prices.
The central bank had expected inflation to peak at 2.5 per cent this year but solid consumer demand and a rapid pick-up in energy prices has taken it by surprise. Inflation will climb from 2.1 per cent and “exceed 3 per cent for a temporary period”.
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Technology
About £114m of cryptocurrency has been seized by UK police as part of a money-laundering investigation.
The Metropolitan Police said the confiscation was the largest of its kind in the UK, and one of the largest in the world.
Last year, US authorities said they had seized around $1bn (£718m) worth of Bitcoin connected to darknet market place the Silk Road, which was shut down in 2013.
The Met did not say which cryptocurrencies they seized, but revealed the operation was carried out by their Economic Crime Command team in connection with money-laundering offence
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COVID-19
More than 160 police officers in the UK have been caught breaching coronavirus restrictions during the pandemic, Sky News can reveal.
One police constable failed to self-isolate despite having COVID symptoms, while several officers were fined for attending parties that broke lockdown rules.
At least 167 officers were found to have breached coronavirus restrictions since March 2020 - but the actual number is likely to be much higher as nearly half of UK police forces failed to say how many had flouted the measures.
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Police and Crime General
Police officers face having their ability to comment on government policy constrained under plans being drawn up by Priti Patel.
The home secretary is concerned about officers, especially senior ones, commenting on politics, The Times has been told. She has instructed officials to work on ways to draw a “brighter line” between policing and policymaking.
While Patel’s allies insist that she does not want to stop police officers voicing opinions, she is said to believe it is too often unclear that the government sets policy, not the police.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
About £114m of cryptocurrency has been seized by UK police as part of a money-laundering investigation.
The Metropolitan Police said the confiscation was the largest of its kind in the UK, and one of the largest in the world.
[ more...]
Prisons
Ministers and officials are coming under increasing pressure from MPs to explain why a private firm was granted a two-year extension to run a youth jail despite long-term concerns about its performance, a year before the facility was in effect shut down.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced last week that all children at Rainsbrook secure training centre are to be removed after the US-based contractor MTC failed to address problems raised by inspectors and by the justice secretary, Robert Buckland.
The future of the site is yet to be determined and officials are looking at alternative uses.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson’s government is introducing three pieces of legislation that will make human rights violations more likely to occur and less likely to be sanctioned even as averting climate catastrophe depends on these rights, the UN special rapporteur for human rights and the environment has said.
“These three pieces of legislation are shrinking civic space at a time when the global environment crisis demands that people’s voices be heard,” said David Boyd.
He was referring to the policing bill, which proposes changes to enforcement and sentencing, the covert human intelligence sources bill, which protects undercover state agents from prosecution for crimes, and plans to weaken judicial review, the process to challenge ministerial decisions, including on the environment.
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Police and Crime General
A victims’ support service which has adapted its services to help victims of crime during the Coronavirus pandemic has been commended by Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) John Dwyer.
Cheshire CARES (Cope and Recovery Enhanced Service) is the county’s flagship victims’ support service which offers support to all victims of crime in Cheshire. It is funded by the PCC.
Like many services, when the pandemic broke out in March 2020, Cheshire CARES quickly adapted its service model so it could offer an increased number of victims support via the telephone or online.
[ more...]
Prisons
Six months on, Michael Drury and Caroline Mair examine the UK’s policing and law enforcement capabilities in Europe post-Brexit...
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Justice
Merseyside’s Police Commissioner has today welcomed an independent report into the police service’s proactive response to prevent domestic abuse and protect victims during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Emily Spurrell responded after the release of the report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) which said the pandemic had put domestic abuse victims at greater risk, but praised the police for making good use of technology and working with partners to find new ways to support victims.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Government borrowing fell in May compared with the same month last year, with the economy in recovery mode after lockdown measures eased.
Borrowing - the difference between spending and tax income - was £24.3bn, official figures show, which was £19.4bn lower than May last year.
However, the figure was the second-highest for May since records began.
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Police and Crime General
The Government should drop its "disproportionate" plan to ban noisy protests in England and Wales, a parliamentary committee has warned. The Joint Committee on Human Rights said the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill could undermine freedom of expression, under proposals to introduce powers to deal with demonstrations involving only one person.
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Police Finances
Hampshire Police is the first force in England to use a new management system for SJP cases. Anyone in the county responding to an SJP charge, such as a traffic offence, will be able to enter their plea digitally. This means they can resolve their case quickly, fairly and efficiently without going to court.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Three police officers have been injured and 14 people arrested during an anti-lockdown protest in central London.
The Met Police said protesters were becoming "obstructive and hostile" towards officers during the demonstration in Westminster earlier.
The force said people were arrested for offences including assaulting an emergency service worker, public order offences and obstructing the highway.
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Police Finances
Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Steve Turner has launched a new fund to divert young people from a life of crime and help protect the most vulnerable from harm.
The Serious Violence Fund aims to prevent young people in Cleveland from getting involved in serious violent crime such as knife crime – or becoming victims – by taking part in positive activities to fuel their interests and ambitions.
The PCC has called for community projects working with the Under-25s to submit applications for funding to support their activities. Successful applications will:
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Police Finances
The group or organisations say they are "seriously concerned that the design of this fund will do very little to tackle male violence and increase women’s safety, and could in fact cause further harm”.
In March 2021 the government announced a further £25 million would be invested into the Home Office’s Safer Streets Fund during the 2021/22 financial year, following the killing of Sarah Everard.
Round Three of the Safer Streets Fund was launched on 3rd June 2021 to improve the safety of public places, with a focus on reducing VAWG crimes. Police and Crime Commissioners, Local Authorities and the British Transport Police are invited to bid for funding to: reduce VAWG and increase women and girls’ feelings of safety in public spaces; build the evidence base for ‘what works’ on reducing VAWG crimes; and improve national and local data on VAWG crimes.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The government should drop its "disproportionate" plan to ban noisy protests in England and Wales, a parliamentary committee has warned.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill would also introduce powers to deal with demonstrations involving only one person.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights said the legislation could undermine freedom of expression.
[ more...]
Justice
The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett, is talking about delays in sex cases, like the one which over three years ruined the life of Lady Nourse.
"Put yourself in the position of a complainant or a defendant waiting years for trial. You don’t know what’s going on for all that time. It’s just deeply damaging to people," he says.
He is visibly frustrated at such delays, which contributed to what Lady Nourse confessed to The Telegraph was her own sense of "massive injustice".
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Justice
Reducing the size of trial juries could help clear the backlog of crown court cases, the Lord Chief Justice has suggested.
Lord Burnett of Maldon, the most senior judge in England and Wales, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that the Covid-19 pandemic had led to 'deeply damaging' delays in the justice system.
He said the coronavirus crisis had exacerbated a backlog of crown court cases caused by years of budget cuts.
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Technology
Under-18s who want nude pictures or videos of themselves removed from the internet can now report the images through an online tool.
The service - from the Internet Watch Foundation and Childline - aims to help children who have been groomed, or whose partners have posted photos of them online.
The IWF will examine the images and try and remove them if they break the law.
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Justice
A rape survivor whose case was not prosecuted has said a government review has added “insult to injury” for victims.
Bonny Turner waived her right to lifetime anonymity to reveal how the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) refused to charge a man who “confessed” to raping her in a Facebook message.
After failing to overturn the decision in a series of appeals, she said ministers’ apology for years of failings was “little comfort”.
[ more...]
Police Demand
"Urgent action" is needed to tackle fly-tipping in rural communities, according to the National Farmers' Union (NFU).
New figures from the Environment Agency suggest that farmers are the group of people who are most affected by fly-tipping, with the NFU adding that the rising number of incidents is having a devastating impact on farming businesses across the country.
NFU Deputy President, Stuart Roberts, said: “This survey has again thrown into sharp focus the extensive problems fly-tipping is causing.
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Police and Crime General
Next weekend Britain will witness a watershed moment in the culture war dividing society that will help gauge which side is likely to emerge victorious.
The battleground will be not only the streets of London, where activists will stage an "uprising" against the "mainstream media", but also your local supermarket or newsagent, where they will try to persuade, intimidate, or simply prevent you from buying your daily newspaper.
Extinction Rebellion (XR), which was set up to raise awareness of climate change, is planning a "spicy" day of protests and is appealing for "arrestables" to come forward – in other words protesters who will set out to get arrested for breaking the law.
A spokesman for Extinction Rebellion said: "We carry out civil disobedience so, yes, we will be doing things that are breaking the law. We will be giving more details next week."
It will be a litmus test for police forces who have previously acted as spectators during similar protests, when they have allowed roads to be illegally shut, printworks to be blockaded and statues to be toppled or desecrated.
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Justice
Ministers are facing demands to explain why thousands of convicted sexual offenders across England and Wales have avoided prison.
An Observer investigation found that adults convicted of sexually assaulting children under 13, or of engaging in sexual activity with underage teenagers, are among those who have not been jailed.
An Observer analysis of thousands of convictions shows that between 2013 and 2020, 14,530 of the 44,721 adults sentenced for sexual offences were given suspended or community sentences – almost one in three. Just over 60% were immediately sent to prison, with the rest dealt with in other ways, such as conditional discharges and fines.
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Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson’s anti-corruption tsar has piled renewed pressure on Cressida Dick after describing the findings of an inquiry that called the Metropolitan police institutionally corrupt as “horrifying”.
The prime minister’s anti-corruption champion, John Penrose MP, said it was vital that new measures be considered in the wake of last week’s bombshell report into the unsolved murder of Daniel Morgan to prevent police closing ranks in the future.
Last week, an independent inquiry set up to review the notorious death of the private detective in 1987 accused Scotland Yard of decades of cover-up, corruption and incompetence. It concluded that the Met had been more interested in protecting its reputation than solving the murder.
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Police and Crime General
The new chief constable of Greater Manchester Police has declared the country’s forces to be free of corruption - at least when it comes to the ‘traditional’ definition of the word.
Chief Const Stephen Watson, who stepped into the role in March, was responding on BBC Radio 4 to questions around the murder of Daniel Morgan, who was found dead with an axe embedded in his head in a Sydenham pub car park in March 1987.
A report by an independent panel, released on Tuesday, accused the Met of ‘a form of institutional corruption’ for concealing or denying failings over Britain’s most-investigated unsolved murder.
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Police and Crime General
Police have been criticised for letting thousands of football fans party on the streets despite the pandemic.
Scenes of Scotland supporters gathering en masse in Leicester Square have been contrasted with the heavy-handed approach seen at other events including the vigil held in memory of Sarah Everard in March.
Angry campaigners have been quick to point out the differences in policing the two sets of crowds, with the Met favouring a much more hands-off approach last night.
Lockdown rules have been significantly relaxed in the three months between the events but gatherings of more than 30 are still banned and cases are higher now than they were in March.
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Police and Crime General
Today (Saturday 19th June), marks the official opening of the Sexual Assault Referral Centre in County Durham.
The Durham Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Joy Allen was joined by Chief Constable of Durham Constabulary Jo Farrell, NHS England and local authority representatives for the opening.
The official opening has been postponed for over a year due to the coronavirus pandemic but under current regulations the site could be opened safely outdoors.
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Police and Crime General
Police and security failures on the night of the Manchester Arena bombing cost lives and the Islamic State-inspired attacker should have been identified as a threat, a public inquiry has found.
Sir John Saunders, its chairman, yesterday outlined missed opportunities to stop Salman Abedi, who killed 22 people when he blew himself up in the aftermath of a pop concert in May 2017.
The failures included officers from British Transport Police disappearing for a two-hour meal break, including a five-mile drive to buy a kebab. Fifteen minutes before the blast a security steward “fobbed off” a member of the public who reported concerns about Abedi, and police had opportunities to spot him before the attack.
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Justice
Police and prosecutors will be scored on their handling of rape cases for the first time under plans to reverse the declining rate of those that reach court.
The “scorecards” will be published every six months to show how each part of the criminal justice system is performing across England and Wales.
Ministers have set a target to return the volume of rape cases resulting in suspects being charged to 2016 levels. The Crown Prosecution Service completed 4,643 prosecutions then but that fell to 1,490 by last year.
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Police and Crime General
Police in the UK are being given new powers to crack down on people flying drones irresponsibly or illegally, with dedicated teams on the lookout for those breaking the rules.
Police working for Operation Foreverwing can now confiscate drones being flown dangerously.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Proposed reforms by local audit administrator Public Sector Audit Appointments will fail to bring smaller companies into the sector, according to a senior partner at a 60-strong accountancy firm.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A £36 million contract has been awarded to Marine Specialised Technology to deliver 18 new police patrol craft for the MOD and Gibraltar Defence Police (GDP) Forces.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
An officer who became Scotland Yard’s highest-ranking ranking Asian woman says it is a nonsense to claim institutional racism has vanished from the police and the UK.
Parm Sandhu, who resigned as chief superintendent after 30 years with the Metropolitan Police in 2019, told i the Government’s recent and controversial race report flew in the face of her lived experience of racism at work.
The report from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities in March drew criticism when its chair, Dr Tony Sewell, said it found no evidence of institutional racism.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The Prime Minister has announced the final stage of easing lockdown restrictions in England is to be delayed until 19 July, meaning most remaining curbs on social contact will continue beyond 21 June, when they had been due to be lifted. Boris Johnson said there would be a review after two weeks and he was "confident" the delay would not need to be longer, while the gap between vaccine doses for over-40s in England will be reduced from 12 to eight weeks and the target to offer all adults a first dose will be brought forward to 19 July.
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Police and Crime General
UK police forces have received more than 800 allegations of domestic abuse against officers and staff over the last five years, BBC research has revealed.
Just 43 cases - about 5% of the total - were prosecuted.
Victims of domestic abuse have told the BBC they do not believe their complaints were properly investigated.
The National Police Chiefs Council said there was "no place in policing for people who abuse others".
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Technology
Nine recommendations have been made to all police forces in England and Wales to ensure a consistent approach to the use of WhatsApp for work purposes by police officers following a review by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
During an IOPC investigation it became apparent that Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) officers were using the instant messaging application from their personal devices to discuss work related matters including sharing operational information and sensitive documents.
This prompted the IOPC to carry out a review of whether the 43 forces in England and Wales, together with nine organisations with law enforcement, investigatory powers or operational roles, were using WhatsApp or any other instant messaging platform, and if so how they were being managed.
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Police and Crime General
Today [15 June] we published Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) strategy 2021-25. This document explains what HMICFRS aims to achieve as we fulfil our statutory objectives, and how we will continue to go about using our powers, insight and influence to best effect.
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Police and Crime General
Speaking to the House of Commons this afternoon (June 15), Priti Patel said: “There can be no confidence in the integrity of policing without confidence in the police watchdog. The IOPC has made good progress since it was formed in 2018, but questions remain about its ability to hold the police to account.
“In particular, profound concerns exist around the handling of the IOPC’s investigation into Operation Midland. The issues raised by Daniel Morgan’s independent panel further reinforce the need for a strong police watchdog.
“I am therefore announcing today that I am bringing forward the next periodic review of the IOPC to start this summer. This will include an assessment of the IOPC’s effectiveness and efficiency.”
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Police and Crime General
Girls should not have to wear shorts under their uniform to protect against upskirting, the Education Select Committee has heard, as Ofsted's chief warns it fuels victim blaming.
Female pupils are being wrongly encouraged to take steps to ensure that their male peers are unable to take pictures of their underwear without them knowing, Conservative MP Tom Hunt told the meeting on Tuesday.
Amanda Spielman, Ofsted's chief inspector of schools, responded that encouraging girls to take steps to cover themselves rather than clamping down on those who upskirt was putting blame at the doors of victims rather than perpetrators.
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Technology
Curbs on children’s access to online pornography need to be brought in urgently to stop the spread of an activity that is partly to blame for normalising sexual harassment in schools, according to the new children’s commissioner for England.
Dame Rachel de Souza is urging governments and tech companies to introduce age verification checks. She warned that access to hardcore pornography was shaping children’s expectations of relationships and was partly to blame for thousands of testimonies of sexual harassment by schoolchildren published on the Everyone’s Invited website over the last few months.
The testimonies prompted Ofsted to carry out a review of what was happening in schools. Its report, published last week, revealed that inspectors found sexual harassment and online sexual abuse to be a routine part of pupils’ lives.
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Police and Crime General
The level of “woke” policing has passed a “high water mark” of tolerance from the public – who would rather see officers catch burglars, the new head of England’s second largest force has said.
Stephen Watson, the new chief constable of Greater Manchester Police (GMP), believes the public is “fed up” and that the impartiality of officers could be undermined by responses to campaign groups including actions such as taking the knee or wearing their pins, badges or rainbow shoelaces.
On whether he would take the knee in uniform, Mr Watson told The Daily Telegraph: “No, I absolutely would not. I would probably kneel before the Queen God, and Mrs Watson, that’s it.”
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Most coronavirus rules will remain in place in England for another four weeks after the planned 21 June unlocking, government sources have told the BBC.
Senior ministers have signed off on the decision to delay the lifting of all legal restrictions on social contact.
That could mean capacity limits for sports, pubs and cinemas will remain, and nightclubs would stay closed.
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Police and Crime General
The “cutting-edge” technology will give officers greater access to up-to-date information at touch of a button, including details on people or places officers are dealing with.
Common tasks such as recording of statements, registering instances of sudden death and vehicle ticketing will also be automated.
Previous processes meant officers often had to return to a ‘base location’ to complete administrative tasks via a desktop computer.
As well as enabling greater interaction with the public, the two forces say the technology means officers have both the correct resources and skills to tackle crime in an increasingly digital-focused world.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
New powers to protect stalking victims are not being used by some UK police forces, a BBC investigation has found.
Stalking protection orders (SPOs) were introduced in January last year to make it easier for victims to get support.
Despite a rise in stalking offences during lockdown, some police forces had not issued a single order.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Priti Patel repeatedly contacted senior police officers after the country’s biggest newspaper printing plant was blockaded by climate change activists.
The home secretary’s text messages to officers were deleted in an IT “glitch” and no record was made of the telephone conversations.
A report by Hertfordshire police said that there had been “significant political pressure” after Extinction Rebellion protesters blocked the entrance to the Newsprinters site in Broxbourne, where newspapers including The Times are printed.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers feel a "deep sense of betrayal" that they were not prioritised for vaccination, the Police Federation chairman has said.
John Apter said he pressed the home secretary to ensure officers were moved up the vaccine priority list.
Ministers lobbied the vaccine advisory body but Priti Patel said the government had to accept its decision not to make police an exception.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Home Secretary's speech to the police federation.
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Police and Crime General
An independent panel said Wiltshire Police will be in a "precarious situation" without a police and crime commissioner (PCC) at its helm.
Jonathon Seed was voted into the role for Wiltshire Police in May but was unable to take the position due to a historical driving conviction.
Without a PCC, no one has authority to fire or hire the Chief Constable.
Chief executive of the office of police commissioner Kieran Kilgallen will be made an interim PCC until 19 August.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Women whose children died at festivals after taking drugs have urged the UK government to support “life-saving” substance-checking services after an influential parliamentary committee warned it was concerned there would be a surge in youth drug deaths this summer without action.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee last month called on the home secretary to introduce widespread drug-checking services after it reviewed the evidence and heard “compelling” arguments that it saved lives.
Janine Milburn, the mother of Georgia Jones, who died aged 18 at the Mutiny festival in Hampshire in 2018 after taking dangerously high-strength MDMA, said she believed her daughter might still be alive if there had been drug-checking services.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Former Greater Manchester Chief Constable Ian Hopkins has joined the board of a firm that hires retired cops back to police forces as temporary staff, including GMP.
It is understood Mr Hopkins, who stepped down in December as GMP were placed in special measures, is now no longer on the force’s payroll after several months during which he continued to be paid despite not being in post.
Greater Manchester Combined Authority has declined to provide details of the financial terms of his departure, saying that they would be published 'in due course'.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The home secretary may have influenced the police response to an Extinction Rebellion protest at a Rupert Murdoch-owned printing works, a court has heard.
A trial at St Albans Magistrates’ Court has been told of multiple calls from “the home secretary” to the chief constable of Hertfordshire Police during the blockade in September.
The defence argues that such interference would contradict the fundamental principle of operational independence for police in the UK, which the government has previously committed to protecting.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Thousands of extra police officers have begun arriving in Devon and Cornwall ahead of the G7 summit.
The 5,000 mutual aid officers, from forces across the UK, will assist during the event at Carbis Bay Hotel between 11 and 13 June.
They have been arriving in police vans and on coaches and are being treated to a cream tea on arrival.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Covid has sent insurance-claim fraud up 10 per cent and it will get worse as households and businesses suffer more financial stress, according to Aviva. The firm uncovered more than 12,000 instances of deceit worth £113million last year.
Whiplash accounted for 60 percent of all detected cons in 2020 and even though road traffic fell markedly during the lockdowns, Aviva said cash-for-crash claims grew 20 percent. On Monday the Ministry of Justice introduced reforms aimed at curbing whiplash fraud.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The National Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales has responded to new crime figures which show a 26 per cent rise in assaults against emergency workers.
John Apter said: “We have seen a consistent increase in violence against emergency workers during the pandemic with the vast majority of these assaults being against police officers. At the same time other crime types have fallen.
“This increased level of violence is not just a one off. It is becoming the new norm which is completely unacceptable. Violence in our society is not just a policing issue, all parts of Government and society itself must work together to combat this alarming increase. Part of this is ensuring those responsible for attacking police officers face a suitable deterrent in Court. The sentencing guidelines have been changed, so we need judges and magistrates to use these powers to set an example to those who are assaulting our colleagues, those responsible must spend time in prison. This unjustified violence is a stain on society and needs to be dealt with robustly.”
[ more...]
Police Finances
Forty areas?across England and Wales have?today?been awarded a total of £18.3 million?to make our streets safer through projects to crack down on neighbourhood crimes like burglary, vehicle theft and robbery.
The money, from the government’s Safer Streets Fund, will go towards measures proven to cut crime, including simple changes to the design of streets such as locked gates around alleyways, increased street-lighting and the installation of CCTV.?
The third round of the Safer Streets Fund also opens today, providing another opportunity to bid from a fund of £25 million for the year?2021/22.
This next round of funding will?go beyond?essential environmental measures like improved street lighting?and?encourage police to?secure innovative bids for?plans primarily focused on helping make women and girls feel safer on the streets, as well as projects which could include an emphasis on changing attitudes and behaviours?in local communities.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The new team of “highly trained analysts’ has been launched by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) following record numbers of reports of illegal online content.
The taskforce will assess and grade millions of the most severe images and videos of child rape and sexual torture.
IWF chief executive Susie Hargreaves OBE said it will be “a major step forward for internet safety”.
[ more...]
Prisons
Prison officers are taking their dogs to work in a bid to defuse tensions and help inmates during the pandemic.
Visits to prisons were suspended for months as the coronavirus pandemic hit and there were fears for inmates' mental health due to strict Covid restrictions.
At Parc Prison, Bridgend, officers said the dogs helped lighten the atmosphere
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Assaults were up 26 per cent in the four weeks to April 11, according to latest figures from forces in England and Wales.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said the rise is thought to be driven by increases in common assaults on police officers, including suspects spitting on officers while claiming to be infected with Covid-19.
NPCC chair Martin Hewitt said the assaults were “unacceptable”.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Environment Secretary George Eustice said the Government could not rule out a delay to the planned lockdown easing. Some scientists have called for the easing to be postponed for a few weeks while business leaders say any lockdown extension would be hugely damaging to the economy.
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Economy & Public Finance
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has reportedly urged US President Joe Biden to agree a deal on the taxation of tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Amazon. Finance ministers from the G7 group of leading industrialised nations, including the UK and US, will meet in London on Friday.
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Police Demand
‘Peter Kyle, the shadow minister for justice, says that gang leaders were exploiting young people at “record levels”.
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Police Demand
More than 3,000 children are criminally exploited every year, figures show, as calls were made for a crackdown on the “Mr Bigs” who abuse them. Many of the youngsters are forced to transport drugs along county lines, the method by which urban gangs push narcotics into market towns and villages.
Statistics show that the number of children exploited into county lines has increased fivefold since 2017, to 1,391. Hundreds more children are being used in the sex trade or for domestic servitude, says an analysis of the national referral mechanism, which identifies victims of modern slavery. The number of referrals last year for children who suffered criminal exploitation was 3,231.
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Justice
Plans to offer all alleged rape victims the opportunity to pre-record evidence will not be in place for another two years, The Times understands.
Ministers are set to disappoint campaigners by announcing a limited pilot of the proposals over fears that technology in courts would not cope with an immediate nationwide introduction.
The review is also understood to call for further restrictions on character evidence in the cross-examination of alleged victims. That would mean that allowing the prosecution to cross-examine complainants about their sexual history would be all but abolished.
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Police and Crime General
A third of officers covering one of the largest police areas in England felt unsafe dealing with the public during coronavirus lockdowns, according to a new study.
The research, by the University of Portsmouth, also found that 35 per cent of officers working in different ranks and roles within Hampshire Constabulary said they had been abused or threatened by a member of the public during lockdowns.
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Police and Crime General
Unacceptable use of social media could result in officers facing “criminal consequences”, the police watchdog has warned.
Data from i’s FoI investigation highlighted a series of racism complaints linked to comments made on social media, and offensive memes and images shared with colleagues on WhatsApp.
Between July 2017 and February 2020, West Yorkshire Police issued four officers with final written warnings for posting racist material on social media and group chats.
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Police and Crime General
All serving police officers accused of domestic or sexual abuse should face misconduct hearings as well as criminal investigations, according to the most senior police officer for domestic abuse in England and Wales.
Last month it emerged that nearly 150 women have come forward with claims of rape, sexual assault and domestic abuse by ex-partners in the police force. Louisa Rolfe, the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s lead on domestic abuse, said she was “horrified” by the allegations and “doubly horrified” at reports they had not been properly investigated.
She said forces must ensure there was “no conflict of interest [and] investigators have no connection with the perpetrator” if a report of abuse was made against a serving officer.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Up to three quarters of new coronavirus cases in the UK could be the variant first identified in India, according to Health Secretary Matt Hancock. Cases of the variant have risen by 3,535 to 6,959 in the last week, with yesterday’s total number of cases standing at 3,542. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said England “may need to wait” for the lifting of all restrictions on June 21.
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Police Demand
Police and social services have been accused of failing to protect thousands of girls as young as 11 at risk of sexual abuse. Research by The Times found that children known to be at risk of abuse have gone missing more than 55,000 times in the UK over the past three years.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Health professionals are failing to tell police about child rape victims because they fear it will breach data protection requirements, one of the country’s most senior police officers has said.
Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for child protection, said the failure to share information with police was one of the most significant obstacles in tackling child sexual exploitation (CSE).
He accused agencies, including sexual health clinics, of being overly cautious and not passing on intelligence about grooming and abuse when they should. Local authorities had also failed to share critical information, which meant that children at risk of exploitation had been housed with potential abusers, he said.
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Technology
New advice has been issued to officers on how to access data from mobile devices in a bid to avoid evidence being rejected by the courts.
The College of Policing has warned forces must take a consistent approach when examining data from mobile phones and other digital devices to balance the rights of individuals with the need to carry out thorough independent investigations.
The College’s latest Authorised Professional Practice ensures investigations comply with legislation and balances people’s rights to privacy against the absolute right of all individuals to a fair trial.
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Police Finances
Government support will not cover the half-billion-pound scale of lost council tax receipts in the year following the outbreak of Covid-19 – leaving councils facing service cuts – according to sector figures.
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Recruitment and Retention
London Deputy Mayor Sophie Linden told her London Assembly confirmation hearing that it will be “quite a stretch” for the Met to receive the 6,000 extra officers it desires out of the 20,000 national uplift.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Dog thieves and owners who abandon their pets when they return to the office after the pandemic could face tougher sentences under plans being considered by the government.
Dognapping, which soared during lockdown, could be prosecuted under animal welfare laws instead of the Theft Act 1968. Ministers believe this will ensure that the emotional attachment between owners and their pets is considered in more cases.
Boris Johnson, who owns a white Jack Russell cross called Dilyn, has said that dog theft can “cause huge pain and grief to the victims”.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Government is advising people not to travel into and out of places hit hardest by the COVID-19 variant first identified in India unless necessary, it has emerged. Health officials said it was spreading quickest in Bolton, Blackburn, Kirklees, Bedford, Burnley, Leicester, Hounslow and North Tyneside. Residents in the affected areas are also asked not to meet indoors.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Ministers have been urged to ban e-scooters until manufacturers and retailers make them safe and the public understands the law.
Matthew Scott, Kent’s police and crime commissioner (PCC), has written to Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, warning him that the government risks “losing control” of e-scooter usage in the UK unless all trials are halted.
He said “inconsiderate riders” were becoming an increasing danger on roads and pavements across the country since trials were launched in more than 50 cities last summer.
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Police and Crime General
Campaigners have called for a crackdown on stop-and-search powers amid fears they could be extended under a controversial policing Bill.
A year on from the death of George Floyd in the US, there have been demands for an overhaul of the stop-and-search policy in the UK which allow police to search people and vehicles for drugs or weapons without a warrant.
Thousands of people in the UK took part in protests prompted by Mr Floyd’s murder on May 25 last year.
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Technology
Farmers across Wales are turning to technology to fight rural crime - including wearing bodycams.
A recent survey by NFU Cymru found that 31% of farmers had invested at least £1,000 in crime prevention measures in the last five years.
In north Wales, police are working with the farming community to launch Future Farms Cymru, a scheme using technology to tackle thefts on farms.
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Technology
Crime and Policing Minister Kit Malthouse said in a written statement to the Commons that the information wrongly deleted from the database, linked to cases where no further action was taken, along with DNA and fingerprint records, has been reinstated.
While police chiefs continue to investigate the impact of the loss, Mr Malthouse said: “To date, we are not aware of any law enforcement operations that were significantly adversely affected by this incident.”
In total 209,550 offence records were wrongly deleted, which were associated with 112,697 individuals’ records, along with 195 full fingerprint records.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The next chief constable of South Yorkshire Police is set to be a woman for the first time.
Deputy Chief Constable Lauren Poultney has been named the preferred candidate to replace Stephen Watson, who left to lead Greater Manchester Police.
Ms Poultney, who has been a police officer for 23 years, was named temporary Chief Constable on 19 May.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A super-complaint has been launched against powers to stop and search people without suspicion in areas chosen by the police, amid allegations of ineffectiveness and racism.
The Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA), a network of 160 organisations, is calling for section 60 stop and search laws to be repealed as numbers rocket in England and Wales.
The controversial law allows police to search people without suspicion in specified areas where violence is anticipated.
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Police and Crime General
Cruse Bereavement Care, the Peace Foundation, South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and Victim Support will each receive £125,000 to ensure a range of victims’ needs are supported. This builds upon the £500,000 originally awarded to these organisations last year.
Since these services were launched in October 2020, they have provided vital support to those affected by terror attacks. The additional funding will mean that victims can continue to access support, including a 24/7 national contact centre and caseworker support, mental health and bereavement services, and facilitated peer support.
We recognise a victim as anyone who has suffered harm, including those who have been injured by, witnesses to, bereaved, responded to or otherwise affected by a terrorist attack. These services will support those affected by domestic and overseas terrorist attacks, and their family members.
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Technology
Dozens of security agencies and police forces in the UK are using iPhone cracking tools provided by a controversial technology company to hack into devices owned by the public, amid an ongoing row over app encryption and public safety.
Cellebrite, an Israeli digital forensics company which was criticised for selling its technology to Saudi Arabia, Russia and China, helps governments hack into phones without a need for the user’s pin using a cable and a special computer program. It can also retrieve deleted messages and app data, including a person’s detailed location history.
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Police and Crime General
More money needs to be ploughed into tackling inequality as a way to cut crime, Merseyside police’s first female chief constable has said, arguing that “policing is a larger partner [in society] than just locking up the bad people”.
Serena Kennedy, who took over the role last month, said she agreed with her predecessor, who said that if he was given £5bn to reduce crime, he would put £1bn into law enforcement and £4bn into tackling poverty.
Andy Cooke made the unusually frank comments about the relationship between deprivation and offending as he stepped down after 36 years with the force, the last 11 under a Conservative government that has been accused of widening inequality.
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Justice
Fewer than one in 60 rape cases recorded by the police last year resulted in a suspect being charged, analysis of Home Office figures seen by the Guardian reveals.
While there were 52,210 rapes recorded by police in England and Wales in 2020, only 843 resulted in a charge or a summons – a rate of 1.6%.
The figures will increase pressure on the government to deliver radical proposals to overhaul the treatment of rape by the criminal justice system in a long-awaited end-to-end review into how rape is investigated and prosecuted in England and Wales.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police and crime commissioners can apply to the Home Office for special grant funding to meet additional costs that would be incurred from policing unexpected and exceptional events within their areas. The guidance has been revised.
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Recruitment and Retention
New detectives are being recruited to bring down the organised crime bosses that bring misery to our streets.
Northumbria Police has become the latest force to launch a Graduate Detective Programme, which gives people the opportunity to get a job solving crimes, without spending time as a bobby on the beat first.
And today the force's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has revealed that the detectives are needed to tackle the Serious Organised Crime Groups that plague the region.
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Prisons
Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) workforce quarterly statistics are not normally the most exciting read. But today’s edition will have found a wider readership than usual. With the reunification of the probation service just five weeks away (D Day is 26 June), there are mounting concerns about whether the new service will be sufficiently staffed.
Last week, probation inspectors raised concerns about the long-standing shortages of probation officers, noting that Southern regions in particular, both National Probation Service and CRCs, have consistently struggled to attract sufficient numbers of qualified probation officers with the vacancy rate as high as 35 per cent in some areas. The inspectors highlighted that HMPPS has committed to recruiting 1,000 trainee probation officers in 2020/2021, with 443 already started in July 2020 and further intakes planned throughout 2021, but pointed out that it will take several years for them to complete their training.
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Police and Crime General
The measures have been put forward by the Government as part of its Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill as part of efforts to overhaul the justice system, cut offending and make streets safer. It includes laws which would give police more powers to tackle unauthorised encampments which interfere with the ability to use land.
However, Janette McCormick, who leads the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s work in this area, warned the proposed measures could leave officers in a “very difficult position”, adding: “The concern is that decision making and to use that criminal power will be pushed back on to the officers by the very way that the nature of the legislation is drawn up.
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Police Demand
Activists are expected to disrupt next month’s G7 summit in Cornwall by blocking main roads into the county, trying to obstruct convoys carrying world leaders and perhaps even targeting a cruise ship that will be anchored off the coast as extra accommodation for police officers.
Devon and Cornwall police are preparing for thousands of protesters to head to the far south-west of Britain for the 11-13 June event, which is centred on the seaside village of Carbis Bay and the towns of St Ives and Falmouth.
The force said on Thursday it has identified more than 30 groups planning protests, marches, demonstrations or direct action – and accepted there were bound to be others it did not know about.
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Police Finances
Government proposals on local audit have gained a qualified welcome from the sector – but questions still remain, say experts.
Yesterday, the government proposed that the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority, announced as a replacement for the Financial Reporting Council last year, will be strengthened with new powers to oversee the local government audit system.
Additionally, the government confirmed that a liaison committee to oversee the governance of the new audit arrangements and ensure they are operating effectively.
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Police Finances
A think tank has argued council tax and stamp duty should be scrapped and replaced with an Annual Proportional Property Tax (APPT).
In a new report, Bright Blue said the current property taxation system in England is 'distortive and regressive'. It concludes that APPT would be the best replacement on both economic and political grounds.
Under the proposals, local authorities would be given the freedom to impose separate APPT tax rates from central Government to fund public services.
It also recommends a 25% surcharge for second home owners and a Development Levy set at 20% for the market price of new developments.
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Police and Crime General
The Home Affairs Committee meeting today (Wednesday 19 May) scrutinised the impact of recent reforms to the police conduct and complaints system since their implementation in February 2020.
On the panel quizzed by MPs was Michael Lockwood, IOPC Director General, Claire Bassett, IOPC Deputy Director General, Operations, Kathie Cashell, IOPC Director, Strategy and Impact.
Yvette Cooper put to the panel: “We've seen obviously the figures of big improvements in timeliness. We've also heard responses at different stages of the inquiry of people complaining about police forces, police officers or the police Federation, resisting or adding delays to the processes.
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Police Finances
The Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority, announced as a replacement for the FRC last year, will be strengthened with new powers to oversee the local government audit system.
ARGA would provide annual reports on the state of local audit and take over responsibility for the updated Code of Local Audit Practice - the guidelines councils are required to follow, the government said today.
Local government minister Luke Hall said: “It is essential that we have an effective and transparent local audit system that ensures value for money for the taxpayer.
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Economy & Public Finance
Boris Johnson has shelved a planned announcement of an end to social distancing rules as the faster-spreading Indian variant forces a rethink.
The prime minister will no longer announce next week that fines for not wearing face masks will end next month, or that businesses will no longer be compelled to keep people at least a metre apart.
His spokesman said that there was no “set time” for any announcement as scientists attempt to assess the danger posed by the variant.
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Justice
Thousands of women are needlessly arrested and detained in custody each year before being released without charge, MPs have said.
A report by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Women in the Penal System says this includes cases where women were victims of crimes, or were arrested while visibly distressed, as well as when there were fears about their mental health.
Researchers found almost 100,000 arrests of women are made in England and Wales every year - with 37,000 estimated to lead to no charges being pressed.
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Police and Crime General
Police have warned that "those who blatantly disregard" the rules will be fined as Covid restrictions relaxed on Monday.
As pubs and restaurants opened their doors again to allow groups of six to be served inside, police chiefs warned they would take action against anyone breaking the rules.
Martin Hewitt, chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said: “The police will continue to play our part in helping the UK beat the virus and will take any necessary action against those who blatantly disregard the remaining restrictions. Anyone attending or organising large illegal parties or unlicensed music events can expect to be fined.”
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Police Demand
Police patrols across London will be stepped up to combat anti-social and illegal behaviour as lockdown restrictions ease during ‘critical phase of the pandemic’.
Everyone in the UK is willing on the return to normality.
To be able to see and hug our loved ones, travel in the UK and abroad, and - most importantly for many - be able to enjoy a pint indoors.
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Justice
Rape victims in England and Wales will be able to provide their evidence on video prior to a trial to help improve conviction rates, it is understood.
The plans form part of a review, led by the justice secretary, Robert Buckland, and the home secretary, Priti Patel, aiming to reduce stress on survivors.
The government review to be unveiled next month is considering a plan for rape survivors to pre-record their evidence, including cross-examination, to spare them the trauma of appearing in person in court.
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Recruitment and Retention
Graduate-only entry to the police risks an influx of recruits who lack the “life experience” and “hardiness” to cope with the increasing violence that frontline officers face, a chief constable has warned.
Nick Adderley, chief constable of Northamptonshire police, said the plans to make policing a graduate-only profession from June 23 could create a “perfect storm” of inexperienced officers facing rising violence.
Police forces are currently nearly half way through a major recruitment of 20,000 new officers, which coincides with the full introduction of graduate entry, either through taking qualifications as part of apprenticeship or joining as a graduate.
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Justice
Rape victims will have their phones returned by police within 24 hours as part of a new Government drive to increase convictions for sex attacks, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
A review led by Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, due to be published next month, will recommend a raft of measures that shift the focus from the credibility of rape victims towards the suspect's behaviour.
A report by the Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham last year concluded that police forces were taking 'excessive amounts of personal data' from victims' phones amid warnings that cases were being dropped due to the intrusive demands.
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Police and Crime General
Campaigners are pushing to introduce tougher rules on the selling of scrap metal to prevent the upsurge in catalytic converter crimes.
Sources have said the new rule could see tougher restrictions on the sale of precious metals found in converters such as palladium and rhodium to deter criminals stealing the parts. New rules may also see scrap metal dealers forced to keep records on the sale of parts so thieves can be tracked down.
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Police Demand
The latest crime figures for England and Wales, covering the calendar year 2020, have been published by the Office for National Statistics. At the same time, the Home Office has released new data on ‘outcomes’ - showing how many offences have led to people being charged or cautioned. Crest Advisory and data science specialists Justice Episteme, in a project known as Poliscope, have also issued the first national forecasts of crime for the next two years, based on figures from the data.police.uk website. Our Head of Strategy and Insight, Danny Shaw, highlights the key points from the three sets of data
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Justice
A record number of criminal cases collapsed last year as more than a million alleged victims dropped out before trials began, adding to concerns about delays in the crown courts.
Official figures released yesterday showed the problem was of particular concern in rape cases, with more than 44 per cent of alleged victims giving up before a trial began. The rise in the collapse of criminal cases in England and Wales prompted claims that the government was “failing to protect victims and keep the public safe”.
The Home Office figures showed that overall last year 26.4 per cent of criminal cases collapsed because alleged victims “did not support the action”. Of more than 4.5 million recorded crimes last year, more than 1.3 million alleged victims dropped out before trial. The percentage of collapsed cases is the highest on record. The figure doubled in five years. The dropout rate for sexual offences was 34.6 per cent, or 61,000 victims.
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Police Demand
Online fraud rose by up to 70 per cent during the pandemic as families were forced to go online to shop and bank, official figures have revealed.
While nearly all other crimes fell in the year to December 2020 because of the pandemic, fraud overall was up by four per cent, but by far more with scams by criminals operating online.
Official data shows fraud is now the most common offence in England and Wales, with people who turned to buy their goods online during the pandemic among the biggest victims. Shopping and auction fraud offences rose to 86,984 cases in 2020, a 38 per cent increase on 2019.
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Police Demand
Sexual offences and violence are due to increase by a fifth over the next two years compared with pre-pandemic levels, according to a forecast.
Drugs offences and public order crimes, including harassment, violent disorder, affray and being drunk and disorderly are also likely to rise, the analysis predicts.
Burglary, which has been in decline since the mid-1990s, is expected to fall by nearly a third and robbery is also set to decrease.
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Police and Crime General
Figures published today (13 May) show since the IOPC replaced the Independent Police Complaints Commission in 2018 the watchdog has investigated 1,504 people.
From April 2018 to March 2020 there were 1,435 investigations carried out, and 1,504 people were investigated for their conduct. 503 (33 per cent) had no case to answer and 364 (24 per cent) faced other action, such as management advice.
Misconduct was proven in 181 of the other 311 cases (58 per cent) that went to misconduct proceedings.
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Economy & Public Finance
The 9.8% contraction was the UK’s worst in 100 years and larger than almost all of its peers, with Spain the only major economy to perform worse, according to a paper by ratings agency S&P Global.
The agency forecast 11% growth cumulatively over 2021 and 2022 for the UK, compared with 8.7% for the EU.
“All things going well, despite Brexit, the UK’s GDP growth should outpace that of most of its peers,” the agency said.
A stringent lockdown was partially to blame for the decline in activity, the agency’s paper said.
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Police and Crime General
The national watchdog said it will interview officers and members at Porthcawl Town Council to understand the reasons behind decisions made regarding the council’s accounts for 2019-20.
South Wales Police has been called in amid concerns that some parts of the interviews could be beyond the watchdog’s jurisdiction.
A council statement said: “Audit Wales have now arrived at a position where they will need to interview members and staff of the council to gain a complete view of certain events and decisions.
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Technology
Domestic abuse cases requiring specialist support because technology has played a key role have soared over the last year, the largest specialist provider of domestic abuse investigation services in England and Wales has warned.
Complex tech abuse cases involve perpetrators using multiple accounts and devices to abuse, control and monitor their partners using a range of tech as well as sophisticated malicious software.
Refuge, which on any given day supports over 7,000 women and children across its services, said the average number of complex tech abuse cases for the period April 2020 to May this year were up 97% compared with the average number in the three months before the outbreak of the pandemic.
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Police Demand
Covid-19 restrictions led to the sharpest fall in violent crime for at least 20 years, a report suggests.
Violence was down by a third in England and Wales in 2020 compared with the previous year, according to research by Cardiff University.
"From a violence perspective, 2020 was the safest year on record," said co-author Prof Jonathan Shepherd.
But the report also found that the easing of restrictions was "accompanied by rapid increases" in violence.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The Prime Minister has committed to holding a “full, proper” public inquiry in the next year into the Government’s handling of the pandemic. He said such an inquiry was “essential” and pledged to hold one within this session of Parliament.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Priti Patel has consolidated her power over policing after the Conservatives won 70 per cent of elected police and crime commissioner posts, including 11 gains.
Policing experts said that the result, which one PCC called a “blue tsunami”, meant that the home secretary would encounter little resistance from PCCs when implementing her agenda. There are no independent PCCs in England and Wales, compared with 12 nearly a decade ago when the elections were introduced and there was emphasis on keeping party politics out of policing.
PCCs oversee the strategic direction of forces, control budgets and have the power to hire and fire chief constables. Conservatives now have the posts in 29 of 41 police force areas.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
An ex-police officer who was poisoned in the Salisbury Novichok attack is suing his former force.
Det Sgt Nick Bailey was the first person to enter the home of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, the target of the nerve agent, in March 2018.
Lawyers acting for Mr Bailey, who left Wiltshire Police last October, lodged the High Court case earlier this month.
In December, Mr Bailey's wife Sarah tweeted that he was still "fighting for part of his pension".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police chief has called for stiffer sentences for assaults on emergency service workers, saying penalties often "don't go far enough".
New figures show attacks including biting and spitting were, on average, 10% higher a month during the pandemic.
Gwent Police Chief Constable Pam Kelly's spoke out at the launch of a campaign by Wales' emergency services, condemning abuse suffered by staff.
[ more...]
Technology
A corrupt policeman who stole drug money for an organised crime group is the latest criminal to be convicted with the help of intelligence from an encrypted messaging service hacked by police.
PC Kashif Mahmood, 31, carried out fake stops on cars he knew to be carrying hundreds of thousands of pounds in drug money at the behest of an international syndicate.
Encrochat, a messaging network favoured by gangsters that was hacked by French police, was used by those running the enterprise. A total of 1,500 arrests have been made as a result of the breakthrough, with the seizure of more than 100 guns and drugs worth hundreds of millions of pounds on the street.
[ more...]
Pensions
The Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill, announced during the Queen’s Speech yesterday, aims to reform pension arrangements and increase the mandatory retirement age for the judiciary.
Changes to public services pensions in 2015 meant that older members could stay in their existing pension schemes but a subsequent court ruling judged this to be discriminatory against younger workers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Polls closed at 10pm on Thursday 6 May 2021 for elections for 35 Police and Crime Commissioners; four Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners; and three Mayors. Counting of votes is taking place across England and Wales, with different policing areas due to announce their results at different times.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A Collision of Crises: Racism, Policing and the COVID-19 Pandemic shows that in response to the pandemic, the UK government introduced unprecedented police powers under the Health Protection (Coronavirus) Regulations and the Coronavirus Act (2020). But according to CoDE, the policing of the pandemic reflects historical patterns, resulting in the greatest impact on racially minoritised communities, with new police powers adding to and exacerbating pre-existing forms of racist policing.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Kay Rufai is taking the law into his own creative hands. The filmmaker, poet and playwright has been signed up by West Midlands Police to become its first artist in residence.
He is charged with building better connections with young people and tackling youth violence in Coventry through arts and culture, in a project entitled Barriers to Bridges.
“I’m someone who loves to embark on challenges to improve my growth, both personally and professionally,” he said. “When I came across this opportunity to take on a creative residency and work with young people, it stood out as a perfect opportunity to learn more about the structures and practices that already exist and use my creative skillsets to bring about care-based approaches to policing.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Dame Cressida Dick has insisted the Metropolitan Police took a “reasonable and sensible” approach at the Sarah Everard vigil – but admitted she had considered deploying all-female police support units to the event.
Thousands of people – predominantly women – gathered on Clapham Common on 13 March to honour the memory of the 33-year-old, whose disappearance and death sparked a national outcry.
The peaceful demonstration went ahead despite the organisers, Reclaim These Streets, formally calling off the event due to a High Court ban issued the previous day, and the Met faced a storm of criticism after it descended into chaos when officers started to disperse crowds from the bandstand.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
More than half of the police forces in England and Wales are to be governed by new Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs); Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners (PFCCs); and deputy mayors for policing – including a record number of women.
Last week’s elections saw turnouts of well above 30% in most areas. Some areas recorded turnout in the mid-40s. Voters returned 22 brand new Commissioners and mayors. In addition, Cheshire’s PCC John Dwyer returns to a role he served between 2012 and 2016.
A further 18 PCCs, PFCCs, and Mayors were re-elected, bringing the total to 29 Conservatives, 11 Labour, and 1 Plaid Cymru. All will take up their roles, which include holding their police forces to account and setting policing priorities on the public’s behalf, from Thursday 13 May.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A Welsh police force is failing to record thousands of crimes each year with violence and domestic abuse often going unrecorded, a damning report has found.
Dyfed-Powys Police is only recording 87.6% of all reported crime meaning an estimated 4,400 crimes are not recorded each year, according to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS)
More worryingly the figure drops where violent crime is concerned. Here only 85.4% of offences are being recorded – some involving domestic abuse or vulnerable victims.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Neil Basu, Britain’s most senior counterterrorism officer, smiles wryly when asked if he wants to be the next Metropolitan Police commissioner. “I get asked this a remarkable amount actually. I’ve been a career detective. I’ve been a detective chief inspector on a murder squad, the greatest detective job there is — as every TV show will tell you.” The question hangs in the air as I anticipate a typical evasive answer from someone in his position.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Boris Johnson has confirmed a major easing of COVID-19 restrictions in England will go ahead from next week.
At a news conference later today the prime minister will say that from 17 May, meetings of six people, or two households, will be allowed to take place indoors for the first time since January.
Indoor hospitality will also be able to reopen, foreign holidays will no longer be restricted, and according to Cabinet minister Michael Gove, people will be able to hug loved ones again.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A candidate running to be Wiltshire's next Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has been disbarred after a historical driving offence emerged.
Jonathon Seed was the Conservative Party's candidate to replace fellow Tory Angus Macpherson.
A party spokesperson confirmed Mr Seed had been disbarred, while Mr Seed told the BBC he had withdrawn himself.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police have warned that terrorists’ capabilities and intention to commit attacks in the UK “have not changed” during the coronavirus pandemic, as potential targets become more crowded after lockdown.
Four plots, two classified as Islamist and two extreme right-wing, have been foiled since March 2020.
They bring the total number of thwarted attacks in the past four years to 29, with 18 Islamist, 10 extreme right-wing and one classified as “left-wing, anarchist or single-issue terrorism”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A fresh Police and Crime Commissioner election will be held after a disbarred candidate won.
Conservative candidate Jonathon Seed gained 100,003 first and second preference votes in the Swindon and Wiltshire election.
News of an historical driving offence which made him ineligible did not emerge until Sunday after polls had closed.
Wiltshire Police said it was assessing how to proceed.
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Police and Crime General
Wales' four Police and Crime Commissioners have been elected.
The results were announced on Sunday afternoon as the last of the counting came to an end after Thursday's elections.
Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) elections use the Supplementary Vote system, which means voters mark on the ballot paper their first choice and can – if they wish – mark on the ballot paper their second choice too.
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Police and Crime General
As the dust slowly settles on the 2021 police and crime commissioner (PCC) elections, and those in post start to implement their manifestos, Professor Peter Joyce (Wrexham Glynd?r University) and Dr Wendy Laverick (University of Hull) take a closer look at the election process – who fought on what issues, how the parties fared, the profiles of those now in office, and what the challenges will be for PCCs going forwards.
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Police and Crime General
As the dust slowly settles on the 2021 police and crime commissioner (PCC) elections, and those in post start to implement their manifestos, Professor Peter Joyce (Wrexham Glynd?r University) and Dr Wendy Laverick (University of Hull) take a closer look at the election process – who fought on what issues, how the parties fared, the profiles of those now in office, and what the challenges will be for PCCs going forwards.
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Police and Crime General
As the dust slowly settles on the 2021 police and crime commissioner (PCC) elections, and those in post start to implement their manifestos, Professor Peter Joyce (Wrexham Glynd?r University) and Dr Wendy Laverick (University of Hull) take a closer look at the election process – who fought on what issues, how the parties fared, the profiles of those now in office, and what the challenges will be for PCCs going forwards.
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Police Demand
A taskforce has been set up by the government to look into tackling the “deplorable” crime of pet theft, which has soared during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In March, DogLost, a UK charity that helps victims of dog theft, recorded a 170% increase in the crime, from 172 dogs reported stolen in 2019 to 465 in 2020.
The taskforce will look into what is contributing to the rise in dognapping, and recommend solutions to tackle the problem. It will be made up of officials from the Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs, the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice as well as the police, seeking input from animal welfare groups and experts.
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Recruitment and Retention
National Chair, John Apter explains how it’s the small things that can often make the most difference...
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Recruitment and Retention
Just one in 70 newly hired police officers in the past year was black, according to official statistics which suggest Britons of African and Caribbean descent are still underrepresented in the police.
Ministers and police leaders have vowed to build better relationships with minority groups in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests which exposed mistrust of police officers among some communities. The Liberal Democrats have accused the Government of “failing woefully” to build a diverse police force.
An extra 8,771 officers have joined the police in England and Wales following ministers’ drive to pump billions of pounds of investment into the public services after the era of austerity.
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Technology
New laws must be used to make sure online platforms protect their users from scams, the government has been warned.
Seventeen consumer and business groups and authorities have said scams should be included in the proposed Online Safety Bill, which could be announced in next week's Queen's Speech.
The inclusion would protect consumers from an "avalanche" of scams that are causing "devastating financial and emotional harm", they said.
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Police and Crime General
Polls closed at 10pm on Thursday 6 May 2021 for elections for 35 Police and Crime Commissioners; four Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners; and three Mayors. Counting of votes is taking place across England and Wales, with different policing areas due to announce their results at different times.
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Technology
The new system is an eagerly anticipated advancement in digital forensics. The scope, quality standards and structure of the DPS have been built by forces, for forces to meet future digital forensic service requirements for policing and law enforcement and is fully endorsed by Digital Forensics Marketplace Operations Group.
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Police and Crime General
Scotland Yard wants tougher laws on the sale of starter guns after discovering workshops converting the £100 sports devices into deadly weapons.
Athletics associations are being encouraged to move away from the use of blank-firing pistols and police and the National Crime Agency (NCA) are pushing for reforms in the law that would limit their availability, the Metropolitan Police said yesterday.
A gun is seized “at least every day” by police in London, and seizures increased from 366 in 2019 to 443 in 2020, driven in part by a continuing investigation into organised crime after the penetration of EncroChat, an encrypted communications network.
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Pensions
The Public and Commercial Services Union said the Treasury’s proposals to fund additional costs resulting from McCloud would effectively “steal” benefits from scheme members.
The proposals, published in February, give eligible scheme members a seven-year window in which they must choose whether they accrue benefits under their original pension scheme or through the new one introduced as part of the reforms.
However, the union said that the proposals would see scheme members foot the bill, which could see employees miss out on reduced contributions and increased benefits.
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COVID-19
There is a "good chance" the one-metre plus social distancing rule will end on 21 June in England, the Prime Minister has said. Boris Johnson said the results of the vaccine rollout are "really starting to show up in the epidemiology”, but any change would depend on the data.
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COVID-19
The latest Police Uplift Programme data shows nearly 9,000 of the 20,000 new police officers have been recruited.
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Police and Crime General
Designing Out Crime Officers (DOCO’s) representing eleven police forces are amongst the latest to undertake the accredited Level 5 Diploma in Crime Prevention – Designing Out Crime, delivered by the Police Crime Prevention Academy.
All Fifteen Designing Out Crime Officers who undertook the accredited qualification in March 2021 are newly appointed DOCO’s who will be in a unique position to influence their managers and partner agencies in seeking sustainable reductions in crime and helping to make local communities safer.
Bedfordshire Police, Leicestershire Police, North Wales Police, South Wales Police, Surrey Police, Kent Police, Dorset Police, Avon and Somerset Police, Cambridgeshire Constabulary, West Midlands Police and the British Transport Police were all represented at the recent national delivery of the Level 5 Designing Out Crime qualification, which provides the learning and application that’s required for this specialist role.
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Police and Crime General
The Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner says he is satisfied that emergency powers granted to the police under the Coronavirus Act 2020 for retaining fingerprints and DNA profiles have been “used in a responsible and proportionate manner”.
Professor Fraser Sampson said he has seen nothing to indicate that the police have applied the provisions “in anything other than the manner intended – necessarily, temporarily and proportionately”.
Section 24 of the Act enabled the Secretary of State to make regulations allowing the police to keep fingerprints and DNA profiles for six months on grounds of national security when there was no other statutory basis for keeping them. The police could do so without carrying out a detailed review of the risk posed by an individual nor the making of a National Security Determination (NSD) by a chief officer.
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Economy & Public Finance
A ‘levelling up’ white paper will be published later this year with the aim of clarifying the government’s agenda and ensuring public spending organisations are able to drive “meaningful change”.
Reducing regional inequalities was a central promise of the current government’s 2019 election manifesto. However, so far ‘levelling up’ initiatives have been limited to infrastructure funds, which have faced allegations of being designed to favour Conservative constituencies rather than meeting genuine economic needs.
The white paper will articulate “how bold new policy interventions will improve opportunity and boost livelihoods across the country” during the economic recovery from Covid-19, a statement from Downing Street and the Cabinet Office said.
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Police and Crime General
The government has today published an update on its progress in tackling economic crime and delivering on its ambition to ensure the UK remains a transparent, safe and open place for global business.
The Economic Crime Plan, launched in 2019 following approval by the Economic Crime Strategic Board (ECSB), set out an ambitious programme of work to tackle fraud and money laundering and set out how the UK’s public and private sectors would work together to improve our response to economic crime.
The statement of progress today is published following a meeting of the ECSB in February. It sets out how the government has worked through the coronavirus pandemic to tackle economic criminals and disrupt hostile actors.
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Police and Crime General
PM responds to questions about fans protesting at MU Stadium, where six officers were injured: “I don’t think it’s a good idea to have disruptive behaviour, demonstrations of that kind. But on the other hand, I do understand people’s strength of feeling.”
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Police and Crime General
As footballers boycott social media over hate crimes, the abuse directed at Spurs star Son Heung-Min has focused attention on racism suffered by people of Asian background.
Community leaders say such abuse has increased dramatically since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
In the US, Congress has just enacted a hate crime bill giving specific protection to Asians.
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Police Demand
PM promises to crack down on dognapping after a rise in the crime. Campaigners want stolen pets to be legally recognised as members of the family.
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Police Demand
Almost one million burglaries have gone unsolved in the last five years, according to crime stats unearthed by the Lib Dems.
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COVID-19
People may not need to self-isolate if they have been in close contact with someone with Covid, if a new trial is successful.
The government-backed research will trial giving people daily lateral flow tests for seven days - instead of quarantining for 10 days. So long as they test negative all week, they can carry on with their lives.
It comes as the foreign secretary said the country was "in a good position" to end almost all restrictions on 21 June.
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Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson has signed off more than 25 bills to be presented in the Queen’s Speech next week as he seeks to flesh out his coronavirus recovery plan, it emerged last night.
The new legislative programme will feature planning reforms, a post-Brexit state aid regime and a long-awaited bill to reform social care.
The prime minister has told aides that he wants the Queen’s Speech, which sets out the government’s legislative agenda for the next 12 months, to provide a plan for Britain’s economic recovery from the pandemic.
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Police and Crime General
As footballers boycott social media over hate crimes, the abuse directed at Spurs star Son Heung-Min has focused attention on racism suffered by people of Asian background.
Community leaders say such abuse has increased dramatically since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
In the US, Congress has just enacted a hate crime bill giving specific protection to Asians. The number of such crimes reported to police in London alone tripled at the start of the pandemic. But campaigners and police agree many go unreported.
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Technology
Police have revealed they are dealing with a record number of chilling death threats every year where criminals use Facebook to broadcast their murderous intentions.
The social media platform sees an estimated 670 horrifying threats to murder and mutilate people posted every year, which the police are then called in to investigate.
Victims have logged on to Facebook to find they have been threatened with knife and gun murders, torture, arson attacks and even bombs.
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COVID-19
A new model has been reported to show the risk of a "third wave" of COVID-19 cases in the UK has been diminished due to the vaccination programme. The modelling by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is due to be presented to the Government’s SAGE Committee.
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COVID-19
More than 15 million people across the UK have now had both doses of a coronavirus vaccine.
It means a large proportion of the elderly and most vulnerable are fully inoculated against COVID-19.
A further 372,304 second jabs were administered on Saturday, bringing the total to 15,329,617.
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Police and Crime General
Almost one million burglaries have gone unsolved in the last five years, amid warnings that cuts to neighbourhood policing are leaving homeowners at the mercy of criminals....
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COVID-19
When the government handed the police powers to detain and fine people under emergency coronavirus regulations last year, anti-racists warned that some communities would be disproportionately affected.
I was among them – as were a cluster of grassroots groups, which wrote, on the day the Coronavirus Act was introduced to parliament: “We believe increased police and immigration officer powers will only be used to target those already targeted by law.”
Unfortunately, our predictions have been proved right, with parliament’s joint committee on human rights concluding last week that every single Covid fine issued under the law in England should be reviewed amid concerns they were “discriminatory and unfair”.
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Police and Crime General
Ministers are under pressure to make schools legally bound to share reports of the sexual abuse of pupils with the police.
There is no requirement for schools to pass on allegations of sexual abuse of children in their care. The Boarding Schools’ Association (BSA), the chairman of the education select committee and lawyers working with abuse victims are calling for an urgent change in the law.
Since the novelist Louis de Bernières wrote last month about the “hell” he endured as a young boy at a Kent boarding school in the 1960s, hundreds of readers have shared their experiences. Most feature physical or sexual abuse.
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COVID-19
Clubbers have returned to the dancefloor after more than a year's wait - for a COVID safety pilot event in Liverpool.
Some 6,000 partygoers are expected at the First Dance event, which stretches across two-nights from Friday at the city's warehouse nightclub Circus.
Ticket-holders have not needed to socially distance or wear face coverings, but they did need proof of a negative COVID test result before being allowed in.
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COVID-19
Coronavirus infections in the UK are back to levels seen at the end of last summer with around one in 1,000 people infected, ONS data suggests.
In the week to 24 April, infections fell in all four nations of the UK and were 20 times lower than in January.
It comes as a new UK study has found very small numbers of people have been admitted to hospital with Covid several weeks after having one vaccine dose.
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COVID-19
The NHS reported a record rate of online bookings after offering jabs to those aged 40 and 41 yesterday, with 120,000 people signing up before 9am.
Those in the current cohort for vaccination were able to use the national booking system from 7am.
On Monday, when booking opened to 44-year-olds, there were almost 300,000 bookings throughout the day and on Tuesday, when 42 and 43-year-olds were included, there were just over 400,000.
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COVID-19
People aged 40 and over in England are now able to book their Covid jabs, NHS officials say.
Text messages will be sent to 40 and 41-year-olds, directing them to the national booking service. Meanwhile, about 22 million people in the UK are living in areas that have not reported any Covid deaths that happened in April, BBC analysis shows.
Since the vaccine rollout began in December, about 34 million people have had at least one dose in the UK.
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Police and Crime General
Britain's police dog handlers are to receive free first aid training to help save the lives of their injured four-legged partners.
With an estimated 250 police dogs injured in the line of duty every year, experts, charities and police forces have teamed up for the first-ever nationwide campaign to provide the UK’s 1,500 police dogs greater support in critical moments of need.
Experts from Dog First Aid Training will provide a free virtual course for police dog handlers that will teach them how to immediately treat blunt force trauma injuries, burns and identify the signs of shock.
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Police Finances
An overview of the roles of the PCC's CFO and the chief constable's CFO within policing, with particular focus on how the two CFOs can work together to achieve the best outcomes.
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Police Finances
The current system is broken. Councillors should put pressure on their parties to support long-term sustainable reform, writes the Labour MP and former shadow communities minister.
My preferred option for moving forward is replacing council tax and stamp duty with a proportional property tax set at 0.48% of a property’s value.
The tax would see every property owner paying a flat 0.48% of the value of their property, with the burden moving from renters to landlords. Around 76% of households would stand to gain under this system, seeing a reduction in the amount of tax they pay on their primary residence. To protect those in expensive properties from unduly large rises in property tax, the increases will be capped at £100 per month and it will be possible to defer paying the tax until someone sells their home.
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COVID-19
Social distancing for large events can be scrapped from June 21, Boris Johnson will be told next week after initial results from a pilot scheme found no spike in Covid cases among attendees. ...
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Recruitment and Retention
Police forces should use tax breaks to target former soldiers in their bid to recruit 20,000 more officers, policing leaders have said.
John Apter, chairman of the police federation, is urging police forces and the Government to exploit new rules that exempt firms and public sector bodies which employ military veterans from paying National Insurance contributions during the first 12 months of their employment.
The new tax relief came into force on April 6 and is available to every employer - regardless of when a veteran left the regular Armed Forces. The tax break can be used as long as a veteran has not been employed in a civilian capacity for any period since they left military service.
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Police and Crime General
Anti-protest curbs contained in the new policing bill are disproportionate, hand subjective powers to officers and the home secretary, and violate international human rights standards, MPs and peers have been told.
Giving evidence to the joint committee of human rights on Wednesday, lawyers said that if the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill was passed as it stands, it would have a “chilling effect” on the right to protest.
Jules Carey, the head of actions against the police and state team at Bindmans solicitors, said the provisions “clearly violate international human rights standards, and they constitute a savage attack on the right to peaceful assembly”.
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COVID-19
All fixed penalty notices for coronavirus lockdown breaches should be reviewed, according to a cross-party parliamentary committee. The Joint Committee on Human Rights, which is made up of MPs and peers, said it had "significant concerns" about the validity of fines, the inadequacy of the review and appeal process, the size of the penalties and the criminalisation of those who could not afford to pay.
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Police and Crime General
Registered suicides in England fell in 2020 as inquests were delayed during the coronavirus pandemic, provisional figures show.
Some 4,902 suicides were registered across the country last year – giving a provisional rate of 9.9 suicide deaths per 100,000 people, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
This is a fall from 2019, when the rate was 10.8 suicide deaths per 100,000 people.
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Recruitment and Retention
Force boss Mark Roberts has assumed his duties this week after previous incumbent Darren Martland retired on Friday, April 23.
The married dad-of-two was formerly the deputy chief constable of South Yorkshire Police and served in Cheshire as assistant chief constable between 2014 and 2017.
He said: “I am delighted and proud to be the new chief constable of Cheshire Police and look forward to working with our officers and staff, the police and crime commissioner and local partners to deliver an outstanding service to all our communities in Cheshire.
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Police and Crime General
Police are to launch a major anti-knife crime campaign today, after a series of fatal teenage stabbings. Operation Sceptre is a week-long national initiative to encourage people to dispose of knives in specially designated weapons binds. Officers will also conduct weapons sweeps, deploy knife arches and carry out extra patrols in violence hotspots.
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Economy & Public Finance
The government’s “arbitrary” fiscal rules are not fit for purpose and should be replaced by a more flexible framework, according to a leading research institute.
Analysis from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research shows fiscal rules have limited use because they do not account for unforeseen circumstances.
Institute director Jagjit Chadha said responding to uncertainty is one of the main reasons for governments to spend money – a factor emphasised over the past year during the response to Covid-19.
“With the Covid-19 pandemic continuing to pose difficult questions of our policymakers, now is the time to consider the role of fiscal policy,” he told a press conference.
“It simply makes no sense to be in thrall to arbitrary rules that do not match society’s broader needs.”
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Police and Crime General
A new guide to help local authorities create safer journeys for women has been published.
The guide, which was developed by an all-female team of transport planners in Atkins, sets out six areas that local authorities can focus on to improve the safety of public spaces, with particular focus on creating safer first and last mile journeys for women.
This includes improving visibility through low to the ground planting and the removal of walls and barriers. It also recommends providing digital wayfinding apps and active building frontages to provide ‘eyes on the street’.
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COVID-19
An open letter signed by 22 leading scientists and academics has said that social distancing should be abolished in June to allow people “to take back control of their own lives”. It says “a good society cannot be created by obsessive focus on a single cause of ill-health”, and calls for all restrictions to end on 21 June.
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Police and Crime General
Ministers are to take steps towards introducing a national register of men who harass women, saying they can set up a database modelled on the sex offenders’ register within a year. A list of abusive men is reported to be part of a “perpetrators strategy” to be promised this week by the Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, to persuade MPs to pass the Government’s Domestic Abuse Bill.
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COVID-19
More than half the UK's total population has now had a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
The number of initial inoculations stands at 33,508,590, while the population is estimated to be 66,796,807.
A further 119,953 first doses were given on Friday, while 448,139 people received a second one.
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Economy & Public Finance
Public sector borrowing in the year to March reached the highest level since records began at the end of World War Two, with £303.1 billion needed according to the Office for National Statistics. The furlough scheme alone has cost almost £60 billion, with Test and Trace, the health service, vaccines and support schemes adding to the total.
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Police Demand
Theft of catalytic converters stolen from cars has risen by 6,760 per cent in four years, rising from 57 call outs in 2017, to 3,910 last year, according to the AA. Cllr Nesil Caliskan, Chair of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, said councils need greater enforcement powers to tackle the issue.
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Police Finances
Avon and Somerset Police will pay damages to four protestors arrested at the Colston statue-toppling after admitting the protest ban under Covid powers was unlawful.
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Police Finances
Under current local audit regulations, oversight body Public Sector Audit Appointments must publish its fee scales the month before the start of the financial year.
However, a government consultation proposes moving the deadline to 30 November each year, in a bid to ensure that auditing costs included in budgets are more accurate.
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Police Demand
Priti Patel is reportedly drawing up plans for police league tables to measure the success of forces in cutting serious crime.
Police forces across England and Wales could soon be compared using figures for crimes such as murder, serious violence and online crime, according to the Times.
Ministers are reportedly keen to see the result of the Government's pledge to hire 20,000 police officers across the country.
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COVID-19
The Brit Awards will go ahead with a live audience at London’s O2 Arena next month, in the latest addition to the Government’s Events Research Programme, which examines how venues and events can reopen safely after the pandemic. The 4,000-strong audience won't need to wear masks or be socially distanced, but will need a negative COVID-19 test. Meanwhile, the Express reports that a pilot scheme at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre for the World Snooker Championship recorded no follow-up cases of COVID-19, paving the way for a gradual reopening of other events.
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COVID-19
A US jury has found a former police officer guilty of murder over the death of African-American George Floyd on a Minneapolis street last year.
Derek Chauvin, 45, was filmed kneeling on Mr Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes during his arrest last May.
The widely watched footage sparked worldwide protests against racism and excessive use of force by police.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK inflation rate rose to 0.7 per cent in the 12 months to March, up from 0.4 per cent in February, pushed up by the increased cost of fuel, transport and clothes.
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Police Demand
Eighty per cent of self-generated child sexual abuse content identified by the IWF in 2020 involved girls aged 11 to 13.
IWF chief executive Susie Hargreaves OBE said the scale of the problem was “appalling”.
‘Self-generated’ material now accounts for almost half of all online child sexual abuse identified by the IWF.
Predators groom, bully, and coerce their victims into filming their own sexual abuse on internet-enabled devices, often in the child’s own bedrooms in their family homes, said the IWF. The images and videos of this abuse are then shared widely online.
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Police Finances
HMICFRS launches consultation on their proposed 2021/22 policing inspection programme and framework.
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COVID-19
Some police forces may have broken the law by failing to follow self-isolation rules after staff came into contact with someone who had coronavirus symptoms, a report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has found.
Amid “confusion” over the requirements and concerns about the “potential adverse effect of losing resources”, some instigated their own regimes which were contrary to national guidance or may have broken the law, the report said.
Some forces “did not appear to follow the national requirement for self-isolating for test, track and trace. Forces sometimes saw self-isolation as unnecessary and possibly resulting in relatively large numbers of staff being told to isolate within some teams.
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Police and Crime General
Senior police officers "encouraged or tolerated" undercover officers having sexual relationships with activists they were sent to spy on, a tribunal has heard.
Metropolitan Police is being sued by an environmental campaigner who had a long-term relationship with an officer she believed was a fellow activist.
They had met while working together at a community hub in Nottingham. Kate Wilson, 41, said the deception had breached her human rights.
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Police and Crime General
The College of Policing is developing new guidelines based on evidence from research and the experiences of officers and staff at all stages of an investigation.
We want to hear from police officers, staff and volunteers who are first responders, to ensure the guidelines are based on the most up-to-date and relevant evidence.
Our investigation guidelines practice evidence survey is aimed at first responders who conduct initial investigations or are involved in the follow-up investigation process. By sharing your experience you will contribute to building the evidence base for policing and help ensure the guidelines support forces in the most effective way possible.
The scope of the guidelines sets out the focus and approach to development of the guidelines. The scope was subject to consultation with stakeholders, practitioners and the public, and was agreed upon by an independently chaired committee.
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COVID-19
COVID-19 rules making people eat and drink outside pubs and restaurants have left police in an impossible position, it was claimed yesterday, with officers unsure how to manage large crowds. It comes as the first weekend since restrictions were eased, combined with good weather, saw thousands of people enjoy their first taste of socialising since before Christmas.
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Police Demand
A survey by NFU Cymru found that one in five Welsh farmers was a victim of crime in 2020. Theft offences made up half of those crimes.
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COVID-19
Patrols are being ramped up this weekend, with more officers in town and city centres to ensure revellers adhere to Government guidance.
New rules mean that up to six people can meet outside at a pub for a drink, however, social distancing is still a requirement, table service is in place and masks must be worn when indoors.
A spokeswoman from West Midlands Police, said: “The easing of restrictions marks another encouraging step towards a return to ‘normal’ life however, we can’t become complacent and risk undermining what we’ve achieved so far.
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COVID-19
People are "likely" to need a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine within 12 months of getting the first two, Pfizer's chief executive has said.
Dr Albert Bourla said a booster jab could be necessary "somewhere between six and 12 months" after the second one - and every year thereafter.
"A likely scenario is that there will be likely a need for a third dose, somewhere between six and 12 months and then from there, there will be an annual revaccination, but all of that needs to be confirmed," he told CNBC.
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Technology
Police are struggling to identify criminals because the widespread use of face masks in the Covid pandemic means they can no longer rely on e-fits to track suspects down....
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Police and Crime General
The Domestic Abuse Bill aims to put an end to the so-called “rough sex defence”, recognise children as victims of domestic abuse and criminalise in England and Wales threats to share intimate images of another person without their consent.
Other reforms contained within the legislation include the first legal Government definition of domestic abuse, which would include economic abuse and controlling and manipulative non-physical behaviour.
The Government also made a concession in the Lords over recording misogyny as a hate crime. It confirmed police forces from the autumn will be asked to record and identify any crimes of violence, including stalking and sexual offences, where the victim believed it to have been motivated by “hostility based on their sex”.
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Recruitment and Retention
A record number of women are bidding to be Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in the elections on May 6.
With the deadline to stand having now past, analysis of the lists of candidates show that in England 30 women are standing in 35 seats, while in the four PCC elections in Wales there are eight female contenders.
In addition, in the three city areas where the Mayor has been given PCC-like powers over policing, ten women will be on ballot papers, including the former Coronation Street actress, Labour MP Tracy Brabin, in West Yorkshire. It adds up to 48 female candidates, almost a quarter of the total.
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COVID-19
Senior government officials have raised “urgent” concerns about the mass expansion of rapid coronavirus testing, estimating that as few as 2% to 10% of positive results may be accurate in places with low Covid rates, such as London.
Boris Johnson last week urged everyone in England to take two rapid-turnaround tests a week in the biggest expansion of the multibillion-pound testing programme to date.
However, leaked emails seen by the Guardian show that senior officials are now considering scaling back the widespread testing of people without symptoms, due to a growing number of false positives.
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COVID-19
Scores of people lined up outside pubs around the country as they reopened for business in line with second step of lockdown easing...
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COVID-19
England is giving out its first doses of the Moderna jab, the third Covid-19 vaccine in the nation's rollout.
It will be available at 21 sites, included the Madejski Stadium in Reading and the Sheffield Arena.
Along with the Pfizer jab, it offers an alternative to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for under-30s, after concerns about a possible link to very rare blood clots.
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Economy & Public Finance
The government’s Spending Review is “not workable” and needs to be abolished, according to an independent commission. Spending Reviews are “spun" documents”, designed to support the political messages the government wishes to make, rather than presenting information in a consistent format, a report from the Commission for Smart Government said.
It said that the reviews should be replaced by a new plan for government developed at the start of each parliament.
The report said: “Past Spending Reviews have suffered from not being connected to any clear strategic view of government’s priorities and does not produce workable, reliable plans which make best use of spending.”
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Police and Crime General
Living in poverty, suffering with mental health difficulties, or feeling lonely. These are the signs that criminal gangs look out for in the search for new recruits to exploit.
And the pandemic has only heightened the numbers of vulnerable teenagers available to be preyed upon.
The National Youth Agency, the national body for youth work in England, has revealed that gang activity and exploitation have continued during lockdown, and that youth services are now working with more young people that were not previously known to the police or youth offending teams.
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Recruitment and Retention
Almost a third of chief constables are being replaced as a series of senior officers leave before next month’s police and crime commissioner elections.
In the biggest shake-up to policing in years, some of the most experienced chief officers have already said they are leaving. Others will await the outcome of the May 6 elections of police and crime commissioners (PCCs), who have the power to fire them.
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COVID-19
Police will not be able to respond to all breaches of coronavirus restrictions as crime rises towards pre-pandemic levels, a senior officer has warned.
Police leaders expect a rise in violence, including stabbings, and all types of offences as coronavirus restrictions are gradually eased in England.
The national lockdown that ended on 29 March caused a dramatic reduction in crime, similar to that seen at the beginning of the pandemic last year.
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Police and Crime General
The security services and police are to face questions over whether they missed the chance to stop a convicted terrorist out on licence with an electronic tag who stabbed two people to death.
On Monday, the inquests open into the deaths of Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, who were killed in the November 2019 attack at Fishmongers hall, near London Bridge at a prisoner rehabilitation conference.
The event was to mark the fifth anniversary of Learning Together, an educational rehabilitation initiative run by the Cambridge Institute of Criminology, for which Merritt was a course coordinator and Jones was a volunteer.
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Police and Crime General
Downing Street is considering intergovernmental talks over rising tensions in Northern Ireland despite concerns that involving Dublin would further inflame unionist anger.
Boris Johnson has not ruled out travelling to the province if the disorder continues but any visit might be delayed until the official mourning period for the Duke of Edinburgh has concluded.
It comes amid increasing concern in government at the spectre of sectarian violence after more rioting on Friday led to 14 officers being injured.
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COVID-19
Only three police force areas have enough domestic violence specialist advisers to protect the most vulnerable victims, according to a report for the Government....
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COVID-19
Police will not be able to respond to all breaches of coronavirus restrictions as crime rises towards pre-pandemic levels, a senior officer has warned.
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Police and Crime General
Officers will gain new powers to stop adults with convictions for knife and other weapons offences with the introduction of Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs), but the highly influential think tank argues police must also be able to search young people.
Polling by YouGov found 73 percent of British adults think the orders should apply to people as young as 12, with 88 percent saying 14 years old should be included. Only two percent thought it should apply only to those aged 18-plus.
Andy Cook, chief executive of the CSJ said that “children and young people are just as capable of knife crime as adults”.
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Police and Crime General
THE Home Secretary said she was ‘going to need the help of Conservative police and crime commissioners (PCCs)’ in her battle to keep the public safe.
In a video message, Priti Patel spoke about the recruitment of 20,000 police officers, with more than 6,000 already on the beat since 2019’s General Election.
She said: “We’ve provided tasers to police forces across the country and invested £65 million to end county line drug gangs.
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Police Finances
The “cost of crime” to individuals and businesses has soared to almost £100 billion a year, according to analysis of government figures.
A sharp rise in murders, serious assaults, rape and robbery has driven the estimated total financial costs incurred by individuals each year in England and Wales to £72.5 billion. This is up from £50.1 billion in 2015-16.
Costs incurred from crimes against businesses have more than doubled from £8.7 billion in 2015-16 to £22.8 billion in the year last to September.
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COVID-19
Everyone in England can now get twice-weekly COVID tests for free under a new effort to keep the journey out of lockdown on track.
Ministers hope regular use of the rapid lateral flow tests will become a habit and help keep cases low as the economy reopens.
The tests will be available from locations such as pharmacies, workplaces and community spaces - and can also be ordered for home delivery.
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Police and Crime General
The mother of a knife crime victim who said that he did not expect to see his 21st birthday because of escalating violence in London has urged people to anonymously report suspicious friends to the police. ...
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Police and Crime General
Much of Welsh Labour's manifesto is about what the party has done, as well as what it plans to do.
Each page of pledges is met with a page of what Labour lists as its achievements in government - the party is running on the shape of the last 22 years as much as anything else.
Labour's pitch to voters for the 2021 election is not a plan for a radical overhaul of the system of devolution, or the health service or social care.
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Police and Crime General
One of London’s most senior police officers, described by a colleague as “the greatest villain unhung”, was believed to be involved in major corruption in the 1970s but never prosecuted, according to a new documentary on police malpractice.
Former officers who exposed corruption at the time describe how they were threatened that they would end up in a “cement raincoat” if they informed on fellow officers and were shunned by colleagues when they did.
The fresh revelations come from half a dozen former officers from both the Metropolitan and City of London police forces, including one who has admitted receiving payments.
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Police and Crime General
Greater Manchester Police has uncovered 6,155 crimes that weren't properly recorded in the last four months.
The offences, which have now been properly registered, were found as part of a 'due diligence' review launched after the force was plunged into crisis in December.
Today the force revealed 6,000 police officers have received refresher training designed to ensure cops put victims first as well as record and investigate crimes properly - with a further squad of 70 checkers - as part of a programme of modernisation to drag GMP out of 'special measures'.
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Justice
Albanian gangsters who have cornered the market for cannabis in the UK using farms protected with booby traps are escaping prosecution by claiming to be slaves, The Times can reveal.
Specialist “gardeners” smuggled into the country illegally are set up in fortified houses and warehouses protected by hidden barbed-wire mesh and staircases rigged to fall beneath intruders.
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Police and Crime General
Downing Street has condemned a planned review by the mayor of London into the decriminalisation of cannabis as a waste of time, saying the issue is not in his remit, and that the government has no plans to change the law.
Sadiq Khan has said that if he is re-elected on 6 May, he will set up an independent London drugs commission to examine the potential health, economic and criminal justice benefits of decriminalising the class-B drug.
The Labour mayor believes there is widespread public support for a more relaxed approach to decriminalisation, citing polls showing more than half of the UK – and nearly two-thirds of those in the capital – support legalising cannabis for adult recreational use.
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Police and Crime General
West Midlands Police is creating two new squads in their fight to bring down the gangs terrorising the city.
Extra officers have been brought in to form two specific units to tackle Organised Crime Groups (OCGs) and Urban Street Gangs (USGs).
One team will focus on the gangs operating in central Birmingham while the other will target those based in the east.
Working alongside neighbourhood police teams, the units will be the lookout for people and vehicles linked to gangs and organised crime and raid addresses.
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Police and Crime General
The police should not "pronounce guilt without evidence" when it comes to the school rape culture row, a former home secretary has said, as he warned of "unforeseen and dangerous consequences".
David Blunkett has said that "identity politics" must not be allowed to create an environment in which schoolboys were unfairly judged, following accusations of sexual harassment sweeping British private schools.
Mr Blunkett, Labour education secretary from 1997 to 2001, said the view that there was a "rape culture" in many British schools and colleges was "shocking".
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Recruitment and Retention
Women outnumber men for the first time at a British police force.
Wiltshire Police has 1,140 female officers and staff compared to 1,101 male employees, a report revealed.
All but one of the force’s 63 civilian staff hired between 2019 and last year were female.
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Police Demand
Reports of sexual and criminal exploitation have risen alarmingly during the pandemic, according to new data measuring the scale of modern slavery and trafficking in the UK.
Cases of sexual exploitation, which includes people held captive in brothels and coerced into prostitution, rose by a quarter in 2020 compared with the previous year. Nearly a quarter of cases involved children.
Criminal exploitation, which includes forced shoplifting and forced begging, increased by 42%, with a fifth of potential victims said to be minors. Dozens of cases referred to drugs-related activity involving county lines gangs, where youngsters are used to transport narcotics and money.
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Police and Crime General
Civil liberties campaigners have criticised the Metropolitan police after two independent legal observers were among 107 people arrested following a march through central London on Saturday.
Protesters gathered on Saturday night in London, Bristol, Manchester and several other cities in opposition to a bill that critics say will limit the right to protest.
In London, thousands marched from Hyde Park to Parliament Square, where speeches were given against the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill, which passed its second reading in parliament last month.
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COVID-19
Vaccination passports could be imposed on the public for less than a year, according to plans being drawn up by Downing Street to head off a Tory revolt.
Boris Johnson will give the green light on Monday to the development of a system of “vaccine certification” as he looks to reinvigorate the economy.
Ministers believe the scheme may be essential in reopening venues such as theatres and stadiums which rely on large crowds.
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COVID-19
COVID passports could be introduced as a way of ensuring people can get "back to doing the things they love", the culture secretary has said.
Oliver Dowden made the comments as more than 70 MPs sent a warning shot to Prime Minister Boris Johnson by forming a major cross-party campaign against the use of such passports within the UK.
Mr Dowden said cabinet minister Michael Gove is conducting a review into whether "we could make a COVID status certification work".
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Justice
Crime victims are to be told when an offender leaves prison as part of a new code that has come into force in England and Wales.
The Victims' Code ensures access to extra information and support, such as enabling victims of rape to choose the gender of their police interviewer.
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said it gave victims a "simplified and stronger set of rights".
A consultation on a new victims' law will take place later this year.
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Police and Crime General
A “culture of misogyny” is entrenched in the police, and a wide-ranging review into how they deal with domestic abuse cases must be carried out, the UK’s domestic abuse commissioner has warned.
In a letter to the home secretary, Priti Patel, seen by The Independent, Nicole Jacobs said there is a “persistent” lack of confidence among women to report domestic abuse and sexual assault to the police, and that this hinders bringing “dangerous, serial perpetrators to justice”.
Her comments come amid mounting anger over the violence against women and girls, after the tragic death of Sarah Everard saw women sharing personal stories of sexual harassment and assault in public spaces.
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Police and Crime General
Police chiefs have warned ministers that the rule of six is virtually unenforceable because of the two household concession.
As councils began a clear-up of litter left by people who packed into parks and beaches during Tuesday’s heatwave, policing sources told The Daily Telegraph that enforcing the rules had been made “very, very difficult” by the decision also to allow two households to meet outside.
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Police Demand
Stop and search is used mostly for suspicion of drugs possession rather than carrying knives and rates of use of the police power should be analysed at smaller geographic levels to avoid inaccurate claims relating to Black people.
The Government ordered independent Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report published today said that police and government messaging on the use of stop and search needs to be clearer.
It said successive Home Secretaries going back to Amber Rudd in 2017 had clearly stated that the purpose of the tactic was to “take knives off the streets.” But it says there is a “disconnect between this narrative” and what is seen on the ground.
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Recruitment and Retention
Three in five police officers say their mental health has worsened over the course of the pandemic, according to a new survey conducted by Welsh mental health charity Mind Cymru.
The data, taken from a survey of more than 250 staff and volunteers across police, fire and ambulance services in Wales, has laid bare the scale of poor mental health within the emergency responder communities with just under one in four police officers rating the current state of their mental health as “poor”.
Worst hit were ambulance staff with only one in three (33 per cent) reporting their current mental health as very good or good compared with two in five police (44 per cent) and almost one in two (49 per cent) survey respondents working within the fire service.
Ambulance staff were the most likely (72 per cent) to say their mental health has worsened since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, compared with police (56 per cent) or fire (61 per cent). Staff and volunteers within the ambulance service were also more likely to rate their current mental health as poor or very poor.
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Police Demand
Graeme Biggar, the Director General of the National Economic Crime Centre has suggested police and law enforcement are losing the war on criminal gangs behind a surge in scam messages during the pandemic. Mr Biggar said cyber fraudsters were “finding it too easy” to plague the public with millions of fake texts, emails and calls.
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Police Demand
Police have said sexual harassment and assault claims made by school pupils on a website may be the “next child abuse scandal that engulfs the nation”. A police helpline is to be set up to report incidents, following the posting of thousands of allegations, most of them about the behaviour of other pupils.
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Police and Crime General
Ex-Durham Chief Constable Mike Barton warns measures on protests in the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Bill would see Britain move towards “paramilitary policing”.
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Police Demand
Young people are at risk of increasing exploitation from criminals as the country marks a year since the first national lockdown, according to a National Youth Agency report. It says county lines gangs have changed tactics during the pandemic, including targeting vulnerable young people where they live; increased and more creative use of social media platforms to groom young people stuck at home, and exploiting a lack of sufficient support in more rural areas for children to seek help.
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Police and Crime General
Local authority leaders have welcomed the next phase of the Government’s programme to support vulnerable families which has been launched with £165m behind it.
The newly named ‘Supporting Families’ programme, previously known as the ‘Troubled Families’ programme, includes work to support people to leave abusive relationships, get the right joined-up support for those with mental health issues and help people to find work.
The programme, which began in 2012, assigns families a dedicated keyworker, who brings local services together to resolve issues at an early stage, before they develop into more significant problems.
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Recruitment and Retention
More than half of police forces have officers working in schools, but there are concerns the practice leads to criminalisation of young people and that school is no longer a “safe haven”.
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Recruitment and Retention
Announcing his retirement, Norfolk’s Chief Constable Simon Bailey has defended his decision to axe PCSOs from the force.
“The move away from the model of policing with PCSOs now means we’ve got more officers tackling crime and serious organised crime than we’ve ever had and they are doing it to devastating effect.”
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Police Demand
UK Finance says online fraud is rising, with criminals openly advertising their ability to create scam websites and apps which trick people into making payments by purporting to be HMRC or the NHS.
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Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson and Chris Whitty have both said that Britain will suffer another surge of coronavirus as restrictions are eased.
The prime minister last night told Conservative MPs that a third wave coming from Europe was “inevitable”.
However, he insisted that “we are prepared” and there was “no reason to deviate” from the unlocking road map he set out last month. He hailed the success of the vaccine rollout as a reason to persist with the existing timetable even if cases rise again.
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Police Demand
More than 6,000 cases of Covid-related fraud and cyber-crime have been recorded by the UK's police forces during the pandemic.
The Action Fraud team said £34.5m had been stolen since 1 March 2020. It covers activity in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but not Scotland.
In a related development, the National Cyber Security Centre has told the BBC it is tackling about 30 "significant attacks" a month against the country's pandemic response infrastructure.
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Police and Crime General
The new chair of the College of Policing board, Nick Herbert (Lord Herbert of South Downs), has – almost a decade on from the establishment of the professional body for the police in England and Wales – launched a fundamental review of the College’s work.
While we have made considerable progress in recent years in strengthening our connection with day-to-day policing, more needs to be done to ensure that the College meets its potential and that its work and role within policing is valued across the service.
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Police Demand
A massive increase in appeals for help over the past year from those suffering domestic abuse has exposed the scale of the problem, say campaigners.
Refuge says it recorded an average of 13,162 calls and messages to its National Domestic Abuse helpline every month between April 2020 and February 2021.
That is up 61% on the average number of monthly contacts at the start of 2020.
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COVID-19
The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) did not publish precise figures but said it had become clear in “operational meetings” that less than a fifth had been given the vaccination.
Latest figures from the Government suggest that around half of adults in the UK have had their first jab.
National chair of the PFEW John Apter said: “While we all hope we are seeing the beginning of the end of this pandemic, the threat is far from over. This horrible virus continues to claim many lives.
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Police and Crime General
Following the Home Secretary’s confirmation last week of the recommendations of part one of the police and crime commissioner review, Paddy Tipping, Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, spoke to Policing Insight Editor Keith Potter about the implications of the review for PCCs, and what the second stage of the process could mean.
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Recruitment and Retention
Police have been left to “pick up the pieces” of hastily written and badly communicated laws through a year of the coronavirus pandemic, officers have said amid warnings of a looming exodus when restrictions ease.
They accuse the government of failing to properly consult on changes to coronavirus laws, introducing them too quickly for police to immediately enforce, confusing the public with gaps between guidance and law and overexaggerating how strictly restrictions would be policed.
There are fears of an “exodus from policing” after the end of the pandemic, with many officers saying they are “sick and tired” of juggling the competing demands of coronavirus laws and normal crime.
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Police and Crime General
Former police officers, including ex-chief constables, have spoken out against alleged sexism and male violence against women in UK police forces.
In recent weeks, police have been on the receiving end of public anger for multiple reasons. After the murder of Sarah Everard, the accused’s force was then pictured manhandling protesters at a vigil for the victim, while a different officer avoided jail despite being filmed attacking a woman.
Now, to add to the mix, forces around the country have been accused of operating teams where misogyny is ‘ingrained in decision-making’.
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Police and Crime General
Counting at the May elections could be delayed in England because ballot papers will need to be quarantined due to COVID-19 safety precautions. New suggested guidance from Lawyers in Local Government - a group which represents council solicitors - “recommends that ballot papers will be quarantined for 24 hours prior to being handled by staff”.
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Police and Crime General
Child rapists, people who pose a threat to our national security, serious criminals and failed asylum seekers will find it harder to take advantage of modern slavery safeguards under changes to be announced this week.
This follows an alarming rise in people abusing our modern slavery system by posing as victims in order to prevent their removal and enable them stay in the country.
National Referral Mechanism referrals, the government’s system for identifying victims of modern slavery, more than doubled between 2017 and 2020 from 5,141 to 10,613.
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Fire
The pandemic has shown that “significant” reform of the fire service in England is needed “now more than ever”, according to the chief inspector of fire and rescue services. Sir Thomas Winsor found there were too many “barriers impeding the efficiency and effectiveness of services” and said that more needed to be done to address “outdated” and inflexible working arrangements.
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Police and Crime General
Prolific burglars, robbers and thieves are to be tagged with GPS trackers in a bid to stop them reoffending.
Offenders will be automatically tagged for up to 12 months after being released from prison, under a Ministry of Justice (MoJ) pilot.
Gwent, Avon and Somerset, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Humberside and West Midlands police forces are all taking part.
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Police Finances
The Safer Streets fund, which provides neighbourhood measures such as better lighting and CCTV, is to be doubled to £45 million as part of a series of "immediate steps" to improve security and “give assurance” to women and girls in the wake of Sarah Everard’s death. Following a meeting of the Government's Crime and Justice Taskforce, Downing Street said undercover police could also be sent to clubs, bars and popular nightspots to relay intelligence about predatory or suspicious offenders to uniformed officers, in pilots of so-called Project Vigilant, rolled out across the country.
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Police Finances
The National Audit Office has demanded "clear leadership from government" in ending delays to council audits after confirming that less than half of council financial audits for 2019-20 were completed on time.
Fifty-five percent of audit opinions were not issued by the 30 November 2020 deadline , despite the deadline being extended four months due to the pandemic by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, an NAO report out today reveals, describing the delays as “concerning”.
The 45% completion rate is down from 57% in 2018-19 and 95% in 2015-16.
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Police and Crime General
Plans for plainclothes police officers to patrol bars and nightclubs to safeguard women from predatory men have sparked anger.
Ministers announced the controversial plans in response to mounting criticism the government is not doing enough to tackle violence against women in the wake of the tragic disappearance and death of Sarah Everard.
Measures for plainclothes police officers to monitor hospitality venues once they reopen when lockdown measures are eased have been bitterly criticised and mocked on social media.
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Police and Crime General
A summer of bedlam lies ahead, police and drug experts have warned, as the strongest ecstasy pills yet to be tested head for the country’s festivals.
A combination of stronger drugs, pent-up demand to party and reduced drug tolerance because of 12 months of abstinence could cause mayhem, MPs were told.
A criminology professor said festivals should be introducing “lost adult” sites to help people cope this summer with the particular psychological impacts of being in large crowds after months of social isolation.
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COVID-19
The national statistician has warned of a further wave of Covid-19 infections in autumn despite strong early evidence of vaccine protection.
Sir Ian Diamond, head of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), said that although the case rate was the lowest since September it was still much higher than last summer when the first lockdown was lifted.
The latest ONS survey found that the infection rate in England was 0.37 per cent, equal to about 6,000 cases a day, compared with 0.04 per cent last summer when it was deemed safe enough to lift the first lockdown.
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Police and Crime General
The killing of Sarah Everard has struck a chord with many women of all ages, prompting them to tell their own stories – and it makes for grim reading. A survey from UN Women UK has revealed that 97 per cent of women aged 18-24 said they had been sexually harassed, while 80 per cent of women of all ages said they had experienced sexual harassment in public spaces....
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COVID-19
The current council tax system is a “wealth tax” on poorer parts of Britain and is in urgent need of a comprehensive overhaul, according to a coalition of academics and thinktanks from across the political divide.
The crudity of the system means there are eight parliamentary constituencies in which the average household pays no more than 0.2% of their home’s value in council tax. However, there are 41 constituencies in the north and Midlands in which the average household’s council tax burden is 1% or higher.
In Easington, County Durham, when the charge is measured against the average cost of a home, some are paying as much as three times the rate of council tax.
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Police and Crime General
Elections may be the last thing on Britons’ minds as the country emerges from the coronavirus pandemic and the prospect of summer holidays beckons.
But in just a few weeks most of the country is facing polls which could have a fundamental impact not only on the political direction of the 2020s but on the future of the UK itself.
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Economy & Public Finance
People living in band D council tax properties in the north east and the south west of England could see their bills exceed the £2,000 mark for the first time, a survey has suggested.
Local authorities across the UK are set to raise the amount of tax they claim in April, with research from the Daily Mirror suggesting two thirds of all major UK councils will put a 5 per cent increase on the levy going into the new financial year.
The chancellor gave local authorities the ability to add a 5 per cent hike in the budget, up from the previous cap of 2 per cent unless a higher rate was agreed by a referendum.
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Police and Crime General
Women "will be worried and may well be feeling scared" after the disappearance of Sarah Everard, the head of the Metropolitan Police Cressida Dick has said.
On social media, in WhatsApp groups and in Zoom calls across the country, women have been talking about the case of the 33-year-old, who went missing in Clapham, south London, on 3 March.
A Met police officer continues to be questioned on suspicion of murder and kidnap after human remains were found during the search for her.
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Police and Crime General
A new law to protect women against public sexual harassment is being considered as Priti Patel reassured women they were safe to walk the streets after the disappearance of Sarah Everard....
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Technology
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has awarded a strategic IT infrastructure contract to services provider Capgemini, with the aim of improving the user experience of its internal platforms.
The contract is said to be worth £600 million and will run for five years, with the option to extend for an additional two years if needed.
The MPS is looking to improve its IT infrastructure services within the Pegasus Programme, a digital policing programme to procure new key IT suppliers for the police.
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Police and Crime General
The Home Office guide on firearms licensing law was last revised in April 2016. It is intended to assist consistency of practice between police forces by providing them with comprehensive guidance, and also to encourage an understanding among firearms users and the general public of the considerations involved.
You can also read the legislative changes that have been made since the guidance was last published in April 2016.
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COVID-19
The Government’s vast £23bn Test and Trace system has made “no measurable difference” on the Covid pandemic and failed to prevent two national lockdowns, MPs have concluded.
In a damning report on the performance of the NHS Test and Trace (NHST&T) scheme, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has accused the Government of treating the taxpayer like an “ATM machine”, branding the sums of money spent on the programme as “staggering”.
It is the latest attack aimed at the Government’s test and trace system, which had been previously heralded by Boris Johnson to be “world-beating”.
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Police and Crime General
Domestic abuse offenders who have served a prison sentence will be tagged with a GPS tracking device in London under new a pilot project.
Up to 200 perpetrators of abuse-related offences, such as stalking, harassment, physical abuse, sexual abuse and coercive control will be fitted with the devices from Tuesday as part of their release conditions.
The pilot, which is running across every London borough as part of a programme announced by the London mayor’s office, has been launched in collaboration with probation services after consultation with the Violence Against Women and Girls initiative.
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Police and Crime General
Priti Patel is under growing pressure to order an inquiry into the ‘Nick’ scandal after a former home secretary branded a watchdog probe as ‘botched’.
Michael Howard was one of six former home secretaries who yesterday signed a joint letter demanding a fresh investigation into Scotland Yard’s shambolic VIP inquiry and the subsequent probe that cleared five detectives.
In the unprecedented intervention, they said confidence in the police has been seriously damaged by the handling of false claims of an Establishment paedophile ring.
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Police and Crime General
Changing the law to force people to show photo ID to take part in UK elections will be catastrophic for ethnic minority communities, increasing barriers to access and in effect disenfranchising them, equality and democracy campaigners have warned.
Boris Johnson’s government is expected to introduce a bill in the spring to make photo ID mandatory from 2023 for all UK-wide and English elections. But critics argue it is unnecessary, given low levels of voter fraud in the UK, and will disproportionately impact ethnic minority and working-class communities.
There was only one conviction for “personation” fraud, which voter ID is meant to prevent, in the UK in 2019.
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Economy & Public Finance
The chancellor’s Budget last week was never going to deliver what local government needs – a sustainable long-term finance solution that addresses the multiple issues of soaring adult social care costs, unsustainable business rates and increasingly ludicrous council taxes.
Instead, it offered a quick fix to bail out the economy until September – hopefully seeing the country through the worst of the pandemic – and a promise to start getting the UK’s bank balance back on track.
Councils, fresh from the finance settlement, will have to wait until the second half of the year to see if the chancellor searches down the back of the Treasury sofa for a top up, as Mr Sunak continues on the long tradition of short-term, piecemeal, bid-based funding for the sector.
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Police Finances
Police are set to be given an extra £30m to target violence hotspots to crack down on murders, knife crime and other serious offences.
The government funding pot will be made available to forces in parts of England and Wales which are "most affected by serious violence", according to the Home Office.
The money is subject to approval by the department once police chiefs submit plans on how to spend it.
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Police and Crime General
Last month West Midlands Police released a video of a PCSO whose arm had become wedged in a vehicle after attempting to grab the keys as the driver tried to make off.
Tim Rogers is West Midlands Federation’s deputy secretary and national lead on driver pursuits.
Following the release of the video of the incident, which took place in January 2020, Mr Rogers criticised the way Personal Safety Training doesn’t cover vehicle tactics and said officers were at risk when trying to extract someone from a vehicle.
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Justice
Up to 10,000 vulnerable victims facing long delays for trials should be allowed to give evidence by video in an attempt to stop them falling out of the system, according to the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales.
Dame Vera Baird warned of a collapse in confidence in the criminal justice system and an exodus of complainants if unprecedented trial delays were not urgently addressed.
She accused the government of not being sufficiently ambitious in its efforts to tackle a backlog of more than 50,000 criminal cases at crown courts in England and Wales.
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COVID-19
The number of Covid deaths and infections in the UK has fallen by a third in a week with 236 fatalities and 5,947 cases recorded in the last 24 hours.
It is the biggest week-on-week drop since the second wave peak of the pandemic. Last Friday, 8,523 cases and 346 deaths were reported.
The dropping death toll raises hopes Brits are past the darkest time of the virus.
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COVID-19
A top scientist says the UK is "well-equipped" to stay ahead of Covid variants amid hopes for a better summer.
Professor Sharon Peacock, head of the Covid-19 Genomics UK scientific body, says new strains of coronavirus are “very unlikely to send us back to square one”.
Instead, the scientist is hopeful that things will be better by summer with vaccines adapting quickly to different variants.
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Economy & Public Finance
The chancellor’s Budget promised much. This was the opportunity for Rishi Sunak to plot the UK’s way out of the economic challenges posed by Covid-19 and Brexit. In the event, so much had been leaked in advance that there were few surprises. Indeed, the most surprising element in the speech and accompanying documents was the overall sense that not much had happened.
Brexit was not mentioned once in the Budget ‘red book’. The government has clearly decided the economy will adjust now the transition period is finally over: companies that go to the wall will simply be part of the restructuring necessary now a sea of paperwork separates Dover and Calais – and, indeed, Holyhead and Dublin. New opportunities may await exporters, but the chancellor did not explicitly announce policies to help them.
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Recruitment and Retention
Those wishing to join the police must hold a level 3 qualification (or higher) which is equivalent to two A Levels or possess a policing qualification.
Lincolnshire Police, like many other forces, is pushing to take advantage of the uplift to diversify its workforce.
“The difficulty we have with that when trying to recruit from migrant communities is we know from fact based research that the areas of the highest social deprivation, which are predominately along the east coast, including Boston and Spalding, people do not have the right level of qualification to apply to join police,” said DI Lee St Quinton. “It’s very difficult, that's a key barrier for us.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Home Office’s quarterly release of statistics relating to the police’s use of powers under the Terrorism Act 2000 revealed there were 185 arrests for terrorism-related activity in the year ending December 31, 2020 – 97 (34 per cent) fewer than in the previous 12-month period and the lowest annual total since 2011.
But despite the reduction in the number of arrests, largely attributed to an overall reduction in crime since the beginning of the national lockdown in March last year, the number of terror plots stopped by CTP and its intelligence partners has risen to a total of 28 since March 2017. Eighteen were Islamist related, nine right-wing terrorism and one left, anarchist or single issue terrorism (LASIT).
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson is planning a public information campaign to crack down on middle-class drug use by making snorting cocaine as socially unacceptable as drink-driving, The Times has learnt.
A government PR blitz will use billboards, posters and television and radio adverts in an attempt to change people’s attitudes to recreational drugs. They will carry graphic details to highlight how wealthy cocaine users are helping to fuel Britain’s growing epidemic of violent crime and gang warfare.
The prime minister wants to imitate previous government public awareness campaigns that successfully changed attitudes, such as the “THINK!” adverts combating drink-driving and promoting road safety.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
A new £12bn national infrastructure bank was announced by chancellor Rishi Sunak in a Budget billed as being pro-business but offering little for public services.
Mr Sunak announced a series of measures to help the national economy bounce back, including £1bn for town deals, and the locations of eight freeports. He also announced a further business rates holiday, for which councils will be compensated.
And there was extra support for towns, with £1bn for 45 new town deals, and the National Infrastructure Fund being asked to produce a report on how infrastructure can best support economic prosperity and quality of life in towns, focusing on transport and digital infrastructure in particular.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Middle-class youngsters are being groomed to work for county lines drugs gangs that exploit the “emotional neglect” of parents working long hours, according to a report.
The gangs are targeting “children from affluent backgrounds” as well as girls, young women and university students via social media, experts told researchers at Nottingham University.
Dealers have adapted to lockdown measures by posing as delivery drivers and are enrolling at universities for the sole purpose of supplying drugs to students, the interim Policing County Lines: Impact of Covid-19 report found.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
More than a quarter of forces do not have a single black officer, with almost 40 per cent having one or fewer.
Police forces have been told to step up minority ethnic recruitment after a report showed it will take 90 years for them to be fully representative of the black and minority ethnic (BAME) population....
[ more...]
COVID-19
A police chief has demanded an extra 500 police officers to cope with the millions of staycationers who will descend on Devon and Cornwall in the summer after lockdown ends.
Families across the country are already planning staycations and days out after Boris Johnson announced Britain's roadmap out of lockdown.
From April 12, Britons can stay in self-contained holiday cottages - with Devon and Cornwall among the most popular destinations.
[ more...]
Justice
Members of the Justice committee were told that the courts system needs to make a more radical use of video justice and evidence centres – even after the pandemic is over – to speed up cases and improve outcomes.
Innovations including pre-recorded evidence, virtual bail hearings and making more use of video links could reduce the number of delayed cases and encourage more people to give evidence in complex cases.
Action is needed as the case backlog in December was 59,000 cases and the number of cases that collapse has doubled in four years, according to the Law Society.
[ more...]
Prisons
Prison drug dogs are to be trained to sniff out new and emerging strands of the psychoactive substance known as Spice as part of the Government’s comprehensive plan to tackle violence and disorder behind bars.
In the past year alone more than 100kg of illegal drugs, including Spice, have been detected by drug dogs in England and Wales. But the efforts of some suppliers to outwit detection by changing the chemical make-up of Spice makes it difficult for dogs to find.
The current price of psychoactive substances ranges from £130 to £1,000 for an A4 sheet of impregnated paper. Smaller pieces of impregnated paper, credit card-sized, can range from £40 to £100 based on recent intelligence.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Zoë Billingham was appointed to the then HMIC in September 2009.
She announced her decision on social media stating: “After 12 immensely rewarding years I’m hanging up my…. (whatever HMIs hang up…?) in September.”
Ms Billingham was the author of the most recent report in to Greater Manchester Police that found “serious cause for concern” due to the force not recording one in five of all reported crimes. The highly critical report led directly to the resignation of Chief Constable Ian Hopkins.
[ more...]
Justice
Abusers who throttle their partners will face five years in jail after ministers bowed to campaigners to include it in the government’s Domestic Abuse Bill.
It will make non-fatal strangulation and suffocation a criminal offence amid concerns that many perpetrators receive lenient sentences because they are charged only with common assault.
Robert Buckland, the justice secretary, said that the bill would be expanded to make threats to disclose naked and intimate images with the intention to cause distress a criminal offence.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Government needs to implement strict measures in May’s local elections to keep staff safe, trade union Unison urged today.
Unison called for action and assurances to ensure polling stations do not become hotspots for infection in a letter to communities secretary Robert Jenrick and the Local Government Association (LGA).
Councils were told by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government last week that they would need to buy equipment for the protection of staff, voters and others at polling stations, postal vote openings and counts.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Individual activists will be allowed to deliver leaflets and canvass voters outdoors from 8 March in the run up to the English local elections.
The new Government guidance will allow one-to-one campaigning outdoors as long as it is conducted in a COVID-secure way.
Campaigners have been reminded of the need to be socially distanced, wear face coverings and sanitise their hands.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Now is "not the time for tax rises" as they could undermine the UK's economic recovery from Covid - but they may be needed at a later date, MPs have said.
Ahead of the Budget announcement on Wednesday, a Treasury Committee report says public finances are on an "unsustainable long-term trajectory".
It says some tax rises may not harm recovery, but advises against others.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The prime minister says he has "no doubt" there will be a strong jobs-led recovery from coronavirus.
Mr Johnson said it had "been expensive" to look after everyone during the pandemic and the chancellor would be "frank" about state of the economy in Wednesday's Budget.
45 Conservative MPs have urged Mr Sunak to cut business rates in England to help "save the High Streets".
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Employer investment in training has fallen since the introduction of an apprenticeship levy, an HR body says.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said since the levy was introduced in 2017, apprenticeship starts have fallen and fewer have gone to young people.
"On all key measures the apprenticeship levy has failed," its boss said. The chancellor is set to announce an additional £126m for traineeships in England at his Budget on Wednesday.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
West Northamptonshire Council has launched a campaign to ensure local residents and businesses are prepared for its launch on 1 April 2021.
Northamptonshire currently has eight councils, one county and seven district, however, this will change from next month, with Daventry, Northampton and South Northamptonshire councils merging to form the unitary West Northamptonshire Council.
The county’s four other districts (Corby, East Northamptonshire, Kettering and Wellingborough) will merge to form the new unitary North Northamptonshire Council.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Dangerous drug drivers are escaping prosecution and putting lives at risk because some police forces ration testing kits issued to officers to just one a day, a Government-funded study has revealed....
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Shocking discrepancies in the way police forces deal with allegations of racism by their staff are today laid bare after a Mirror investigation.
New data shows that thousands of police officers and staff have been investigated in England and Wales over the past five years, but only a fraction faced disciplinary action.
And huge gaps are evident between individual forces - with one upholding nearly half of complaints while 12 others did not uphold a single one.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Concern over the government’s limitation of the right to protest during lockdown continues to mount after it emerged that the home secretary, Priti Patel, is eager to grant police greater powers to control demonstrations once the Covid restrictions are lifted.
In a letter to HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) Patel wrote that although she appreciates protest is “a cornerstone of our democracy” she wanted to know how the Home Office could help police ensure protests in the future do not impact on “the rights of others to go about their daily business”.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Vaccinating people in order of age is the fastest way to cut Covid-19 deaths in the next phase of the rollout, say experts advising the UK government.
People in their 40s will be next, once the current phase is completed. Priority based on jobs would be "more complex" and could slow down the programme, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said.
Unions representing teachers and police have criticised the decision, saying it could disrupt children's education.
[ more...]
Prisons
Proposals for prisons to trial a free scheme providing cannabis to inmates to ascertain whether it reduces violence, overdose deaths and addiction to stronger drugs have been backed by the UK government’s former chief drug adviser.
Prof David Nutt, from Imperial College London, said he was fully supportive of the idea and that he was considering a study on reducing prisoners’ drug dependence with cannabis in an ongoing trial.
“The idea of drug testing in prisons was not at all thought through when it was introduced in 1996,” said Nutt, chair of DrugScience, which advocates for evidence-based drug policy.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
New anti-terrorism legislation in memory of a Manchester Arena bombing victim should "protect people and be proportionate", the justice secretary has said as a consultation is launched.
Building on "Martyn's Law", the new Protect Duty will require public places and venues to improve security.
It follows a campaign by Figen Murray, mother of Martyn Hett who died in the 2017 attack.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police powers to stop and search people in a specified area should be immediately suspended, Justice says.
The human rights group says stop-and-search is key in the disproportionate representation of black people in the criminal-justice system.
Its report asks the Home Office for an independent evaluation of "the impact and effectiveness of these searches".
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
A high court judge has thrown-out a legal challenge tabled by eight local authorities against lender Barclays Bank over historic Lender Option Borrower Option loans.
Councils in Leeds, Greater Manchester, Newcastle, North East Lincolnshire, Nottingham, Oldham, Sheffield and Newham launched action to cancel the loans taken out between 2006-2008.
The councils claimed that Barclays had committed fraud by making the loans while wrongly implying that the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) – on which the loans’ repayments were based – was being set honestly.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation says the Prime Minister and Home Secretary have shown unforgivable contempt for police officers by snubbing them for any level of priority for the Covid-19 vaccine.
“This shows exactly what they think of us,” said Ken Marsh, adding that the Government’s upcoming Police Covenant was “not worth the paper it’s written on”.
“It’s absolutely disgusting – they don’t give a damn about us,” said Mr Marsh. “Police officers are catching and dying from Covid-19 because of their job and yet we are still not being given the protection the vaccine offers. It’s like we don’t exist.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Mark Burns-Williamson, West Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), said he broadly agreed with the proposals outlined in a policy paper by Dame Vera Baird QC that has been submitted to the Government.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Government has introduced new measures to ensure people needing to self-isolate will still be allowed to vote in the upcoming local elections.
It has made an amendment to emergency proxy voting rules to enable anyone self-isolating or shielding due to COVID-19 to access an emergency proxy vote up to 17:00 on election day.
Minister of state for the constitution & devolution, Chloe Smith, said: ‘These elections can and will be delivered in a COVID-secure way and the extended proxy voting rules are a key part of this.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Rishi Sunak will use a giveaway budget next week to pave the way for a post-lockdown boom.
Help for motorists, hospitality firms and the housing market is expected to be among a string of eye-catching policies.
The Chancellor is set to shelve plans for tax rises, including a threatened 5p increase in fuel duty that would have hit millions of drivers.
He is also poised to announce further VAT and business rate cuts for the hospitality and tourist industries, continue the stamp duty holiday and extend the jobs furlough scheme.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The Police Foundation’s annual conference was told there has been a 104% increase in officers quitting the service since 2015.
Leavers told a study by the University of Plymouth that their reasons included a lack leadership, not feeling valued, lack of career direction and lack of autonomy.
Dr Sarah Charman, a Reader in Criminology at the university, revealed there have been 2,363 resignations in the year to March 2020. That compares to 1,158 in 2011/12 and the number has increased every year since.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Policing in the UK is witnessing a ‘steep and troubling’ rise in the number of officers resigning early in service, citing poor leadership and management, organisational injustice and exhausting working patterns among the reasons for leaving: Dr Sarah Charman – a panellist at this week’s Police Foundation workforce conference – and Dr Stephanie Bennett, both of the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth, explore the key reasons why officers leave mid-service.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police forces are still failing to attract enough Black recruits despite making good progress with other under-represented minorities, one of the country’s most senior officers has said.
The Government’s uplift programme to recruit 20,000 additional officers by March 2023 is currently well on target, with more than 7,000 successful applicants already drafted in.
But while forces are doing well in attracting female officers and those from Asian backgrounds, they are struggling to attract applicants from Black, African and Caribbean communities.
[ more...]
Justice
Today I am publishing a paper setting out my ambitions for the government’s long-awaited Victims’ Law.
Our civilised society has a duty to treat victims of crime well. For the state to prosecute and uphold the rule of law, victims must have the confidence to report crimes and to testify in court.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A specialist policing unit funded by banks arrested 122 fraudsters last year amid a huge rise in money launderers using members of the public as so-called “money mules”.
The Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU) recovered 18,175 credit card numbers and seized £2.6 million of assets in 2020 by targeting organised criminal gangs responsible for the vast amount of fraud in the UK. The total was £1 million more than had been seized the previous year.
Last year the unit’s investigations led to 54 criminals being jailed for fraud, figures handed to The Times reveal.
[ more...]
COVID-19
A new four-step plan to ease England's lockdown could see all legal limits on social contact lifted by 21 June, if strict conditions are met. Shops, hairdressers, gyms and outdoor hospitality could reopen on 12 April in England under plans set out by the PM.
From 17 May, two households might be allowed to mix in homes, while the rule of six could apply in places like pubs.
It requires four tests on vaccines, infection rates and new coronavirus variants to be met at each stage.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
A rise in corporation tax and extensions to the Universal Credit uplift and furlough scheme are among potential government Budget moves being reported in the national press. PF rounds up the rumours.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak will use next week’s Budget to raise corporation tax over the next three years, in bid to help cover expanded Covid-19 support schemes, according to reports.
The Budget will see corporation tax be lifted by one percentage point to 20% this year, to help pay for the extension to the furlough scheme, VAT cut for hospitality and retail and business rates holiday, according to the Times.
[ more...]
Prisons
A police commissioner has called for jails to trial giving free cannabis to prisoners in a bid to cut crime behind bars.
North Wales Plaid Cymru commissioner Arfon Jones, a former police inspector, said the radical idea could reduce prison violence and prevent overdose deaths in prisons.
Mr Jones said that if justice authorities were serious about reducing harm and violence in prisons 'they should be addressing the causes'.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The overdose antidote naloxone should be made available to all police officers in areas where there is a clear need, the police chiefs’ drug lead has urged after successful pilot schemes.
North Wales police and Police Scotland are trialling having beat officers carry naloxone nasal sprays that can be used to treat opiate overdoses, and West Midlands police have extended their pilot scheme, with a rollout due to be announced.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council’s drugs lead, Jason Harwin, a deputy chief constable with Lincolnshire police, told the Guardian that he was championing the use of naloxone by officers in areas where they may encounter people who have overdosed on opiates.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Merseyside Police has apologised for claiming "being offensive is an offence" as part of a campaign to encourage people to report hate crime.
The force came under fire over the weekend after the message appeared on a billboard in Wirral.
It has since clarified that while hate crime is an offence, "being offensive is not in itself an offence".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The overdose antidote naloxone should be made available to all police officers in areas where there is a clear need, the police chiefs’ drug lead has urged after successful pilot schemes.
North Wales police and Police Scotland are trialling having beat officers carry naloxone nasal sprays that can be used to treat opiate overdoses, and West Midlands police have extended their pilot scheme, with a rollout due to be announced.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council’s drugs lead, Jason Harwin, a deputy chief constable with Lincolnshire police, told the Guardian that he was championing the use of naloxone by officers in areas where they may encounter people who have overdosed on opiates.
[ more...]
Pensions
The National Association of Retired Police Officers (NARPO) has urged the Government to ensure the retired are treated the same as those of working age, when resolving pension discrimination.
This follows the 2018 Court of Appeal’s judgment that found the Government had discriminated against public sector workers in their policy of transitional protection, which was part of the 2015 reforms to public service pension schemes.
Following this case, the Government said it would be adopting a ‘deferred choice underpin’ approach, offering affected members a choice between legacy and reformed scheme benefits.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Boris Johnson says it is "absolutely right" to take a "data not dates" approach to leaving lockdown, stressing England will ease measures "cautiously".
The prime minister said he would set out "what we can" in a road map for easing restrictions on Monday.
"We want to be going one way from now on, based on the incredible vaccination rollout," he said.
[ more...]
Justice
The pressure put on the criminal justice system during the Covid-19 pandemic has been laid bare by official statistics that show the number of people dealt with in England and Wales fell by nearly a quarter amid evidence that the bottleneck has forced staff to carefully select which cases can be heard.
Data released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) showed the number of people being prosecuted or handed out-of-court disposals fell by 22% in the 12 months to September 2020, compared with the same period a year earlier.
The figures also showed a 25% drop in the number of offenders convicted and a similar decrease in the number of people sentenced. While the government highlighted the unprecedented difficulties posed by the public health crisis, Labour blamed ministers.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Greater Manchester Police has dealt with more than 1,200 Covid-related incidents in a single week with a “resurgence” of large group gatherings despite lockdown rules. Officers say there is evidence of greater “resistance” to police enforcement.
Speaking at a weekly press conference for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Bev Hughes, deputy mayor for policing and crime, said 280 fixed penalty notices had been issued in the past week, including 55 £800 fines of which 32 were handed out at a mass gathering in Salford.
She said: “The police everywhere are feeling that there is a lot more resistance now to intervention by the police. If they are called to a house, the householders are reluctant very often now to let them enter to check on what is happening and I think that is going to be an increasing trend.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More than 40 people were arrested on suspicion of driving under the influrence of drugs or alchol during a two-week crackdown in Wiltshire.
Wiltshire Police are now urging people to be wary of the consequences of driving under the influence, after 43 people were arrested.
The force has increased proactive checks in response to community concerns of an increase in reckless behaviour by some motorists during lockdown.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Lockdown is unlikely to be eased significantly until daily Covid cases are in the hundreds, compared with more than 10,000 a day now, The Telegraph understands....
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Home Office figures show 7,576 potential slavery and trafficking victims were referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) – the UK’s apparatus for identifying and supporting victms – between January and September last year.
That is the equivalent of 28 every day, and was an increase of 4.2 per cent on the same period in 2019 – despite fears the coronavirus pandemic could push slavery networks and their victims further underground.
Almost half the referrals during 2020 concerned children aged 17 or under, or adults exploited as children.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Black Lives Matter UK has announced £45,000 of funding to the United Families and Friends Campaign to set up a “people’s tribunal” for deaths in custody.
The coalition group of family members who have lost loved ones in state custody, formed in 1997, is so far the largest recipient of Black Lives Matter UK’s initial round of funding.
Black Lives Matter UK announced last month its plan to release more than £100,000 to black-led organisations across the country. The campaign group received £1.2m in donations via a GoFundMe appeal, following widespread protests last summer.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The UK’s most senior black female police officer has revealed her brother was stopped-and-searched by colleagues as she defended the controversial tactic.
Metropolitan Police Commander Dr Alison Heydari spoke publicly about the incident as she said the Met was in “listening mode” and working hard to engage young black men who are disproportionately targeted by stop-and-search.
Commander Heydari was responding to comments by retired Superintendent Leroy Logan who last week criticised Mayor Sadiq Khan and Scotland Yard’s approach to knife crime — claiming it had left young black men feeling alienated.
[ more...]
Justice
Emergency Support Bags include sim cards to make calls, clothing, food vouchers and a wifi-enabled tablet to access 24hr support from partners.
The Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire, Kathryn Holloway, has announced that the charity she governs - the Bedfordshire Police Partnership Trust - has been awarded over £14,000 by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to help support individuals fleeing domestic abuse.
The idea first came about when Bedfordshire's Office for the Police and Crime Commissioner were thinking of new ways of helping victims of domestic abuse that were fleeing the family home, and this coincided with the OPCC bidding into a pot of money the MoJ had released for domestic abuse during Covid-19.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More police officers could be placed in some London schools when they fully reopen to help prevent a surge in violent crime, Sadiq Khan has revealed.
Met Police school safety officers have already been working at certain schools in areas of high violent crime.
The London mayor said in some cities around the world that have already come out of a Covid-19 lockdown, there had been a surge in violent crime.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Police Foundation’s Strategic Review of Policing is exploring the sort of UK police service stakeholders need and expect over the coming years; ahead of next week’s conference on The Future Police Workforce, Foundation Director Rick Muir highlights some of the key questions that need to be considered.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Many capital projects are likely to be put on hold due to conditions on the “exceptional” support offered to struggling councils last week, finance experts have predicted.
The £96m promised by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government to Luton BC, Bexley LBC, Peterborough City Council and Eastbourne DC through capitalisation directions will enable these authorities to borrow government money normally only permitted for capital spending to ease pressure on their revenue budgets.
Other councils including Slough BC, Wirral MBC, Woking BC, Nottingham City Council and Croydon LBC, which declared a section 114 notice in December, are still locked in talks with the ministry over their requests for capitalisation directions.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Seven out of 10 young adults think that the police were treat them differently if they come from a deprived area or if they are a person of colour, according to a new study conducted by a leading criminal justice charity in the UK calling for police to divert young adults into support and reduce the number of arrests for low-level crimes.
The report, released by UK charity Revolving Doors Agency, found that over half of young adults did not think that the police consistently act in line their own beliefs and values (54%) or would act compassionately towards them (53%). The problem was found to be exacerbated for young adults with mental health needs, disabilities or long-term health conditions.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Parish councils held by Zoom are set to be allowed to continue indefinitely as a result of the ‘Jackie Weaver’ phenomenon which has hugely increased interest in their meetings....
[ more...]
Prisons
Prisoners in England's jails have been locked in their cells for more than 90% of the day to keep them safe from Covid-19, the prisons watchdog says.
And the extra restrictions, which began in March, have led to a decline in their mental and physical health and a rise in drug taking and self-harm.
"It's being imprisoned while you're in prison," one inmate told inspectors.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Teachers and police are expected to be given priority for vaccines once the over-50s have been offered Covid jabs, The Telegraph can disclose.
Britain is on course to hit targets to offer all those in the top four priority groups – including everyone over the age of 70 – their first dose of the vaccine by Monday.
But research suggests that hospital pressures will not ease significantly until the end of March, once all over 60s and younger people with health problems have had their first jab.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy shrank by a record 9.9% last year as coronavirus restrictions hit output, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) says.
The contraction in 2020 "was more than twice as much as the previous largest annual fall on record," said ONS deputy national statistician Jonathan Athow.
In December, the economy grew by 1.2%, after shrinking by 2.3% in November, as some restrictions eased.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester held a closed meeting with Trafford council this week to discuss policing, following the city-region’s police force being placed into special measures.
The meeting came after local calls for Mayor Andy Burnham to set out an action plan to bring Greater Manchester Police ‘up to scratch’ in Trafford.
Conservative members of the council criticised the fact that the meeting was held in private and felt members of the public, especially those who were victims of unrecorded crime, should be able to observe and participate.
[ more...]
Technology
The Axon Interview system was rolled out across the Constabulary in September following a successful pilot period in south Cumbria. The new system captures video recordings of all witness, victim and suspect interviews carried out as part of investigations by Cumbria officers.
The single system replaces two separate DVD-based systems, which would record only audio. The introduction of Axon’s digital interview recording system is the first outside of the US and links in seamlessly with the constabulary’s body-worn video (BWV) and Citizen capability. Axon says the new system ensures absolute transparency for all interviewees and offers flexibility via mobile kits, meaning officers can carry out interviews with people at a mutually convenient location if they are unable to attend a police station.
The system, which is fully complaint with Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, has integrated data lifecycle management functionality ensuring that evidence is managed throughout an investigation until a point where it becomes obsolete, leading to it being deleted.
[ more...]
Technology
Devon and Cornwall Police has become the first force in the world to install high-tech cameras in custody cells that monitor a detainee’s movement, pulse and breathing.
The ground-breaking technology called Oxevision has been developed by a company called Oxehealth, a spin-off company formed from a partnership between Oxford University’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust.
The cameras allow detainees to be monitored remotely, and can alert to potentially risky activity such as self-harm or significant health issues allowing for early intervention.
[ more...]
Technology
The country’s biggest police force made only one arrest after scanning more than 13,000 people with facial recognition technology.
The biometric surveillance was wrong on seven of the eight occasions it picked out a face in the crowd to Metropolitan Police officers.
The Met and other forces have heralded facial recognition as a fantastic crime-fighting tool but privacy campaigners say that the intrusion is too great given the low success rate.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Councils across England have been allocated £125 million funding to provide support for victims of domestic abuse and their children, Minister for Rough Sleeping and Housing Eddie Hughes announced today (12 February 2021).
The funding will help ensure victims and their children who need it are able to access life-saving support such as therapy, advocacy and counselling in safe accommodation, including refuges.
The money will fund a new duty on councils to ensure victims and their children are able to access life-saving support in safe accommodation – a key part of the government’s landmark Domestic Abuse Bill.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Dame Cressida Dick may step down as Metropolitan Police Commissioner within a year amid the continuing furore over her force’s handling of the catastrophic Operation Midland inquiry.
Lady Brittan, the widow of former home secretary Leon Brittan, has launched a withering attack on the Met Police, accusing its leadership of lacking a "strong moral compass" and a culture of "cover up and flick away".
She stopped short of naming Dame Cressida, but said the "buck stops" with the "leadership of the force" in its decision to raid her London and country homes over false allegations of a murderous Westminster paedophile ring made by a fantasist.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police in England issued 196 of the fines, with two handed out in Wales, to organisers of gatherings of more than 30 people including raves, parties and protests between August and December 20.
According to snapshot figures from early January, of those 196 issued in England five had been paid, 53 were being formally contested, 42 had been ignored, and 96 still had time left to pay in the 28-day payment period.
The data from criminal records office Acro, that administers the fines, were given to the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).
[ more...]
Justice
Campaigners have welcomed moves to make the threat of sharing naked, sexual or explicit pictures and videos of another person with consent a criminal offence.
Ministers are thought to broadly support plans to criminalise those who threaten to leak sex tapes or other explicit content of their partners.
During a debate in the House of Lords this week, it was said a change in the law "would protect millions of women and victims of domestic abuse".
[ more...]
Justice
Campaigners have welcomed moves to make the threat of sharing naked, sexual or explicit pictures and videos of another person with consent a criminal offence.
Ministers are thought to broadly support plans to criminalise those who threaten to leak sex tapes or other explicit content of their partners.
During a debate in the House of Lords this week, it was said a change in the law "would protect millions of women and victims of domestic abuse".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Chief Constable Jo Shiner says policing must be able to “identify and respond empathetically” to the vulnerabilities of young adults after new research shows more than half of 18 to 25-year-olds do not think the police understand them or the challenges they face.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
"In this inspection, we examined how effectively and efficiently the Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) tackle the threat from serious and organised crime (SOC).
SOC remains one of the greatest problems for policing in the UK and overseas.
Our last inspection report on ROCUs was published in 2015; Regional Organised Crime Units – A review of capability and effectiveness. Since then, the ROCU network has made substantial progress in some areas.
We wanted to see how well ROCUs led the response to SOC while working with local police forces and other law enforcement agencies.
We found evidence of some good work, but we also found some inconsistencies. We make six recommendations."
[ more...]
Justice
When Tracey Hanson's son, Josh, was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack in 2015, it was the start of a tough journey through the criminal justice system.
She said she was "passed from pillar to post" throughout and the impact stays with her today.
Experiences like hers - and others who have been victims of crime - is driving a fresh call from Labour for a "Victims' Law" to strengthen their rights.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The vast, and growing, volume of child abuse material being created and shared online is threatening to overwhelm police efforts to tackle it, senior officers have told the Guardian.
And the situation is likely to worsen, National Crime Agency (NCA) child abuse lead Rob Jones warned, if social media sites such as Facebook press ahead with further encryption of messaging services.
Law enforcement against online child abuse in the UK was “the best in the world by some distance”, Jones said. “But we are arresting and dealing with more offenders than ever, the numbers are growing and growing, as are the number of children being safeguarded.”
[ more...]
Justice
Parole hearings to decide whether prisoners are safe for release are to be held in public for the first time.
The government said a blanket ban on public hearings will end later this year, although the “vast majority” of cases are expected to remain private because of sensitive information.
The move will enable anyone to request an open hearing, before the Parole Board decides whether it would be in the interests of justice.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Home Office announced the Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) at 18 forces in England and Wales are getting extra funding.
The forces, including the Met, West Midlands, Bedfordshire and Kent, are also sharing a £2m winter contingency fund package.
It is the third year that the forces have been given extra money for the units, bringing the total invested in them to more than £105m.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Metropolitan Police Federation has revealed it is considering legal action against the government to compensate frontline officers who caught COVID-19 while on duty.
Met Federation Chair Ken Marsh told Police Oracle that court action is possible following the Health Secretary Matt Hancock announcing on live TV that frontline officers will not be getting the vaccine unless they are classed as vulnerable.
So far, five members of the force have died from COVID-19 including a custody officer last month.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police have reacted with anger accusing the Government of betrayal after Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, said officers would not be given priority for the coronavirus vaccine.
Senior officers have been lobbying ministers for weeks to get men and women on the frontline vaccinated as soon as possible to protect them from the virus.
It was thought their pleas had been heeded by Government who recognised the dangers police officers faced when carrying out their vital duties.
So they were taken by surprise on Monday when Mr Hancock announced in the House of Commons that the police would not be given priority in the roll out and would have to wait until after groups 1 to 9 had been treated, meaning it could be months before young frontline officers are vaccinated.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The coronavirus pandemic is "fuelling long-term changes" to the threat posed by online sexual abusers, with children now facing "significant new risks", according to the country's leading children's charity.
The warning from the NSPCC comes as analysis of the latest crime trends shows a 17% rise in online sex crimes against children in the months after the first COVID-19 lockdown.
The Home Office offence data reveals there were 17,699 online child sex offences recorded by police in England and Wales between April and September last year.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Norfolk Chief Constable Simon Bailey said big tech firms such as Facebook need to accept greater responsibility and do more to prevent the uploading, sharing and viewing of child abuse images as too many parents still have a “laissez-faire attitude” to what their children do in their bedrooms.
“I don’t think their role in all this has been truly appreciated because without them the abuse wouldn’t be able to take place in so many cases,” he said.
“It’s the big market leaders that actually bear responsibility for making sure the internet is a safe place for our children and for our grandchildren to go. And ultimately at this moment in time it’s not safe.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The funding announcement comes after a spate of fatal stabbings in London last week.
A man in his 20s was killed and another critically injured in an incident in Kilburn in the northwest of the capital on Saturday, while investigations are continuing into a flurry of unconnected stabbings in south London since Friday evening in which a 22-year-old died and 11 other people were wounded.
The Home Office is committing £35.5 million to help Violence Reduction Units (VRUs), which support projects that carry out preventative work with children and young people, to battle the “horrors” of physical attacks.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “VRUs play a vital role in preventing young people from being dragged into the horrors of serious violence, and this funding will enable them to continue this crucial work.
“I will continue to back our police with the resources and powers they need to cut crime and make your community safer.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
In her latest report published at the weekend, Anne Longfield said the threat of gang exploitation shows no sign of abating and the response to youth violence must now be a “national priority”.
The Children’s Commissioner concludes that two years on from her last report into this issue, and a year after the Prime Minister promised to “cut the head off the snake” of County Lines, thousands of children are still not being kept safe.
She says the vast majority of local authorities do not have a sufficient grip on the drivers for youth violence in their areas, nor do they have a cogent strategy to reduce risk factors in vulnerable cohorts.
[ more...]
Technology
Britain’s enemies are attempting to use social media to tear the “fabric of society apart”, one of the country’s top generals has warned.
In a candid interview about cyberwarfare, Gen Sir Patrick Sanders said the threat was not like that seen in films where power plants are targeted.
Speaking to the Sky News Into the Grey Zone podcast, the head of Strategic Command said: “In some respects, the most important, most relevant use of cyberspace is that the real power is in influence and not in sabotage.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than 213,000 children in England aged 11 to 17 are at risk of being “dragged into serious violence”, according to research from crime and justice consultancy Crest Advisory.
Almost 40 per cent of those at risk live in ten local authorities, with proportionately more in Middlesbrough, Manchester and northeast Lincolnshire than anywhere else.
The findings are contained in a report, Violence and Vulnerability, published on Friday (February 5), which also highlights an innovative way of mapping connections between young people who may be involved in violence.
The technique, known as ‘Social Network Analysis’ (SNA), shows the links between 57 young people and the violent incidents they witnessed or were involved in, as well as where they go to school.
[ more...]
Justice
The family courts are putting domestic abuse victims and children at grave risk by sharing the secret addresses of shelters with the abusive ex-partner they are fleeing, and some survivors are suffering stalking as a result, London’s independent victims’ commissioner has warned.
Domestic abuse refuges, which house many women at risk of murder if they remain at home with their abuser, are located in secret locations and have strict security measures to ensure their residents remain safe.
Claire Waxman, London’s independent victims’ commissioner, told The Independent recent family court judgments have resulted in shelter locations being handed to abusive ex-partners which has led to victims enduring stalking and harassment.
[ more...]
Justice
Record numbers of victims and witnesses are dropping out of court cases because of Covid delays.
Prosecutors have seen a 79 per cent rise in legal proceedings ending with no conviction due to the withdrawals, figures obtained by the Daily Mail show.
It has resulted in rapists and violent criminals going free. In some cases, victims have committed suicide because their attacker will not face court for years.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Chancellor Rishi Sunak needs to think very carefully about the potentially damaging consequences of scrapping council tax and replacing it with a new national property tax, says Jessica Studdert deputy chief executive at think tank New Local.
As speculation grows as to the contents of next month’s Budget, one idea that has been mooted by the Treasury is scrapping council tax and combining it with stamp duty into a new national property tax.
On first glance, there might appear to be a logic to this – both taxes have failed to keep pace with the distortions of growing and increasingly geographically polarised property values.
There is an apparent 'levelling up' electoral gain to be had by shaking up who wins and who loses from the current distribution.
But the consequences of swallowing up the one remaining form of local taxation into the Treasury black hole would have dire consequences for local democracy and local services, and risks replacing one form of unfairness with another.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
In a delivery plan published today, constitution minister Chloe Smith confirmed the additional funding, which comes on top of £16m for the police and crime commissioner elections which the government had previously committed to cover.
The government added that any additional election costs should be a “priority” for the £1.55bn Covid-19 funding allocated to councils for the next financial year.
Smith said: “This package of funding will support returning officers to secure venues and staffing and run Covid-19 secure elections.
[ more...]
Technology
Our biggest event to date saw the NEP team facilitate this year’s Police Digital Summit – a virtual first for this annual gathering.
The theme of Maximising the Digital Opportunity was embraced by the hosts, who invited the NEP to produce the conference using Teams Live – technology that is being rolled out across all forces.
Over the course of three days, the Police ICT forum offered officers, staff, government and tech industry colleagues the opportunity to attend up to different 34 sessions and hear from a total of 68 experts in their fields.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Knife crime surged by 25 per cent after the first lockdown, official figures show, prompting warnings there could be an “eruption” of violence once the current Covid- 19 restrictions are lifted.
The number of knife offences increased by 25 per cent to 12,120 offences in July to September 2020 when compared with the previous quarter, despite a year-on-year decrease of three per cent, according to crime data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Between July and September, there was also a 13 per cent rise in “threats to kill” offences involving a knife, up from 1,124 offences to 1,270, when compared with the same period last year.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Thousands of potential victims of modern slavery or trafficking have been detained by the UK government during the last two years.
The figures from Women For Refugee Women and After Exploitation are the result of a Freedom Of Information request regarding the number of people detained in prison-like settings despite signs that they could be trafficking victims.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A county lines gang that was using children to carry drugs worth millions of pounds has been broken up by the police in an operation that has so far led to the conviction of 72 people.
Officers from Northamptonshire police said that they had dismantled 18 county lines after a two-year undercover operation.
The operation is believed to be one of the largest against such organisations. County lines drug dealing involves urban criminal gangs taking over provincial drug markets, often exploiting young and vulnerable people. The county line is the mobile phone line used to take orders.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The government has unveiled an additional £40m to help victims of domestic abuse and rape during the Covid crisis.
Domestic violence has risen during the pandemic as lockdown measures have trapped victims at home with abusive partners and exacerbated pre-existing patterns of abuse.
Some £16m of the funding will go towards hiring more independent sexual violence and domestic abuse advisers – who provide emotional support and criminal justice advice – across the UK.
[ more...]
Police Finances
It comes as charities have reported a 200% increase in calls and people accessing webchat services since the first lockdown, with some victims feeling at greater risk of harm or deciding to report abuse for the first time.
The new investment will allow support organisations to recruit more staff, keep helplines open for longer and adapt to remote counselling where necessary – ensuring help remains available for those who need it.
Crucially, £16m will fund the recruitment of more independent sexual violence and domestic abuse advisers across the country. They provide emotional and practical support for victims, while guiding them through the criminal justice process which many can find daunting.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Campaigning for 6 May's English local elections could begin once Covid-19 restrictions start to be eased, Tory chair Amanda Milling has suggested.
In a letter to councillors and MPs, she said she expected activity to "open up... closer to the election period" - expected to begin in early April.
No 10 has said it wants the polls for more than 120 councils and key mayoral contests to go ahead as planned.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Met will continue to carry out “disproportionate” stop and searches of young black Londoners in an attempt to save lives, Scotland Yard’s second most senior officer warned today as he hit out against claims of discrimination.
Deputy Commissioner Sir Stephen House said officers were paid to use their brains and needed to focus “where the problem lies”.
That meant they would inevitably end up with an ethnic imbalance in stop and search because “young black men are dying on the streets of London and are being stabbed on the streets of London and, candidly, are also stabbing on the streets of London.”
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Two police forces have been criticised for mounting an 'embarrassing' diversity recruitment campaign which resorted to hiring actors to pose as ethnic minority and gay officers.
A series of posters released by Hampshire and Essex Police features black and ethnic minority 'officers' alongside the proud slogan, 'We Value Difference'.
But the only difference in the photos of the actors used by the two constabularies is the cap badges which have been swapped using photo trickery to distinguish them.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Home Secretary said: "This unprecedented recruitment programme is about delivering real and meaningful improvements for the public, for victims or those who live in fear of crime, and ultimately society as a whole.
"In addition to boosting the police presence on our streets, we must also take action to stop criminals in their tracks.
"That is why I launched a fund last year to improve security in areas blighted by crimes including burglary, robbery and theft.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Coronavirus vaccinations were denied to police officers after what was understood to be a last-minute intervention by the Welsh Government.
One serving officer with South Wales Police, who wished to remain anonymous, said the vaccines were set to be offered to staff based in the Vale of Glamorgan last weekend.
It is understood that these vaccines were due to be given to the police officers as the batches were set to expire but that the Welsh Government intervened and insisted they be given to people in the top four priority groups as set out by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).
[ more...]
Police Finances
The joint submission by the Police Federation and Superintendents’ Association to the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) said a 3% rise should be in recognition of the incredible efforts made by police officers during the COVID-19 crisis.
The submission also calls for a bonus payment in line with many key workers in the private sector.
Many police families had been hit hard and PSA National Secretary Dan Murphy said officers already had enough stress from the job.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Scientists behind a study tracking coronavirus in England say there are signs of a "shallow decline" in infection levels but they remain high.
And with not all regions seeing the same downward trend, pressure on health services is likely to continue.
Just under one in 60 people had the virus between 6 and 22 January according to researchers, with the trends "going in the right direction".
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Local Government Association (LGA) staff have been warned to cut costs after the Government threatened to slash its top-slice grant.
Ministers want to cut the grant for sector led improvement – currently £19.2m – by £5m and to open up the improvement process to competition from the private sector.
Local Government minister Luke Hall was poised to sign off the new funding before he was persuaded to hold fire. According to local government sources, ministers have questioned why the LGA has a monopoly, and why the bill for sector led improvement has not gone down during the pandemic as travel and hotel costs were cut out.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A quarter of police officers have been spat or coughed at by someone said to be infected with Covid-19 in the past six months, a major study has revealed.
Nearly a third said members of the public had also threatened to deliberately spit or cough at them after claiming they had the virus, according to the Police Federation’s biennial survey of more than 12,000 frontline officers, exclusively revealed today by The Telegraph.
More than half (55 per cent) said they had been physically attacked over the past 12 months.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Statistics from the Home Office revealed the government has passed its target to recruit 6,000 new officers two months early.
Since the Uplift campaign was launched in March an additional 6,620 officers have joined forces across England and Wales.
Also released were figures for the entire police workforce across England and Wales. These figures show that as at 30 September 2020, the workforce had 216,155 (FTE) officers, staff and PCSOs – a total increase of 5.5% on the previous year.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Emergency Covid-19 schemes are being subjected to an “eye-watering” level of fraud, one of Britain’s most senior crime fighters has warned.
Graeme Biggar, of the National Crime Agency, said that there would be “substantial” losses for the taxpayer related to criminals targeting multibillion-pound taxpayer support such as the wage furlough and the bounce back loan schemes.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Some travellers coming to England will have to quarantine in hotels amid concerns about new Covid variants, the government is expected to announce.
Boris Johnson will discuss proposals with ministers later, but a decision may not be announced until Wednesday.
Most foreign nationals from high-risk countries are already denied UK entry, so the new rules will mainly affect returning UK citizens and residents.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic will make it four times harder to level up the North and Midlands, a new study has revealed.
Cities Outlook 2021, published by Centre for Cities, warns the pandemic also risks levelling down prosperous places in southern England. It highlights that 634,000 people outside the Greater South East now need to find secure, well-paid jobs to level up the country, compared to 170,000 last March.
The report found Birmingham, Hull and Blackpool face the biggest levelling up challenge, while London, Crawley and Slough are among the prosperous places of concern due COVID-19’s potential long-term impact.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Senior council figures have urged the Government to postpone the local elections planned for May, according to a new poll.
The survey by the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) reveals that councils are overwhelmingly concerned about their ability to deliver a May poll. Instead, 69% of council officials believe an autumn timetable is more achievable.
Those responding to the poll call on the Government to provide additional ring-fenced funding to make elections safe, and greater expansion of postal voting.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Urgent action is needed to level up Northern cities and towns – and prevent parts of the South being levelled down, writes the chief executive of Centre for Cities.
After many difficult months there is reason to hope that the end of the pandemic is in sight and our lives could soon return to some form of normality. A speedy vaccination programme could mean that by summer restaurants, shops and pubs can re-open and, despite what some commentators have said, the benefits of face-to-face interaction mean many people will return to their offices.
But the scaling down of the public health crisis will mean a scaling-up of economic crisis – primarily repairing the damage Covid-19 has done to the national economy and the economies of our cities and towns.
[ more...]
Justice
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is “incapable or unwilling” to reverse a continuing collapse in rape charges, says the victims’ commissioner, on the eve of a critical High Court action against it that starts on Tuesday....
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Fraud has reached epidemic levels in the UK and should be seen as a national security issue, says think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).
The scale of credit card, identity and cyber-fraud makes it the most prevalent crime, costing up to £190bn a year.
UK intelligence agencies should play a greater role in responding, the RUSI argues in a report.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A further postponement to this year’s local elections, in the wake of the continuing difficulties caused by the Covid pandemic, is backed by the vast majority of senior council figures across England, the Observer can reveal.
Only 11% of the senior officials dealing with the forthcoming elections believe they should go ahead in May as planned, despite the government’s determination to press ahead. More than two-thirds (69%) believe the huge set of elections should now take place in the autumn, according to the most comprehensive survey of council chief executives, leaders and officers in charge of organising elections to be conducted on the issue.
A further 14% called for a shorter delay to the summer and 6% backed a postponement beyond this autumn, according to the analysis by the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU). Of the more than 350 officials who responded, two-thirds said they were “very concerned” about holding elections in May.
[ more...]
Fire
Firefighters were prevented from carrying out roles supporting the response to coronavirus because their “hands were tied” by union lobbying over safety protections, a report has found.
HM Inspectorate of Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) said “restrictive” working arrangements agreed between employers and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) had “prevented or delayed” some humanitarian deployments.
An inspection of how England’s 45 fire services responded to the pandemic accused the FBU of urging firefighters not to volunteer to support the NHS Test and Trace system or the Covid-19 vaccination programme. The FBU denied the allegations.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Ministers are working to ensure police and other front-line workers are moved up the priority list for the Covid vaccine, the home secretary has said.
Priti Patel told the BBC there was "a lot of work taking place in government right now" on the issue.
The committee advising the government on vaccines has also said it will consider factors like exposure risk and occupation in the rollout's next phase.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Fines of £800 for anyone attending a house party of more than 15 people will be introduced in England from next week, under new Covid measures. These will double for each repeat offence to a maximum of £6,400.
At a No 10 news conference, Home Secretary Priti Patel said there remained a "small minority that refuse to do the right thing".
"To them my message is clear. If you don't follow rules then the police will enforce them," she said.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Assaults on emergency service workers were the most common coronavirus-related crimes prosecuted in the six months following last spring’s lockdown, latest figures show.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it charged 1,688 such offences between April 1 and September 30 last year.
Many of these involved police officers being coughed and spat on – with others kicked, bitten and hit with heavy objects – after stopping suspected rule-breakers, said the CPS.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Lengthy investigations where officers are potentially isolated from colleagues, berated in the media without the opportunity to tell their side of the story and left with the fear of losing their career can put an immense strain on an officer's mental health.
Federation Conduct and Performance Lead Phill Matthews said there's been a number of suicides by officers who are under investigation. "It's something we're trying to progess because its certainly something we've recognised," he said.
When an officer is served with a misconduct notice carrying out a risk assessment and providing support is the force’s obligation but in reality the process is “patchy”, the Federation says.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police have shut down more than 550 county lines and arrested nearly 3,500 people connected with the drug dealing gangs in just over a year.
The Home Office revealed the crackdown as it announced a £148 million package to cut crime and tackle issues around illegal drugs. It also gives more resources to police to tackle organised urban criminal gangs, which take over provincial drug markets, often exploiting young and vulnerable people. The county line is the mobile phone line used to take drugs orders.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Nine police officers who had breakfast together inside a cafe have been fined for breaching COVID lockdown rules on duty.
The officers, from the Metropolitan Police, were fined £200 each and told to "reflect on their choices."
They were spotted by IT manager Brian Jennings walking past the cafe near their base beside the River Thames at 9am earlier this month, a week into the latest lockdown.
[ more...]
Technology
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Wednesday it was “outrageous” that hundreds of thousands of police records had been deleted due to a human coding error with the Police National Computer.
A piece of software to weed out records from the database that the computer had no legal right to hold went haywire because of faulty coding and began to automatically delete hundreds of thousands of other records, the Home Office said.
“Of course it is outrageous that any data should have been lost but at the moment ... we’re trying to retrieve that data,” Johnson told parliament, adding that the Home Office (interior ministry) hoped to restore the deleted information.
“We don’t know how many cases might be frustrated as a result of what has happened,” Johnson said.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Young people are in danger of giving up on their futures and on themselves, with a quarter saying they feel unable to cope with life, one of the UK’s leading charities has said.
The Prince’s Trust long-running annual survey of young people’s happiness and confidence returned the worst findings in its 12-year history.
“The pandemic has taken a devastating toll on young people’s mental health and wellbeing,” said Jonathan Townsend, the trust’s UK chief executive. “Many believe they are missing out on being young, and sadly we know that the impact of the pandemic on their employment prospects and overall wellbeing could continue far into their futures.”
[ more...]
Justice
Four criminal justice watchdogs for England and Wales have warned they have "grave concerns" about the impact of court backlogs caused by the pandemic.
The inspectorates for policing, prisons, probation and prosecutions say issues it has caused could damage the criminal justice system for years.
It comes after figures revealed the backlog in the crown courts has reached 54,000 unheard cases.
[ more...]
COVID-19
More than half a million police officers and teachers could jump the vaccine queue if they are given priority in phase two of the rollout.
Hundreds of thousands of shop workers could also be added to the list, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said yesterday.
He added those who come into close contact with the public as a result of their jobs should be considered for priority access.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Former senior police officers are campaigning for the decriminalisation of drugs as a key starting point to reduce Scotland’s shocking drugs death tally.
Insisting that the “war on drugs” has failed, the former officers, among them a retired chief inspector, believe that urgent and radical reform is required to punish crime lords and to prevent the harm that their drug-dealing does to individuals and communities.
Under the banner of the new Leap Scotland (Law Enforcement Action Partnership) Simon McLean, a retired crime squad detective and undercover vice officer, said that the organisation advocated an holistic approach in which “decriminalisation and regulation go hand-in-hand”. Users would be helped with the best possible service provision, extending to new facilities, such as safe consumption rooms.
[ more...]
Justice
A CPS spokesperson said: “We are pleased this report commends our effective response to the pandemic, including our commitment to staff wellbeing which is a top priority for the CPS.
“Safely reducing the backlog of court cases is vital so we can ease pressure on prosecutors and continue to deliver justice. We are working urgently with partners to achieve this.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
There is “widespread dissatisfaction” with the police among black communities with it being clear young black men are being disproportionately stopped and searched at an “eye-watering” rate, a former senior police chief has said.
Mike Cunningham, who retired last month as chief executive of the College of Policing which sets standards for law enforcement, said stop and search was the “totemic” issue and called for “humility” from police leaders faced with sustained criticism after a tumultuous year. He said law enforcement had achieved a lot but had much more to do on the issue.
In an interview to mark his retirement from policing after 32 years, including stints as chief constable of Staffordshire and HM Inspector of Constabulary, Cunningham told the Guardian: “It is absolutely starkly clear that there is a widespread dissatisfaction with policing from black people. And, I don’t think anybody should try to dress that up and say, ‘it isn’t real, it’s a mistake, it’s a perception’. Something more needs to be done.”
[ more...]
COVID-19
Officers from some forces are taking up local NHS trusts on their offers for spare vaccines. The Metropolitan Police is however reportedly instructing officers to decline if offered externally.
Officers from Lincolnshire, Sussex and West Midlands are accepting ‘left-over’ doses of the Covid-19 vaccine when offered externally.
A spokesperson from West Midlands Police said: "A number of police officers have been approached and offered unsolicited vaccinations which would otherwise have been disposed of at the end of the day at various vaccination sessions.
[ more...]
Technology
Home Secretary Priti Patel has launched an internal investigation into the accidental deletion of hundreds of thousands of police records, amid claims it took 48 days to identify the error.
Home Office minister Kit Malthouse said the loss of Police National Computer (PNC) data was “unacceptable”, expressed optimism about its recovery and pledged to return to the Commons to update MPs when he knew more about the impact of the incident.
He was unable to give a guarantee that no criminal case could be compromised by the loss of police records, but ruled out any criminal intent behind the “human error” and defective code which led to the deletion of a significant number of fingerprint, DNA and arrest history records.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Fewer than one in 10 British police officers found to have potentially committed gross misconduct by the watchdog are dismissed, the Guardian can reveal.
Figures released by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) show 641 officers in England and Wales may have so seriously breached standards that they were liable to be sacked between 2015 and 2020, but just 54 (8.4%) were fired after disciplinary action was conducted internally.
Another 848 officers were found to have a case to answer over possible misconduct, but in total only 363 of the misconduct claims have so far been upheld following IOPC recommendations.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Relatives of people who have died after contact with the police have told of their distrust in and dissatisfaction with the ability of the complaints system to help deliver justice.
“I feel the IOPC is there to shut families up and make us believe there is a thorough investigation,” said Carla Cumberbatch, sister of electrician Darren, who died at the age of 32 in July 2017 after he was punched up to 15 times, beaten with a baton, sprayed with CS gas and Tasered multiple times by officers.
They had been called to a bail hostel in Nuneaton, west Midlands, while he was experiencing a mental health crisis – behaving “irrationally” in a toilet bloc, according to the coroner.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police have issued fines to coronavirus rule breakers including those who held a party in a garden shed and a group of more than 40 people who gathered for illegal car racing.
In the 10th month of the pandemic, police have clamped down on those clearly breaking the rules, with forces being asked by government to increase enforcement as the death toll from the virus mounts.
Police in Swansea issued fines after finding eight people partying in a garden shed in Sketty that housed a bar.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The Police Service of Northern Ireland is facing a potential legal challenge over whether officers have the power to enter private homes to enforce Covid regulations without a warrant.
Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson issued pre-action correspondence to the Department of Health and the PSNI on Sunday. He has also notified the Department of Justice as a noticed party to his challenge.
Pre-action correspondence is the first step toward potential judicial review proceedings. It gives respondents a set period to remedy issues raised by an applicant.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has committed to providing every resident with a named officer they can contact in what Mayor Andy Burnham has described as “a significant enhancement of GMP’s neighbourhood policing offer."
The mayor also announced external advisors have been brought in to address concerns about the iOps computer system, which has been beset by technical problems and linked to the failure to record crime which resulted in GMP being put onto special measures last month and the resignation of chief constable Ian Hopkins.
Mr Hopkins resigned after a report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found GMP failed to record more than 80,000 crimes in the space of a year.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has committed to providing every resident with a named officer they can contact in what Mayor Andy Burnham has described as “a significant enhancement of GMP’s neighbourhood policing offer."
The mayor also announced external advisors have been brought in to address concerns about the iOps computer system, which has been beset by technical problems and linked to the failure to record crime which resulted in GMP being put onto special measures last month and the resignation of chief constable Ian Hopkins.
Mr Hopkins resigned after a report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found GMP failed to record more than 80,000 crimes in the space of a year.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is believed to be rethinking property taxes – including council tax and business rates – in a bid to balance the books post-COVID.
The move comes amid rising calls for change, including a report from think tank Onwards on changing the finance system and 10-minute rule Bill on scrapping business rates, launched by Conservative backbencher Kevin Hollinrake.
The 3 March Budget is expected to continue to fund existing support during the latest COVID lockdown, but any return to normality would also see the Chancellor starting to claw back his financial position through tax rises.
[ more...]
Fire
Survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire have launched a legal claim worth millions of pounds.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and Kensington and Chelsea LBC are among the organisations the lawsuit claimed ‘contributed’ to the disaster.
A personal injury claim on behalf of Grenfell residents and relatives was lodged at the High Court shortly before Christmas against 22 defendants.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
With the future of business rates under review and council tax reform reportedly attracting the interest of the Treasury the government has some fundamental questions to answer, writes LGC deputy editor Sarah Calkin.
The case for reforming council tax is growing ever louder. That it is a regressive tax, hitting those in lower value homes proportionately harder than those in higher ones, is not disputed.
Meanwhile, as the property values that council tax bands are based on turn 30-years-old this year their relationship with the reality of local property markets grows ever weaker. As the only locally-set tax – albeit within the strict confines of centrally-determined referendum limits – the casual observer may assume councils are quite attached to it.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are to get new powers to stop and search up to 15,000 knife offenders a year without needing any reason to do so, under new laws to be unveiled this month....
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Labour has urged ministers to make May’s elections in England more Covid-secure, after the emergence of a Cabinet Office document that warned the pandemic could severely hamper the process and put millions off voting.
The paper raises the possibility that even if coronavirus infection levels are relatively low, it could be difficult to attract enough election staff, and that safety fears may “disenfranchise large proportions of [the] community”.
Labour is calling for safeguards such as the possibility of spreading voting over several days, or having an all-postal vote, options that have been prepared for elections to the Scottish parliament, also due to take place on 6 May.
[ more...]
Prisons
The criminal justice system is facing its biggest crisis of the pandemic as soaring numbers of infections tear through prisons and the courts.
There were confirmed Covid outbreaks in 76 of England and Wales’s 117 prisons at the start of last week, including all those in London, leaked official figures show. Prisoner infections were up 46% in a week to Monday 11, with 498 prisoners testing positive.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Priti Patel is set to give the police new powers to evict travellers who build encampments on private and public land and refuse to leave.
The home secretary will shortly announce plans that will make it a criminal offence to trespass with the intention of settling.
People found in breach of the new laws will face fines of up to £2,500 or a three-month prison sentence.
[ more...]
Technology
The government is assessing the impact of a "technical issue" that led to 150,000 records being deleted from police databases.
The error, first reported in the Times, saw data including fingerprint, DNA and arrest histories wiped after being accidentally flagged for deletion.
The Home Office said the lost entries related to people who were arrested and then released without further action. But Labour said it presented "huge dangers" for public safety.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Government inspectors say a police force still has inconsistent supervision of cases involving children.
A National Child Protection Inspection of Lincolnshire Police highlighted the failings in its third report on child care and safety in three years.
Progress in some areas had been slowed by coronavirus, the report said. The force said it had robust plans in place to deliver the best service for keeping children safe.
[ more...]
Technology
More than 400,000 crime records could have been affected by a data blunder, with records for serious offences supposed to be kept forever accidentally deleted and police fearing criminals may not be caught, a letter from a senior officer reveals.
The records were accidentally deleted due to a coding error on 10 January, and the incident affects fingerprints, DNA, and arrest records on the police national computer (PNC).
The Guardian has learned that records related to serious offences, meant to be kept “indefinitely”, have been affected and police have already suffered what they term as “near misses” for serious crimes.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK’s economy shrank by 2.6% in November, as a result of the second English lockdown, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The ONS said November’s contraction was the first month of decline in six months, since April’s record 20% contraction at the beginning of the first national lockdown.
GDP in November was 8.5% below pre-Covid-19 levels in February, and overall, the economy has fallen 8.9% in the 12 months to November, the ONS said.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Local Government Association (LGA) is to talk to university experts to help councils counter a rising tide of conspiracy theories.
A meeting of the LGA’s safer and stronger communities board was yesterday warned the QAnon myth, which includes wild allegations of a child sex ring, had gained ‘significant traction’ among conspiracy theorists in the UK, with 35% of 18-24-year-olds agreeing that secret satanic cults featuring influential elites exist.
The meeting heard that conspiracy theories were ‘taking hold across the whole political spectrum’ and advocates were a ‘very broad church,’ with COVID-19 having ‘put wind in their sails’.
[ more...]
Police Demand
In the normal course of his work as a GP Gavin Francis would expect to spend about a third of his time dealing with the mental ill health of his patients. The pandemic has changed that. “Consultations about mental health vary from week to week, but are commonly at double what they were before the pandemic,” he says.
From his position at the grass roots of the response to Covid-19 Francis has witnessed the spread of the virus at a community level. Some days every call he has taken was about loneliness, self-harm and the contagion of mental health problems.
In a memoir of the past year he describes panic and anxiety as “the virus’s dark refrains, a second pandemic leaching into everyone’s lives”. When I ask how long he expects this to last he is unequivocal. “For years.”..
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Domestic abuse victims will be able to "Ask for Ani" at pharmacies nationwide as part of a codeword scheme to indicate they need help.
From Thursday, anyone who is suffering domestic abuse will be able to ask for support without their abusers or other members of the public knowing, The Daily Telegraph reports.
As soon as they "Ask for Ani" they will be led into a private consulting room where they will be put in touch with the police, relevant support services or helplines.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
There should be a "high bar" for postponing local elections in England this year, a minister has told MPs.
Cabinet Office minister Chloe Smith said the position would be kept "under review".
She said work was under way to ensure people could cast their ballots in a "COVID-secure" way - but Labour has raised concerns a "lack of preparation" could force people to "choose between their health and their right to vote".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Home Office have teamed up with UK pharmacies to launch a domestic abuse Ask for ANI codeword scheme, and PCCs have today lauded it as "lifeline" for victims during lockdown.
Ask for ANI (Action Needed Immediately) has been developed by the Home Office to allow domestic abuse sufferers to signal they need emergency help to a chemist.
It is being rolled out this month to help victims who have been left isolated by the lockdown and found it more difficult to ask for help.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
John Apter said he was looking forward to developing a constructive relationship with Lord Herbert of South Downs after he was appointed by the Home Secretary today as Chair of the College of Policing Board.
Mr Apter said: “I look forward to meeting Lord Herbert and developing a constructive relationship on behalf of our members. The College of Policing is such an important part of policing so it’s essential we work closely with them on behalf of the 130,000 police officers we represent.”
Lord Herbert replaces outgoing Chair, Christine Elliott and was Minister of State for Policing and Criminal Justice across both the Home Office and Ministry of Justice. He was previously Shadow Minister for Police Reform, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, and a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Over Christmas, police in the West Midlands said they were called to a "staggering" 1,250 incidents of domestic abuse. The force said it was a 60% increase on the same period last year.
Between Christmas Eve and 29 December, West Midlands Police made 191 arrests, which it said accounted for almost 30% of the force's total arrests.
Birmingham MP Jess Phillips told the House of Commons on Thursday refuges were under huge pressure. Escaping domestic abuse is specifically listed by government as one of a handful of "reasonable excuses" for leaving home during the latest lockdown.
[ more...]
Justice
New laws to reform pre-charge bail will provide better protection for victims and witnesses in cases of violent and sexual offences, Home Secretary Priti Patel announced today (Thursday 14th January).
The Home Office has published its response to a consultation on pre-charge bail, which allows police to release a suspect from custody subject to conditions, while they gather evidence or await a charging decision.
The new measures will ensure a system where individuals are not held on bail for unreasonable lengths of time, whilst enabling police to impose strict conditions on more suspects in high-harm cases, including most cases of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
[ more...]
COVID-19
John Lewis became the first big retailer to suspend its click-and-collect service yesterday amid pressure on shops to do more to help to contain the virus.
The chain said that it was acting after a “change in tone” from government, adding that it wanted to help the national effort by removing reasons for non-essential travel.
Tesco, Asda, Aldi and Waitrose joined Morrisons and Sainsbury’s in banning shoppers without masks from stores unless they have a medical reason. Supermarkets in England will be spot-checked by council staff to ensure that they are Covid-secure.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police were accused of trying to stop people enjoying themselves during the lockdown yesterday as members of the public said it was “incredibly unclear” what they were allowed to do outside.
Essex police caused anger after issuing a Facebook post saying they had “cause to speak with” a number of men, all aged over 30, after they were spotted hunting the animated characters on the mobile app Pokemon Go.
The social media post came attached with guidance from Essex council about abiding by lockdown rules.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Senior police have criticised Boris Johnson for his seven-mile bike ride, saying it would encourage the public to push the boundaries of lockdown rules.
Dame Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan police commissioner, said the prime minister did not break the law when he travelled from Downing Street to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Sunday. However, she added that anyone in public life should be a “role model”.
Other senior officers said that Mr Johnson had not acted within the “spirit” of the rules amid confusion about how far people should travel from their homes for daily exercise in England.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Local authority leaders have urged the Government to ensure that councils’ mental health services receive the funding they require to meet ‘unmet demand’ in response to a landmark reform of mental health laws.
The Government today published the long-anticipated Reforming the Mental Health Act white paper, which builds on the recommendations made in 2018 by Sir Simon Wessely’s Independent Review of the Mental Health Act.
The white paper stressed the importance of empowering individuals to have more control over their mental health treatment. It also promises to deliver parity between mental and physical health services.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Senior councillors have expressed growing alarm that almost a fortnight after UK completed its exit from the EU they are still in the dark on vital details of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund intended to replace EU funding for the regions.
A meeting of the Local Government Association’s people and places board yesterday also heard that the government had yet to set up a promised taskforce bringing central and local government to co-design the fund while there are concerns that rather than devolving more powers to councils, the fund could end up drawing existing responsibilities away from them as it covers a wider remit than current EU funds.
A paper prepared to Tuesday’s meeting warned of an “urgency” to the issue as current EU funding winds down, with all funding programmes completed by the end of 2023.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
An extra £20.4m is to be provided by the government to extend the current self isolation support grants scheme to the end of this financial year after many councils reported running out of the discretionary funding provided so far.
Just over half of the funding is to go towards extending the national £500 scheme to support those on in-work benefits required to self-isolate while councils will also be handed an additional £10m of discretionary funding. This is paid to those on low-incomes required to self-isolate by NHS Test & Trace who could suffer financial hardship as a result of not being able to work but who do not meet the criteria for the separate £500 payment.
However, there are still understood to be concerns in the sector that the £500 national scheme is not capturing all those in need as the eligibility criteria too tight, and this is putting pressure on discretionary budgets.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Reforms to the Mental Health Act will help tackle the disproportionate number of black people sectioned, the government has announced.
Black people are more than four times more likely to be detained under the act and more than 10 times more likely to be subject to a community treatment order.
The package of reforms includes piloting culturally appropriate advocates so patients from all minority ethnic backgrounds can be better supported to voice their individual needs and allow sectioned people to nominate family members to represent their best interests if they are unable to do so themselves.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said it processed a record number of reports of online child sexual abuse in 2020.
The IWF, the UK charity responsible for finding and removing images and videos of child sexual abuse from the internet, has also seen a dramatic 77 per cent increase in the amount of ‘self-generated’ abuse material as more children, and more criminals, spend longer online in 2020.
Susie Hargreaves OBE, chief executive of the IWF, warned that children were at greater risk of being approached or groomed by strangers online than ever before.
The coronavirus pandemic forced many people to work and learn from home in 2020, and the IWF saw a surge in public reports to its hotline.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Forces across the country have used the traditional January window when people consider career changes to launch recruitment drives for detective roles.
Two approaches are being made; tempting current officers to move forces or going to the wider public for direct entry training through fast-track programmes.
Cheshire Constabulary is among those to opt for the fast track approach, for the first time, enabling new recruits to opt for the role of trainee detective constable. The force is opening the opportunity for the Uplift trainees that are part of the national recruitment programme.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Proposals from London mayor Sadiq Khan would see annual bills rise by more than £31 on average in 2021-22, with £15 to help fund the Metropolitan Police and £15 for Transport of London subsidies for children and over 60s.
The remaining £1.59 per-household would go towards helping the fire service respond to changes recommended by the Grenfell Tower inquiry.
However, in order to implement the proposed increases for TfL, the GLA requires approval from the government to amend its referendum limits as the increase would be greater than its current 2% limit before a referendum was required.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
In a presentation to the Local Government Association’s annual finance conference, David Phillips, associate director at the IFS, warned that a wealth related levy could harm the UK’s economic recovery from the pandemic.
He said that trying to capture tax on people who have saved during the pandemic could have a dampening effect on the economy, as the recovery will be reliant on the public spending money.
Phillips said: “Rather than trying to introduce a new wealth tax for a long-term boost to government revenues, it actually makes sense to reform some of the existing taxes, including income tax, capital gains tax, council tax, inheritance tax, so they are actually more efficient, fairer, and raise more for the long-term.”
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The chief constable of the police force where five policemen were sacked for “abhorrent” racist language has said “it is not OK” that her senior officers are all white.
Olivia Pinkney of Hampshire police said she was very aware that her senior leadership team “look the way they do” and admitted that she was concerned by the lack of diversity. The highest-ranking black officer in the county is a chief inspector.
Ms Pinkney criticised her own force after detectives in a serious organised crime unit were sacked for racist and sexist language.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Crime will have to be cut by up to 20% under radical plans drawn up by the government and discussed with police chiefs, the Guardian has learned.
However, senior officers believe it would be a return to Whitehall setting “targets”, which were derided by the Conservatives when the last Labour government used them.
Ministers want to bring down rates of homicide, serious violent crime and a whole host of other offences across England and Wales. The reductions would be in return for government providing the money for 20,000 new officers, about the same number cut since 2010 after the Conservatives slashed police budgets.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police are being deployed to drive ambulances and a lack of staff is delaying answering of 999 calls as emergency services start to buckle under the strain of coronavirus.
A senior police source said there were fears that some areas could see a “999 service only” because of the number of staff off sick amid an escalation in infections. The disclosure will strengthen calls by the Police Federation for officers to be prioritised for vaccines.
In some areas, entire shifts of 999 call-handling staff have been “wiped out” by cases of Covid-19.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The home secretary is preparing to force police chiefs and police and crime commissioners to do more to explain controversial operational decisions.
This month Priti Patel will publish the recommendations of a review into PCCs, which were introduced by David Cameron in 2012 to make the police more accountable.
The recommendations include drawing “brighter” lines on what constitutes operational independence and moving to first past the post for PCC elections after the next polls in May.
[ more...]
COVID-19
More than 2.6 million coronavirus vaccine doses have been given to almost 2.3 million people, the health secretary has said, as an NHS boss warned the jab is "not a free pass" to ignore national guidance.
Matt Hancock told a Downing Street news conference that the government was on track to achieve its pledge of offering a vaccine to the top four priority groups by the middle of February, a total of nearly 15 million Britons.
Asked whether this was a possibility, Mr Hancock said people should be focusing on sticking to the current rules "as they are".
"The NHS, more than ever before, needs everybody to be doing something right now - and that something is to follow the rules," he said.
[ more...]
COVID-19
A ban on people in England walking or exercising with anyone from outside their household is under “active consideration” sources have told the Guardian, although the health secretary, Matt Hancock, on Monday evening insisted that he did not want to have to tighten the rules.
Discussions have taken place in government about returning to the rules of March 2020, which limited people to one form of outside exercise a day – such as a run, walk, or cycle – either alone or only with people you live with.
However Hancock said he hoped that the current rules, which allow people to exercise with one other person, would remain. “We are seeing large groups and that is not acceptable,” he said. “This is one of those rules where if too many people keep breaking it then we are going to have to look at it. But I don’t want to do that because for many people being able to go for a walk with a friend, especially if they live alone, is their only social contact.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Allocations of additional funding to local authorities in financial year 2020 to 2021 and additional support for local government in financial year 2021 to 2022.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Northants Chief Constable Nick Adderly said his force would “hit hard” sex offenders, those who peddle drugs, commit burglaries and engage in anti-social behaviour. His pledge comes after the public were ignored for too long. Former naval officer Mr Adderley said forces, including his own, had not paid enough attention to victims of crime and the people they served...
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police boss says a new get tough approach is essential to crack down on Covid rule-breakers who are putting lives at risk.
North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones spoke out after “selfish” people flouted the regulations and flocked to beauty spots across the region.
On Friday, two people had to be rescued by the North East Wales Search and Rescue (NEWSAR) team after becoming "disorientated" in severe weather conditions during a walk up Moel Famau on the Flintshire border.
The pair had gone for a walk from home but they raised the alarm by phoning the policing after losing their bearings as conditions deteriorated rapidly due to snow and poor visibility.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police are toughening enforcement of the lockdown as government scientific advisers fear that public neglect of restrictions could keep infections high for months.
A record death toll and level of infections were recorded yesterday as figures suggested that people are leaving home far more often than last spring.
Boris Johnson made a fresh plea last night for people to follow the rules as the government began a television campaign to urge people to stay at home. “Our hospitals are under more pressure than at any other time since the start of the pandemic, and infection rates across the entire country continue to soar at an alarming rate,” the prime minister said. “I know the last year has taken its toll — but your compliance is now more vital than ever.”
[ more...]
COVID-19
"Strong enforcement" of coronavirus restrictions is needed to control the spread of the disease, the home secretary has warned.
Priti Patel said police forces should focus their resources on people who "are clearly breaking" lockdown rules to "safeguard our country's recovery from this deadly virus".
Government sources have told Sky News this will mean that "more fines will be issued, and quicker".
[ more...]
Fire
Flat owners applying to a fund to help pay to remove flammable building cladding will be told not to talk to the press without government approval.
A draft agreement, uncovered by the Sunday Times, says that even where there is "overwhelming public interest" in speaking to journalists, the government must be told first.
The government said the wording was "standard".
[ more...]
COVID-19
International travellers will need to show a negative Covid-19 test before being allowed into the UK, the government has announced, in a significant toughening of border controls to try to stem the spread of new coronavirus variants.
The new rules will take effect next week and apply to returning UK nationals as well as foreign citizens. Passengers will need to produce a test result taken less than 72 hours before boarding planes, boats or trains to the UK, and could be fined £500 in border spot checks without a negative result.
Arrivals will still need to quarantine for 10 days, even with a negative test, unless they are coming from one of the limited number of countries deemed low risk on the government’s travel corridor list.
[ more...]
Justice
The Home Secretary writes in response to a joint letter of 4 November regarding support for victims of domestic abuse during the period of new measures to counter COVID-19.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
For the first time outside of the armed response unit, specially trained officers will be armed with weapons as part of the new new roads crime policing team to target serious criminal activity across Nottinghamshire.
Armed police will be used in the force’s operational support department to predominantly to prevent criminals bringing weapons and drugs into the county and keep the area safe.
Officers will work alongside Operation Reacher teams who work in each of the county’s neighbourhoods to support local anti-crime initiatives.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police and Crime Commissioner, Peter McCall is seeking the views of the people of Cumbria to help to maintain and improve policing services which includes an increase in the policing part of the council tax.
The police council tax precept is an essential part of the council tax that contributes alongside a central government grant to the total funding available to provide policing, community safety and victims’ services.
Police and Crime Commissioner, Peter McCall said: “Over the last three years working with the Chief Constable and with your support as council tax payers, we have been able to improve the policing service here in Cumbria and make a real difference in tackling crime in our communities.
“Funding for policing does not all come from government grant alone and it is not enough to allow us to recruit further officers, deploy dedicated officers into the community where you want to see them, and pay for our existing service, without an increase in council tax. The government has recognised this and is allowing Police and Crime Commissioners to increase the council tax precept by up to £15 per year for a Band D property."
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The announcement in November of a multi-million pound counter-terror centre for the UK which brings together police and the security services was rightly welcomed; but as Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth reports, moving forwards the relationship between community policing and counter-terrorism will be crucial to negating the wide array of terrorist and extremist threats...
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Britain’s biggest police force is taking a new hardline approach to coronavirus lockdown breakers by actively stopping people on the street and requiring them to explain themselves.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police will also routinely hand out fines to anyone found at illegal gatherings such as parties or raves. Previously enforcement action was generally limited to the event’s organisers.
People found not wearing a mask when they should will not be “reasoned with” but fined, the force said.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Britons drank more alcohol, ate fewer fruit and vegetables and exercised less during the first national lockdown, a study has suggested.
Younger people, women and those who are overweight were more likely to have adopted unhealthy lifestyle choices last spring, the research by the University of East Anglia (UEA) shows.
The study of more than 1,000 people also indicates that women drank alcohol more frequently, but men consumed greater quantities of it in one sitting.
[ more...]
Technology
Data stolen from Hackney LBC in a cyber attack has been published online by the criminals responsible.
The ‘serious cyber attack’ last year affected the council's IT systems and services.
Experts supporting the council said the data was not visible through search engines or on any widely available public forum.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Unprecedented stimulus measures taken by governments to fight the pandemic have changed the public perception of spending and debt, meaning sharp tax hikes or spending cuts would risk popular backlash, the OECD’s chief economist has said.
Laurence Boone told the Financial Times that public officials will struggle to argue for austerity during the recovery from Covid-19, and may not be in a position to pay for certain measures – such as those to combat climate change.
“People are going to ask where all this money has come from,” she said, referring to the programmes rolled out by governments to address the coronavirus pandemic.
She said countries should continue to use higher spending and low taxes to help their economies throughout the recovery period, taking a lesson from the last global financial crisis.
[ more...]
Justice
The Ministry of Justice failed to meet either of its financial management targets outlined in the 2015 Spending Review, according to the National Audit Office.
In its departmental overview of the ministry, the NAO said that two five-year targets of savings had not been met by the end of 2019-20.
In 2015, the MoJ was asked by the Treasury to produce overall savings of 15% by the end of last financial year, but spending rose by £1.3bn in 2019-20 compared with 2015-16, the NAO said.
The increase in spending was in part down to unanticipated increases in demand for services, the review said.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
North Wales' Police and Crime Commissioner has announced plans to step down.
Arfon Jones became only the second person to hold the post in North Wales when he was elected back in 2016.
He was due to stand in the 2020 Police and Crime Commissioner election but that was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The former police inspector and county councillor says that the decision to retire at the end of his current term was one he reached only recently.
[ more...]
Technology
Researchers at the University of Birmingham are using data on sex offenders’ crime patterns compiled by the National Crime Agency (NCA) to assess how their behaviour has changed in response to the Covid-19 outbreak.
The project, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), as part of UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to COVID-19 will enable the team to examine extensive data on sex offenders collated by the Serious Crime Analysis Section (SCAS) of the National Crime Agency.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
More than 100,000 people have applied to join the police as ministers promise more officers on our streets.
The Home Office will today launch the next stage of the recruitment drive to hire 20,000 additional bobbies by 2023. More than 6,000 have already joined the force and similar numbers are being targeted again this year. The Government is increasing its funding to more than £15billion in 2021-22 – up by £636million from this year.
Police have received more than 107,000 applications since the programme began, said the National Police Chiefs Council.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The government should toughen the lockdown by giving officers the right to force entry into homes of suspected law breakers, a policing leader has said.
David Jamieson, the police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands police, England’s second biggest force, said: “For the small minority of people who refuse entry to police officers and obstruct their work, the power of entry would seem to be a useful tool."
[ more...]
COVID-19
Huge penalties are expected for people who ignored the latest coronavirus restrictions as police become less tolerant over rule breakers.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced England will be going into its third national lockdown as cases of the novel virus reach record-breaking figures. All schools will remain closed until at least February.
[ more...]
Police Finances
In October 2019, the Treasury raised the PWLB rate by one percentage point, which led to monthly borrowing dropping as low as £40m in November.
However, the rate rise was reversed at the Comprehensive Spending Review and in December more than 40 PWLB loans, averaging £5.9m each, were agreed, according to figures from the Debt Management Office.
David Whelan, managing director of public sector treasury at Link Group told PF: “Local authorities sat on their hands, and had not borrowed much, since the rate increase was announced.
“Following the rate reduction, they have now gone in and borrowed quite a lot.”
[ more...]
COVID-19
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has released its first report of the year, titled Deaton Review of Inequalities: a New Year’s message.
The report outlines how Covid has not only highlighted inequalities in Britain, but how it has also made them worse.
The report focuses on key areas such as income, employment and education to objectively demonstrate that those from poorer backgrounds are worse off as a result of Covid, than those who are from privilege.
The report found that graduates were less likely to be out of work because of Covid, falling just 7% when compared to non-graduates who saw employment rates rise by 17% over the same period, showing that there is still a gap between those that go to university and those that don’t. Non-graduates are also more likely to have lost out on income due to an inability to do their job from home, having to choose between their health or their income.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Gardner, who was auditor general of Audit Scotland from 2012-2020 and CIPFA president in 2006, was awarded a CBE for her services to the Scottish public sector.
She had worked at Audit Scotland since its inception in 2000 and was also chair of CIPFA in Scotland in 2001.
Roberts, who was CIPFA president in 2016, was awarded an OBE for his services to local government and public sector finance.
He was appointed as one of two finance commissioners to help advise at Northamptonshire County Council in 2018, after the council issued two section 114 notices.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The Prime Minister has committed to continuing to invest in public sector jobs as the country aims to “build back better” after the Covid-19 pandemic.
2020 saw record numbers of nurses recruited with 13,313 new nurses joining the NHS in England, taking the total figure up to 299,184.
41,000 trainee teachers were recruited last year, with every teacher in the country receiving an above-inflation pay rise.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Almost eight out of 10 police officers in Gloucestershire feel they are not paid enough to deal with all the added complications the Covid-19 pandemic has brought to their jobs.
A survey carried out by the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) found that 79 per cent of Gloucestershire Police officers felt they did not receive a fair wage to deal with the hazards they have faced this year.
It comes as the pandemic has introduced new responsibilities to policing, such as enforcing lockdown rules, while coping with the added risk officers face of contracting the virus.
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Police and Crime General
Police have been stopping visitors trying to "enjoy the snow" at the Brecon Beacons after hundreds of vehicles arrived at the national park despite Wales being in lockdown.
One man drove nearly 200 miles from Hertfordshire to walk up Pen-y-Fan, while a minibus of mixed households had travelled to the area from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, according to Dyfed-Powys Police.
Officers issued fixed penalty notices for some breaches, though many people listened to advice and returned home after seeing police in the area, a spokesman said.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Demand for dogs skyrocketed in lockdown and has risen again in the run-up to Christmas. Prices have soared as a result.
Organised crime is exploiting the situation by smuggling puppies from abroad and stealing dogs in the UK.
Dog thefts are now believed to be at an unprecedented high, with puppies stolen for immediate sale and adults taken for forced breeding on puppy farms.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
A new group of Tory MPs that includes a former local government minister is urging the government to overhaul the "regressive system" of council tax, as part of a wider campaign for a rethink on property taxes.
The group of 30-plus MPs who have signed up for the Property Research Group (PRG) since its launch a week ago is led by Michael Gove’s parliamentary private secretary Kevin Hollinrake, who represents Rishi Sunak’s neighbouring constituency of Thirsk & Malton.
Other MPs in the PRG include former local government minister Simon Clarke and Andrew Mitchell, a former chief whip.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Local authorities in the worst-affected Tier 2 areas will now be offered community testing in addition to Tier 3 areas, the Government has announced.
Councils at high risk of entering Tier 3 will be invited to submit community testing proposals to help drive down COVID-19 transmission rates, although those already in Tier 3 will continue to be prioritised.
One in three individuals with COVID-19 do not display symptoms and are potentially infecting people unknowingly. Community testing can help identify those showing no symptoms so that the chain of transmission can be broken.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Chancellor will keep the furlough scheme running until April and extend government loan guarantees for firms in a double boost for struggling workers and businesses....
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government has rejected the proposal of a new audit oversight body as outlined in the Redmond Review.
The review, published in September, called for a new body – the Office of Local Audit and Regulation – oversee local authority audit.
However, in its response, published today, the department said it is not currently persuaded that a new arms-length body is required.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Greater Manchester police (GMP) are to be placed in special measures after inspectors expressed “serious cause for concern” when the force failed to record a fifth of all reported crimes.
Last week Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) criticised GMP for failing to report 80,000 crimes in the year to 30 June.
“Victims of crime are too often being let down by Greater Manchester police. The service provided to victims, particularly those who are most vulnerable, is a serious cause of concern. This is extremely disappointing given that HMICFRS has been urging Greater Manchester police to improve in this area since 2016,” said the HM inspector of constabulary, Zoë Billingham.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Home Office has announced a police funding package that could see overall budgets rise by more than £600 million compared to last year.
A total of £15.8 billion is being made available for policing for 2021/22. The package includes more than £400 million to recruit 20,000 extra officers by 2023, building on the success of the first year of the uplift which has already delivered almost 6,000 additional police officers.
The funding settlement also aims to provide additional resources to tackle serious violence and increase the number of specialist officers tackling terrorism and serious organised crime, including child sexual abuse and drug trafficking.
[ more...]
Fire
Fire safety inspections have uncovered hundreds of blocks of flats in England and Wales with faulty or missing fire prevention measures, the BBC has found.
Flat owners have been looking for evidence of unsafe cladding in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire that killed 72 people in 2017.
But many of the inspections have revealed problems inside the buildings. The government said it was introducing the biggest improvements to building safety for 40 years.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Councils can seek to exempt employees facing redundancy from the new £95,000 public sector exit cap if they would face “genuine hardship” or their exit is “necessary” for “urgent workplace reforms”, ministers have agreed.
Guidance published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government today says until the introduction of regulations to bring the cap in line with the Local Government Pension Scheme, councils may also ask ministers to relax the cap where an exit was agreed before it came into force on 4 November but was delayed, as long as that was not the fault of the employee.
Councils will have to submit business cases requesting exemptions for consideration by the communities secretary and Treasury ministers, either on an individual basis or in “bulk” where 20 or more staff are being made redundant at the same time.
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Technology
The new National Cyber Force will use offensive hacking techniques to take down paedophile groups and stop them sharing illegal images, the director of GCHQ revealed yesterday.
Jeremy Fleming said the unit of cyber-hackers, a joint initiative between GCHQ, the military and MI6, would not be restricted to targeting terrorists and hostile states. He said that the NCF would work with law enforcement to tackle global paedophile groups causing the most harm.
“They can help to disrupt those criminals,” he said. “That might be denying access to a mobile phone or a particular bit of infrastructure, it might be undermining their network such that they can’t store and promulgate dreadful, sexualised images of children.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
North Wales Police have been hailed as a role model for the rest of the UK’s forces in the way they investigate serious road crashes and their use of high-tech methods including drones.
The region’s police and crime commissioner, Arfon Jones, said he was proud they had been named as the lead force for a new accreditation system after setting the “gold standard” for forensic investigations.
The constabulary has received extra funding of £2 million to head up the new Forensic Collision Investigation Network as the host force.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Police forces could end unconscious bias training for officers after the Government announced it would be scrapping the courses for civil servants and urged other public sector employers to do the same.
Cabinet Office minister Julia Lopez said that the training was being scrapped because it is ineffective and can have “unintended negative consequences”.
Several forces including the Met have used unconscious bias training for its senior officers and staff to help improve diversity.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A new Police Cooperation Agreement between the UK and Switzerland has been signed which will further intensify joint UK-Swiss efforts to tackle crime.
The agreement was co-signed by UK Security Minister James Brokenshire and Swiss Federal Councillor Karin Keller-Sutter in a virtual signature ceremony today (15 December 2020).
It builds on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by UK and Swiss Ministers in July 2019, which signalled the shared intention to explore more formal arrangements in order to further enhance co-operation between law enforcement partners in the future.
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Technology
The introduction of mobile devices to Police Scotland has improved officer wellbeing by reducing the time they have to spend at the end of their shift completing paperwork, independent academic research has found.
The officers interviewed as part of the study said they felt they were being "invested in" by being given kit that is positively changing the way they work.
Since the roll out in 2019 nearly 11,000 response, community and specialist officers out of a total force strength of 17,241 have been equipped with the technology as part of their operational duties.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has announced that City Hall will provide £22.5 million to protect frontline policing from the financial strain of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The money will come from Greater London Authority reserves and will cover half of the £45.5 million in cuts facing London’s police over the next year.
The remaining half will be met in part by delaying a proposed move to bring forward the recruitment of 600 additional officers that was scheduled for 2021/2022, though City Hall claims the Metropolitan Police has exceeded its recruitment target for this year.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Anti-vaxxer protesters have massed in London amid angry scenes as it was confirmed the capital will be put into Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions.
The ill-timed march was organised by StandUp X, using the encrypted Telegram messaging service favoured by IS extremists.
Over 16,500 people are supporters of the group and scenes at Parliament Square showed crowds being met by police.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Mr Collins started his policing career as a Special constable with Sussex Police in 1985, he returned to his home force in 1987 and continued to volunteer on the front line until joining the Metropolitan Police in 1991 and then rising through the ranks across a number for forces.
Mr Collins said: “I couldn’t have hoped for more as a chief than the time I have spent back in my home force, something that was unimaginable during my time as a Special Constable here more than 30 years ago.
“It hasn’t all been easy and there have been some challenges. Having gone from a force that others aspired to be, to one which appeared to have lost some direction and focus, there have been tough calls to be made on resourcing, structure and our broader model for policing the safest, yet most rural communities in England and Wales.
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Police Demand
Police in South Yorkshire are set to get tough on criminals by setting up some specialist new units expected to tackle major problems head on.
It will see a new roads crime unit created to spotlight criminals known to target South Yorkshire by travelling in from West Yorkshire on the M1 or over the Pennines from Greater Manchester.
A second unit will act as a mobile bolster to neighbourhood police, able to provide support where and when it is needed. That will allow neighbourhood officers to focus on the jobs they are intended to do, allowing the whole police machine to operate more effectively.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Not content with ambitions to limit judicial review, “update” (that is: weaken) the Human Rights Act, and pass laws that would insulate various agents of the state from accountability for human rights violations, the government is now, according to press reports last week, planning to introduce a new law that will limit our right to protest.
For a government that claims to be concerned about free speech and “cancel culture”, cracking down on protest isn’t a great look.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Home Secretary Priti Patel has written to the chief constable of Greater Manchester Police Ian Hopkins telling him to send her his recovery plan “at the earliest opportunity” following a scathing HMICFRS report on the service his force provides to victims of crime.
In the letter sent jointly to CC Hopkins and Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, the Home Secretary says she is “deeply concerned” by the report’s findings which she said would further erode the confidence and trust the public has in the force.
The Inspectorate report published last week found the force did not record an estimated 80,100 crimes reported to it between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020. This amounts to approximately 220 crimes a day.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police and prosecutors need more resources as sexual assault and rape investigations are taking longer, a charity that supports victims has said.
New Pathways said some cases took "years" to go through the courts. One victim urged people to make the most of the support available, rather than "let things spiral".
The UK government said a review of how rape and serious sexual offences were dealt with was due to be published by the end of the year.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Britain should be "very worried" about the prospect of a no-deal Brexit, a former head of Europol has warned.
Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Max-Peter Ratzel said he believed British national security was at risk, and urged leaders to come to an agreement on security co-operation even if there is no deal.
"I would be worried. I would be very worried. I'm worried as a European as we lose part of our competence, but I'd be even more worried if I was British," he said.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
A new chief constable has been chosen for Lincolnshire's police force. Chris Haward will take up the £160,000-a-year post later this month after being confirmed by a police and crime panel earlier.
Mr Haward said he was "absolutely delighted" to be selected and was looking forward to "some exciting challenges". He will take over the force's top job from Bill Skelly, who announced his retirement in June.
Mr Haward, who spent his childhood in Zambia and Botswana, said "diversity, fairness and equality" were of paramount importance to him.
[ more...]
Technology
A supermarket chain‘s extension of facial-recognition technology in its stores has prompted outrage among privacy campaigners.
The system, which has been installed in outlets across the south of England from 2018, alerts staff if someone who has a record of “theft or antisocial behaviour” enters a store.
The supermarket said that the trial of the technology was implemented to reduce shoplifting and abuse against staff but privacy advocates said that they had “serious concerns”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police chiefs have “no idea” what resources they will have access to next month, while Brexit negotiations hang in the balance, MPs have warned. As a no-deal Brexit looms, calls have been made for the Government to “urgently explain” what is being done to avoid a “security downgrade” if access to criminal databases is lost.
The changes could have “major operational impact” on investigations, according to police chiefs.
It has emerged that the Government will “actively delete” 40,000 alerts on dangerous criminals and wanted suspects on December 31.
[ more...]
Technology
The Square Mile’s force has confirmed this week that it has appointed Angela McLaren as the first-ever Assistant Commissioner with responsibility for economic and cyber-crime.
The move will be a blow for Police Scotland where she was the executive lead for Organised Crime, Counter Terrorism and Intelligence.
Her promotion is a significant step forward after a long career in Scotland. Previous posts for her included Organisational Development and Corporate Governance and prior to this she played a significant role in the development of the force’s Policing 2026 Strategy.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The mayor’s office has repeatedly refused to say whether it has confidence in the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police after a damning report found the force was failing to record one in four violent crimes.
It also cast doubt over the Chief’s long-term future at the helm of the force and criticised the fact he has not fronted up any interviews today.
Responding to the report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate, Andy Burnham part-blamed its blistering findings about the force’s treatment of victims on the delayed roll-out of the troubled iOPS computer system - while also insisting crime has fallen significantly during his tenure.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The surrender scheme marks an important development in the government’s commitment to tackling serious violence and strengthening police powers to take action against it.
Under the scheme, offensive weapons that will soon be prohibited as well as rapid firing rifles, which fire at a rate closer to semi-automatic rifles, can be surrendered to the police. Lawful owners will be able to claim compensation for the items in most cases.
This follows the Offensive Weapons Act which bans possession of dangerous and offensive weapons in private. The list of weapons includes zombie knives, cyclone knives, knuckledusters, death star knives, flick knives, gravity knives, batons, disguised knives, push daggers and other offensive weapons. It was already illegal to possess a knife or offensive weapon in public.
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COVID-19
In the last seven days 350 staff from South Wales Police have be asked to self isolate.
The huge figure shows the huge impact widespread community transmission of the virus is having on key public services as the virus continues to grow in Wales.
Covid-19 is more prominent in Wales than any other part of the UK with more than 320 cases of the virus for every 100,000 people compared to 149 in England.
People who are isolating are able to claim a £500 to help with loss of earnings if they cannot work from home.
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Technology
The force has awarded a £823,000 contract to QRO Solutions, a subsidiary of security and surveillance systems group Petards, to provide an enhanced and extended fixed ANPR camera infrastructure on many strategic arterial and rural roads within the county.
Delivery and installation is set to commence immediately, with the bulk of the contract being completed in the first half of 2021.
The expanded camera network is part of a wider strategy to strengthen crime fighting and links several initiatives, including the establishment last year of the road crime team to focus on denying criminals the use of the roads.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan police is to pay £15,500 to a victim of slavery who tried to report his traffickers but was instead arrested for immigration offences and sent to a detention centre.
The man, referred to in court as KQT, was 15 when he was taken by traffickers from Vietnam through Russia to the UK in a refrigerated lorry. He was arrested on arrival and placed in foster care, but shortly after was collected by his traffickers and forced to work on a cannabis farm, where he was locked inside a storeroom and only fed one meal a day. In January 2018, he escaped his captors and walked into a police station to report his ordeal.
Instead of treating him as a potential victim of child trafficking, police officers instead detained him under immigration powers. He was then taken to Brook House immigration removal centre at Gatwick airport, where he was detained for 22 days until lawyers secured his release. KQT has since been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome and depression.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The National Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) has responded to calls for the use of Taser to be prohibited on under 18s by telling critics to ‘live in the real world.’
John Apter reacted on behalf of 130,000 rank and file PFEW members after Unicef UK demanded that the government ban their use on children in a report on youth justice.
The recently released Unicef UK report suggested Taser and spit-hoods were ‘increasingly being used by police forces on children’ and recommended they were prohibited.
The report also called for the Home Office to assess the reasons for the disproportionate use of Taser on BAME children in England.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners Paddy Tipping has told a House of Lords committee that police officers have not always had sufficient or timely enough information to effectively enforce Covid-19 regulations.
Appearing before the Constitution Committee, looking into the impact of the pandemic, Mr Tipping said:
“The simpler the messages, the better it was. So right at the beginning of lockdown it was Stay at Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives. It was a message we all got, and we all understood. There was unanimity between policing it and the general public. As we’ve moved forward the messages have got more diffuse, more difficult, and much harder for frontline officers to police.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Victims have been left unprotected and a suspected paedophile left free to strike after government changes to bail plunged parts of the criminal justice system into chaos, an official report has found.
The report from the police and prosecution inspectorates found damage was caused to the confidence of domestic abuse victims, whose alleged attackers were left free without restrictions while cases came to court.
The reforms to bail introduced in 2017 by the government had noble motives. They were meant to stop innocent suspects languishing on bail for years and were triggered by outrage over the treatment of DJ Paul Gambaccini, who was wrongly accused of child sexual abuse.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
One in five domestic abuse survivors are left not able to repay debt with victims of financial abuse in debt owing an average of £3,272, a new study has found.
Refuge, the UK’s largest provider of shelters for domestic abuse victims, found a quarter have a credit rating which has been damaged.
One in four survivors of financial abuse in debt has wracked up debts in excess of £5,000 - with researchers saying a substantial chunk of personal debt in the UK could be the direct consequence of economic abuse.
[ more...]
COVID-19
A UK grandmother has become the first person in the world to be given the Pfizer Covid-19 jab as part of a mass vaccination programme.
Margaret Keenan, who turns 91 next week, said it was the "best early birthday present". She was given the injection at 06:31 GMT - the first of 800,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine that will be dispensed in the coming weeks.
Up to four million more are expected by the end of the month. Hubs in the UK will vaccinate over-80s and some health and care staff - the programme aims to protect the most vulnerable and return life to normal.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A new report which showcases how Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) are tackling concerns raised by Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups (BAME) in their areas has been published.
‘Race Disparity In Focus’, compiled by the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, features the work of 20 cross-party PCCs from across England and Wales. It contains details of initiatives such as:
- Positive action to improve workforce representation and diversity in police officer recruitment
- Tackling disproportionality in the experience of BAME individuals in police custody
- Examining the fairness of FPNs for those who break the Coronavirus rules
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Women at risk of entering relationships with serial domestic abusers are being secretly warned by police in London, senior officers have revealed.
The Metropolitan Police has been messaging potential victims on WhatsApp since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, having previously contacted them in person.
At a press conference on Thursday, Acting Detective Superintendent Will Hodgkinson said officers were using social media to respond to people requesting information under a criminal records disclosure scheme.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
More than half of local authority audit opinions for 2019-20 missed the extended 30 November deadline, according to oversight body Public Sector Audit Appointments.
Of the 486 local authorities in England, 265 opinions (55%) were not published by the deadline, a 12-percentage point rise on last year, where 43% of opinions were delayed beyond the 31 July deadline.
PSAA said that Covid-19 has posed practical challenges for bodies in producing accounts and working papers, and for auditors carrying out their testing.
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Police Finances
Across the world the covid crisis has prompted public sector leaders to make significant short term changes in how their organisations operate. Many commentators suggest that there is a once in a generation opportunity to build on these successes to reconfigure public services.
So what of the UK? Has the virus changed local public sector leaders’ ambitions for transforming their organisations, individually and together? That’s what we wanted to discover when we interviewed a range of local public sector leaders as part of the RSA’s ‘Bridges to the Future’ reflections.
Almost everyone we spoke to saw the crisis as a major opportunity to develop much more effective local public services.
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Recruitment and Retention
The Top 50 UK Employers List said the force was ranked second in the list of the country's leading companies and public bodies.
The table sees organisations ranked in terms of their performance in a range of areas concerning diversity and inclusion.
Paul Sesay, CEO and founder of Inclusive Companies, said: "This isn't simply about building a list, but recognising organisations who are brave, innovative, and see diversity and inclusion as a smart way to grow their business.
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Police and Crime General
Police could be taken to court and have to pay compensation under plans to create a powerful new watchdog to hold the criminal justice system to account.
A report commissioned by Dame Vera Baird, the Victims' Commissioner, recommended that she should have powers to bring legal action for breaches of the Government's new Victims' Code.
In an exclusive article for The Telegraph, Dame Vera said thousands of victims were being let down by the failure of police and courts to fulfil their obligations under the code, which spells out 12 key rights.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Rape victims should get free legal help to stop "excessive personal information requests", a report has concluded.
The study, led by Loughborough University, surveyed 586 victims with most claiming the criminal justice process was "insensitive and unfair".
Victims in England and Wales have no right to legal aid, although there is some access allowed in Scotland.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use.
It has been given the go-ahead by the health regulator MHRA and will be rolled out from early next week.
Studies have shown the jab is 95% effective and works in all age groups. The government has secured 40 million doses of the vaccine, which needs to be refrigerated at -70C (-94F).
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
A group of MPs have warned of the "risk of serious disruption and delay" at Channel crossings when the Brexit transition period ends on 31 December.
The Commons Public Accounts Committee said the government was "taking limited responsibility" for national readiness ahead of the looming deadline.
And it said the necessary systems would not be in place in time, regardless of whether an EU trade deal is agreed. A government spokeswoman said they were "making significant preparations".
[ more...]
COVID-19
Shoppers have returned to stores across England, after non-essential retailers opened their doors at the end of a four-week national lockdown.
A tiered system of Covid-19 rules has now come into force in the nation - to "safeguard the gains made during the past month", the government said.
More than 55 million people are in the strictest two tiers and cannot mix indoors with those in other households.
[ more...]
COVID-19
MPs will vote later on the government's proposals for stricter tiers across England after a debate in the Commons.
More than 55 million people will enter the two toughest tiers from 00:01 GMT on Wednesday if the plans are approved.
A number of Conservative MPs have criticised the Covid-19 restrictions, saying the "wheels are coming off the government's arguments" to impose them. But with both Labour and the SNP abstaining from the vote, the measures are expected to pass.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The chief inspector of schools and children’s services in England has warned of an emerging safeguarding crisis, with many vulnerable pupils still not back in the classroom, child protection referrals down and fears that abuse may be going undetected.
In her fourth annual report as head of Ofsted, Amanda Spielman said the invisibility of vulnerable children as a result of the Covid pandemic should be “a matter of national concern”, and she called on all agencies involved to pull together to tackle the most urgent cases.
Although schools remained open to vulnerable pupils during the first national lockdown, attendance was low and Spielman warned that local authorities would be dealing with “a legacy of abuse and neglect”.
[ more...]
Prisons
With the dismaying announcement that the government plans to fund 18,000 more prison places by 2026, we are forced to ask, once again, why crime prevention fails to get the same emphasis as punishment.
Last Wednesday, the chancellor announced more than £4bn in capital funding – spread over four years – largely dedicated to funding these new prison places in England and Wales. This makes it clear that the government is clearly pressing ahead with a much more authoritarian stance on crime and punishment.
As per the government’s official projections, the expectation is that the prison population will rise from 79,235 (in September 2020) to 98,700 by September 2026. It costs approximately £37,000 a year for a prison place (excluding the initial building costs required to house such an influx), which equates to around £666m for an extra 18,000 places. Set against a backdrop of broadly stable crime rates, and for a government publicly committed to returning to what it calls fiscal sustainability, this makes very little economic sense.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police chiefs warn that anyone getting behind the wheel after a festive drink or two faces the prospect of ending up behind bars this Christmas.
Police are set to increase their activity targeting those who choose to drink or take drugs and drive as the annual Christmas roads policing operation launches tomorrow (Tuesday 1 December). Officers will be out in force across the UK to ensure road users and the wider community are kept safe from harm this festive season.
Information published by the road safety charity Brake shows that even when someone is only just over the legal limit they are still six times more likely to be involved in a fatal collision than someone who has drunk nothing.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Several police forces in England have said they have handed out multiple fines after breaking up a number of large-scale illegal parties over the weekend.
Police were called to at least four locations, including a university hall of residence in Nottingham where up to 200 people were discovered at one gathering.
Nottinghamshire Police said in a statement: "Officers were called to flat in Pilcher Gate, Nottingham, shortly before 10.30pm last night and issued £200 fixed penalty notices to 21 people found inside.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Heroin-assisted treatment should be rolled out “across the country”, the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s drugs policy lead has said, after the UK’s first fully fledged programme showed “very promising” results in its first year.
The treatment sees the most at-risk and entrenched users – many of whom are homeless, in poor health, and driven to commit crimes to feed their dependency – given medical-grade heroin (diamorphine) two or three times per day in a safe setting alongside access to a range of other services including health and housing, often breaking a cycle of years of disengagement.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Officers in England handed out 1,977 fines for breaches of Covid lockdown rules in the first two weeks of November, according to new police data.
The largest number of fines were issued in north-west England which, along with Leicester, has now been under the longest period of restrictions.
Greater Manchester Police has handed out the most tickets (309) since the lockdown began on 5 November.
[ more...]
COVID-19
A roll-out of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in the UK could be a step closer after the regulator was formally asked by the government to assess the jab.
The referral to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) "marks a significant first step in getting the vaccine approved for deployment" if it meets safety, efficacy and quality standards, the Department of Health and Social Care said.
It comes a week after the MHRA was asked by the government to assess the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The police recruitment drive will see 20,000 more criminals locked up in prisons by 2026, pushing the jail population to an all-time high, according to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)....
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
As police forces in England and Wales continue to implement “significant reforms” to the complaints system, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has today (November 26) published the final statistics for complaints recorded under the old system.
The police complaints system changed on February 1, 2020, as a result of regulations introduced by the Government under the Policing and Crime Act 2017.
The changes are intended to simplify the complaints system, making it easier to navigate and putting a greater emphasis on handling complaints in a reasonable and proportionate manner.
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Economy & Public Finance
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has unveiled a £4bn levelling up fund as part of a Spending Review which he claimed offered ‘huge investment’ in jobs, public services and infrastructure.
The fund will see councils bid for up to £20m each to fund roads, railway stations, museums and art galleries. He said: ‘Projects must have real impact. They must be delivered within this Parliament.‘And they must command local support, including from their Member of Parliament. This is about funding the infrastructure of everyday life.’
It comes in addition to the £100bn green recovery fund and a refresh of the Green book to shift the bias away from investment in the South East.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Millions of retirees will see the future value of their pension cut owing to a planned change in the way payments are calculated from 2030.
Many of those with so-called defined benefit workplace pensions see their pension payments increase each year in line with the rising cost of living.
The way this annual rise is calculated is expected to become less generous from February 2030.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The "economic emergency" caused by Covid-19 has only just begun, according to chancellor Rishi Sunak, as he warned the pandemic would deal lasting damage to growth and jobs.
Official forecasts now predict the biggest economic decline in 300 years. The UK economy is expected to shrink by 11.3% this year and not return to its pre-crisis size until the end of 2022.
The government's independent forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) expects the number of unemployed people to surge to 2.6 million by the middle of next year.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Public sector worker wage increases will be limited to the poorest paid, the chancellor has announced this afternoon.
As part of the Spending Review, Rishi Sunak said 2.1 million people earning less than the median salary of £24,000 will receive a pay increase of at least £250 while one million nurses, doctors and other NHS staff will also receive a pay rise.
However, pay will be frozen for the rest of the public sector.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced a three-year £2.9bn ‘restart programme’ to help more than one million people unemployed for more than a year find work.
Today’s Spending Review settlement also includes £1.6bn in 2021/22 for the Kickstart scheme, which will provide more than 250,000 fully-funded new six-month job placements for under 25s who are claiming out-of-work benefits.
The Spending Review, which Mr Sunak said represented a ‘huge investment in jobs,’ came as new figures revealed the number of employees on payroll fell by 782,000 (2.7%) between March and October.
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Police Demand
The number of domestic abuse offences recorded by police in England and Wales has increased during the pandemic.
But the Office for National Statistics said such offences gradually rose in recent years so it cannot be determined if it was related to the pandemic.
Police recorded 259,324 domestic abuse offences between March and June - 7% up on the same period in 2019.
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Police and Crime General
169 officers in England and Wales have committed suicide between 2011 and 2019, according to ONS figures. The Federation says mental wellbeing should now be taken as seriously as physical safety.
Data from the most recent Office for National Statistics bulletin on suicides by occupation show there have been a total of 169 serving officers who took their own life between 2011 and 2019 - an average of around 21 deaths a year.
The officer safety review by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing, published in September, highlighted the 92 deaths on duty between 2008 and 2019 - an average of around eight deaths a year.
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Police Demand
Police are increasingly turning to dashboard camera videos captured by motorists to prosecute dangerous drivers amid a drop in the number of dedicated “cops in cars”, according to research.
A study shows that the number of videos submitted to police has risen more than tenfold in three years.
The research, based on data released under freedom of information laws, shows that police forces are on course to obtain more than 32,500 videos from drivers this year alone, up from 2,612 in 2017.
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Police Demand
One in five offences recorded by police during and immediately after the first national lockdown in England and Wales involved domestic abuse, figures have revealed.
Police recorded more than a quarter of a million offences flagged as domestic abuse-related from April to June, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
The 259,324 offences represent a rise of 7% from the same period in 2019, and an 18% increase from two years ago.
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Police Finances
Ahead of his statement, the Chancellor has insisted he is not planning a return to “austerity” and would continue to support the economy as it sought to recover from the fall-out from the pandemic.
Unusually, because of the economic uncertainty caused by the virus, most government departments will receive only a one-year spending allocation rather than the usual multi-year settlement.
APCC chair Paddy Tipping, the police and crime commissioner for Nottinghamshire, said: “We’ve got to make the case. We’ve got to make sure that there are sufficient police officers, that numbers continue to grow, because we want to bring crime down. And that’s really important right now because we are living through exception times where Covid had affected everyone’s lives. So it’s about fighting crime and it’s about keeping our people safe in their communities.
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Recruitment and Retention
The chancellor vowed to protect low-paid workers on Wednesday as he pressed ahead with a wages freeze that will hit more than 2 million public sector workers.
To the dismay of public sector unions, Rishi Sunak said he would “pause” pay rises for workers including firefighters, police, teachers and local authority staff as he outlined Whitehall spending next year.
However, a million NHS doctors and nurses will receive an annual increase next year, and 2.1 million public sector workers who earn below the median average wage of £24,000 will receive a £250 increase.
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COVID-19
The NHS is setting up coronavirus vaccination centres across the UK in preparation for any jab being approved, Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said.
People will be vaccinated at sites around the country, as well as in hospitals and by GPs in the community.
The government has also officially asked the medical regulator to assess the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Train companies are extending a scheme offering free travel to those fleeing domestic abuse in Great Britain until the end of March next year.
The "Rail to Refuge" scheme is a joint initiative involving rail operators and the charity Women's Aid.
The companies provide free tickets for women, men and children travelling to refuge services. Charities dealing with domestic abuse have reported a surge in appeals for help since the start of the pandemic.
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COVID-19
Dozens of people have been arrested as protesters staged anti-lockdown demonstrations across England, with some police officers injured after being assaulted.
Police criticised "extremely selfish" demonstrators who flouted COVID-19 laws after protests were held in Liverpool, London, Bournemouth and Basildon in Essex.
In Liverpool, 13 people were arrested as protesters moved around the city centre on Saturday afternoon, including a 36-year-old man who was detained on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker after an officer was pushed to the chest.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Brexit could lead to a lowering in fraud prevention standards, according to the head of counter fraud and investigation at the Government Internal Audit Agency.
Speaking during a session of this week’s PF Live conference, Neil Green said that when the transition period ends in January, uncertainty and disruption could cause an increase in fraud.
He added that the situation could be even worse if the UK fails to agree a deal on future cooperation with the EU. He said: “Historically, the EU only gives money when expenditure is proven.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Gyms and non-essential shops in all parts of England will be allowed to reopen when lockdown ends next month, the prime minister has announced.
Boris Johnson told the Commons that the three-tiered regional measures will return from 2 December, but he added that each tier will be toughened.
Spectators will be allowed to return to some sporting events, and weddings and collective worship will resume.
[ more...]
COVID-19
A tougher three-tiered system of local restrictions will come into force in England when the lockdown ends on 2 December, Downing Street has said.
Boris Johnson is expected to set out his plan - including details of how families can see different households at Christmas - to MPs on Monday.
More areas are set to be placed into the higher tiers to keep the virus under control, No 10 said.
[ more...]
Fire
A new deal to free almost 500,000 flats from Britain’s building safety crisis “doesn’t really solve anything”, lenders said yesterday.
The government said owners of 431,000 flats in buildings without cladding would no longer need an “external wall system” (EWS1) safety certificate to sell or obtain a new mortgage, under an agreement with the bodies representing surveyors, banks and building societies.
A fairer, faster process to replace the certificate has been the aim of a campaign by The Sunday Times. It would help end a scandal that has left thousands trapped in unmortgageable homes, threatening to paralyse the housing market.
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Police and Crime General
Police chiefs are doubling staff self-defence and safety sessions following a rise in attacks on cops.
Officers and frontline workers will now spend two days instead of one learning about protecting themselves in areas including custody suites.
It comes amid a major push to clear a 20-month training backlog — partly caused by the suspension of courses during the pandemic.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Coronavirus cases have levelled off across England, raising hopes that the lockdown will reduce infections.
Two sets of figures yesterday, for England and for the UK, showed that infections had largely stopped rising and may have started to fall. The health secretary said that Britain was reaching the “peak of the second wave”.
Matt Hancock welcomed figures for England from the Office for National Statistics showing that infections had levelled off, and UK-wide government data suggesting that daily cases were starting to fall.
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Police and Crime General
Thousands of criminals have been let off unpaid work sentences and others are being allowed to “work from home”, The Times has learnt.
Burglars, thieves and other offenders who started unpaid work were unable to continue because of the lockdown in March. The remaining hours on their sentences have been written off.
Other criminals ordered by judges to do unpaid work, an alternative to prison, have been allowed to do it at home, making masks and greetings cards from materials sent to them in boxes.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Millions of public sector workers in England could face a pay freeze next year, the BBC has learned.
The 5.5 million affected include key workers lauded for their service during the pandemic, from the armed forces and police, to teachers and civil servants.
But it is expected that NHS workers would be exempt from a freeze, to reflect efforts during the pandemic. The Treasury is trying to bolster public finances after a huge rise in spending to fight coronavirus.
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Police and Crime General
A former undercover police officer has defended colleagues who slept with women from political groups they targeted by comparing it to sampling drugs while investigating dealers.
The officer, whose cover name was Peter Fredericks, told the undercover policing inquiry that the officers had no choice but to deceive the women.
The former officer described being recruited as a Metropolitan Police detective in the early 1970s and being put to work for a specialist unit then known as the Special Operations Squad.
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Economy & Public Finance
Freezing pay for millions of public sector workers has been described as a "cruel body blow" by unions.
Around four million public sector workers are set to be hit with a pay cap as Rishi Sunak looks to rebuild the public finances, according to reports which the Treasury has not denied.
Unison said the freeze would hurt workers who "remain at the heart of the fight against COVID-19".
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Economy & Public Finance
Representatives of police officers across the country are urging the Government to step back from imposing a pay freeze on police officers and other key public sector workers.
Following speculation that Chancellor Rishi Sunak may freeze the pay of more than five million public sector workers in his Spending Review announcement next week, the Police Federation for Northern Ireland (PFNI) warned the Government against such a move.
PFNI chair Mark Lindsay said: “In the midst of a pandemic, a pay freeze or pay cap would be seen as penalising key workers who are doing their level best in these most trying of circumstances.
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Police and Crime General
On Wednesday (November 18), the Prime Minister outlined his Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, including ending the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the UK by 2030.
And Martin Surl, the APCC lead for the environment and sustainability, said they welcomed the Government’s initiative along with “the challenge it presents”.
“It is important the public sector takes the lead, and policing is increasingly recognising the critical role it has to play and the opportunities to make progress,” said Mr Surl.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A nationwide police crackdown on knife crime has produced "staggering" results, according to police chiefs, with more than 10,000 bladed weapons taken off the streets.
In the capital alone, officers arrested more than 1,000 people as part of Operation Sceptre.
In all 43 police forces across England and Wales, police stepped up activities to try to drive down violent crime.
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Police Finances
Nearly £11 million will go towards a range of services offering practical and emotional help – allowing organisations to recruit more staff, adapt to remote counselling methods during the pandemic and keep helplines open for longer.
In addition Ministers have today announced a further £7 million will go towards a range of innovative programmes aimed at perpetrators – designed to prevent domestic abuse from happening in the first place.
It comes as charities have reported a sharp increase in demand during the pandemic, including a 46% rise in calls, with some victims feeling at greater risk of harm or deciding to report abuse for the first time.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The government’s move to put previously secret guidelines relating to the authorisation of criminal conduct by police and other agencies on a statutory footing through provisions to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 is broadly to be welcomed.
There are, however, some concerns about such capabilities in the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill as it offers legitimacy to the practice.
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Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson will not fire Priti Patel as Home Secretary over allegations of bullying despite an official report saying she broke ministerial rules, it was reported today.
The long-awaited probe into the Cabinet minister's bahaviour at three departments ruled she 'had not met the requirements of the ministerial code to treat civil servants with consideration and respect'.
Ms Patel faces allegations she belittled colleagues and clashed with senior officials, with the investigation launched in march
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police have been told to resume handing out £10,000 “super fines” for breaching restrictions on gatherings after they were stopped due to concerns over fairness.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) contacted forces on Friday to suspend the fines after being made aware of “inequalities” in how much people would end up paying.
The super fines are issued by police suspecting a breach of restrictions on gatherings of more than 30 and people can either choose to pay the £10,000 or take the matter to court. Magistrates are likely to means-test the fine and it is expected that few people would be deemed wealthy enough to afford £10,000.
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Police Demand
The country’s policing lead on domestic abuse reaffirms that it remains a police priority throughout the lockdown period.
Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for Domestic Abuse (DA), says people facing violence or controlling behaviour at home should report their experiences to police or seek advice and support from a domestic abuse services or charities. She reiterated that officers will attend calls for help, arrest perpetrators, and prosecute them, despite the additional pressures on the service due to Covid-19.
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Police Finances
In some parts of England, more than three in five fines handed out to those who have breached coronavirus restrictions have gone unpaid, new data shows.
Nine forces saw that 60% or more of issued fines given to coronavirus rule-breakers went unpaid within 28 days between 27 March and 21 September, according to figures from the criminal records office ACRO obtained by the Press Association (PA).
It comes a day after it emerged that police forces were told last week to stop issuing "super-fines", over concerns the £10,000 fixed penalty can be challenged in court.
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Recruitment and Retention
Earlier this year it emerged that during a four-force pilot of the Day One assessment centre, the system developed to replace Police SEARCH, white candidates passed at almost twice the rate of black candidates.
Analysis of results of the new online system found that a higher percentage of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) candidates were successful compared with previous assessment processes.
The percentage of white, female and male candidates who have been successful was found to be very similar to the success rates of these groups in previous assessment processes.
[ more...]
Fire
A former employee from the company which made the combustible insulation used on Grenfell Tower in west London has admitted behaving unethically.
Jonathan Roper of Celotex told a public inquiry that the work he did to get the insulation approved for use on high rise buildings was "dishonest".
He added that he felt "incredibly uncomfortable" with what he was being asked to do at the time. Celotex says following disciplinary processes, staff have left the company.
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Police and Crime General
"County lines" gangs could be using children in care across north Wales to distribute drugs to get around lockdown restrictions, it is claimed.
The urban gangs use young people to expand their markets for drugs like cocaine and heroin into smaller towns.
But research for the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner suggests fewer children are being sent from larger cities.
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Police and Crime General
An emergency antidote to treat drug overdose victims will be carried by police officers as part of efforts to tackle Scotland’s drug-deaths emergency.
Naloxone, the nasal spray, counters the effects of overdoses from opioids such as heroin.
It can provide extra time for the ambulance service to arrive on scene and take over emergency medical treatment.
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Police and Crime General
The second national lockdown is going to push sex workers "even deeper into crisis", according to a campaign group.
The English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) has called for state support for workers in the coronavirus pandemic.
It said people were having to choose between risking their health by working or seeing their family go hungry.
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Police and Crime General
The Dispatches programme, Lockdown Chaos: How the Government Lost Control, which airs on Monday 16 November at 9pm on Channel 4, sent an undercover reporter to work at Randox - the medical diagnostics firm based in Northern Ireland - as part of its examination of the Government’s NHS Test and Trace system. Randox runs one of the superlabs and has been given almost £500m in government contracts to analyse hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 tests from across Britain...
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Police and Crime General
The NPCC has told forces they can return to handing out £10,000 fines to those who break lockdown rules on gatherings – less than a week after they were told to stop using them. Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson says he is dismayed by the move as now the policy can be seen to be "unfair and unjust".
The £10,000 Fixed Penalty Notices for gatherings of over 30 people were originally suspended because an inequity was identified between those who pay within 28 days and those who challenge it in court where it is then means tested.
The National Police Chiefs' Council advised all forces to stop issuing the so-called ‘super fines’ on Friday 13 November and wrote to the Home Office seeking a solution.
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Police and Crime General
Sometimes the headline does less than justice to the story. “Bigotry . . . discrimination . . . racism” — those were the main lines emerging from Dame Elish Angiolini’s report into how complaints against the police are handled in Scotland.
Racist attitudes, it seemed, still run through the force; we were left with the impression that nothing much has changed since the days when Sir William Macpherson identified “institutional racism” in the Metropolitan force in London.
In fact racism, important as it is, takes up a relatively small part of the report. Reading through its 490 pages, I began to realise how different police work is today compared with a generation ago, and how much in fact has changed.
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Economy & Public Finance
The government has announced almost £11m funding to support rape and domestic abuse services amid a rise in demand during the coronavirus pandemic.
But campaigners said the rise is less than two-thirds of the amount requested to provide “vital support over the winter months”, as lockdown restrictions see victims trapped in their homes.
A letter sent to the justice secretary earlier this month said £16.3m was needed to keep services running.
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Police and Crime General
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has today published an Action Plan to improve trust and confidence in the Metropolitan police and to address community concerns about the disproportionality in the use of certain police powers affecting Black Londoners.
The Action Plan has been developed following a series of consultations with more than 400 individuals and groups that either work with or within Black communities.
The work was undertaken in response to concerns raised about the disproportionate use of police powers, including stop and search, the use of force and Taser.
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COVID-19
Data obtained through Freedom of Information (FoI) requests by the PA news agency’s RADAR service show 849 officers across 24 of the UK’s 45 forces have tested positive for the virus.
The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) said officers across the country were in “constant worry” when faced with offenders who may spit, bite and cough while being dealt with.
The figures include 228 officers from Police Scotland, 101 from West Midlands Police and 95 from Greater Manchester Police.
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Economy & Public Finance
The Treasury appears unwilling to bow to pressure to fully compensate councils for their council tax and business rates losses in the upcoming spending review, sources close to the negotiations have told LGC, with some concerned the government may even backtrack on its previous commitment to share the burden of tax losses.
As part of a “comprehensive package” announced in July to ensure councils’ financial sustainability during the coronavirus pandemic, the government allowed councils to spread council tax and business rates deficits over three years rather than the usual one and committed to “agree an apportionment of irrecoverable council tax and business rates losses between central and local government” at the forthcoming spending review.
But several sector lobbying groups have been pushing for the government to guarantee that councils will be compensated in full for all shortfalls in planned non-tax income and local tax revenues.
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Police Finances
The UK's economy rebounded from recession in July to September, but growth showed signs of slowing down at the end of the three months.
Growth of 15.5% in July to September was the biggest on record, said the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
It came after a six-month slump induced by the first coronavirus lockdown.
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Police and Crime General
Millions of pounds of public money was “misspent” on undercover policing operations – which included an officer being trained as a clown, a public inquiry has been told.
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Police and Crime General
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have identified areas of best practice in meeting time limits for responding to Freedom of Information (FOI), Environmental Information and Subject Access requests from which other forces can learn.
But it also highlights failings, and said: “Forces are improving, but many must do better. Where we found particularly poor practice, we have taken action”.
Three forces have been issued with practice recommendations – Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire and North Yorkshire. Failure to improve could result in further regulatory action, the ICO said.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A record 130,000 offences resulted in criminals avoiding prosecution through controversial community resolution orders, including more than 50,000 drug offenders who escaped with a “slap on the wrist,” official figures show....
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Police and Crime General
A former undercover police officer has admitted for the first time that the Metropolitan Police set out half a century ago to infiltrate left-wing political groups, even if they posed no threat to the public.
The officer - the first to give evidence at a mammoth public inquiry - said his task had been to gather intelligence on anti-establishment campaign groups threatening the political status quo in the late 1960s.
The officer's evidence is the first insider testimony to be put before the Undercover Policing Inquiry that shows that Scotland Yard's Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) targeted groups merely because of their aims, rather than because they threatened violence.
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COVID-19
Police risk being overwhelmed by “hidden crimes” including domestic abuse, child sexual abuse and exploitation and mental ill health that now account for 40 per cent of all offences, a leading police chief has warned.
Simon Bailey, the National Police Chief Council’s (NPCC) lead on child protection, said people were now ten times more likely to be victims of domestic abuse and child abuse than burglaries or vehicle theft, based on the snapshot of a day in his force.
He said police would always be the “first responder” to domestic violence emergencies or mental health cases where life was at risk but there were current incidents of non-emergency abuse or mental breakdowns where it was more appropriate for other agencies to take responsibility.
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Police and Crime General
Public trust is being undermined by Boris Johnson’s refusal to publish the report into bullying allegations against Priti Patel, his own adviser is warning.
The failure to properly investigate Robert Jenrick – who admitted unlawfully approving a major housing development in a way that benefitted a Tory donor – is also strongly criticised.
Lord Evans, the prime minister’s adviser on standards in public life, said the public was left wondering “whether there was something here or whether there wasn't”.
[ more...]
Justice
Investigations into deaths in police custody should be treated with the same urgency as homicide investigations, according to an independent review.
In her report, Dame Elish Angiolini said any delay in such cases can add to the distress of families and have a severe adverse impact on police officers involved.
The 538-page review also recommends a significant increase in powers for watchdog the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (Pirc).
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Police and Crime General
The leftwing journalist and intellectual Tariq Ali was spied on by at least 14 undercover police officers who went to extraordinary lengths to keep tabs on his political activities, a public inquiry has heard.
Previously secret reports disclosed how police spied on Ali as he helped promote political campaigns against the Vietnam war, violent racist assaults, fascism and other progressive causes. The surveillance occurred over several decades, and was taking place as recently as 2003, when Ali was campaigning against the Iraq war.
At one point, police reported to MI5 that Ali had collaborated on a book about the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky with a cartoonist. The confidential report noted the name of the cartoonist’s girlfriend, along with her occupation, her address and friends.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The NHS is ready to start providing the new coronavirus vaccine "as fast as safely possible", Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said. Asked whether it could be available by Christmas, he said that was "absolutely a possibility" - but he expected the mass roll-out "in the first part of next year".
Mr Hancock said vaccination clinics would be open seven days a week, and he was giving GPs an extra £150m.
But he urged people to be patient. "We just don't know" how many people will need to be vaccinated before life can return to normal, Mr Hancock added.
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Police and Crime General
Probation staff felt “pressure” from the government to send fewer criminals back to prison for committing new crimes or breaking their licence conditions, a watchdog has found.
HM Inspectorate of Probation said a sharp drop in the rate of recall to prison across England and Wales from 2016 onwards was linked to policy changes, and that a reversal was only sparked by a high-profile murder case.
Senior National Probation Service (NPS) leaders said that when an “alternatives to recall” strategy was implemented four years ago, there was “pressure from the Ministry of Justice to reduce the number of recalls in their divisions”.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Even before COVID-19, the next UK Comprehensive Spending Review was set to be a crucial moment for police funding; but as West Midlands Chief Constable Dave Thompson QPM explains, the future of policing is about much more than budgets, with greater accountability, improved public trust and a clearer understanding of local delivery among the key issues.
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Police and Crime General
Millions of pounds of public money was 'misspent' on undercover policing operations - which included an officer being trained as a clown, a public inquiry has been told.
Peter Weatherby QC, who is representing 18 individuals and organisations who have been spied on, played a video of an officer known as EN34, whose undercover name was 'Lynn Watson'.
In the clip, filmed in Leeds in 2004, she appears in costume and clown make-up, waving a feather duster, as part of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (Circa) - a street performance campaign group.
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Police and Crime General
G4S began providing services for the county’s force in April 2012 in a contractual arrangement worth more than £22m per year.
G4S currently employ around 580 people providing services which include the Force Control Room, Firearms Licensing, the Crime Management Bureau, Custody Detention Officers, IT and Estates Management.
PCC Marc Jones has made the decision not to extend the contract for a further five years beyond the initially agreed timescale to 2027, and it will instead expire on 31 March 2022.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has pledged extra cash in a bid to head off a revolt by a new northern group of Conservative MPs.
The chancellor told MPs in the Northern Research Group he would pump infrastructure investment into the region to offset the economic impact of the pandemic.
Mr Sunak, who represents a Yorkshire constituency, spoke to the MPs via Zoom but gave no specific detail on the projects.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Rising stress levels have taken a toll on the mental and emotional health of young people since the first coronavirus lockdown was imposed in March, children’s charity the NSPCC has warned.
Calls to the charity’s ChildLine service reached nearly 43,000 between March and October, with mental health worries making up more than a third of all its counselling sessions, new figures showed.
The NSPCC said its counsellors had heard from children who were feeling isolated, anxious and insecure after being cut off from their usual social support networks.
[ more...]
COVID-19
POLICE are "finding it hard" to keep up with Government changes as England enters a second lockdown, Hampshire Police Federation claims.
The nation fell into a second lockdown on November 5 following a Government announcement, which brought with it police powers to issue fines to people who are breaking the rules as in the first lockdown.
With this, the Hampshire Police Federation has said that officers are finding it "hard to keep up" with the changes, but “want to do their public service in helping the country get through this".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Domestic violence in the country’s first lockdown led to a record number of people using the courts to protect themselves from abusers, new figures show.
More than 8,800 applications for domestic violence remedy orders were made in England and Wales between April and June 2020, the highest number ever recorded by the Ministry of Justice in a quarter. The figure was 24% higher than the same quarter last year.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Ministers have been urged to scrap “deeply immoral” plans to deport rough sleepers, with the London Mayor and leading charities warning that they will endanger lives and undermine progress in reducing homelessness.
The Home Office announced last month that rough sleeping would become grounds to cancel or refuse a person’s right to be in the UK under the new immigration rules, due to come into effect on 1 January.
Leading charities have written a letter to home secretary and the housing minister calling on them to immediately reconsider the plans, warning that they would deter already vulnerable people from seeking help and put them at greater risk of exploitation and infection from Covid-19.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Figures recently revealed by England's Victims Commissioner, Dame Vera Baird, showed that only one in seven people who have experienced rape have faith in the criminal justice system.
It followed statistics earlier this summer showing that fewer than five per cent of rapes reported to police in the country even result in a prosecution – with Dame Vera saying the statistics meant the offence was being "effectively decriminalised".
There were 17,364 sexual offences - including rape - reported to police forces in Yorkshire & the Humber in the year ending March 2020, but there were only 232 prosecutions for rape in the region in this period.
[ more...]
COVID-19
More than 100 people have been arrested as anti-lockdown protesters marched through the streets of central London on the day tougher coronavirus rules came into force in England.
Officers urged demonstrators to go home as they took to the streets near Trafalgar Square on Thursday evening. They warned those who had gathered that they were breaching coronavirus restrictions.
Protesters, very few of whom were wearing face coverings, began to walk up the Strand soon after 6pm, chanting "freedom" and "no more lockdown".
[ more...]
COVID-19
The number of babies in England that have suffered serious injury through abuse or neglect during the Covid pandemic is up by a fifth on the same period last year, and eight have died from their injuries, according to Ofsted.
More than 300 “serious incident notifications” of injury and death involving children were reported by local authorities between April and October, of which almost 40% involved children under the age of one.
According to Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector, more than half of those babies – 64 in total – suffered non-accidental injuries. “And sadly, eight died as a result,” she said.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
As a new national lockdown comes into force in England, organisations working with people facing domestic abuse are making renewed calls for long-term funding, and pushing for further amendments to the domestic abuse bill, as it makes its way through the Lords.
The impact of the pandemic on those facing domestic abuse was evident almost immediately during the national lockdown in March. The Counting Dead Women project told MPs that between 23 March and 12 April, at least 16 domestic abuse killings had taken place – much higher than the average for the time of year - while calls to the National Domestic Abuse Helpline were running at 49% higher than normal three weeks after lockdown was introduced.
A recent survey of survivors and services by the charity SafeLives found that 61% of survivors were unable to reach out for support during lockdowns “partly because they weren’t able to access phone or online support, or their perpetrator was with them all the time”.
[ more...]
COVID-19
A top-ranking police officer in England has said crews will not patrol the border to stop people travelling from Wales when the fire-break lockdown ends.
Under the new set of national rules announced by First Minister Mark Drakeford, which come into effect on Monday as the 17-day fire-break period concludes, it will be illegal to leave Wales without a ‘reasonable excuse’. Such exemptions include things like attending work, where it cannot be done from home, or education.
While people who live here can travel anywhere they like within Wales it will be forbidden, therefore, to travel into England, which is now in its own four-week lockdown until December 2.
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COVID-19
Hours before the furlough scheme was due to end, the government announced it would be extended until December, to cover a further lockdown in England.
Under the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme, to give furlough its official title, employees placed on leave receive 80% of their pay, up to a maximum of £2,500 a month.
Since July, employers have been able to bring back employees part-time, and furlough them for the rest. This will continue.
Employees can be furloughed regardless of whether they are on full-time, part-time, agency, flexible or zero-hour contracts, but they must have been on the payroll by 30 October 2020.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Michael Gove says it is his "fervent hope" that England's new lockdown will end on 2 December - but that ministers will be "guided by the facts". "We do need to get the R rate below 1," the Cabinet Office minister told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
The strict measures are due to come into force from Thursday. Pubs, restaurants, gyms, non-essential shops and places of worship will close, but schools, colleges and universities can stay open.
The prime minister is expected to deliver a statement in the Commons on Monday before a vote on the latest restrictions on Wednesday. Labour has said it will back the lockdown.
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COVID-19
Food aid charities have identified the emergence of the UK’s “newly hungry”, a growing cohort of people previously in good jobs and enjoying comfortable incomes who have been forced to use food banks and claim welfare benefits for the first time during the pandemic.
The Feeding Britain network and Independent Food Aid network (IFAN) said their members were providing food support to a new influx of middle-income families. Typically with mortgages, cars and often self-employed or business owners, they had been plunged into crisis by Covid-related job losses and gaps in the social security system.
“We now see families at food banks who before the pandemic were able to pay their bills and still be comfortable enough to put food on the table. For the first time in many years that is no longer the case,” said the charity’s national director, Andrew Forsey.
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COVID-19
Police broke up a string of raves across England over the weekend, including one involving 1,000 people, raising fears that there may be numerous breaches of the country’s Covid-19 laws in the days before the second national lockdown begins.
The decision to impose the new restrictions has also led police leaders to voice concern that officers already under strain face enforcing the new lockdown on a weary public.
They also anticipate more officers may be absent with Covid than during the first national shutdown.
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Recruitment and Retention
Attempts to recruit more black police officers are being made “10 times” harder by the racial profiling by police, according to experts behind a government-funded recruitment programme.
Lord Woolley, former chair of the government’s Race Disparity Unit, said that recruitment was being compromised by the continued criminalisation of young black men for minor crimes, such as cannabis possession, and the racial disproportionality of measures like stop and search.
Initiatives such as the Home Office-funded Police Now, which aims to inspire graduates from black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds to join the service, are finding its messages undermined by measures that “harassed and intimidated black people”, according to Woolley.
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COVID-19
Brexit negotiators fear the crunch trade talks could be scuppered by rising Covid-19 cases...
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COVID-19
A cross-party group of MPs has called on the government to allow councils to run universal basic income trials in response to mass unemployment triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.
A letter to the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, signed by more than 500 MPs, lords and local councillors says pilot schemes are urgently needed as the pandemic unleashes widespread economic disruption and drives up redundancies at the fastest rate on record this winter. Launching a UBI would mean the state paying every adult a basic sum regardless of their income.
The letter says issues with the benefit system and the end of the furlough scheme mean Britain is ill-equipped to support people through the financial insecurity of the Covid recession.
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COVID-19
“Essential” support for companies and workers in the UK must continue if the economy is to recover from Covid-19 and meet the challenges of leaving the EU customs union and single market, the IMF has said.
Fund economists praised the government’s policy response, which the National Audit Office said totals at least £210bn, for mitigating damage to the economy so far.
But they said GDP has still dropped dramatically, and an initial rebound faces “headwinds” from a second wave of the virus, rising unemployment and the end of a transition period with the EU at the end of the year.
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COVID-19
Council tax support is expected to cost councils an additional £586m this year, 7% more than the £500m allocated through a dedicated fund announced in March, according to the LGA.
Analysis by public sector consultants LG Futures for the association found more than 2.5 million working aged people in England have applied for council tax support in the first quarter of 2020-2021.
The LGA said this was an increase of 9% from the same quarter in 2019, and the highest number for any quarter since records began in 2015/16.
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Police and Crime General
Police should be freed from handling some domestic abuse and harassment complaints so they can focus on fighting crime and responding to emergencies, one of the country’s most senior police officers has suggested.
David Thompson, chief constable of West Midlands police, said forces were increasingly responsible for “policing relationships”, safeguarding and protection but it was “debatable whether or not that’s actually something best discharged by the police in all cases”.
His remarks drew anger from Refuge, a leading support charity, which said that domestic abuse was a “serious life-threatening crime and all police should respond to it as such”.
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Police and Crime General
Instances of police officers deploying force on members of the public were higher at the peak of lockdown than in the previous three months despite crime rates falling significantly, it can be revealed.
Analysis by Liberty Investigates and the Guardian of figures obtained through Freedom of Information laws from 32 police forces in England and Wales shows there were almost 20,000 more recorded cases of uses of force by officers, an increase of 12.5%. From April to June there were 163,749 instances, compared with 145,543 from January to March.
Significant increases in the use of force were recorded by 21 constabularies, with the largest percentage rise in West Yorkshire, where use of force – which can include handcuffing, restraint, baton and Taser – rose by 48.9%. The largest absolute rise in incidents, 59,692, was registered by the Metropolitan police, an increase in the use of force of 19% on the previous three months.
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Police and Crime General
With figures showing more than 400 assaults on those working for the force every year, it has now pledged to put the employee at the centre of any investigation.
And a force chief has stressed that such attacks should not be dismissed as ‘just part of the job’ – and anyone injured on duty will get full support and an enhanced welfare and care package.
The new policy follows recent figures showing that there are more than 400 assaults on officers and staff each year in Lincolnshire, with kicking, spitting and biting among the most frequent types of attack.
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COVID-19
AVON and Somerset Police are establishing a dedicated team to attend reports of breaches of Covid-19 regulations.
The force using extra funding provided by the Government for forces to tackle the pandemic. Approximately £680,000 has been granted to Avon and Somerset to fund the Covid-19 team.
Assistant Chief Constable Nikki Watson, of Avon and Somerset Police, said demand for non-Covid police matters had dropped during the national lockdown.
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COVID-19
Large groups of young people in fancy dress drank alcohol and chanted near police vehicles on the streets of Nottingham last night - hours before the toughest coronavirus restrictions were imposed on the city.
The gatherings came despite police warning that they would have "no hesitation" in fining those who deliberately flout the rules.
Nottingham officially moved into Tier 3 at 12.01am today, and new rules will include a ban on buying alcohol from shops after 9pm.
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Recruitment and Retention
Police forces hired almost 6,000 officers in the first year of the Government’s recruitment drive to sign up 20,000 by 2023.
The overall provisional headcount of officers in England and Wales is now 134,885, according to Home Office figures to the end of September.
This includes 5,824 hired as part of the 20,000 pledge, a quarterly report on the progress of the scheme said, suggesting the recruitment campaign is on track to meet its first year target of 6,000 by March 2021.
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Technology
Senior police officers have “lost confidence” in the ability of the Home Office to complete big IT projects that are severely delayed and have cost the taxpayer billions of pounds in overspending.
Dame Cressida Dick, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, was among officers who said that the Home Office had failed to implement programmes concerning biometrics, communications and suspect databases.
They cite the failure to set up a new telecommunications network for the emergency services, a project that has gone about £3.4 billion over budget and is not likely to be operational until 2023, three years late.
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Police and Crime General
Two black men were stopped and searched on suspicion of exchanging drugs simply because they had bumped fists, according to a highly critical review of the Metropolitan Police’s use of the power.
Officers have also stopped black men when the only basis was the smell of cannabis, contrary to policing practice, and handcuffs are routinely used when other tactics would calm situations.
Other examples included a case in which a black man with someone else’s credit card was suspected of theft even after providing a credible explanation.
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Police and Crime General
Provisional data from police forces in England and Wales shows police recorded crime is six per cent lower than in the same period as 2019. Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) given to the public for breaches of Coronavirus Regulations are rising as restrictions are reapplied.
Snapshot figures released today based on preliminary police recorded crime provided to the National Police Chiefs’ Council from 43 forces in England and Wales (excluding fraud, which is recorded by centrally by Action Fraud) cover the four weeks to 27 September compared with the same period in 2019.
This is the seventh crime trends update since the beginning of Coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictions across England and Wales and indicates overall crime trends remain similar to pre-lockdown levels, although some crime types continue to be well below this, suppressed by ongoing restrictions.
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Police and Crime General
Guns, money and drugs were all taken off the streets and new intelligence gathered following pro-active work that was able to take place because officers had been freed up by the lockdown.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council revealed Operatrion Frenetic, which began with the lockdown, had resulted in 746 arrests so far, the recovery of £54m in cash, 77 firearms were found and two tons of drugs.
Smaller caseloads meant detectives were able to give more time to incidents and get results.
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Police and Crime General
Responding to an article in The Guardian that ‘convictions for rapes in London were less likely than in 2015’, the CPS said the plan is designed to “boost the number of rape and serious sexual offence cases referred to it”.
The Guardian had raised concerns about falling convictions in rape and sexual offence cases in London, despite a rise in reports.
According to figures gathered from the Metropolitan Police Service and the CPS, it said reports of rape and sexual offences in London increased by 25 per cent between 2015 and 2020, but convictions dropped by almost a quarter, and the time it takes to bring charges of rape almost tripled.
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COVID-19
The disproportionate impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities is an "avoidable crisis" fuelled by systemic racism, a review has found.
The author, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, said the illness "thrived on" structural inequalities within government, health, employment and the education system.
Overcrowded housing and public-facing jobs has made it harder for BAME people to avoid the virus, while many have suffered "disgraceful racism" - fuelled partly by global leaders calling COVID-19 the "Chinese virus", the review said.
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Economy & Public Finance
Communities in seven areas across England are set to benefit from up to £178.7m in new Town Deals, communities secretary Robert Jenrick has announced.
Barrow-in-Furness, Blackpool, Darlington, Peterborough, Norwich, Torquay and Warrington are the first of 101 places to be offered a Town Deal.
These areas will be able to implement proposals submitted to the Government’s £3.6bn Towns Fund, which is designed to create jobs and drive growth across the country.
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Economy & Public Finance
Pressure is mounting on the Government’s cap on public sector exit pay as more unions prepare for legal action.
As reported by The MJ, Lawyers in Local Government (LLG), supported by chief executive groups, has written to the Treasury paving the way for a judicial review of the legislation.
Now Unite and Unison have also written to the Treasury raising concerns about the cap infringing on human rights, indirect discrimination against women and older employees, and breaching of contractual rights.
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Police and Crime General
The MP for Hemel Hempstead has given his full backing to Harper's Law, which will mean a person found guilty of killing a police officer, firefighter, nurse, doctor, paramedic or prison officer as a direct result of a crime they have committed would be jailed for life.
This means that a life sentence would be imposed, asking for a minimum term in prison. The campaign was started by Thames Valley PC Andrew Harper's widow, Lissie Harper, after he was killed on duty in August last year.
Sir Mike said: “Lissie has shown incredible courage and bravery and wants all emergency services workers to be protected when they go in one direction, towards danger, while the public go the other way.
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Police and Crime General
A senior Essex police officer has spoken out to defend the force’s use of stop and search powers after the county saw a spike in its use.
According to figures published by the Home Office on Tuesday, the use of stop and search powers across the country rose by 50% in the 12 months to March.
Under section one of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) police are allowed to search people and vehicles for things like drugs or a weapon without a warrant.
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Police and Crime General
Organised criminals are extending their reach and forcing victims of sex trafficking into county lines drug dealing and other crimes, senior police said.
They no longer focus on one enterprise but are spreading their operations across drug trafficking, child sexual exploitation and modern-day slavery.
Victims were being moved to different criminal operations to be exploited again and again, a chief constable said.
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Police and Crime General
A small 11-year-old boy sits across the table from a social worker who has been called to his school after he said his stepfather was violent towards him.
"He came over to me and?kicked me. My stepdad looked worried when I fell into some toys and hit my head on the wall," says the boy, who we have called Noah to protect his identity.
Social worker Myles O'Keeffe from Kent County Council's Children's Services gently questions Noah about the incident.
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Police and Crime General
Heroin, cocaine and cannabis users will be exempt from prosecution for repeated offences under a new police scheme that signals the creeping decriminalisation of drug use.
Prolific users can avoid a criminal record as long as they agree to a diversion programme that includes rehabilitation, under the West Midlands pilot scheme.
Adult and teenage users will continue to avoid arrest and prosecution, even if they are repeatedly caught with small amounts of drugs, provided that they stay engaged with the scheme.
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Police and Crime General
The London assembly’s police and crime committee has written to the lord chancellor, Robert Buckland, amid concerns over a “toxic combination” of falling convictions in rape and sexual offence cases despite a rise in reports and a backlog of cases in the courts.
Fresh research by the committee reveals that reported rapes and other sexual offences in the capital are less likely to result in a conviction now than they were five years ago.
According to figures gathered from the Metropolitan police and the Crown Prosecution Service, reports of rape and sexual offences in London increased by 25% between 2015 and 2020, but convictions dropped by almost a quarter, and the time it takes to bring charges of rape almost tripled.
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Fire
Police investigating the Grenfell Tower disaster have arrested a man on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.
The unnamed 38-year-old was arrested on Saturday in Sussex and taken to a local police station, Scotland Yard said. Detectives released him the same day under investigation.
The arrest is the first by police investigating the June 2017 fire that claimed 72 lives. It follows fury among bereaved and survivors at revelations emerging from the public inquiry about the handling of potential evidence.
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Technology
The principal database for the police went down for more than 10 hours last week after an engineer unplugged it, plunging forces into chaos.
The police national computer (PNC), which can provide real-time checks on people and vehicles, went dark in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
A senior police source said the unprecedented outage affected “every aspect of policing” and described the PNC as the “backbone of the country’s policing system”.
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Police and Crime General
In 2019 the UK Government announced £35 million funding for the launch of 18 new Violence Reduction Units, as part of a wider strategy that included a public health approach to tackling serious violence; Policing Insight Contributing Editor Tina Orr Munro looks at the first 12 months of VRUs, and the challenges for the future.
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Police and Crime General
Operation Drive Insured was developed by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) in partnership with the National Roads Policing Operations, Intelligence and Investigation (NRPOII) committee and will see increased roads policing activity to detect and seize uninsured vehicles across regions.
Each year in the UK more than 130 people are killed and 26,000 are left injured in collisions caused by uninsured and untraced drivers, linking to nearly one in every five road traffic collisions.
Evidence also shows drivers without insurance are more likely to commit a ‘hit and run’ and be involved in other crimes, such as using a stolen vehicle, driving while disqualified or substance abuse.
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COVID-19
A Welsh police force confirmed that officers stopped more than 500 vehicles on the first weekend of the firebreak lockdown
Gwent Police confirmed its officers stopped the vehicles as part of "proactive patrols" in communities across the force area of Gwent, which includes Newport, Monmouthshire, Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly and Torfaen.
The force also confirmed that it issued a "number" of fixed penalty notices for house parties and large gatherings.
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Police and Crime General
Police are investigating a collision between Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s car and a cyclist, who was taken to hospital with injuries.
Sir Keir was driving through northwest London at about midday on Sunday when the crash occurred in Kentish Town.
A spokesman for the opposition leader said he swapped details with the cyclist and waited for an ambulance to arrive before later reporting the incident to police.
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Police and Crime General
During this time he has led on a number of initiatives, including the roll-out of Neighbourhood Policing, and served as Divisional Commander for the City of Hull. He is currently the force’s Head of Crime.
He held the position of temporary ACC in Humberside from February 2017 to September 2019.
Northumbria’s Chief Constable Winton Keenen said: “I am delighted to be welcoming someone of Scott Young’s calibre to Northumbria Police.
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COVID-19
The two-week quarantine period for contacts of those who test positive for Covid-19 could be cut to 10 or seven days, amid criticism of Test and Trace.
Writing in the Telegraph, Conservative MP Sir Bernard Jenkin said a "vacuum of leadership in Test and Trace" was affecting compliance.
Tests could be offered to people after a week of isolation, the paper said. Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis told the BBC the government would be "led by the science" on the issue.
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COVID-19
One in five people investigated for suspected breaches of quarantine after arriving back in the UK could not be found by police, official figures showed on Wednesday
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Police and Crime General
Police wrongly cancelled records of serious crimes, in many cases without informing victims, analysis of official reports shows.
Inspections of 43 police forces in England and Wales detail how officers incorrectly cancelled reports of rape, sexual offences, violence and robbery.
Charity Rape Crisis said the findings were "completely unacceptable". The Home Office said forces received "clear guidance" on cancelling crimes.
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COVID-19
Surely the senior police officers who could not tell MPs on the home affairs select committee the rules for meeting people under Tier 2 should get out more. Assistant Chief Constable Owen Weatherill excused himself by saying he wasn’t “conversant” with “every” set of regulations and added: “I’m not going to try to be.”
Ridiculous. Here is the country’s second most senior officer dealing with the pandemic and he can’t be bothered to know the most basic Tier 2 rule, ie that households mustn’t mix indoors. Everyone else does. Oh, it’s fashionable to bemoan how confusing the tier system is but, actually, the basics are crystal clear.
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COVID-19
Police have issued parents with fines in a bid to clamp down on youths gathering in large groups across Hull.
There have been problems with groups gathering in areas like Kingswood which have already seen young people issued with fines.
And earlier this week, officers revealed parents had been fined after youngsters were found in large groups in outside shops in Greatfield.
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COVID-19
Councils are to gain new powers to issue businesses with improvement notices and close premises if they breach coronavirus restrictions.
Health secretary Matt Hancock told the House of Commons the Government will work on detailed proposals with councils in the coming days.
He said the aim was to create ‘stronger regulations to give local authorities further powers to take action’.
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COVID-19
The cost of disposable face masks is set to rise by a fifth from next week, the Telegraph can disclose, after the Treasury decided to scrap the VAT exemption on Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)....
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Police and Crime General
Prosecutions for crimes against women and girls in England and Wales plummeted in the first three months of the coronavirus pandemic, reflecting a backlog in the court system exacerbated by the UK-wide shutdown and subsequent social distancing measures.
The number of completed rape prosecutions more than halved, falling to 218 in the three months to June this year compared with 480 in the previous quarter, according to violence against women and girls (VAWG) figures from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). There were 174 convictions resulting from those 218 prosecutions, a record rate of 80%, down from 341 ( 71%) in the previous quarter.
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Economy & Public Finance
A one-year spending review has been announced by the Treasury to "focus entirely" on tackling the coronavirus crisis - as official figures show borrowing records continue to be smashed.
The government said it would have liked to outline spending plans for the rest of the current parliament, as it had originally intended.
But a statement on the U-turn said the chancellor and prime minister had decided on a more targeted approach given the renewed threat from the pandemic, which has forced tougher restrictions on large swathes of the country and sparked bitter rows with local leaders over levels of government support.
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COVID-19
In response to the announcement today that the South Yorkshire region will go into Tier 3 at midnight on Friday 23 October, South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Dr Alan Billings has issued the following statement:
“If going into Tier 3 is necessary to stop the relentless spread of coronavirus, then the police will have a role in enforcing the new restrictions, for all our sakes.
“Having spoken to the Chief Constable and senior officers, I have no doubt that they will continue to do this in a proportionate way, but we should be in no doubt that there will be enforcement activity if people wilfully flout the law.
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Police and Crime General
Sobriety tags that monitor criminals' alcohol levels every 30 minutes are being rolled out in Wales from today.
The ankle tags will be handed out to "alcohol-dependent" offenders as part of new abstinence orders that can ban them from drinking for four months.
They monitor the person's sweat and test it for the presence of alcohol.
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Recruitment and Retention
A £60 million funding boost for police and councils to deal with coronavirus lockdown rules would be better spent on police community support officers (PCSOs), a union has said.
The number of PCSOs in England and Wales has nearly halved in the past decade, going from 16,919 in 2010 to 9,179 this year.
Public service union Unison has called for an increase in PCSO numbers to help deal with lockdown rules as police forces struggle with increasing crime levels and changing regulations.
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Police and Crime General
Police in the UK “will be increasingly unable to cope” in the event of a no-deal Brexit because existing data-sharing agreements with the EU will be cut, a former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation has said.
David Anderson is one of a number of senior figures increasingly concerned that failure to strike a Brexit deal could have a serious impact on Britain’s ability to fight cross-border crime, as UK-EU talks remained stalled for their fifth successive day on Tuesday.
“Without the ability to exchange data and intelligence across frontiers, law enforcement will be increasingly unable to cope,” the crossbench peer said. “Everything from extradition to notification of alerts, crime scene matches and criminal record searches will be much slower, at best.”
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COVID-19
Fining people for not self-isolating will backfire by making individuals scared to report symptoms, a government adviser has warned as ministers admitted “a problem with compliance”.
The Times understands that even the most optimistic government estimate says 40 per cent of people are not staying at home for two weeks, after Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, refused to say how many people were not self-isolating as required.
A Department of Health and Social Care survey published last month found that under 20 per cent of people with confirmed coronavirus and their close contacts were following rules to stay at home for two weeks, often citing financial and caring responsibilities.
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COVID-19
Three quarters of police forces have not issued a single fine to people refusing to wear facemasks.
Besides British Transport Police, the nine forces that have issued fines have given only a few, according to figures from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC). In the three months to September 21, only 18 fines have been issued for large gatherings that are in breach of coronavirus restrictions.
Since the start of the pandemic, forces have fined as few as five people per 100,000 of the population for breaking coronavirus rules.
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Police and Crime General
Volunteers with speed guns will be deployed nationwide under plans to tackle reckless driving.
Police and crime commissioners are drawing up proposals to expand “community speedwatch” schemes to catch motorists driving too fast in built-up areas. The system could be backed up by a national platform to enable forces to share intelligence on repeat offenders and combat “patchwork” coverage.
In the past month volunteers have caught the driver of a Porsche travelling at 99mph in a 30mph zone in Wisborough Green, West Sussex, and a a Toyota was recorded at 58mph on a 20mph road in Speldhurst, near Tunbridge Wells in Kent.
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COVID-19
Christmas is unlikely to be the "usual celebration" of "families coming together", a leading scientist has said.
Jeremy Farrar, who sits on the Sage committee that advises the government, warned it would be a "tough" Christmas.
The Wellcome Trust director also told Sky News there was "light at the end of the tunnel" as he believed a vaccine would be ready early in 2021. PM Boris Johnson has warned things will be "bumpy to Christmas and beyond".
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Economy & Public Finance
Ratings agency Moody’s has downgraded the UK’s credit rating for the third time in eight years, citing factors including a deterioration in the quality of the government’s fiscal decision-making.
In a statement on Friday, the agency announced it had downgraded the UK government’s long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings to Aa3 from Aa2.
It said an erosion in the predictability of policymaking and “respect for rules and norms” since the last downgrade in 2017 is “most clearly reflected” in the conduct of fiscal policy.
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COVID-19
Police are being granted access to the details of people told to self-isolate by the government's Test and Trace scheme, Sky News has learnt.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) confirmed it had "agreed a memorandum of understanding with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC)" to provide forces with the information on a "case-by-case basis".
In a statement, a spokesman told Sky News: "It is a legal requirement for people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and their close contacts to self-isolate when formally notified to do so.
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COVID-19
A black hole in how the UK is governed has been slowly opening up during the seven months since the Covid-19 pandemic erupted.
Tensions between Whitehall, the devolved administrations and local councils have grown throughout the crisis – exploding into open warfare in the last week, as Northern mayors refused to accept tougher restrictions while the Welsh Government imposed a border with England for the first time in centuries.
Local leaders have been engaged in a power struggle with ministers, each side demanding more control over the response to coronavirus.
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COVID-19
Police in London have said they will target pubs and bars in a coronavirus crackdown triggered by the capital moving to the Tier 2 alert.
In a statement the Metropolitan Police said patrols would be increased, including near drinking venues during the evenings, where breaches of regulations were "more commonly recorded".
The policing plan was unveiled on Thursday after the government earlier announced the alert level in London would be raised from "medium" to "high" from midnight on Friday.
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Police and Crime General
First came the radar gun, then the speed camera. Now misbehaving motorists have a new nemesis: the undercover police lorry.
Officers are increasingly using unmarked heavy goods vehicles to spy on drivers from a height. Police in Surrey and Sussex obtained their HGV licences so that they could check whether motorists were wearing seatbelts or using mobile phones at the wheel.
During an operation over the past six weeks they spotted more than 300 breaches of the law.
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COVID-19
Lancashire Councils have responded to the Government’s decision to place Lancashire into the Very High tier of local lockdown restriction.
Bars and pubs are to shut from Oct 16 with other restricted venues, such as bingo halls and soft play areas, to shut from Monday.
Crucially, unlike Liverpool, gyms and leisure centres will be allowed to stay open in Lancashire, showing that there is some wiggle-room even within Tier 3.
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Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson has claimed there will be no more trade and security talks unless the EU adopts a “fundamental change of approach”, as he seeks to increase pressure on Brussels to give ground in the negotiations.
In a televised statement on Friday, the prime minister said the country would have to prepare for a no-deal scenario on 1 January, with his spokesman further toughening up the rhetoric later in the day.
“The trade talks are over – the EU have effectively ended them yesterday when they said they did not want to change their negotiating position,” the spokesman said, while stopping short of announcing the UK’s intention to decisively walk away.
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Police and Crime General
Spies have found it more difficult to trail suspects during the pandemic because of the empty streets caused by lockdown, the director-general of MI5 revealed yesterday.
Ken McCallum, who took over the security service in April, also revealed that would-be terrorists were altering their plans because there were fewer crowds to target.
Detailing how MI5’s activities had changed, Mr McCallum said his officers spent significant amounts of time on the near-empty streets and “covert surveillance is not straightforward”.
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COVID-19
The Welsh government’s plan to ban people entering Wales from coronavirus hotspots in other parts of the UK risks stirring “division and confusion”, the Welsh secretary has claimed.
Simon Hart, a member of the UK cabinet, has called for clarification from the Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, on the ban, which is expected to come into force on Friday evening.
Hart also expressed concern over comments from Drakeford that Welsh residents would be “on the lookout” for visitors who defied the ban.
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Police and Crime General
Fewer than one in 200 complaints made against the division of the Metropolitan police responsible for public order policing over the last decade have been upheld, figures obtained by the Guardian suggest.
The data obtained from a freedom of information request raises questions about the accountability of the Met’s MO7 taskforce, which includes the Territorial Support Group (TSG) and allied specialist units.
The figures show that 27 complaints were upheld against the MO7 taskforce, 0.46% of the total of 6,319 lodged between 2010 and August this year. All of the successful complaints have occurred since 2018, meaning that in the preceding seven years not a single complaint was upheld.
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Economy & Public Finance
Rishi Sunak warned against "rushing to another lockdown" and made clear his opposition to a national "circuit-breaker" as he said the country faced an "economic emergency".
Ministers are braced for the announcement of a two-week lockdown – which they expect to be made a week on Friday if coronavirus infections continue to rise – after Boris Johnson told MPs: "I rule nothing out."
But the Chancellor described a temporary national lockdown as "a blunt instrument" on Wednesday, saying it would "cause needless damage to parts of our country where virus rates are low".
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Police Demand
Britain is facing a "nasty mix" of national security threats, from hostile state activity by Russia and China to fast-growing right-wing terrorism, the new director general of MI5 has said.
Ken McCallum said terrorism remains the biggest threat - with Northern Irish and Islamist extremism also a concern.
The Covid lockdown raised the risk of online contact between groups, and made covert surveillance harder, he added.
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Police and Crime General
The Chief of Merseyside Police has criticised revellers who spilled out on to the streets of Liverpool ahead of tier 3 lockdown restrictions coming into force in the region as "selfish, dangerous and childish".
Speaking to LBC's Shelagh Fogarty, Chief of Merseyside Police Andy Cook said the behaviour was "selfish, dangerous, childish and is not at all reflective of the vast majority of people on Merseyside who have been doing the right thing.
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Police and Crime General
Teenagers will escape prosecution if they are caught with drugs under the first police scheme of its kind to combat county lines gangs and serious violence....
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COVID-19
The government's scientific advisers called for a short lockdown in England to halt the spread of Covid-19 last month, newly released documents show.
The experts said an immediate "circuit breaker" was the best way to control cases, at a meeting on 21 September.
Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick insisted the government had taken "robust action" that "balanced" the impact on the economy. It comes as the Liverpool region prepares to enter a "very high" Covid alert level from Wednesday, the highest of a new three-tier system.
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COVID-19
The hospitality industry in the West Midlands will need "immediate financial support" after the government's "disappointing" decision to impose Tier 2 restrictions, the mayor of the county has said.
Andy Street added regional leaders have not supported the move and the government should review the decision "as soon as possible".
Conservative mayor Mr Street tweeted the remarks after Boris Johnson outlined the new three-tier lockdown system for England on Monday.
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COVID-19
The government may need to "go even further" and introduce stricter measures to combat a rise in coronavirus cases in high-risk areas, a minister has told Sky News.
Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick told Kay Burley there was "a lot of work to do" in the fight against COVID-19 and "we're going to be living with it for a long time to come".
"We may have to go even further than what we've announced," he cautioned, echoing a warning from the chief medical officer that the highest level of new restrictions "will not be sufficient" to slow coronavirus infections alone.
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COVID-19
Police in one part of Britain are 80 times more likely to hand out coronavirus fines than others, new figures have revealed.
A breakdown of fixed penalty notices handed out by each constabulary has revealed a postcode lottery when it comes to punishments for breaking social distancing rules.
According to the Office for National Statistics The three forces in England and Wales that issued the highest number of fixed penalty notices per 1,000 population were Dyfed Powys with 3.34, followed by Cumbria with 1.46, and North Yorkshire with 1.4.
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Economy & Public Finance
Taxes rises of more than £40bn a year are 'all but inevitable' to protect UK government debt from spinning out of control, a think tank has warned.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said borrowing this year will hit levels not seen in peacetime due to the pandemic.
It said the state had pumped an extra £200bn into the economy to support jobs, businesses and incomes this year.
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Police and Crime General
Violence, sex offences and criminal damage would be prioritised by police at the expense of theft, under a NICE-style system for “smarter” policing proposed by the Tony Blair Institute....
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Economy & Public Finance
Spending cuts and tax rises to rebalance the public finances should be delayed until 2022 to allow the economy to recover, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said.
Warning that the economic challenges associated with COVID were’ likely just beginning’ and that public services outside health ‘could well be facing a further bout of austerity’ the report nonetheless backed extra spending now due to the low cost of borrowing.
The report said chancellor Rishi Sunak ‘should pay particular attention to the important role that local governments will play in levelling up, potentially as a part of a broader devolution strategy, and ensure that this is backed up with adequate funding, both for investment and for running costs’.
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Police and Crime General
Hate crime has hit a new record in England and Wales, with the number of racially motivated offences recorded by police rocketing by 4,000 in a year.
More than 105,000 hate crimes were recorded in 2019-20, an increase of 8 per cent on the previous year.
A separate Home Office report on trends during the coronavirus pandemic showed that racial hate crime jumped significantly during Black Lives Matter protests.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK government has launched a Covid fraud hotline, after being criticised for failing to act on warnings about risks linked to emergency business loans.
The hotline, run by Crimestoppers, allows the public to leave anonymous tips about suspected fraud linked to the government’s emergency Covid-19 loan and grant schemes for UK businesses. That could include identity theft to obtain loans, false grant claims and the use of so-called mule bank accounts to cover the tracks of money launderers.
The government has been criticised for failing to act on warnings about potential fraud linked to the bounce-back loans scheme (BBLS), which was designed to distribute cheap loans quickly of up to £50,000 to small businesses.
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COVID-19
The Liverpool City Region is expected to face the tightest restrictions under a new "three tier" system, which will classify regions as being on "medium", "high" or "very high" alert.
Steve Rotheram, the city region's mayor, says negotiations have taken place through the night but "no deal" has been agreed yet.
Talks between local leaders in England and Westminster continue. Liverpool recorded 600 cases per 100,000 people in the week ending 6 October. The average for England was 74.
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COVID-19
The Scottish MP who travelled hundreds of miles on public transport after testing positive for coronavirus has refused to resign.
Margaret Ferrier travelled from Glasgow to Westminster while awaiting a Covid-19 test result, and made the return trip when she knew she had the virus last month.
The Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP’s breach of the coronavirus rules triggered a backlash, and calls for her resignation came from both Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish first minister, and Ian Blackford, the SNP Westminster leader.
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Police and Crime General
Almost three million people will be unemployed by Christmas, according to a shocking prediction, with about 1.5million set to lose their jobs before the end of the year.
The dire warning from think-tank the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) comes as its economists said data from its Business Distress Tracker and the Office for National Statistics indicated that Rishi Sunak’s new furlough scheme was ‘unlikely to prevent a major loss of jobs’.
Last week the Chancellor pledged to expand the scheme, which will now pay two-thirds of the wages of staff who have been forced to stop working by local lockdowns.
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Police and Crime General
The final decision over whether to remove statues of controversial figures such as the slave trader Edward Colston will belong to government ministers rather than local authorities under forthcoming changes to planning rules.
A Whitehall source has confirmed to The Times that the government will hand veto powers to the communities secretary, Robert Jenrick.
The new rules will allow the ministry to call in decisions over changes to statues, plaques and memorials in the same way that it can planning applications.
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Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England has asked UK banks to assess their readiness if interest rates are reduced to zero or below.
The request for information was outlined in a letter by BoE deputy governor, Sam Woods, as the central bank continues to consider the policy.
Negative interest rates were first discussed by the bank in August, with the bank now exploring how the policy could be implemented to help economic growth.
The letter said: “For a negative bank rate to be effective as a policy tool, the financial sector – as the key transmission mechanism of monetary policy – would need to be operationally ready to implement it in a way that does not adversely affect the safety and soundness of firms.
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Police Finances
Police officers say their domestic financial situation can have an impact on their ability to do their job, a new poll has shown.
Serve and Protect Credit Union, formerly the Police Credit Union, joined forces with Hampshire Police Federation to conduct a survey.
In total 645 police officers responded to the survey, with 46 per cent of respondents said they took a pay cut when they joined the police.
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Police Finances
Masks should be mandatory indoors and outdoors where two-metre social distancing is not possible, doctors have said.
Publishing a wish list of recommendations for ministers, the British Medical Association (BMA) accused the government of "letting down its guard" and said "inconsistent" messaging since the nationwide lockdown was lifted had played a part in the resurgence of the virus.
Chairman of the doctors' trade union body, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, said: "We are having to swallow a very bitter pill of the infection continuing to spread at a perilous rate.
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Police and Crime General
Police officers, staff and volunteers from forces across the country have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Frontline workers and community champions dominate the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020.
Police colleagues of all ranks and several roles have been awarded honours.
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Police Finances
Police forces and local councils will receive an additional £60 million to step up their enforcement of coronavirus rules as part of the government’s plans to tackle the rise in infections.
The surge funding, recently announced by the Prime Minister, will enable police to increase patrols in town centres and ensure that people are complying with the new restrictions, particularly in high-risk areas. Police will also provide more support to local authorities and NHS Test & Trace to enforce self-isolation requirements.
Local councils will use the funding to increase their compliance work and enforcement checks on businesses.
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Police Demand
Fewer than two per cent of disability hate crimes reported to the police result in a criminal charge, new statistics show, as charities call for the problem to be taken more seriously.
Just 118 of the 7,333 complaints made between July 2019 and 2020 resulted in a charge or court summons, research by Leonard Cheshire and United Response, two disability charities, has found.
Nearly half of the reports (3,628) involved an act of violence against a disabled person, including assault and harassment, with more than two thirds of police forces saying this had increased from the year before.
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COVID-19
Surging coronavirus infection rates have put Britain on the brink of tougher lockdown measures, overshadowing Boris Johnson’s attempt yesterday to focus on life after the pandemic.
The government’s scientific advisers called for “urgent and drastic action” after cases doubled in 11 days to 14,542 and deaths doubled to 76 in the same period.
Hospital admissions in England jumped by a quarter in one day and ministers are scrambling to find a way to bring down cases in the northwest amid concerns about the ability of the health service to cope over winter in infection hotspots.
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Police and Crime General
Priti Patel said the “hooliganism and thuggery” at recent Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion protests was “indefensible”.
She also wants Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) to review how well the police use their powers to manage protests, enforce the law and minimise disruption to communities and how they manage intelligence about protests.
HMICFRS will also look at how well the police balance the rights of protesters with the rights of other people, and the impact on communities and minorities.
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Police and Crime General
The Law Commission has made a series of recommendations for change which would also ensure police have the powers they need to properly investigate crime and better collect evidence – particularly digital material.
The changes would also seek to protect the rights of those being searched, the Government’s independent body on law reform said.
Around 40,000 search warrants – legal papers signed by a magistrate or judge permitting police or other investigators to enter premises and hunt for evidence – are issued in England and Wales every year.
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Prisons
Prisoners in Swansea have made up to 300 protective clothing items a week for front-line healthcare staff.
A recent visit by HM Inspectorate of Prisons found workshops had been adapted during the Covid-19 pandemic.
This helped cut the number of inmates kept in their cells for long periods. Inspectors said the number of men training as cleaners increased in response to enhanced levels of hygiene, with 33 bio-hazard cleans carried out in the prison by newly trained inmates.
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Police and Crime General
Leading immigration lawyers have told the Guardian that increasingly hostile rhetoric from the home secretary is putting them at risk of being attacked as well as undermining the legal system.
On Sunday home secretary Priti Patel used a speech at the Conservative party conference to criticise lawyers who defend migrants, linking them directly with traffickers who help asylum-seekers to cross borders.
Patel said: “No doubt those who are well-rehearsed in how to play and profit from the broken system will lecture us on their grand theories about human rights. Those defending the broken system – the traffickers, the do-gooders, the lefty lawyers, the Labour party – they are defending the indefensible.”
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Fire
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) used “decisive influence” to remove the original contractor on Grenfell Tower despite its claims to have delegated responsibility for the works, the public inquiry into the disaster has heard.
In evidence that places the Conservative-controlled council at the heart of a key decision in the run up to the June 2017 fire, the inquiry was told that Laura Johnson, RBKC’s director of housing, lost patience with Leadbitter when it said the project was going to cost £1.2m more than the budget.
RBKC had earlier told the inquiry it had delegated responsibility for the capital programme, major works and maintenance to the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation (TMO). In its opening submission, it said: “The TMO was responsible for health and safety and fire safety arrangements for the housing stock which it managed on behalf of the council, including Grenfell Tower.”
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Economy & Public Finance
There’s no doubt the Redmond review is a thorough and in-depth study and pinpoints what we have known for some time – that the current audit system isn’t working and needs to change.
I still can’t help feeling a little underwhelmed. The recommendation to push back the accounts completion and audit dates is, in my view, a backward step, a point the Society of District Council Treasurers made during the review process.
Yes, the current timetable is ambitious and puts pressure on finance teams (especially for small finance teams in districts) but it means we can put them to bed early and crack on with more meaningful things – mainly the budget-setting process and vital projects such as town centre and housing schemes.
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COVID-19
Less than half of the UK population could be vaccinated against the coronavirus, the head of the country's vaccine taskforce has said.
Kate Bingham said officials hope to give the vaccine to around 30 million adults - less than half of the country's population of 67 million.
The head of the immunisation programme told the Financial Times: "People keep talking about 'time to vaccinate the whole population' but that is misguided.
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COVID-19
A new three-tier lockdown system is being planned for England, with leaked government documents paving the way for potential harsher restrictions including the closure of pubs and a ban on all social contact outside of household groups.
The draft traffic-light-style plan, seen by the Guardian, is designed to simplify the current patchwork of localised restrictions, which apply to about a quarter of the UK. It also reveals tougher measures that could be imposed by the government locally or nationally if Covid cases are not brought under control.
On Sunday the number of cases jumped by 22,961 after it emerged that more than 15,000 test results had not previously been transferred on to computer systems, including for contact tracers.
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Economy & Public Finance
North Yorkshire drivers who break speed limits and don’t wear seatbelts should face higher penalties with the money raised from the fines being put towards road safety, according to a new survey.
Nearly 4,000 people from across York and North Yorkshire responded to the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners’ (APCC) research as part of 66,000 nationwide.
Two-thirds of respondents to the survey from York and North Yorkshire either agreed or agreed strongly that fixed penalty notices for road traffic offences like speeding and failure to wear a seatbelt (currently £100) should be increased in line with other serious offences like driving while using a handheld mobile phone (currently £200).
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Economy & Public Finance
The chancellor has vowed to "always balance the books", despite increased spending in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a speech to party members, Rishi Sunak said the Conservatives had a "sacred duty" to "leave the public finances strong". He vowed the use the "overwhelming might of the British state" to help people find new work.
But he said debt and spending needed controlling "over the medium term". In an online speech during the Conservatives' annual party conference, he said: "I won't stop trying to find ways to support people and businesses."
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Technology
Electric scooters will be deactivated as soon as they mount the pavement to help to stop antisocial behaviour.
E-scooters that use sensors to cut off power when entering prohibited zones such as footpaths and shopping centres have been approved for use in Britain.
The technology will disable the scooter within a second of it leaving a road, cycle lane or private land where devices are legally allowed.
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Fire
Residents trapped in homes they cannot sell because of concerns over cladding have been subject to a “shocking betrayal” by the Government, a Tory MP has said.
In response to the Grenfell Tower fire, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) made £600 million available to fund the replacement of aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding on buildings above 18 metres, but by April this year it had only paid out £134 million.
In March, it announced a further £1 billion would be made available to fund the replacement of other forms of dangerous cladding on high-rise buildings but estimates suggest this would meet only around a third of the total costs.
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Technology
So much has changed since Europol published last year’s Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA). The global COVID-19 pandemic that hit every corner of the world forced us to reimagine our societies and reinvent the way we work and live.
During the lockdown, we turned to the internet for a sense of normality: shopping, working and learning online at a scale never seen before. It is in this new normal that Europol publishes its 7th annual IOCTA.
The IOCTA seeks to map the cybercrime threat landscape and understand how law enforcement responds to it. Although the COVID-19 crisis showed us how criminals actively take advantage of society at its most vulnerable, this opportunistic behaviour of criminals should not overshadow the overall threat landscape.
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Police and Crime General
The Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Bill will support recovery health services for anyone in Scotland who has experienced rape, sexual assault or child sexual abuse.
It allows victims to self-refer to health services that carry out forensic examinations as this gives them time to decide if they want to report an incident to the police or not without losing any evidence.
The Scottish Parliament unanimously supported the proposals to reform services, making health boards responsible for examinations.
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Police and Crime General
Violence against police officers has shot up by a worrying 50 per cent over the past five years. There is growing concern about the rising number of attacks carried out on cops.
Two out of five officers in England and Wales have reported being assaulted on duty. In the past year alone 20,269 cases were recorded, up 48 per cent on the 2014-15 official figures, with 10,400 officers left injured.
Crime has also rocketed over the past decade — forcing police to deal with one million extra cases a year. Home Office statistics show that almost 1.7million offences linked to violence were recorded in England and Wales in the year to March.
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COVID-19
Boris Johnson has warned it may be "bumpy through to Christmas" and beyond as the UK deals with coronavirus.
Speaking to the BBC's Andrew Marr, the PM said there was "hope" in beating Covid, and called on the public to "act fearlessly but with common sense". He said the government was taking a "balanced" approach between saving lives and protecting the economy. It comes as a further 22,961 UK cases are reported, as previously unreported cases are added amid a technical issue.
Public Health England said an investigation into a technical glitch with the government's coronavirus dashboard identified 15,841 cases which were not included in the daily reports between 25 September and 2 October.
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Economy & Public Finance
The Government is to make £60 million available to help the police and local authorities fund overtime and increase patrols to enforce coronavirus laws, The Telegraph can disclose....
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Police and Crime General
Almost 100 police officers and Rural Watch volunteers have taken part in a major crackdown on rural crime across North Yorkshire, looking for cross-border thieves, fly-tippers, poachers and drink drivers.
Operation Checkpoint focussed on Hambleton, Richmondshire, northern parts of Craven and Ryedale, the A1 near Harrogate and the A171 Moor Road corridor near Whitby and ran from Wednesday evening into the early hours of yesterday.
North Yorkshire Police said 43 officers from North Yorkshire Police’s Neighbourhood Policing Teams and Rural Taskforce were joined by 51 Rural Watch volunteers on patrol.
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COVID-19
Almost half of councils have launched or are setting up local coronavirus contact tracing to supplement the national system, LGC has learned, but others are being held back by a lack of funding or cooperation from government.
Meanwhile, the reorganisation of national contact tracing to be “local by default” – announced by NHS Test & Trace boss Baroness Dido Harding almost two months ago – has yet to materialise.
Councils in Hertfordshire, Nottinghamshire and Nottingham City were among the latest to go live with local contact tracing systems this week, joining others including Hackney and Hammersmith & Fulham LBCs.
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COVID-19
The communities secretary has revealed to councils he expects the spending review to be published next month, amid speculation it will be another one-year settlement.
The government’s original commitment to a three-year spending review is in doubt after the Budget was cancelled last month. The Institute for Fiscal Studies is now advising the chancellor to set a one-year plan, however the Local Government Association is calling for a three-year funding settlement for councils.
On a webinar with council representatives on Wednesday, Robert Jenrick said his officials at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government are “working very closely with the Treasury for the process of the spending review" which is "very much now underway”.
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Recruitment and Retention
The 19 new officers are among the first nationally to undertake the intensive two-year Detective Constable Degree-Holder Entry Programme (DHEP) which offers specialist training in investigations.
Alongside 28 new officers commencing the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship this week, the recruits were personally welcomed to the force by Chief Constable Jo Shiner and PCC Katy Bourne at an attestation ceremony on Tuesday (September 29).
Jo Shiner, Chief Constable, said: “It was a pleasure to welcome these 47 new officers to the force and I am proud that Sussex Police – through collaboration with the University of Cumbria – is one of the first forces in the country to launch the new fast-track Detective Constable DHEP programme.
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Police Finances
Six areas in England have been added to the coronavirus watchlist and two have been removed.
The places added to the list of "areas of concern" for coronavirus are:
Barrow-in-Furness
Cheshire West and Chester
Cheshire East
Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Rotherham. South Yorkshire
Luton in Bedfordshire (re-added)
Spelthorne in Surrey and Hertsmere in Hertfordshire have been removed from the watchlist.
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COVID-19
A ban on households mixing anywhere indoors in Hartlepool and Middlesbrough is "unacceptable", a mayor has said.
It follows Health Secretary Matt Hancock's announcement of stricter rules in parts of the north of England to combat a rise in Covid-19 cases.
Middlesbrough mayor Andy Preston said the rules would "damage mental health" and "we defy the government and we do not accept the measures".
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COVID-19
The government is to push ahead with a new "three-tier" approach to coronavirus restrictions in local areas of England, the BBC understands.
The Department of Health confirmed last month the system was being considered - but it has now been signed off by government officials and politicians.
An announcement is expected next week, with the roll-out of the new tiers expected in mid-October. The Department of Health said there were "no imminent changes" expected.
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Police Finances
The public sector exit cap was last night voted through the House of Commons, sparking avoidable confusion.
MPs voted to approve the Treasury regulations despite warnings from the Association of Local Authority Chief Executives (ALACE) that a gap between their introduction and the implementation of Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) changes to the pension scheme would result in a ‘financial and administrative no man’s land’.
ALACE said it was ‘sad to see that so many MPs have voted to reduce pensions that public sector key workers can receive’.
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Recruitment and Retention
Sussex Police welcomes the first trainees on its new fast-track detective development programme this week. The 19 new officers are amongst the first nationally to undertake the intensive two-year Detective Constable Degree-Holder Entry Programme (DHEP) which offers specialist training in investigations.
Alongside 28 new officers commencing the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship this week, the recruits were personally welcomed to the force by Chief Constable Jo Shiner and PCC Katy Bourne at an attestation ceremony on 29 September.
All the recruits, who are funded by the both the Government’s national recruitment campaign and the local policing precept, will work alongside each other for the first 30 weeks. The trainee detectives will then specialise in investigations, working towards a Diploma in Professional Policing Practice and accreditation as a detective constable over the course of two years.
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Police and Crime General
MPs will vote later on whether to extend emergency powers given to the government to tackle coronavirus.
Dozens of Conservative MPs are demanding more parliamentary scrutiny of the multiple restrictions in place.
Talks are continuing ahead of the vote in an attempt to reach a compromise and prevent any rebellion.
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Technology
Children should have access to legal advocates paid for by the tech giants so they can take them on, should they breach duty of care laws, said the NSPCC.
The children’s charity said it would “level the playing field” against the well-resourced technology companies if children fell victim to online harms and they, or their parents, sought to take action against the platforms.
The proposal is one of six tests that the NSPCC has set the Government if its proposed new duty of care laws are to be effective in combating online harms.
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Technology
There is no greater priority for the NSPCC than making sure our children are safe from abuse online. Children are being groomed at scale on social networks, child abuse images are being freely produced but not consistently taken down and vulnerable young people are being exposed to highly disturbing content that promotes or glorifies self-harm and suicide. Traumatised families are left to try and pick up the pieces.
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Police and Crime General
Detectives have used the pandemic lockdown to arrest nearly 300 fugitives hiding in the UK.
Investigators for the National Crime Agency (NCA) tracked down suspects, mostly foreigners, wanted for human trafficking, sex crimes, drug smuggling, money laundering and many other offences.
Police forces across the country were involved in the arrests, in spite of pressure on resources during the coronavirus crisis.
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Prisons
The number of deaths from natural causes on the prison estate is “unacceptably high”, a watchdog has warned, urging ministers to do more to allow inmates to be allowed out to die.
The average age of an inmate dying a “natural death” is 56, compared with 81 in the general population, the Independent Advisory Panel (IAP) on Deaths in Custody said.
The number of such deaths in prison has also increased from 103 in 2009 to 179 in 2020, the panel said in a letter to justice and health ministers in which they called for improved access to healthcare for inmates to avoid preventable deaths.
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Police and Crime General
Teenage county lines drug dealers posed as key workers during the coronavirus lockdown to evade police, London authority bosses have revealed.
City Hall's Rescue and Response's annual report found demand for drugs has been "very high" during lockdown. More than 3,000 people were identified as being exploited to move drugs from London to 41 towns and cities across the UK.
The youngest age of a dealer was 10 and the oldest 26, the report has revealed.
In 2018, the Mayor of London pledged £3m to the Rescue and Response programme and since then City Hall says more than 1,100 young Londoners have been referred for specialist support out of county lines drug dealing.
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COVID-19
Half the fines issued by police for breaches of coronavirus rules in England and Wales have not been paid and will be dealt with by the already beleaguered courts, it has been revealed.
By 22 September, 18,646 enforcement letters for payment of a fixed penalty notice (FPN) had been issued but 9,413 had not been paid and will be referred for prosecution in the courts, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said.
Some people will not have paid the fine because they intend to formally contest the FPN.
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COVID-19
Provisional data from police forces in England and Wales shows police recorded crime is three per cent lower than in the same period as 2019. Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) given to the public for breaches of Coronavirus Regulations are also rising again.
Snapshot figures released today based on preliminary police recorded crime provided to the National Police Chiefs’ Council from 43 forces in England and Wales (excluding fraud, which is recorded by centrally by Action Fraud) cover the four weeks to 30 August compared with the same period in 2019.
This is the sixth crime trends update since the beginning of Coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictions across England and Wales and indicates crime trends have returned close to pre-lockdown levels after a 28 per cent reduction at the height of lockdown.
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COVID-19
Several new coronavirus rules, laws and punishments have been revealed by the government. Ministers updated the legislation which gives police the legal powers to ensure people are following the emergency measures.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock tried to quell anger among some Tory MPs by saying he has to "be able to move at pace" to contain the spread of coronavirus.
But civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch have condemned the way the changes were introduced, saying: "Yet again, this was imposed without scrutiny from parliament. Where will it end?
[ more...]
COVID-19
The government must choose this autumn between more austerity and permanently higher spending, experts warn.
Although the Autumn Budget has been cancelled, the Treasury is still set to publish a Spending Review containing government expenditure plans.
A Treasury spokesperson said: "The Spending Review will proceed this autumn, as planned. The chancellor has already confirmed that departmental spending will increase above inflation - both for day-to-day spending and longer-term investment."
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COVID-19
More than one in three young people say they have lost hope of getting their dream job because of coronavirus, the Prince's Trust has said.
The charity said a survey of 2,000 people aged 16 to 25 across the UK showed 44% had lower aspirations for the future as a result of the pandemic. Its UK chief executive, Jonathan Townsend, said the pandemic had eroded young people's confidence.
According to the research, carried out by Censuswide, 41% of young people believe their future goals now seem "impossible to achieve", with this rising to 50% of those surveyed from poorer backgrounds.
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Police and Crime General
The government has doubled the financial support it provides to national organisations that support victims and survivors of child sexual abuse to £2.4 million.
The Home Office and the Ministry of Justice are awarding a two-year grant for the first time, in order to provide much needed stability for voluntary sector organisations, several of which are facing increased demand for their services as a result of Covid-19.
The Support for Victims and Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse Fund aims to assist national organisations in supporting both adult and child victims and survivors of child sexual abuse across England and Wales, with several organisations also providing support to parents, carers and family members.
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Police and Crime General
Shop workers are being put at greater risk of violence, verbal abuse and coronavirus infection by pubs shutting at 10pm, a retail union has warned.
Usdaw said stores remaining open until later in England were likely to become "very busy" with people buying alcohol, "triggering" antisocial behaviour. Early pub closing was brought in last week in an effort to curb increasing rates of coronavirus.
On Monday, Greater Manchester's Labour mayor Andy Burnham said supermarkets, convenience stores and off-licences were now "packed out to the rafters" after closing time.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers who suffer from mental health problems have been offered pioneering new therapy in the form of surfing.
Officers in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset will take to the boards as a treatment for stress, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues. The project is thought to be the first in the world to tailor surf therapy to the needs of the emergency services.
Officers who oversaw the development of the scheme said that it built on proven approaches used by the military.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Lockdown has disrupted the supply chains of drug dealers, a study suggests.
Fifty-five per cent of British respondents to the Global Drug Survey (GDS), the world’s largest of its kind, said they experienced a decrease in the availability of illicit drugs from March to June, while 29 per cent of respondents reported an increase in prices.
Of the 1,173 Britons asked about changes to the way they bought drugs, 19 per cent said that they bought in bulk or in greater quantities and 10 per cent said that it took longer to obtain them than usual.
[ more...]
Technology
Police officers in England and Wales are to be told they can download the NHS Covid-19 app on to their personal smartphones and use them at work.
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) issued the guidance after carrying out its own technical review of the software.
Individual officers and other police staff will be informed on Wednesday.
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Police and Crime General
Campaigners have called for criminal offences created by the Coronavirus Act to be scrapped after the law was wrongly used to prosecute 141 people.
MPs will vote on whether to renew the act, which contains “some of the most sweeping powers seen in modern times”, on Wednesday amid threats of a Tory revolt.
It gives police the power to direct “potentially infectious persons” to a place suitable for screening and assessment, and take them by force if they refuse.
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Police and Crime General
British intelligence about terrorists and other serious criminals would have to be deleted from EU systems if the Brexit trade negotiations were to collapse, a former EU security commissioner has warned.
Sir Julian King, who was the UK’s last commissioner in Brussels until last year, said that in security terms “the difference between a deal and no deal is significant” and the negative impact would be felt immediately.
“UK [intelligence] data that was held in EU systems could – indeed would – be deleted, if there was no data adequacy arrangement covering how you share data,” said the former British diplomat in a briefing organised by the Royal United Services Institute.
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Police Finances
The NHS and care homes will have more than enough personal protective equipment to see them through winter, the government’s PPE tsar has promised.
Lord Deighton said a four-month stockpile, due to be in place by November 1, “really does assume we are back into kind of April intensity on the front line”.
“I would be staggered if that isn’t a significantly conservative assumption,” he said. “So, while I’m telling you it is [going to last] four months, I’d be really surprised if it isn’t a lot more.”
Lord Deighton, who was brought in to lead the government’s efforts to get PPE in April, added: “I don’t have any concern about the next four weeks of production or delivery.”
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COVID-19
Refusing to self-isolate when told to is now illegal in England from Monday, with fines of up to £10,000.
Anyone who tests positive for Covid-19, or has been told they have been in contact with someone who has, now has a legal duty to quarantine. It comes as a study commissioned by the government found just 18% of people who had symptoms went into isolation.
Meanwhile, the government has promised an "uninterrupted supply" of PPE for front-line workers over the winter. Four-month stockpiles of PPE - personal protective equipment such as masks, visors and gowns - will be available from November, the Department of Health has said.
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COVID-19
Pressure is mounting on Boris Johnson’s government to review the new 10pm curfew imposed on pubs, bars and restaurants after drinkers crowded streets across the country at closing time.
Ministers have been urged to change course on the “shambolic” and “ill-thought-out” restriction brought in on Thursday in response to surging coronavirus infections.
Crowds have been seen gathered each night in English cities after the curfew came into force, with long queues forming for public transport and off licences as many drinkers continued their night in each other’s homes after pubs closed.
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Police and Crime General
The Met Commissioner, the Home Secretary and the London Mayor all gathered at the National Police Memorial in London on Sunday morning to lay wreaths to mark the national day to commemorate officers killed on duty.
There was added poignancy to the early morning ceremony following the murder of Metropolitan Police Sgt Matt Ratana who was shot dead inside Croydon Custody Centre in south London on Friday morning.
The Met sergeant is the 17th from the force to be killed by a firearm since the end of the Second World War, according to the National Police Memorial roll of honour.
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COVID-19
Police have clashed with demonstrators at a protest in central London against coronavirus restrictions.
Officers used batons to control the crowd, after bottles and water were thrown by demonstrators massed in Trafalgar Square. At least three protesters and nine officers were injured, while 16 people were arrested.
The Met Police said the protest had been shut down because the crowd was not complying with social distancing. Earlier on Saturday, thousands gathered in central London to protest against the latest government rules, with very few wearing masks.
Protests are exempt from the rule-of-six restrictions, but demonstrators must social distance; organisers must also submit a risk assessment.
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Police and Crime General
More than 1,000 people have been arrested and an estimated £1.2m worth of drugs seized in a police crackdown on so-called "county lines" gangs. Young and vulnerable people are used as couriers to move drugs and cash between cities and smaller towns.
Police said raids in the past week, involving all 43 regional forces in England and Wales, had been the most successful of their kind. Almost 200 weapons and £526,000 in cash were also seized. During a week-long operation, police forces also shut down about 10% of the phone lines (102) being used for drug dealing.
County lines is the term used to describe criminal gangs who move illegal drugs from big cities to more rural locations and sell them via dedicated mobile phone lines.
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Police and Crime General
A police officer has been shot dead at Croydon Custody Centre in south London. The male officer was shot in the chest when a man, who was being detained, produced a weapon during a search. The suspect then turned the gun on himself.
The officer was treated at the scene overnight but died in hospital. A 23-year-old man is in a critical condition after being treated for gunshot wounds.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said she was "deeply shocked and saddened" by the officer's killing.
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Police and Crime General
Police turfed lingering revellers out of England’s pubs last night as a 10pm curfew on the hospitality sector kicked in. Officers across the country enforced the new coronavirus restrictions as bar and restaurant staff cleared tables and chairs off the streets.
One sign at a bar in Soho, central London, told customers enjoying their last drink to ‘Get Out to Help Out’ in a dig to how quickly the rules have changed since people were encouraged to visit their local pubs and restaurants under ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ in August.
Many streets in the capital city looked busy on Thursday night as crowds flocked to the tube stations at 10pm to make it home.
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Fire
The failure to replace dangerous Grenfell-style cladding three years after the tragedy is "disgraceful", Boris Johnson has admitted.
The prime minister was asked during prime minister's questions on Wednesday what steps the government was taking to replace unsafe cladding on high-rise buildings, following as series of delays and criticism by watchdogs.
Ministers promised over a year ago that it would fund the replacement of cladding on high-rise private residential buildings, but many residents are still waiting for action.
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Economy & Public Finance
The Treasury has scrapped plans for an Autumn Budget this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"As we heard this week, now is not the right time to outline long-term plans - people want to see us focused on the here and now," the Treasury said. "So we are confirming today that there will be no Budget this autumn."
There will however be a spending review to set out the overall shape of government spending, BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg reported. The decision to scrap the Budget comes as no surprise, according to Genevieve Morris head of corporate tax at accountancy firm Blick Rothenberg.
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Technology
People living in England and Wales are being urged to download the government's official contact-tracing app following its official release.
NHS Covid-19 instructs users to self-isolate for 14 days if it detects they were nearby someone who has the virus. It also has a check-in scanner to alert owners if a venue they have visited is found to be an outbreak hotspot.
Anyone aged 16 and over is being asked to install the app on to their smartphone.
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Police and Crime General
Charities dealing with men who suffer domestic abuse have seen pleas for help jump by up to 60% during the lockdown.
The Respect Men's Advice Line said some victims had told them they had sought refuge by sleeping in cars or in tents in the gardens of friends or relatives.
The charity said it had received 13,812 calls and emails between April and July in lockdown compared to 8,648 in the same period in 2019. The advice line said the biggest increase in contact with abuse victims came through emails and the service saw the volume increase by 96% from 372 emails in June 2019 to 728 in June 2020.
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Police and Crime General
Children as young as 13 are talking about committing acts of terrorism, against a backdrop of rising extremism during the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK’s most senior counter-terrorism officer has warned.
Metropolitan police assistant commissioner Neil Basu told MPs on the home affairs select committee that counter-terrorism networks had not recorded a rise in terrorism-related material during the coronavirus outbreak, but interest in extremism was on the rise.
The head of counter-terrorism policing said his “greatest single fear” was the ability of rising extremism to incite vulnerable people towards terrorism.
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COVID-19
All pubs, bars, restaurants and other hospitality venues in England must have a 22:00 closing time from Thursday, to help curb the spread of coronavirus. The sector will also be restricted by law to table service only.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove said people should also work from home "if they can" and trials of spectators at sports fixtures would be "paused".
The full measures will be set out by the prime minister in the House of Commons later. Boris Johnson will also address the nation in a live broadcast at 20:00 BST on Tuesday.
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COVID-19
The police 101 reporting line is being swamped by members of the public informing on neighbours and those they perceive to be breaking the coronavirus “rule of six”, The Times understands.
Senior officers said that some forces were having to put extra staff on shifts to man the phone lines because the volume of calls had rapidly increased.
New regulations state that people must not congregate in groups of more than six in outdoor spaces or within venues such as pubs and restaurants.
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COVID-19
Britain faces a further six months of “very difficult” lockdown restrictions, Downing Street has warned, as Boris Johnson prepares the country for fresh measures to combat the latest increase in infections.
The government’s chief scientific and medical officers will tell the public today that Britain is “heading in the wrong direction” and that we are at a “critical point in the pandemic”.
Mr Johnson is expected to announce further lockdown measures in the coming days, with cabinet ministers split over how extensive these should be.
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Police Finances
Eight additional ‘Nightingale Courts’ have been announced by the Lord Chancellor as part of plans to tackle the impact of COVID-19 on the justice system.
The Lowry Theatre in Salford, Jury’s Inn Middlesbrough, and the Hilton Hotel in York will begin hearing cases from next week, with the remaining five sites to be confirmed in the coming weeks. In total they will deliver 16 extra courtrooms.
This boost to capacity comes as existing measures have started to deliver real gains for the system, with magistrates’ courts now hearing more cases than they receive.
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Economy & Public Finance
Avon and Somerset police pays out around £65,000 a year to “handfuls” of informants to help crack crimes.
Chief constable Andy Marsh said the sum was a “minuscule” part of the force’s £328.5million budget and is the right thing to do.
A freedom of information request revealed that between 2014/15 and 2018/19 the force paid informants – technically known as “covert human intelligence sources” – £322,999.52, or around £65,000 a year.
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COVID-19
APCC Chair and PCC for Nottinghamshire, Paddy Tipping said:
“I believe that the vast majority of people will exercise personal responsibility and self-isolate if they test positive for coronavirus or are contacted by Test and Trace.
“This virus has impacted so many areas of our lives and there has been much suffering.
Police officers will continue to engage, explain, and encourage people to do the right thing before taking enforcement action. I am sure communities will continue to work with them to help reduce the infection rate, save lives and avoid fines. “
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COVID-19
The number of people who have tested positive for coronavirus in the UK has jumped by 4,422 - the highest daily rise in over four months.
Saturday's figure is exactly 100 more cases than were confirmed the previous day, meaning both are the highest since 8 May. A further 27 deaths of people with COVID-19 have also been recorded, taking the total to 41,759.
Experts caution more infections are likely to be picked up now because the number of coronavirus tests available has grown dramatically since the pandemic began.
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Police and Crime General
Violent crime has hit its highest level in a decade with a surge in drug feuds, domestic violence and hate crime attacks, analysis by The Times shows.
Police said drug rivalries had become increasingly vicious as gangs fought to retain their turf after the first phase of the pandemic.
There has also been a surge in violence outside licensed venues due to the release of “pent-up” fury when lockdown restrictions were eased, while charities warned that domestic abuse had become more violent, more intense and more frequent.
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COVID-19
Boris Johnson is considering the introduction of new national restrictions - possibly as soon as next week - as the prime minister races to try and get a handle on the spread of coronavirus.
With COVID-19 cases now doubling every seven to eight days, the government is looking at introducing nationwide restrictions for a short period to try to "short-circuit" the virus and slow the spread of the disease.
Government figures stressed the plans being drawn up stopped short of a full national lockdown, as seen in the spring, when the country was told to "stay at home".
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Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England has outlined plans to explore how negative interest rates could be implemented for the first time, to help the UK’s economic recovery from Covid-19. The move was outlined by the Monetary Policy Committee as it maintained the record low 0.1% bank rate.
The central bank said it now expects GDP to be 7% lower in the third quarter of this year compared with the end of 2019, an improvement on projections given in August – which showed an 8.6% decline.
“The committee had discussed its policy toolkit, and the effectiveness of negative policy rates in particular, in the August Monetary Policy Report, in light of the decline in global interest rates over a number of years,” the committee minutes said.
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COVID-19
New England-wide measures which could see hospitality businesses shut are being considered by the UK government to slow a surge of coronavirus cases.
A short period of tighter restrictions - lasting a few weeks - could be announced in the next week, BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said.
Schools and most workplaces would be kept open during those weeks. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has told the BBC the government is "prepared to do what it takes" against Covid-19.
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Police and Crime General
Uber has won support from police to keep its licence because it hands over thousands of pieces of intelligence on drivers, passengers and journeys each year, The Times has learnt.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) claims that its ability to tackle drug dealing, human trafficking and child sexual exploitation would be hindered if it lost such “data and support”.
A court has been told that senior officers want it to continue operating because of the “vital” information, amounting to 2,000 pieces of intelligence a year in the capital alone.
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Police and Crime General
Over 8,000 people, who live or work in the countryside, gave heir views on how crime impacted their lives, about crimes that had been committed against them, and the policing of rural communities.
The results will help influence how rural policing is prioritised in rural communities and ensure that Police and Crime Commissioners, the police and other authorities understand the needs, concerns and priorities of rural communities.
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Economy & Public Finance
A report has revealed that up to 31% of residents across certain regions have been Summoned to Court because of unpaid council tax.
The highest region, according to the report is Middleborough with a rate of 31% of residents receiving the Summons. The report revealed the approximately £164m had been reclaimed by bailiffs, with Haringey Council reportedly using bailiffs most efficiently with a total reclaim of £14.9m.
The report used Freedom of Information requests from 243 councils across England and Wales in order to get a picture of how Coronavirus had affected council tax payments.
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Police and Crime General
Automatic Number Plate Recognition technology has helped police arrest more than 200 people across England in operation to tackle county lines drug activity.
The three-day "Operation Pandilla" used ANPR and intelligence to target vehicles on arterial routes and motorways. It resulted in 230 arrests, including for attempted murder and assault, as well as a range of drug and weapons offences.
Police said 22 knives and other weapons were recovered, 54 vehicles were seized and 62 illegal items including drugs were confiscated.
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Police and Crime General
The National Crime Agency seized 1,169kg (184st) of heroin and morphine derivatives from the vessel when it docked in Felixstowe in Suffolk.
Officers removed the drugs and returned the container before tracking it to the Netherlands and making arrests. The agency said it was one of the UK's largest seizures of the drug.
It estimated the haul had a value of £21m to organised criminals and a street value of more than £120m. After removing the drugs, the container was returned to the ship, which continued to the Belgian port of Antwerp on Tuesday.
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Police and Crime General
The team, which officially launches on 18 September, has been made possible with the precept increase and additional central funding, as acquired by Police and Crime Commissioner Angus Macpherson at the start of this financial year.
The team will focus on agricultural, environmental, wildlife and heritage crime and it has been brought together to increase confidence and encourage reporting through preventing crime and carrying out more intelligence-led operations.
Made up of one sergeant, three constables and 35 community policing team officers who work as Wildlife and Heritage Crime Officers, the team will be operating across the county. An Inspector will act as a tactical lead in addition to members of our Special Constabulary who will be used on pre-planned operations.
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COVID-19
The Scottish Government has released a paper that outlines how extending the furlough scheme could actually pay for itself, and not be an extra burden to the tax payer.
The research shows that by extending the furlough scheme through to June 2021, at an additional cost of £850m, upwards of 60,000 could be saved.
By saving these 60,000 jobs, GDP will be retained and therefore the extension will essentially pay for itself.
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COVID-19
Almost two million people in north-east England are expected to face restrictions as coronavirus cases rise.
Northumberland, Newcastle, Sunderland, North and South Tyneside, Gateshead and County Durham council areas are in discussions to get the measures.
These may include pubs closing earlier and restrictions on households mixing. It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the Sun: "The only way to make sure the country is able to enjoy Christmas is to be tough now."
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Justice
'Paul' was accused of committing a domestic burglary in June 2018.
In early 2019 he was told by police that no further action would be taken against him. However, he was subsequently charged.
Last week - over two years since the alleged offence - he appeared at Inner London Crown Court.
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Pensions
Public sector members of the Local Government Pension Scheme aged over 55, who are made redundant and wish to take early retirement as result, will face “significant” cuts to their benefits if proposed changes to local government exit payments are implemented, pensions advisor Hymans Robertson has warned.
The firm said that employees are in effect being forced to choose between a full pension benefit and statutory redundancy pay under the new regulations outlined in a consultation document earlier this month.
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Police and Crime General
The number of referred cases of modern slavery by "ruthless" count lines gangs has more than doubled during lockdown, official figures show.
[ more...]
Justice
A backlog of court cases is forcing some victims and defendants to wait up to four or five years (until 2023) for their trials, say lawyers
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Technology
Home Secretary Priti Patel has given her backing to a campaign launched by the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) to share body-worn video (BWV) footage with the public in a bid to prevent police officers being unfairly criticised.
This follows a rise in the posting of ‘selective clips’ of police incidents on social media and concerns raised by the PFEW about members being subjected to personal abuse because of one-sided videos.
PFEW national chair John Apter recently raised this topic with the Home Secretary during an interview for the federation’s magazine. Ms Patel branded the publicising of unbalanced footage in an attempt to vilify officers as “unacceptable”.
She has now written Martin Hewitt, chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), encouraging forces to be proactive in considering when BWV footage can be released to demonstrate the good work officers do and to highlight that selective footage can be misleading.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK's inflation rate fell sharply to 0.2 per cent in August as the effect of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme pushed down restaurant prices, latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show.
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Police and Crime General
Minister for Rough Sleeping and Housing Kelly Tolhurst MP has today (16 September 2020) announced that a further 25 charities will receive a share of £1 million boost as part of the government’s £10 million emergency fund to support domestic abuse victims and their families during the pandemic.
This emergency funding will support those providers facing the most difficulties during the pandemic and help to provide over 1,500 new beds and re-open 344 bed-spaces.
This is part of a wider £76 million package of government support for the most vulnerable in society during the pandemic.
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COVID-19
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has defended the coronavirus testing system, saying it is trying to meet a "colossal spike" in demand.
It comes as the government said it was drawing up a list setting out who will be prioritised for tests.
Care home residents and staff are likely to be near the top of the list, as Mr Johnson acknowledged ministers were concerned about infection rates.
The PM told MPs a new "action plan" for care homes will be released this week.
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COVID-19
The widespread introduction of Covid marshals to towns and cities in England is "unlikely" and "almost impossible", some local authorities have said.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggested the marshals would enforce rules about social distancing, gathering in groups and wearing masks.
But a lack of detail has been criticised by council and health officials.
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Economy & Public Finance
A senior councillor at the Local Government Association has described the Redmond Review of local government audit – which recommended the creation of new regulatory body - as “arse covering from finance directors”. Addressing a meeting of the LGA’s resources board on Tuesday afternoon, Peter…
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Police and Crime General
Having served two terms of office as one of the country’s few independent commissioners before making the decision not to stand in a third election, I have an insight into this problem. My office also raised this issue in the recent Home Office consultation into the role of PCCs.
The process of standing as a candidate, particularly the £5,000 deposit required – far higher than the £500 deposit required to stand as an MP – is oppressive for the vast majority of people, with the overall cost of getting elected running into tens of thousands of pounds even in a small force area like Dorset.
This means that party political candidates, who can tap into campaign funds, have a significant advantage.
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COVID-19
BORIS Johnson has railed against “sneak” culture - urging Brits not to snitch on their neighbours unless they are having “Animal House parties” with “hot tubs and so forth”.
The Home Secretary and junior ministers sparked a major backlash on Monday by demanding people grass their friends and neighbours for breaking the Rule of Six.
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Police Demand
A near-doubling in the number of higher-risk drinkers during lockdown has led to warnings that addiction services in England are struggling to cope and in dire need of extra funding.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists analysed data from Public Health England showing the prevalence of people drinking at higher risk was at almost a fifth (19%) in June, up from 10.8% in February.
Using population estimates from the Office for National Statistics, the college said the June figure equated to more than 8.4 million people, a rise from around 4.8 million four months earlier. Higher-risk consumption is defined as drinking more alcohol than the recommended levels of no more than 14 units a week for men and women.
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COVID-19
People in England’s 10 worst-hit coronavirus hotspots were unable to get tests on Monday, leading to claims of a “shambles”.
Those trying to arrange a test in the areas with the highest infection rates were told that none were available at walk-in centres, drive-through facilities or for home delivery.
One official said there was capacity and swabs available at testing centres, but that a backlog in laboratories meant people were being told that no tests were available.
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Recruitment and Retention
More than 100,000 people have applied to become police officers one year into the Government’s recruitment drive.
Provisional data from forces across England and Wales shows they have received almost 101,000 applications between October and August, as part of plans to sign up 20,000 additional officers over the next three years.
This comes as new TV and radio adverts encouraging people to “make their difference” by joining the police launch nationwide today (Tuesday 15 September).
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COVID-19
Almost 9,000 people could be prosecuted for failing to pay fines for allegedly violating coronavirus laws, official figures show.
Statistics given by the attorney general to parliament’s Justice Committee showed that by 25 August, under half of almost 19,200 penalties issued in England and Wales had been paid.
In a letter to committee chair Sir Bob Neill, Suella Braverman said 8,930 fines had been paid but a further 8,954 (8,325 England and 629 in Wales) “have not been paid and therefore fall to be considered for prosecution”.
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Police and Crime General
Criminals who attack emergency workers are to face up to two years in jail under sentencing reforms to be announced tomorrow.
Ministers plan to double the existing 12-month maximum jail term for attacking a police officer after a summer in which dozens of officers have been injured during clashes with revellers at street parties.
Tougher sentencing for violent offenders comes as the justice ministry is planning to provide in-cell computer tablets for prisoners as part of an expansion of the use of technology in jails.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK government should look to create its own state aid system after the Brexit transitional agreement ends, according to the Institute for Government.
A report from the think-tank has suggested a strong system of domestic subsidy control would help direct funds towards effective subsidies and prevent harmful exploitation of subsidies.
Under the Northern Ireland Protocol, which outlines customs arrangements post-Brexit, European Union state aid rules were set to apply in certain cases affecting trade between Northern Ireland and the EU.
However, the Internal Market Bill, published recently, will give UK ministers powers to “disapply or modify” sections of the Protocol, including the state aid agreement.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK unemployment rate has risen to its highest level for two years, official figures show. The unemployment rate grew to 4.1% in the three months to July, compared with 3.9% previously.
Young people were particularly hard hit, with those aged 16 to 24 suffering the biggest drop in employment compared with other age groups. Chancellor Rishi Sunak said "helping people get back into, or finding new work" was his "number one priority".
[ more...]
COVID-19
Some 1,150 Labour councillors have written to the Prime Minister urging him to rethink plans to scrap the furlough scheme next month and target support at the worst-hit industries to prevent mass unemployment. It comes as latest figures from the ONS show that around 695,000 workers have been removed from the payrolls of British companies since the coronavirus lockdown began in March. Cllr Michael Payne, deputy leader of the LGA’s Labour Group, said: “Without targeted support for sectors and local lockdown areas that have been badly affected by the pandemic, we know that viable businesses will fail and employment will be lost.”
[ more...]
COVID-19
The Government will publish details of its plan to prioritise coronavirus tests in the next few days, with the testing system facing an "enormous challenge" after a "sharp rise" in those seeking a test, the Health and Social Care Secretary has said. Matt Hancock said that testing “will be solved in a matter of weeks” and that hospitals and care homes will be prioritised. Separately, an NHS email reveals that private laboratories were unable to process all COVID-19 tests which they received throughout the height of the pandemic.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The majority of local councils said they had no plans to enact a COVID marshal scheme and would not consider it without extra funding, according to analysis by the Telegraph. It comes after the Prime Minister announced last week that marshals would be introduced in towns and city centres to help enforce the new “rule of six” social distancing law and could either be volunteers or members of council staff.
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Justice
People who assault emergency workers will face tougher sentences of up to two years in jail under a new law, the government has announced.
Ministers plan to bring forward legislation to double the maximum sentence for those convicted of assaults on frontline staff including police officers, firefighters and paramedics.
It is the second change in two years after a 2018 law increased the maximum sentence from six months to a year.
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Technology
Police forces in the UK are trialing the use of drones to provide air support to forces on the ground in cases where deploying a helicopter or an aeroplane might be less practical.
The National Police Air Service (NPAS), the police aviation service that assists territorial police forces in England and Wales, is evaluating how drone technology might complement its existing national fleet of helicopters and planes.
First trials for the technology kicked off at West Wales Airport near Aberporth, and included various typical scenarios that the NPAS's fleet might be confronted with. Typically, police forces request NPAS to assist them with tasks such as searching for suspects or missing people, vehicle pursuits, public order, counter-terrorism and firearms incidents.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Almost 86% of doctors in England say they expect a second peak of coronavirus in the next six months, according to a new survey, as concern continues to grow over a recent rise in cases.
On Friday, new results from a population-based study suggested the R number for England is now at 1.7, with infections doubling every 7.7 days. While the prevalence of the disease remains lower than it was in the spring, an R value above 1 means cases could grow exponentially.
Sunday marked the third day in a row that new coronaviruses cases reported for the UK topped 3,000 – the highest figures since May – with 2,837 new cases reported in England alone. While testing has increased over the past months, experts have said this does not fully explain the recent surge.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Restrictions banning social gatherings of more than six people are now in effect, as Covid-19 cases keep rising.
The "rule of six" applies both indoors and outdoors in England and Scotland, and indoors only in Wales. England's restrictions affect everyone, but children under 11 in Wales and under 12 in Scotland are exempt.
Crime Minister Kit Malthouse said people should report neighbours they suspect of hosting a gathering of seven or more people. But some Tory MPs have urged No 10 to exempt young children in England and called for a debate over the rules.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The British public should report their neighbours to the police if they host gatherings of more than six people, a minister has said as new restrictions to contain Covid-19 come into force.
The so-called 'rule of six' now legally limits social gatherings to six people both indoors and outdoors in England and Scotland, but indoors only in Wales.
Kit Malthouse, the policing minister, said "the option is open" to members of the public to phone the police non-emergency number to report concerns about neighbours breaking the rule of six, telling BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "If they are concerned and they do see that kind of thing then absolutely they should ring the number."
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police will be given new, personalised stop and search powers targeted at known knife criminals under plans outlined by the Government today (Monday 14 September).
Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs) are designed to ensure repeat offenders are more likely to be caught and put in prison.
SVROs could apply to individuals previously convicted of carrying a knife or an offensive weapon, including those who have received non-custodial sentences such as community orders or suspended sentences.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A culture of outrage and “baying mobs” prompted by the Black Lives Matter movement is hindering officers who stop and search suspects , a senior Scotland Yard officer has told The Times.
Chief Superintendent Roy Smith called for calm after he attended a 999 call and chose to detain and search the apparent victim, finding a large hunting knife.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Another 2,621 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the UK in the latest daily government figures, taking the total to 371,125. The number of deaths increased by nine, bringing the overall count to 41,637.
Monday's cases figure compares with 3,330 confirmed on Sunday - which marked the first time since May that cases had been above 3,000 on three consecutive days.
Policing minister Kit Malthouse has said concerned neighbours should ring the non-emergency police phone number to report rule-breakers.
[ more...]
Technology
Software that three police forces hoped would make them more efficient could be scrapped before it is rolled out.
Thames Valley, Sussex and Surrey Police said they have paid £3.3m in total to accountancy firm KPMG since 2016 for the new program, Equip.
The Thames Valley's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) said the forces' internal costs were "very considerable" and exceeded the total paid to KPMG.
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Technology
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) is to set out further guidance on how officers should respond to unlawful gatherings after it emerged that the new ‘rule of six’ coronavirus regulations have made it illegal to “mingle” in some social settings.
NPCC chair Martin Hewitt said he accepted that rule changes are “confusing for the public”, adding: “This has been really challenging for policing over six months.
“We had the initial universal lockdown, we’ve had changes since then, the public need to understand those changes.
“We work with all our partners in local authorities, people who are running shops, people who are running other hospitality areas, we are part of the group that are trying to explain to members of the public what the rules are and encouraging people to comply with them.”
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Police Finances
Local-authority-to-local-authority borrowing continues to rise, as short-term borrowing rates dropped to 0% last week, according to local government treasury advisors Arlingclose.
Arlingclose told PF that the ‘LA-to-LA’ market is “flush with cash”, as overall investment levels topped £50bn on the firms trading platform in June – with more offers to lend than bids to borrow.
Latest figures from the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government suggest that borrowing between local authorities was £13.5bn for the quarter to June.
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Police and Crime General
The Home Office has launched an eight week public consultation starting today on introducing serious violence reduction orders (SVROs) to stop and search people with convictions for knife crime without the need for further suspicion.
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COVID-19
A huge backlog has forced Britain to send swabs abroad, casting doubt on its capacity to test as many people as it claimed
The government’s “world-beating” testing programme has a backlog of 185,000 swabs and is so overstretched that it is sending tests to laboratories in Italy and Germany, according to leaked documents.
A Department of Health and Social Care report marked “Official: sensitive” also confirms that most British laboratories are clearing fewer tests than their stated capacity, as they are hit by “chaos” in supply chains. The government claims that it has capacity for 375,000 tests a day. However, the actual number of people being tested for the coronavirus stalled to just 437,000 people a week at the start of the month — equivalent to just 62,000 a day.
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COVID-19
Another 3,497 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the UK, government figures show. The number of new cases is a 36% increase on last Saturday, when 2,594 new infections were confirmed nationwide.
A further nine people have died within 28 days of returning a positive test - all of them in England. This brings the total number of people who have died from COVID-19 in the UK to 41,623, the official figures show.
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COVID-19
A national curfew would be an “obvious next step” if new lockdown rules do not reverse the current increase in coronavirus cases, ministers believe. The measure of closing pubs and restaurants in local lockdown areas at 10pm could be rolled out more widely amid fears people tend not to follow social distancing rules when they consume more alcohol.
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COVID-19
Crowds gathered in London last night ahead of the tightening of restrictions, with pictures showing large groups of people enjoying the city’s nightlife. Meanwhile Greater Manchester Police said they closed down illegal gatherings at properties on Saturday night, as a well as a large gathering of around 70 people. It follows a teenager being given a £10,000 fine after hosting 50 people at his home in Nottinghamshire.
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Justice
Rape and other crimes involving sexual violence are being made more difficult to prosecute by the huge delays in jury trials caused by the pandemic.
Victims’ groups fear that some women who have waited years for justice will drop proceedings after being told that their cases have been postponed either indefinitely or for many months.
Witness testimony, meanwhile, will become less reliable as the time between alleged offence and court date lengthens, according to lawyers.
Some defendants have received a lighter sentence after deciding to plead guilty and avoid going to trial.
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COVID-19
POLICE officers are "exhausted" after handling coronavirus restrictions, protests and illegal raves on top of regular crimes, a forces chief has admitted.
Andy Rhodes, Chief Constable of Lancashire Police, said more than half of constables survive on fewer than six hours of sleep a night and feel fatigued.
So far this year, officers have had to deal with BLM protests, Extinction Rebellion marches, anti-lockdown demonstrations and illicit street parties. All have occurred against the backdrop of lockdown regulations.
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COVID-19
The Telegraph reports that up to 4.5 million people considered at risk of serious illness from COVID-19 will be asked to stay at home or given tailored advice on protecting themselves if cases of the virus return to dangerous levels. A nationwide alert was sent to care providers and councils on Friday night from the Department of Health and Social Care, urging bosses to “take necessary action to prevent and limit outbreaks”, following cases spreading through care homes again.
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COVID-19
The Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers in England and Wales, said there had been “confusion for the public and many people don’t know exactly what the law says”.
Chair John Apter called for the government to start an “effective” information campaign, adding: “For policing, these constant changes to legislation are becoming the norm. The pressures on policing have increased significantly over recent months, and this latest change will add to this pressure.”
Brian Booth, chair of the West Yorkshire Police Federation, said it was not helpful to have “grand announcements” that were not followed by detailed guidelines.
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COVID-19
Plans to use “Covid-secure” marshals to enforce the government’s new social gathering restrictions when they come into force on Monday have been criticised by the Police Federation and some local councils.
The government has said the marshals, who have already been deployed by Leeds City Council and Cornwall Council will “boost the local enforcement capacity” but a Newcastle Councillor has said the marshals will have no powers and there will be no time to train them or do DBS checks.
Ken Marsh, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said rank-and-file officers have been left “absolutely baffled” by the announcement.
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Prisons
The scale of failure in the prison system in England and Wales is “staggering”, with only 206 out of 10,000 promised new prison spaces delivered by the government, parliament’s spending watchdog has said.
Ministers and officials have failed to deliver on a pledge to improve the condition of the prison estate by 2020, the public accounts committee says in its report, published on Friday.
In 2016 the Prison Service launched the “prison estate transformation programme”, which was expected to create 10,000 new-for-old prison places by 2020 by building five new prisons and two new residential blocks. But by January 2020 it had created 206 prison places, the report says.
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Economy & Public Finance
UK chancellor Rishi Sunak raised the likelihood of delaying an autumn Budget on Friday by requesting the production of official economic forecasts without committing to announcing any tax or spending plans.
The Treasury said Mr Sunak’s instruction to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the fiscal watchdog, to prepare forecasts for mid-to-late November was deliberately vague in the current uncertain economic circumstances to give ministers the option to delay the annual Budget.
The move signals that the chancellor is not keen to commit now to spending plans and tax proposals for the rest of the parliament when coronavirus cases are on the rise and the medium-term economic outlook is almost impossible to determine.
In an unusual written statement to the House of Commons, Mr Sunak asked the OBR “to prepare an economic and fiscal forecast to be published in mid-to-late November” without setting a Budget date.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy continued its recovery in July as GDP rose by 6.6% month-on-month, the third consecutive month of growth following April’s record GDP fall of 20%, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Despite the period of growth, the ONS said GDP is still 11.7% below the pre- Covid-19 levels seen in February.
July’s rise in GDP was in part down to the reopening of pubs, restaurants and accommodation as output grew by 140.8% during the month, as lockdown measures were eased, the ONS said.
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Economy & Public Finance
Imposing tax increases too early could “stifle” the UK’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, a report from the Treasury Select Committee has warned.
The conclusion featured in the committee’s second report into the economic impact of the pandemic on government finances, released today, which said that fiscal consolidation would only be required after the UK’s economy has recovered.
In evidence given to the committee, financial experts and former chancellor’s Philip Hammond and Alistair Darling warned against early tax rises. Hammond told the committee: “There would not be anybody seriously advocating increases in taxes at the moment”.
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COVID-19
Alison Hernandez, Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, has said that the COVID-19 marshal scheme that inspired Boris Johnson’s UK-wide announcement did more than “monitor the queues in Greggs”. Cllr Nesil Caliskan, Chair of the LGA’s Safer and Stronger Communities Board, told the Telegraph: “The responsibility for enforcing COVID-19 measures sits with the police. The idea that members of the community should intervene in tricky situations when community tensions are already high is absolute madness.” Meanwhile in a Telegraph opinion piece, columnist Kate Andrews references the LGA’s call for marshals’ salaries to be costed.
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Police and Crime General
Gloucestershire Constabulary is restructuring the way it operates in the county through a re-assignment of officers to new areas to provide a more "localised service".
The changes began during summer when response officers covering Gloucester and Cheltenham who were based at a single site in Bamfurlong were split up and moved to more central sites in Gloucester and Cheltenham.
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COVID-19
Boris Johnson said that it “breaks my heart” to introduce new restrictions on people meeting their grandchildren as he announced strict new measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The prime minister held his first Downing Street press conference since July yesterday to tighten the restrictions and set out plans for tougher enforcement of them.
Ministers fear that Britain is four weeks behind France and Spain, which have experienced an exponential rise in infections, and say that by acting now they might curb the spread.
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Technology
Funded by the Office of the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, the eight Skoda Octavia VRS Estate TDis create a multi-capable vehicle equipped with drones, stingers and ANRP technology.
They will have a dual role of policing the roads and enhancing response capability to all incidents.
Chief Superintendent Mick Stamper said: “We've got the ANPR that detects the vehicle. We've got the horsepower to pursue the vehicle and hopefully bring it to a stop. And should that not be the case or if it goes off road then we’ve got the technology to be able to follow them using the drones.”
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COVID-19
Councils will not receive additional funding for the “Covid secure marshals” announced by the prime minster yesterday, government has confirmed to LGC. At the first Covid-19 televised press conference since July, which took place yesterday afternoon, Boris Johnson said government would “boost the enforcement capacity…
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Police and Crime General
Chief Constable Richard Lewis has urged the local community to “unite behind” his officers following the resignation of Police and Crime Commissioner Barry Coppinger.
Mr Coppinger, who has been the force’s PCC since 2012, quit the role yesterday after the Chief Constable reported him to the Independent Office for Police Conduct over the deletion of messages from a three-person WhatsApp group which included Mr Lewis and the OPCC chief executive officer Simon Dennis.
Decisions have yet to be made by the executive team in the PCC’s office over who will take over his role as an interim until – and if – the postponed local elections take place in May next year.
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Police Finances
The leader of the Police Superintendents’ Association will call on the Home Secretary today to give reassurances of financial protection for the police in the forthcoming government spending review.
Chief Superintendent Paul Griffiths, PSA President will warn that the devastation of the austerity era has had a deep impact. It follows warnings from both the Chancellor and Prime Minister last week to backbench MPs that there would be “some turbulence ahead”.
In a speech to the association's annual conference he will say: “We cannot bear the brunt of the economic downturn. Our people must not suffer as a result of a pandemic they have been called to fight on the frontline.”
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Police and Crime General
Figures gathered by the PA news agency from 31 forces show that at least 7,863 instances of assault were recorded over the first three months of lockdown, compared with 6,505 for the same period in 2019.
This comes as a recent study involving 40,000 police officers and staff showed that 88% of officers said they had been assaulted during their career, with 39% having been attacked in the past year.
Leicestershire Police recorded the most substantial increase of 102%, with 205 cases noted in the first three months of lockdown, up from 101 the previous year.
The next largest increase of 57% was recorded by Derbyshire Constabulary, followed by South Yorkshire Police and Cleveland Police each noting a rise of 55%.
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Police and Crime General
The National Crime Agency is facing criticism for failing to investigate reports alleging that banks forged signatures and fabricated evidence in court actions to repossess homes.
MPs urged the NCA a year ago to investigate the matter following a BBC News investigation. The NCA has received at least 19 boxes of evidence relating to 362 incidents but anti-corruption campaigners and MPs say victims haven't been contacted and no investigation has been started.
Handwriting experts confirmed that in many cases sent to the NCA, signatures used over the same name could not have been signed by the same person; and that the same signature had been signed over different names.
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Police Finances
The families of police officers killed in the line of duty such as PC Andrew Harper are to receive legally guaranteed support after their deaths.
Addressing top officers tomorrow, Priti Patel will speak of her revulsion at police killers who “laugh in the face of the law”.
The Home Secretary will unveil the new Police Covenant to protect police, staff and families of those slain in action. It will focus on physical protection, health and wellbeing, and family support. The new law to enshrine the protections for the police is similar to those that already exist for the military.
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Police and Crime General
Potentially fatal flaws in tests to measure the resistance of body armour have been ignored for decades, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The news follows the MoS’s report last week into the shocking results of experiments on lightweight chest plates being used by Special Forces troops, Royal protection teams and anti-terrorism units.
Research showed that plates that meet Government standards could still lead to fatal injuries if police officers and elite military personnel are shot at close range.
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Police and Crime General
The MPS currently has around 44,000 employees of whom 23,000 have received unconscious bias training and attend regular refresher courses as part of ongoing professional development. In a motion, agreed by 14 votes to seven, the London Assembly called for the training to be provided to all MPS staff.
Assembly member Siân Berry, who proposed the original motion, said: “The police as a service is failing if the public don’t trust their officers and don’t trust they will be treated fairly.
Unmesh Desai, who proposed an amendment to the original motion, added: “The events of the last few months have thrown the urgent need to tackle racism in both its overt and systemic forms into sharp relief.
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Police and Crime General
Proceedings brought forward by four widows and a widower of former serving police officers, issued out of the High Court in Manchester, were served on Home Secretary Priti Patel on Friday, August 21.
Following changes to the Police Pension Regulations, there are now three different approaches to survivors’ pensions across the UK. This means that many would lose their widow’s pension if they remarried or cohabited with a new spouse or partner, forcing thousands to opt for isolation to ensure financial security.
The claimants in question still have their pensions but are challenging Regulation C9 of The 1987 Police Pension Regulations on the basis that it is in breach of the Human Rights Act, specifically, their right to marry, their right to a family life and the right to not be discriminated against.
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Police and Crime General
A full-scale review of officer and staff safety has been completed, informed by the views of over 40,000 officers and staff in a national safety survey conducted by the College of Policing. The review was commissioned in response to concerns about rising assaults and increased violence against officers.
In September 2019, NPCC Chair Martin Hewitt commissioned a team of police officers and staff to work with the College of Policing to gather professional expertise, review available evidence and make recommendations to improve officer and staff safety. All 28 recommendations were unanimously agreed by Chief Constables’ Council in January 2020.
Publication of this report was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has also highlighted issues of safety for frontline officers and staff. Work has been underway since then to begin implementing the recommendations of this review and improve safety of officers and staff.
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Recruitment and Retention
The force has recruited 1,369 officers this financial year, bringing the workforce to around 32,800 officers. It has now paused its recruitment until early 2021.
The number of officers retiring or resigning also slowed during the pandemic with the result that there were fewer vacancies to fill, it said.
The force also confirmed that 45 officers have returned to the force following the management appeal for ex-officers to rejoin to help police the pandemic in the capital.
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COVID-19
Almost 400 fines have been issued to people refusing to wear face masks on public transport in England, with the vast majority being given out in London, new figures show.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said enforcement statistics indicated that around 90 per cent of people are complying with coronavirus laws.
By 20 August, almost 115,500 people had been “stopped and reminded” of the requirement to wear a face covering, around 5,300 people were prevented from boarding public transport and 4,200 had been told to leave a service.
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Recruitment and Retention
Moving to a four-day working week for the public sector would boost productivity, create jobs and benefit the regions hit hardest by austerity, a report has argued.
Between 300,000 and 500,000 new full-time equivalent jobs would be created and, even with existing staff receiving no loss in pay, the move would cost between £5.4bn and £9.5bn, according to the think-tank Autonomy, which published the paper.
However, it would help combat staff burnout, work-related poor mental health and bad work-life balance that currently “plague” the public sector, the report said, adding that a 2017 BMJ survey found that 15% of public sector workers reported poor mental health, compared with 9% of those in the private sector.
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Police Finances
Police pension rules that deprive officers’ widows and widowers of their incomes if they remarry or cohabit with a new partner are being challenged in the high court.
The Home Office is being forced to defend regulations in England and Wales that are less generous than similar schemes operating in Northern Ireland and Scotland, and for members of the armed services.
Lawyers acting on behalf of four widows and a widower on Friday lodged their claim against the government in the high court in Manchester, alleging that regulation C9 of the 1987 police pension scheme breaches their human rights.
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Police and Crime General
The drive by ministers to get people back to work appeared to be stalling yesterday as figures revealed that most managers and professionals are choosing to work from home.
Steve Barclay, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said that he was “keen to get people back in the office”, adding: “We think that’s best for the economy, to get back to normal as part of our recovery.”
A survey by the AA found, however, that 40 per cent of people who normally drove to work were working from home all or part of the time. This rose to 54 per among senior or middle managers and professionals.
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Prisons
Homelessness among prison leavers could increase sharply as additional support introduced by the UK government at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic is brought to an end, charities have warned.
From Monday, additional funding to support the provision of accommodation for all individuals released from prison in England and Wales at risk of homelessness will come to an end.
Figures released by the Ministry of Justice previously showed that 840 men, 89 women and 85 young adults aged 18 to 24 in England and Wales were released into rough sleeping or other forms of homelessness between 23 March, when the lockdown was imposed, and 30 April.
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COVID-19
Passengers in England and Wales caught not complying risk being fined £100 and booted off public transport.
A total of 32 fixed penalty notices were issued by the British Transport Police, four by West Midlands Police and one each by Lancashire and Cumbria constabularies.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps had said that nine in ten passengers were wearing face coverings, although BTP has said that has since risen to about 97 per cent.
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Economy & Public Finance
Abolishing 213 smaller councils in England and replacing them with 25 new local authorities could save almost £3bn over five years, a report says. The report for the County Councils Network says one body in each area would reduce complexity and give communities a single unified voice. However, others argue bigger councils are unwieldy and undemocratic. The government is expected to publish its own proposals on overhauling local government in the autumn.
Plans could include scrapping district and county councils in England in favour of fewer, larger authorities which control all services in their area.
County councils, including Surrey, North Yorkshire and Leicestershire, have developed or are already developing plans to replace county and district councils in their area with a single body.
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Police Demand
Assaults on emergency service workers have risen by nearly a third compared with last year, according to new police data.
And general crime has risen since the easing of the coronavirus lockdown, though it is still not at the same level as it was a year ago.
The attacks on emergency staff were largely non-injury and officials believe the 31% rise can be attributed to an increase in common assault of police constables, including spitting by offenders claiming to be infected by COVID-19.
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Police and Crime General
The National Crime Agency has seized 59 properties worth a total of £17 million from an organised crime group with links to the drug trade.
The law enforcement agency spent more than eight years dismantling the network of properties, the majority of which are in Birmingham and were used for money laundering and to hide criminal funds.
Most of the properties were residential homes, although the agency also seized a gym and three properties in the seaside resort of Bangor, Co Down. They were connected to Alam and Ameran Zeb Khan, brothers who have been imprisoned for their involvement in the heroin trade and money laundering.
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Police and Crime General
Crime in England and Wales fell by almost a third in the first two full months of lockdown, according to the Office for National Statistics. This was driven by falls in reported thefts and burglary, the ONS said.
But the ONS said drug crime rose by up to 44% compared with the same period last year, due to targeted policing. A survey also suggests the vast majority of adults (91%) are satisfied with the way police have dealt with the coronavirus restrictions.
The figures, which are based on telephone research, support earlier data from police forces of a significant decline in offending during April and May.
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Police and Crime General
Day One was developed to replace Police search which had been in place for 18 years. Its planned rollout nationally for 2020 has been delayed due to the pandemic.
It aimed to give new recruit candidates the experience of the challenges a new constable could face on their first day working in policing.
White candidates passed at almost twice the rate as black candidates (81.1 per cent compared to 44.3 per cent).
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Police and Crime General
Stop and searches in London rose by 40% during lockdown and a lower proportion of them led to arrests, figures show. The tactic was used 104,914 times between April and June, equating to more than 1,100 times a day.
Scotland Yard said the drop in crime at the height of the pandemic meant more officers had been able to go on the frontline and target drug dealers and violent gangs.
But only one in five stops led to an arrest, fine or caution. The statistics have prompted renewed concerns that police are using the power indiscriminately.
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Police Finances
The Home Office has taken another step towards settling the police pensions dsipute that is set to land the government with a multi-billion pound compensation bill.
In an update to members, the Police Federation revealed that officials at the Home Office have set out guidance in relation to Immediate Detriment Pensions Cases.
The department is focusing on officers who are due to retire this year, including due to ill-health and are impacted by the McCloud Sargeant judgement. The end-date of their service has made them a priority.
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Economy & Public Finance
Government plans to compensate councils for income lost due to COVID-19 are only likely to cover half the cost of the losses, it is claimed.
Guidance issued by the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has set out the rules for claiming back lost cash. Under the rules, councils will have to shoulder the first 5% of losses on income such as car parking charges and leisure facilities.
They will then receive 75p in every pound lost.However, the details of the scheme reveal that there will be no compensation paid for lost income on investments – despite central Government pushing councils towards a more commercial approach to their finances in the past few years.
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Justice
Under the Ministry of Justice's plans , victims could pre-record their evidence, including cross-examination, the video would then be played during a trial.
Justice minister Alex Chalk told The Telegraph: 'Vulnerable victims show great courage by coming forward. It's vital they can do so in the least traumatic way possible. This technology ensures they are protected and are able to give their best possible evidence, without reducing a defendant's right to a fair trial.'
Pilots in Liverpool, Leeds and Kingston have seen video evidence recorded as soon as a suspect has been charged.
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Police and Crime General
Taser 7 is more accurate, faster and compact than previous models – therefore better in its purpose of protecting the public and police.
It will also reduce costs for forces by replacing disposable batteries with rechargeable ones. Upon procurement by forces, officers could start training with the new model within weeks.
In September 2019 the government announced a £10 million ring-fenced fund to significantly increase the number of officers carrying Taser. All 43 police forces across England and Wales will be able to purchase the new model.
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Police and Crime General
Tougher measures targeting the most serious breaches of social distancing restrictions will come into effect on Friday 28 August ahead of the bank holiday weekend.
Those facilitating or organising illegal raves, unlicensed music events, or any other unlawful gathering of 30 people or more may face a £10,000 fine – placing a new deterrent on the breaches that put the public most at risk.
Fines of £100 can continue to be issued to those who participate in illegal gatherings and those who have already received a fine will see the amount of doubled on each offence, up to a maximum of £3,200.
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Police Finances
The Home Office has today published an independent evaluation of the work of Violence Reduction Units (VRUs). It found that in their first year they invested in 175 programmes designed to help young people at risk of being drawn into violent crime.
They include prevention work in schools, communities, prisons, hospitals, Pupil Referral Units and police custody suites.
The evalution comes as the government has today announced that VRUs will be distributing a further £2.9 million to hundreds of frontline charities working on violence prevention projects.
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Economy & Public Finance
Local government has accepted a 2.75% pay increase, it has been confirmed, despite objections from Unite.
Under the agreement, staff with less than five years’ service will also see their holiday rise from 21 days a year to 22. The pay deal has also been accepted on behalf of local government chief executives and chief officers.
Unison staff in the local government sector voted two to one (66%) in favour of the 2020/21 pay award, which will apply to England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It comes after 76% of GMB members accepted the offer – while 70% of unite members rejected it.
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Police and Crime General
Two-thirds of black and minority ethnic people feel there is bias against them within police forces, a survey has found. Four out of five respondents of black and Bangladeshi heritage felt there was bias, and about half of those of Chinese and Indian backgrounds.
According to the report, some 64% of people of ethnic minority in Britain agreed that the police as a whole were good, and that any issues were down to a few individuals within forces. Black communities were slightly lower (58%) but still a majority.
A National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) spokesman said it was "crucial" to retain the trust of all communities "so that we can work with them to fight crime and keep people safe".
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Police and Crime General
Amounting crisis in the courts will put violent criminals on the streets and prolong trauma for victims of crime, senior judges and lawyers have warned, as delays reach unprecedented levels.
Research by The Times shows that the backlog of crown court trials is increasing by thousands each week, causing hearings to be delayed for years.
The number of pending trials in the crown court, where the most serious offences are heard in England and Wales, has reached about 30,000, according to court service officials.
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Fire
It has today been announced that a new Chair for the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) has been appointed, with effect from 1 April 2021.
Mark Hardingham, currently Chief Fire Officer for Suffolk Fire & Rescue Service – and Chair of NFCC’s Protection and Business Safety Committee – will take up the role in April 2021 for an initial two-year period.
Mark will succeed NFCC Chair Roy Wilsher, who has been in the role since NFCC was formed in April 2017. Chair of the Board of Trustees, Teresa Budworth, paid tribute to Roy as the Council’s inaugural Chair, while welcoming Mark to the role.
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Police and Crime General
Officers in Derbyshire are helping trial a new virtual reality platform to help train in the use of Taser devices.
In a UK first, the state-of-the-art kit sees officers placed in a number of different scenarios through the use a virtual reality headset.
AVRT, the company behind the program, have been working closely with the Taser training team based at the force’s headquarters in Ripley to develop the product – and now the team are helping trial it with a view to it becoming a national training product.
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Economy & Public Finance
UK consumer price inflation jumped to 1% in July from 0.6% in June as lockdown measures eased further.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the figure was boosted by rising petrol and clothing prices.
"In addition, prices for private dental treatment, physiotherapy and haircuts have increased with the need for PPE contributing to costs," the ONS said.
The rise, which surprised economists, will mean a bigger increase in some rail fares from January.
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Police Finances
The three police staff trade unions are calling for the lowest pay point for police staff to be scrapped “once and for all” because it consistently falls below the real living wage despite annual increases.
UNISON, Unite and GMB are seeking an improvement to the employer’s offer of a 2.5% increase on all pay points with effect from 1 September 2020 and without prejudice talks on police staff apprenticeship pay.
The unions original pay claim included a 6.5%, or £1,200, increase in police staff pay and 6.5% increase in standby allowance and away from home overnight allowance.
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Technology
Cheshire Police is using a new tool to aid the force’s fight against caravan and motorhome thieves.
The VIN CHIP anti-theft identification system enables officers to scan a touring caravan or motorhome from up to 15 metres away to see if it has been reported as stolen and find out who the registered owner is.
They can be scanned at speeds of up to 60mph.
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Police and Crime General
The ban was introduced in March as part of emergency legislation to protect those hit financially by the pandemic.
Amid fears that evictions may lead to more homeless, 21 MPs have urged the government to guarantee council funds to house rough sleepers for a year. The government said it would "continue to provide appropriate support" to those affected.
New evictions in England and Wales had initially been suspended until 25 June, but the pause was extended to 23 August. The Labour-led Welsh government has doubled the notice period required for evictions issued on or after 24 July to six months, excluding cases relating to anti-social behaviour.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Some cyclists really are getting away with it. In the first six months of the year, a 43.8% drop was recorded in the number of enforcement actions in London for such offences as ignoring a red light, riding on the pavement or riding at night without lights.
For more than half of this period, the roads were quiet as people stayed indoors during the lockdown. Yet motorists were at the receiving end of an 18.5% rise in fixed penalties.
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Technology
Gangsters are using a secure mobile phone messaging system that cannot be hacked by police, it has been claimed.
Criminals operating in the UK have started using the SKYECC phone communication service having previously used the EncroChat system. Police had cracked the EncroChat service, leading to the arrest of thousands across Europe.
EncroChat was allegedly used by 60,000 criminals across the globe, 10,000 of whom were based in the UK. It provided an encrypted messaging system and users could remotely wipe their phone of all data and content.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The coronavirus crisis has dramatically compounded domestic violence against women, new research has revealed.
Two-thirds of women in abusive relationships have suffered more violence from their partners during the pandemic, according to an investigation by the BBC’s Panorama. Three-quarters of victims also say the lockdown has made it harder for them to escape their abusers.
The joint investigation by Panorama and Women’s Aid is the first in-depth study into how the nationwide shutdown in response to Covid-19 has impacted victims of domestic abuse.
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Police and Crime General
Vigilantes “will take matters into their own hands” if trust in the criminal justice system crashes after the coronavirus pandemic, lawyers have warned.
With the backlog of court cases nearing 570,000 in England and Wales, some trials are not being scheduled until 2022 and victims face a wait of several years between reporting a crime and seeing a result.
A small number of trials have restarted but court capacity has been dramatically reduced by social distancing requirements, as crime rises with the easing of restrictions.
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Police and Crime General
Police have been called to wedding receptions in both Greater Manchester and Blackburn, despite local lockdowns there struggling to contain outbreaks of coronavirus.
Lancashire Police said they found about 120 people at a wedding venue in Blackburn celebrating on Sunday.
In a statement on Facebook, the force’s Blackburn branch said they were “disappointed” by the wedding reception.
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Police and Crime General
A new report by the Revolving Doors Agency highlights the bias in the criminal justice system which leads to disproportionate numbers of young Black adults receiving cautions and convictions for low-level, non-violent crimes.
Young Black adults are significantly more likely to be dragged into the criminal justice system for relatively low-level, non-violent crimes such as theft or minor drug offences, according to a new briefing report from the Revolving Doors Agency.
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Police and Crime General
Children from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds are almost three times more likely to have a Taser electronic weapon used on them by police than their white counterparts.
The proportion of BAME 11- to 17-year-olds having electronic stun guns used on them in comparison white children has been rising as growing numbers of officers are equipped with the weapons, responses to Freedom of Information requests show.
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Technology
A severely delayed and already over-budget system to help the emergency services to communicate could be further compromised by Huawei technology, politicians said yesterday.
BT has said that it will keep using Huawei’s 4G technology in the £9 billion telecoms network for the emergency services, despite the ban on 5G equipment from the Chinese company. The programme already has a predicted overspend of £3.1 billion and a delay until completion of five years.
The London Assembly’s fire, resilience and emergency planning committee, which scrutinises the work of the capital’s fire brigade, said yesterday that there was a danger the system would be “based on technology with a short lifespan and security concerns”.
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Police and Crime General
Fines of up to £3,200 for failure to wear a facemask will be introduced as part of new curbs on risky behaviour.
On-the-spot penalties of up to £10,000 will also be levied on the organisers of illegal parties as ministers grow concerned about gangs arranging gatherings that can turn violent.
The announcement came as Boris Johnson announced the relaxation of further restrictions from tomorrow. Theatres will reopen and wedding receptions and spectator sport resume. The prime minister said, however, that people must not become complacent.
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Police and Crime General
Police forces have been criticised for using the “eat out to help out” scheme in station canteens, enabling officers to buy a hot meal for as little as £1.50.
Restaurateurs said yesterday it was not in the spirit of the initiative, because it was intended to entice diners back to struggling cafés, pubs and small venues.
The Metropolitan Police, as well as forces in Hampshire, Surrey, Cumbria and Devon and Cornwall, all signed up to the scheme, which funds half-price food and drinks from Monday to Wednesday throughout August.
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Fire
Almost a third of the buildings still wrapped in Grenfell-style flammable cladding have yet to undergo work to remove it, figures have shown.
A nationwide safety operation was launched in the wake of the 2017 disaster after the aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding blamed for fuelling the inferno was found on hundreds of buildings.
It has so far been identified on 458 high-rise residential and publicly owned buildings, an increase of three since the end of June, the latest Government data revealed.
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Technology
British police’s growing reliance on facial recognition was under question last night after a court ruled that a force using it had broken the law and violated human rights.
Privacy campaigners called for the suspension of the technology after the Court of Appeal said that South Wales police had breached data protection laws and interfered with privacy rights.
While police forces vowed to continue using the technology, the parameters under which it is deployed will be reviewed.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy suffered its biggest slump on record between April and June as coronavirus lockdown measures pushed the country officially into recession.
The economy shrank 20.4% compared with the first three months of the year.
Household spending plunged as shops were ordered to close, while factory and construction output also fell.
This pushed the UK into its first technical recession - defined as two consecutive quarters of economic decline - since 2009.
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Police Demand
The south west of England is "full to capacity" leading to "unprecedented demand" for 999 services in Devon and Cornwall, police have warned.
The force received 2,301 emergency calls at the weekend, a 26.5% increase on the same period in 2019.
Anti-social behaviour accounted for many of the calls, with a 67% increase year on year.
Devon and Cornwall Police has asked people to "respect our region".
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Police and Crime General
Police officers have been given beefed-up powers to stop and question suspected spies from hostile states as part of the response to the Salisbury novichok attack.
Officers will be able to stop, question, search and detain individuals as they travel through UK ports to determine whether they are involved in malicious activities on behalf of states such as Russia.
The Home Office said that the measures were designed to help identify and combat hostile state activity in the wake of the nerve agent poisoning of Sergei Skripal, the former Russian double agent, and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in 2018. The government has blamed the attack on the Russian state.
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Technology
It’s rare to come across a change in practice that has been put into general police use at pace during a crisis, but we’ve managed it in Merseyside.
In 2019, we launched a pilot allowing staff to record suspect interviews for all offences on body-worn video (BWV) camera at flexible locations, where it was appropriate and safe to do so. We created a step-by-step workbook to ensure that this was quick and easy to do while maintaining the appropriate risk and legal considerations. This followed a change in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) that enables chief constables to authorise BWV as approved devices for interviews, if set criteria about the environment are adhered to.
As the pilot drew to an end, an independent review team spoke to staff involved and the feedback was some of the most positive we’ve ever received. Even staff who usually struggled with voluntary attendance (VA) or technology – or at 4am on their last night shift – were able to breeze through the process. Word began to spread about this new, simple, efficient way to deal with suspects. Teams that we had not anticipated wanting to be involved, started to request authority to use the process as well.
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Justice
West Mercia Police Federation said officers were being “let down by a system that does not treat these cases seriously enough”.
Assaults against police officers in West Mercia are at a five-year high. In 2018/19, 538 frontline officers were assaulted across West Mercia, with the figure for 2019/20 rising to 659. In the first three months of this year, one in 15 police officers were assaulted West Mercia police and crime commissioner (PCC) John Campion said the figures “make very worrying reading”.
In Shropshire, assaults on West Mercia Police officers have jumped by 45 per cent during the lockdown period despite an overall reduction in total recorded crime.
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Police and Crime General
The world of 2040 will be very different to the world of today. Over the next 20 years, trends such as technological change, global warming and rising inequality will come together to increase the number and complexity of issues facing policing.
To meet the challenges and demands of the future, we need to prepare for them today. We’ll need to get better at anticipating emerging issues, think more innovatively about the best policies and interventions for addressing them and act quickly to maximise our chances of success.
Our Policing in England and Wales: Future Operating Environment 2040 report provides an insight into policing’s operating environment as far as 2040, exploring those aspects of the future that we should consider now to prepare the service for the challenges that lie ahead.
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Police and Crime General
A watchdog has raised concern that police are not treating potential medical emergencies as “genuine” while arresting suspects.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is developing new national recommendations after an incident in London where a man was restrained over a parking violation.
It comes amid renewed debate over the use of force by British police, following Black Lives Matter protests triggered by the death of George Floyd in the US.
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Police Demand
Thousands of passengers have been stopped for not wearing facemasks on public transport but only a small number of them fined.
British Transport Police spoke to 28,964 people without a face covering between July 13 and 25.
Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed that 1,605 were told to leave the network and 33 penalty notices were issued.
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Police Demand
A total of 449 sex offences were committed in the past year against babies before they reached their first birthday, figures obtained by the NSPCC have revealed.
UK police forces recorded 73,518 crimes, including rape, online grooming and sexual assault against children in 2019/20, similar to the 73,379 the previous year, but up by 57% from 46,738 in 2014/15.
More than 8,000 offences were committed against 14-year-olds, while 12,374 sex crimes were recorded against children under 10, and 449 against infants yet to turn one.
The data suggested girls were four times more likely to be victims than boys.
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Technology
A “stocktake” of the digital world is long overdue, the father of Molly Russell has urged, as he pledges his support for a new consultation into online harms.
The campaigner claims that graphic self-harm images on Instagram played a role in his daughter’s suicide and wants the internet to be a “safer place” for young and vulnerable people.
Ian Russell said: “Today’s current big tech platforms were born at about the same time as my youngest daughter, Molly. The powerful tech corporations live on, sadly Molly ended her own life in 2017, and I am convinced what she found online helped kill her.”
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Police and Crime General
The COVID-19 lockdown switched thousands of officers from stations to working from home in a matter of days in March. According to police leaders, the sudden change to remote working ended battles over systems security, data protection and budgets in the battle to stay operational.
Evaluations have shown the change has been a huge success – so much that a full return to bases in September or beyond is not on the cards.
With more money-saving demands likely after the autumn’s Comprehensive Spending Review, forces are already indicating they will be encouraging more remote working.
Other successes have included better information sharing and communicating with other agencies involved in specialist work such as child protection. Video conferencing has improved co-ordinating times when people are available and cut the amount of time spent travelling to meetings.
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Justice
The MP representing the family of PC Andrew Harper will suggest looking into changing the sentencing guidelines for police killers after meeting the officer's mother.
Conservative MP John Howell met with Debbie Adlam on Monday to discuss the family's campaign for 'Andrew's Law'.
This calls for those who kill police officers to face a minimum of 20 years in prison.
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Police and Crime General
The ethnicity of drivers stopped by police – and the reason for the stop – should be routinely recorded, campaigners and lawyers have said, after a Labour MP was pulled over by officers.
Dawn Butler, the former shadow equalities minister, accused the police of being institutionally racist after the car she was being driven in by her black friend was pulled over in Hackney, east London.
Traffic stops have come under increased scrutiny since another high-profile incident last month in which the British athlete Bianca Williams was stopped and handcuffed by police alongside her partner while her baby son was in the car.
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Police and Crime General
Magic mushrooms could be the answer to a coronavirus-induced mental health crisis, according to a police chief.
Arfon Jones, 65, the police commissioner for north Wales, believes a compound in the mushrooms, psilocybin, could treat depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and has asked the 10 MPs in his region to support a call for the drug to be reclassified.
“There is evidence to show psilocybin can be efficacious in treating depression,” he said, noting that lockdown isolation had made the need for treatment more pressing.
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Police and Crime General
Magic mushrooms could be the answer to a coronavirus-induced mental health crisis, according to a police chief.
Arfon Jones, 65, the police commissioner for north Wales, believes a compound in the mushrooms, psilocybin, could treat depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, and has asked the 10 MPs in his region to support a call for the drug to be reclassified.
“There is evidence to show psilocybin can be efficacious in treating depression,” he said, noting that lockdown isolation had made the need for treatment more pressing.
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Police and Crime General
Priti Patel has vowed to get tough on elected police and crime commissioners who went “missing in action” during the pandemic crisis.
The Home Secretary is furious that while cops faced up to “incredibly complex challenges”, some of their political masters were nowhere to be seen.
She has ordered a review of the role of all 41 commissioners - the first since they were introduced in 2012.
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Justice
Downing Street is planning a controversial intervention to reverse the record decline in rape prosecutions by imposing targets on police and prosecutors, the Guardian has learned.
In a highly unusual move, the prime minister’s crime and justice taskforce is planning to set targets for police to refer more high-quality rape cases to the Crown Prosecution Service and for the CPS to prosecute and bring more rape cases to trial.
It paves the way for a row with the CPS, which is likely to oppose the change for impinging on its independence. The service has in the past set its own targets for different crimes, but this is understood to be the first time it would be subject to a government-imposed target for rape prosecutions.
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Fire
Body-worn cameras should be made available to every firefighter across the country, fire chiefs have urged following a surge in attacks on frontline officers.
Attacks on firefighters in England rose by two-thirds from 578 to 961 between 2014/5 and 2018/9, with almost 10 percent of the incidents involving harassment or physical abuse, the latest Home Office data shows.
To reverse the trend, which has worsened in many areas since lockdown, fire commanders are calling for a national rollout of body-worn cameras to aid in court prosecutions of assaults.
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Economy & Public Finance
The economy will officially enter recession this week after tumbling by a record 20% in the second quarter.
The contraction follows the 2.2% fall in GDP in the first three months and will mean the UK meets the definition of recession by recording two successive quarters of decline. However, economists will look at data for the last month of the quarter, June, to gauge the speed of the upturn as the lockdown restrictions eased.
May’s GDP disappointed economists as it rose by only 1.8%. The consensus is for an 8% rise in June.
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Police and Crime General
At least 151 migrants on 15 boats have arrived on the Kent coast after crossing the English Channel, the Home Office said.
One boat reportedly carrying 12 migrants, was picked up by Border Force patrols at about 10:00 BST and brought to shore at Dover.
A second boat carrying 14 migrants landed at Kingsdown shortly after.
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Economy & Public Finance
More than one thousand officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) are being forced to pay hundreds of pounds extra out of their wages each month due to the Mayor of London’s refusal to exempt them from the congestion charge.
In the most extreme cases some cases, some officers are facing costs of more than £300 a month since June when the charge to drive a vehicle into central London was raised to £15 a day and applied seven days per week.
The majority of respondents (93 per cent) to a survey carried out by the Metropolitan Police Federation (MPF) said driving to work remains the best option to minimise the risk of contracting Covid-19 virus and from stopping the potential spread to other people on public transport.
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Justice
Senior police officers have stood by the policy automatically to believe alleged victims of abuse in new national advice, despite inquiries in which fantasists were trusted and reputations traduced.
Detectives investigating historical allegations of child abuse will be told that “the intention is that victims are believed”. The College of Policing guidance, to be published today, emphasises that “those reporting crimes will be treated with empathy and their allegations will be taken seriously”.
Automatic belief has been highly controversial since detectives in Scotland Yard’s Operation Midland were taken in by a fantasist known as Nick and his false claims of a Westminster abuse ring.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK economic slump caused by Covid-19 will be less severe than expected, but the recovery will also take longer, the Bank of England has said.
It expects the economy to shrink by 9.5% this year.
While this would be the biggest annual decline in 100 years, it is not as steep as the Bank's initial estimate of a 14% contraction.
However, the Bank said unemployment was likely to rise "materially" as it held interest rates at 0.1%.
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Police Demand
Rural crime in England hit an eight-year peak last year, costing businesses around £46m, according to a new report.
This 9% rise was partially driven by "organised gangs" targeting expensive vehicles like tractors and quad bikes, according to insurer NFU Mutual
They also revealed a spike in livestock theft during lockdown, including a 15% increase in sheep rustling.
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Police and Crime General
Police in North Yorkshire were six times more likely to issue lockdown fines to people who are from ethnic minority backgrounds but the force says a detailed review found no evidence of discrimination.
Overall, North Yorkshire Police handed out fines at five times the rate of police across England and Wales - 12.4 per 10,000 people compared to 2.7 per 10,000 nationally.
Between March 27 and May 25, the police force issued 1,029 fines for breaking lockdown rules. Of those, 871 were issued to white people and 148 to people from ethnic minorities.
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Police and Crime General
The Home Secretary, The Rt Hon Priti Patel visited Dstl’s Head Quarters to see and hear first-hand how Dstl scientists are researching, developing and delivering innovations to protect not only the UK’s police forces, but also UK citizens.
Priti Patel was shown a range of new research currently underway, including female body armour designs, virtual training concepts, knife crime detection and corrosive substance detection to help prevent chemical attacks. The Home Secretary also heard how Dstl forensic scientists provided evidence that has helped with 152 terrorism convictions between 2016 and 2019.
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Police and Crime General
Knife crime has surged in rural counties in the past decade, according to an analysis published today.
A third of police force areas in England and Wales have reported knife offences at least doubling and in Surrey they have increased by 598 per cent.
County line drug dealing, in which urban dealers move into small towns and seaside resorts, are said to have destabilised existing drugs markets, fuelling rivalries and stabbings.
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Fire
On a balmy summer night three years ago one of the greatest tragedies in recent history unfolded as Grenfell Tower was consumed in flames.
Over the past fortnight the principal building contractor responsible for the renovation of the 23-storey block, including the installation of flammable cladding, gave evidence to the inquiry into the fire in west London.
The testimony of executives at Rydon offers an insight into how the building industry works and how its practices may have contributed to the disaster that night — and could lead to other tragedies in future.
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Police Demand
Fears are growing that police forces cannot properly implement the new coronavirus restrictions in parts of the north until legislation is put in place.
New rules limiting contact between households were introduced last week to Greater Manchester, parts of Lancashire and West Yorkshire.
Footage showing residents continuing to party and celebrate with friends in the city centre over the weekend caused concern about how the measures were being enforced.
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Economy & Public Finance
Hundreds of trafficking survivors have had their financial support slashed unlawfully during the coronavirus pandemic, lawyers warn.
People recognised as potential victims of modern slavery who have been placed in hotels and other interim accommodation during lockdown stopped receiving their weekly government allowance – which is designed to aid their recovery – without warning last month.
The Home Office is facing a legal challenge over its decision to cut their financial support, with lawyers stating that there is no legal basis for such practice as it places vulnerable people at risk of re-trafficking.
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Police and Crime General
The Attorney General has been asked to consider whether jail terms given to the three teenagers who killed PC Andrew Harper are unduly lenient.
Henry Long, 19, the driver of the car that dragged the 28-year-old officer to his death, was jailed for 16 years for manslaughter at the Old Bailey on Friday.
The other two occupants of the car, Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, both 18, were each jailed for 13 years.
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Police and Crime General
Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn has this week praised the progress made within local magistrates courts as they near normal levels of service following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Not only did lockdown and social distance restrictions change the picture of crime and disorder in the last months, but it also changed the way in which victims were being supported. Ensuring the return of normal levels of service in Courts is seen as vital for victims, who are ultimately the end-users of our Criminal Justice System.
Commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn has been instrumental in coordinating the Criminal Justice System’s response to the pandemic, working with partners at an All Wales level to develop emergency joint-working arrangements, as well as leading the local response via the Dyfed-Powys Criminal Justice Board, which he Chairs. This partnership recovery work has delivered hugely positive steps forward, with local Magistrates courts being some of the first in Wales to resume normal levels of service having put contingency plans such as extra courts in place to ensure the full backlog of cases have been heard.
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Police and Crime General
NFU Mutual have today released their annual Rural Crime Report. It shows that rural crime cost their Wiltshire customers over £1,066,343 in 2019, which is a rise of 102% from £527,774 in 2018.
The full report from NFU Mutual is available on their website.
Police and Crime Commissioner Angus Macpherson said: "The figures from today's NFU Mutual Rural Crime Report are concerning and is one that simply cannot be ignored.
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Police and Crime General
NFU Mutual have today released their annual Rural Crime Report. It shows that rural crime cost their Wiltshire customers over £1,066,343 in 2019, which is a rise of 102% from £527,774 in 2018.
The full report from NFU Mutual is available on their website.
Police and Crime Commissioner Angus Macpherson said: "The figures from today's NFU Mutual Rural Crime Report are concerning and is one that simply cannot be ignored.
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Police and Crime General
Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey David Munro has welcomed a report showing the cost of rural crime in the South East region rose by 0.6% – compared to a national increase of almost 9% in 2018-19. The larger increase is responsible for the highest cost to the economy in close to a decade.
The report by NFU Mutual reflects a sharp rise in the cost of these crimes, led by the theft of agricultural vehicles and livestock. It raises concerns about a further rise as economic uncertainty grows post Covid-19.
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Economy & Public Finance
Reopening schools fully in September without an effective test, trace and isolating strategy could result in a second wave of coronavirus more than twice the size of the first, according to a new modelling study.
Researchers from UCL and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) examined the possible implications of schools reopening in the UK coupled with broader reopening of society, such as more parents returning to the workplace and increased socialising within the community.
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Police and Crime General
Violent criminality has climbed back to pre-coronavirus levels prompting warnings from London’s mayor and Birmingham’s police commissioner that it could escalate further as the pandemic crisis hits the economy.
Sadiq Khan told the Guardian he believed there was “a real risk of violent crime spiking as lockdown is eased” and demanded ministers make good shortfalls to police and youth services budgets to head off the perceived danger.
David Jamieson, the police and crime commissioner for West Midlands police, which covers Birmingham, said crime had come “bouncing back” after lockdown had eased but added that his principal concern was about the months ahead.
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Police and Crime General
The film director Guy Ritchie was recorded texting at the wheel by a cyclist and banned from driving for six months.
Being convicted on the evidence of cyclists, pedestrians and other drivers will soon be a frequent occurrence as police roll out a national system to upload videos of dangerous driving.
Detective Superintendent Andy Cox of London’s Metropolitan police, said: “The police can’t be everywhere all the time but the public can. If I’m a dangerous driver, I may look for the police car and the speed camera. If I don’t see them I might be minded to drive illegally, dangerously. If I’ve got the mindset that a member of the public might report me, I think that is a significant deterrent.”
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Police and Crime General
The government have released documents relating to the draft Domestic Abuse Bill.
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Police Demand
The military should be on standby to intervene as local lockdowns compound tensions, threatening disorder not seen since the 2011 riots, the government’s scientific advisers warn.
Mass protests, illegal raves and increases in racism, inequality and unemployment are among the issues combining to raise the risk of disorder, according to a report by the Sage advisory group published yesterday.
The police are ill equipped to cope and military assistance is likely to be needed if widespread rioting were to break out, the report delivered at a meeting on July 2 added.
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Police and Crime General
Delays in bringing cases to the criminal courts mean that youths end up being sentenced as adults in one of the lesser-known consequences of the backlogs blighting the system.
Ministers and court officials face pressure to provide better figures on the number of defendants charged with offences when they were 17 who then turn 18 before their first court appearance.
The Commons justice committee says in a report today that the phenomenon leads to unfairness because teenagers who would be tried in the youth courts are moved to adult hearings, where they face tougher sentencing.
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Recruitment and Retention
A government drive to recruit more police has led to the largest annual increase in officers for 16 years.
Under the Home Office scheme, 4,336 more have been taken on in England and Wales this year - with ministers pledging to recruit 6,000 by next March and 20,000 by March 2023.
But figures show more than 20,000 police were lost between 2010 and 2019.
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Police and Crime General
New hate laws will criminalise controversial opinions and shatter public trust in the police, say frontline officers.
The legislation making its way through Holyrood would make “stirring up hatred” against certain groups a criminal offence.
The proposals have provoked a backlash amid fears they could lead to people being charged over comments perceived to be offensive even if that was not the intention.
The Scottish Police Federation said that proposals by the Scottish government would “paralyse freedom of speech” and threaten prosecution for expressing unpopular opinions.
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Police Finances
PCCs were given the opportunity to make a maximum of three bids of up to £550,000 in January this year. 35 PCCs have received a share of £22.4 million from the £25 million scheme.
Cleveland’s bid was led by the Commissioner’s Office in partnership with local councils, Cleveland Police, Cleveland Fire Brigade and Victim Care and Advice Service.
Cleveland’s OPCC secured £1,034,696 for preventative measures for the three most high-risk areas for theft-related crime, such as alley gates, increased CCTV and street lighting.
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Police and Crime General
Police forces should look to employing IT specialists and change the way they respond to complex challenges like mental health, according to the first stage of a major review of policing.
The first stage of the Police Foundation’s review of policing in England and Wales found forces are good at enforcing against physical offences but are unprepared to deal with the volume and complexity of online offences such as fraud.
More complex crime investigations are hampered by a national shortfall of 5,000 detectives and up to six month waits for examinations of digital evidence.
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Recruitment and Retention
Thousands of nurse training places and probation officer jobs will be created as part of a new government recruitment drive for the public sector.
The Ministry of Justice is hiring 1,000 new probation officers just months after it was announced the service would be brought back under government control after a disastrous spell of part-privatisation.
The Department for Education has also approved over 3,000 additional university positions to study nursing after record vacancy levels were recorded in 2019.
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Economy & Public Finance
Stretched local resilience forums (LRF) have pleaded for cash amid warnings a lack of funding is hindering their planning for the next crisis.
A leaked Whitehall report said there was a ‘clear need for urgent financial assistance,’ with most LRFs said to be ‘run on a shoestring’.
LRFs have repeatedly pushed for ‘direct funding’ to help them prepare for ‘upcoming concurrent events’ such as a potential no-deal Brexit.
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Police and Crime General
The analysis, undertaken by staff from the Government Statistical Service, used police force data from English and Welsh forces for the number of FPNs issued between 27 March and 25 May for breaching public health regulations introduced by Government to help prevent the spread of Covid-19. These powers came into effect on 27 March 2020.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing issued guidance to forces on how to implement the new regulations. This made clear that enforcement was only to be used as a last resort, when attempts to engage with individuals to explain the regulations and encourage compliance had not been successful.
The analysis examines rates of FPNs issued on two different bases: force area where the individual was present when issued the fine, and the force area where the individual issued the fine was normally resident.
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Economy & Public Finance
The lockdown of the economy has checked the spread of coronavirus but it also triggered a recession that has badly damaged the public finances.
The government is borrowing money on a record-breaking scale, our stock of national debt is now the same size as our annual economic output.
According to the Office for National Statistics, Public Sector Net Borrowing in June stood at £35.5 billion. Lower than in May but still five times the amount borrowed in June last year.
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Police Demand
The head of the biggest child protection department in the country has told Sky News they are facing a crisis when children return to school in September.
Matt Dunkley, corporate director for children and young people at Kent County Council, says there could be an increase of 250% in referrals of children that need to be investigated and kept safe when lockdown is eased further.
Before COVID-19, 40,000 cases were referred to the department each year.
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Police Demand
Victims are being robbed of justice say charities and MPs.
More than five million crimes were recorded in England and Wales in the year to March, Home Office figures show.
But cops only charged 350,863 people, seven per cent of cases.
That is down from 15 per cent in 2015. A suspect was charged in just 1.4 per cent of rape cases, 5.2 per cent of thefts and 7.2 per cent of robberies.
Police failed to identify a suspect in 2.15million crimes. And they dropped 1.7million cases due to a lack of evidence.
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Police and Crime General
The report, from crisis charity Hestia, says victims are “frequently misunderstood and treated as criminals” even when they escape their exploiters.
In the UK it is estimated that as many as 100,000 victims are being exploited for modern slavery.
Data from the National Slavery Operations Database between December 2016 and July 2019 shows that criminal exploitation has been steadily increasing, up from six per cent three years ago and now making up more than a quarter of all police operations.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Face coverings are now compulsory for customers in shops in England, after new coronavirus rules came into force within 12 hours of the government issuing guidance on the change.
Coverings are mandatory in enclosed public spaces such as supermarkets, indoor shopping centres, transport hubs, banks and takeaways.
Police can hand out fines of up to £100 to those who do not comply.
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Justice
PCCs from the East Midlands have spoken out after the region was excluded in government plans for ten new temporary courts to tackle the Covid-19 backlog.
The Government has identified ten areas in England and Wales to host new “Nightingale courts” from next month in a bid to ensure the “wheels of justice keep turning”.
Across the East Midlands, the number of outstanding court cases has rocketed, leaving vulnerable victims waiting months – or years – for justice.
Despite this, the region has missed out on the new emergency support announced by the government and faces a growing crisis.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Neighbourhood Watch schemes across Derbyshire are being invited to apply for a share of £5,000 to fund new and innovative approaches to crime prevention.
Derbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner Hardyal Dhindsa has doubled his Neighbourhood Watch Innovation Fund from £2,500 to £5,000 in 2020-21 in recognition of the hugely valuable work NHW schemes undertake to reduce the fear of crime and boost public safety.
The funding will be available in two separate rounds concluding in March next year and will help NHW schemes introduce new ideas to promote safety and prevent crime and antisocial behaviour.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
At least some of councils' lost business rates and council tax income could be covered by the government, the communities secretary indicated this morning.
Robert Jenrick also told MPs that "clearly councils need to be funded" for additional expenditure resulting from Covid-19, describing this as often "the right thing to do".
Giving evidence to the Commons’ housing, communities and local government committee, Mr Jenrick said he was considering introducing a "mechanism" to cover lost council tax and business rate income akin to the system announced this month under which the government will guarantee 75% of lost income from sales, fees and charges above 5%.
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Economy & Public Finance
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Police and Crime General
Shop bosses have warned staff to turn a blind eye if customers refuse to wear face masks over fears they risk being assaulted.
Stores will tell shoppers that coverings are compulsory from tomorrow.
But the Association of Convenience Stores said: “We have advised members not to challenge customers unwilling to wear a covering.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
West Midlands Police is using feedback interviews from people who are stop and searched to inform standalone training, student training and incorporate them into self-defence training.
Giving evidence to the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee Inspector Dan Popple said most officers in the organisation only get stop and search training when they join.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than 40,000 calls and contacts were made to the National Domestic Abuse Helpline during the first three months of lockdown, most by women seeking help, new figures show.
In June, calls and contacts were nearly 80% higher than usual, says the charity Refuge, which runs the helpline.
And as restrictions ease, there is a surge in women seeking refuge places to escape their abusers, the charity says.
The government says it prioritised help for domestic-abuse victims in lockdown.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Doctors, teachers and police are among 900,000 public sector workers who will get above-inflation pay rises this year.
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, said the increases were recognition for the “vital contribution” they had made during the coronavirus crisis. Economists said that the rise was likely to make the public sector more attractive to private sector workers, who are expected to be hit hardest as the economy recovers.
Teachers will be given a 3.1 per cent rise; doctors and dentists 2.8 per cent; and police 2.5 per cent. Pay for the armed forces, the judiciary and senior civil servants will rise by 2 per cent; prison officers will receive 2.5 per cent.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Chancellor has launched the 2020 Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR). The Review, which will be published in the autumn, will set out the government’s spending plans for the parliament.
The review will set UK Government departments’ resource budgets for the years 2021/22 to 2023/24 and capital budgets for the years 2021/22 until 2024/25, and devolved administrations’ block grants for the same period.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police pay will rise by 2.5% in 2020 to 2021, providing officers with an increase above inflation for the second year running.
It matches the 2.5% rise awarded last year, which gave forces the largest pay increase since 2010.
Policing continues to be an attractive career, with the numbers of people joining the police reaching a 10-year high.
Between October and May, more than 78,000 people applied to forces, as the government makes good on its pledge to put 20,000 additional officers on the streets in three years.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The home secretary has promised "sweeping reforms" to Home Office culture after the Windrush scandal which saw people wrongly deported.
Speaking to MPs, Priti Patel said there would be a "full evaluation" of the hostile environment policy.
She also announced mandatory training for Home Office staff, reconciliation events with the victims of the scandal and diverse shortlists for senior jobs.
Labour said the government was "falling woefully short".
[ more...]
Police Finances
The West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner has welcomed the 2.5% pay increase for police officers, but says he has concerns that it will lead to cuts elsewhere in policing because it has to be funded from current budgets.
David Jamieson says the increase goes some way to recognise the hard work of officers throughout the Coronavirus pandemic, but has asked for clarity from the government as to how it will pay for the rise.
If the government does not agree to fund this increase with extra money then it could result in a net loss of 36 police officers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
On Friday (July 17) Police & Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne convened another meeting of her Safer Sussex Business Partnership to identify easier ways for businesses to report crime.
This meeting included senior officers from Sussex Police, business crime experts, representatives from Tesco, Sainsbury’s and the Co-op as well as representatives of smaller, local stores, business crime reduction partnerships and Mitie.
It was revealed that business crime across Sussex, as across the whole country, is significantly under reported and a recent analysis conducted locally with a large national chain revealed less 10% of all their incidents were reported to Sussex Police.
It was recognised that there are currently too many barriers to reporting crime for local businesses - including the time spent reporting crimes and the misconception that financial thresholds exist and influence what crimes police will investigate.
[ more...]
Justice
Millions could be deprived of access to justice as financial and social issues born out of the Covid-19 pandemic highlight a growing gap in legal aid funding, a national legal charity has warned.
A report by the Law Centres Network finds that a large proportion of the public will be left without “vital” assistance to protect their home, job or benefits during the crisis without also pushing themselves and their families into poverty, because they fall into what is known as the “justice gap”.
The warning comes as new figures show that nearly 650,000 people have already lost their jobs during the pandemic, while unfair dismissal and domestic violence are now more common and a surge in homelessness is expected when evictions start again in August – all of which are likely to lead to a surge in people needing legal protection.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Two recruitment schemes which saw members of the public join the service at senior ranks, along with a scheme to accelerate the promotion of serving constables to inspectors, have been evaluated and the results were released today.
Direct Entry for superintendents and inspectors is a major break with traditional police recruitment in England and Wales and is aimed at attracting people into the service who have diverse career backgrounds, different perspectives and leadership skills.
[ more...]
Fire
Ministers are to appoint the UK’s first chief inspector of buildings in reforms prompted by the Grenfell Tower disaster and the discovery that thousands of other high-rise buildings breach fire safety regulations.
The inspector will lead a national regulator of building safety that will also police a system to designate an “accountable person” for each high-rise building. They will be obliged to respond to residents’ complaints after the tenants and leaseholders of Grenfell Tower said their fears about the safety of their homes were ignored by their landlords before the fire on 14 June 2017, which killed 72 people.
The Grenfell Action Group community blog famously published a post in November 2016 that said “only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of our landlord, the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced in his statement on Coronavirus July 17 that local authorities will have new powers to enforce measures to limit the spread of the virus in their area.
From July 18, local councils will be able to close specific premises, shut public outdoor spaces and cancel events to speed up the response to a local outbreak and contain the spread.
Following a local lockdown in Leicester, which saw the percentage of people testing positively fall from a weekly rate of 12.2% to 4.8%, new framework will enable national and local Government to work more closely together to implement this in other areas if needs be.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
An inspection of roads policing within seven forces has made severe crticism of the lack of training and equipment of officers tasked with the role.
“We found roads policing officers whose training was so inadequate they couldn’t identify and prosecute offences relating to heavy goods vehicles (HGVs). In one force, a lack of intelligence support left the roads policing team relying on social media and their personal mobile phones to share intelligence,” the report said.
The report will form part of a wider review launched by the Department for Transport into roads policy amid concerns that road accident deaths have plateaued – and the cost of accidents is now £36bn a year.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Communities secretary Robert Jenrick has announced how the latest tranche of Covid-19 funding for councils will be distributed.
Worth £500m in total, £6m of the pot is to be used to provide additional support to councils dealing with pressures due to high numbers of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. The remaining £494m has been split between all councils with 93% going to upper tier authorities and 7% to lower tier.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government said the funding had been distributed based on population and levels of deprivation as well as how the costs of delivery of services varies across the country.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More than 4,000 young people aged 13-25 were asked for their thoughts between May and June as part of a consultation led by Cheshire-based youth social enterprise Leaders Unlocked, which also runs local police and crime commissioner (PCC) David Keane’s Youth Commission.
The new report, Policing the Pandemic, features insights and direct quotations from young people about their experiences of policing and crime during lockdown.
It also features 11 recommendations for change that have been devised by the young leaders involved in the study.
[ more...]
Technology
Introduced in February 2019, the forms allow officers to access all the messages, photographs, emails and social media accounts on the phones of victims.
They were intended to help police and prosecutors balance the needs to follow all reasonable lines of enquiry, respect the privacy of victims and witnesses and meet disclosure obligations. However, campaigners said they were the equivalent of a digital strip search and victims were warned that if they failed to consent to the data being extracted, their cases might not be pursued.
The announcement of the change in policy follows a legal challenge brought by the Centre for Women’s Justice (CJW) last year which argued that the use of the forms was unlawful, discriminatory and led to excessive and intrusive disclosure requests.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A joint working protocol will make it quicker for Dudley Council and West Midlands Police to deal with illegal encampments on public land.
A long-standing issue has been the national shortage of authorised traveller sites so the council is pressing ahead with a new transit site to give courts a destination when moving travellers on from public land.
The new temporary transit site is expected to be up and running by August. The council will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the site.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Masks will not be made compulsory for office workers but will remain compulsory in shops and on public transport for the “foreseeable future”, the health secretary has insisted, admitting that face coverings could still be required next summer.
Matt Hancock said that the government had no plans to mandate face coverings for workers in enclosed office environments despite speculation that they would be forced to adopt the same rules as shops.
Ministers had refused to deny that offices were the next frontier in the introduction of masks but this morning Mr Hancock moved swiftly to rule out the prospect of masking office staff, despite concerns that a return to work could see localised outbreaks in workplaces.
[ more...]
Technology
Sir Stephen House said that social media footage of apparent police brutality get high levels of publicity, whereas the full sequence of events and cases where officers are afterwards exonerated from any wrongdoing receive none at all.
His comments were made as London Assembly Police & Crime Committee virtually met with to discuss stop and search and disproportionality against BAME individuals,a longisde Sophie Linden, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime.
It is reported that the Met carried out 43,000 stop and searches in May 2020, compared to 21,000 in May 2019, and 30,608 in April 2020 compared to 20,981 in April 2019.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Home Secretary told members of the Home Affairs Select Committee that she wanted to review the work of Police and Crime Commissioners because there was too much variation between forces in England and Wales.
Currently, policing priorities are set by a force’s PCC but the Chief Constable makes operational and staffing decisions.
Ms Patel said: “Structurally we need to look at the cross over in governance structures and policing priorities.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Knife crime could spike as children who have witnessed domestic violence are released from lockdown, according to a shocking report by MPs released today.
Urgent measures are needed to ensure schools and pupil referral units are adequately resourced and prepared for the challenges ahead, the cross-party Youth Violence Commission said.
The commission has “serious concerns” over the extent that teachers will be able to effectively support and care for children and young people returning to education after an extended period of confinement at home.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Plans to double the maximum jail term for criminals who assault emergency workers to two years are being considered by the government.
Just two years ago, a previous law change doubled the maximum term from six months to 12 in England and Wales.
Home Secretary Priti Patel said this sent a "clear and simple message" that "vile thugs" would not get away with such "appalling behaviour". "Our police officers, firefighters and other emergency workers go above and beyond every single day - running towards danger to protect us all," she said.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Foreign criminals sentenced to more than a year in jail will be banned from Britain under new immigration rules.
Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, will set out details of the points-based system which will replace freedom of movement from January 1.
The 130-page document will abolish the route into the UK for unskilled migrants and instead award points to applicants if they have skilled job offers, speak English and meet minimum salary thresholds.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police enforcement of coronavirus laws in England and Wales is at the lowest level since the lockdown started, figures show.
Only a handful of fines have been handed out since the start of July, compared to almost 2,500 a week before restrictions were relaxed.
More than 15,500 fines were issued in England before the law changed to allow groups of six to meet on 1 June, and fewer than 500 since.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
After years of cuts and growing complexity, force control rooms are handling calls with smaller budgets and fewer people. Vulnerable people are being missed as a result, according to an investigation by HM Inspectorate.
Forces are using different systems and protocols for responding to both 999 and 101 calls – a familiar criticism by the watchdog that there is a lack of standardisation across the 43 forces.
The critical report comes despite pledges from the government that lessons would be learnt from the Grenfell Tower fire that killed 72 people.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Lancashire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Clive Grunshaw, has relaunched his Community Action Fund and called on organisations to apply, recognising that projects may need to be delivered differently during the COVID 19 pandemic.
This comes as 26 projects have been successful in gaining grants, with over £60,000 going towards community organisations who are helping make Lancashire a safer and better place.
By helping groups tackle local concerns and deliver the Commissioner’s key priorities in his Police and Crime Plan, the fund delivers an effective way of engaging people within their communities, through diversionary activity and targeted support amongst others.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced the next phase of his plan to ‘protect, support and retain’ jobs in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
The three-part plan began with the furlough scheme, which has not been extended beyond its October deadline.
Despite predictions of large-scale job losses from the Office for Budget Responsibility and the Bank of England, Mr Sunak told Parliament: ‘I will never accept unemployment as an inevitable outcome.’
Entering the second phase, the chancellor focused on creating jobs for young people, investment in infrastructure, and ‘green recovery’ with cash to for home improvements.
[ more...]
Fire
The lead fire safety consultant of the Grenfell Tower refurbishment ignored documents outlining proposed cladding and insulation materials, the inquiry into the fire has heard.
Terry Ashton said he did not read an email from project architects detailing a planned cladding system because he was not the "primary recipient".
Hearings in the second phase of the inquiry returned this week after a four-month break due to coronavirus. It is looking at the refurbishment of the residential block in North Kensington in which 72 people died.
Mr Ashton, of fire engineering firm Exova, ignored an email from architecture firm Studio E on 23 October 2012 which included attachments containing details and drawings of a planned cladding system.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Young black men were stopped and searched by police more than 20,000 times in London during the coronavirus lockdown – the equivalent more than a quarter of all black 15- to 24-year-olds in the capital.
More than 80% of the 21,950 searches between March and May resulted in no further action, according to analysis by the office of the home affairs select committee chair, Yvette Cooper.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Whenever I go out to talk to members of the public, there is one theme that comes up again and again – anti social behaviour.
Vandalism, graffiti, disputes with neighbours, litter, aggressive dogs and off-road motorbikes riding around residential streets.
These day to day incidents of nuisance and disorder can make people’s lives a misery, leaving them feeling intimidated, angry or frightened to leave their houses...
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
We are living through a national crisis. But as the news from Leicester has brought into sharp relief, we are also living through a series of local crises.
What started centred in London has now moved to afflict northern towns and cities. It will no doubt move again. There are some patterns. Death rates are higher in more deprived areas — even more so than normal. There is also a lot of apparently random variation; similar, neighbouring areas have often had very different experiences.
We can expect more local peaks and troughs over the course of the pandemic, possibly requiring more local lockdowns, and certainly requiring localised policy responses.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The government has unveiled a £1.57bn support package to help protect the futures of UK theatres, galleries, museums and other cultural venues.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden told BBC Breakfast new grants and loans aim to preserve "crown jewels" in the UK's art sector as well as local venues. It follows several weeks of pressure, with industry leaders warning that many venues were on the brink of collapse.
Independent cinemas, heritage sites and music venues will also be eligible. Guidance for a phased return of the performing arts, starting with performances behind closed doors and rehearsals, is expected to be published by the government shortly.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The government is pledging to provide 30,000 new traineeships to get young people in England into work, as fears about mounting unemployment increase.
Traineeships provide classroom-based lessons in maths, English and CV writing, as well as up to 90 hours of unpaid work experience.
Under the £111m scheme, firms in England will be given £1,000 for each work experience place they offe
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A further 27,000 excess deaths are "likely" between now and next April under the current approach to tackling the coronavirus pandemic, a former government chief scientific adviser says.
Sir David King, who has been critical of the easing of lockdown measures, told Sky's Sophy Ridge On Sunday, "we need to look at the fastest route out of COVID-19" and the current one "is not right".
He said it looked as though Downing Street's policy was to "maintain" the current level of about 3,000 new infections per day across England.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A group of former Treasury special advisers have called for revaluation of the council tax and reform of business rates to boost the economy post-COVID-19.
The ex-advisers, part of a centre right think-tank called Onward, call for ‘sweeping reform of the tax system in particular reforming business and property taxes including council tax revaluation.’ The last valuation was in 1991 and it has been prostponed by successivew governments ever since.
In their report, Bouncing Back, the authors call for new fiscal rules targeting debt falling as a percentage of GDP by 2025. They argue that ‘politically, there is no mandate for a course of action that looks like reducing public spending on essential services such as the NHS’ but also stress that ‘a radical vision for permanently and radically bigger government was rejected by the electorate in December.’
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Plans to allow late-night pubs and bars to sell takeaway alcohol will spark street violence, disorder and drunkenness, ministers have been warned.
The Government faced a backlash from senior politicians and policing chiefs on Monday night over the plans in the Business and Planning bill to relax licensing rules in an attempt to boost the hospitality sector.
The proposals would see rules relaxed for a year, freeing pubs and bars which are currently barred from doing so to sell alcohol for consumption off the premises even if their licence extends into the early hours.
[ more...]
Fire
A senior government official has declared it 'unacceptable' that high rise buildings are still covered in unsafe cladding three years on from the Grenfell Tower fire.
Jeremy Pocklington, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), highlighted to MPs on Monday that progress in the private sector in particular has been "inadequate".
He faced questions from members of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee over the pace and scope of Government funded efforts to remove remove aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding from buildings above 18 metres in the wake of the west London tower block fire.
[ more...]
Fire
The group of officers who were on duty on 14 June 2017 are suing the office of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner for personal injury and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council (RBKC).
The council was the owner of the 24-storey housing block which caught fire in June 2017 and killed 72 people. It had devolved oversight to a housing association, a tenant management organisation (TMO) that reported to the council’s housing committee.
Law firm Bishop, Lloyd and Jackson, which is leading the action on behalf of the firefighters, said the officers are claiming for trauma, injuries sustained on the night and stress triggered by fears that they may have sustained respiratory damage.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Drunk people are unable to properly socially distance, the chairman of the Police Federation has said as pubs reopened in England for the first time since lockdown.
John Apter said it was “crystal clear” revellers would not adhere to the one metre plus rule as restrictions were eased on Saturday.
Prof Chris Whitty said the pandemic “is a long way from gone” and urged the public to follow social-distancing rules as pubs and restaurants reopened. But images from London’s Soho showed packed streets into the early hours of Sunday.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Dyfed-Powys Police's commissioner has said "proactivity" is behind the force issuing more fines than any other for lockdown breaches.
Dafydd Llywelyn spoke as Wales braced itself for the lifting of the Welsh Government's five-mile "stay local" travel guidance on Monday.
Up to 22 June, the force issued 1,651 fixed penalty notices. The next highest was North Yorkshire Police with 1,122. Of the other Welsh forces, figures up to 22 June showed North Wales Police issued 464 penalties, South Wales Police 315 and Gwent Police 128 - all with much larger populations than Dyfed-Powys.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
In the time since Bjorn's killing, Britain's knife crime crisis has accelerated. More than 45,000 blade-related offenses — the highest number on record — were committed in England and Wales last year, according to official government statistics. Now, as the United Kingdom plans to emerge from lockdown, there are fears of a new surge in fatal stabbings.
The links between social deprivation and knife crime are well documented. In neighborhoods where unemployment is high and economic mobility is low, violent behavior breeds.
When funding for local community-minded programs is cut, the spiral of hopelessness and aggression intensifies. That, Sunderland said, is why the financial fallout of the coronavirus pandemic is so concerning.
[ more...]
Technology
Police Scotland says the roll-out of mobile devices has freed up more than 400,000 hours of officer time in just one year.
The devices allow officers on the beat to access a wide range of police systems, which frees them of the requirement to return to the station and log onto a computer.
David Crichton, vice chair of the Scottish Police Authority said: "The introduction of mobile working was much needed and has brought real benefits to the police and the public by making the service more responsive, visible and efficient.
[ more...]
Fire
Grenfell Tower families have expressed their fury after it emerged the inquiry into the disaster will take a break of up to five weeks, despite months of delays due to lockdown.
Survivors and bereaved families have written to the inquiry’s top official to condemn the “extraordinarily insensitive decision” to hold no hearings between August and September 7.
The break will allow lawyers, witnesses and core participants to go on holiday, after the inquiry - due to restart on Monday - concluded it would not be “fair” to disrupt their plans.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Sir Thomas Winsor said there is a “real risk” that forces’ inability to successfully investigate high-volume offences is “causing a loss of public confidence in policing”.
His annual assessment of policing in England and Wales published on Thursday (July 2) states some crime investigations “have been reduced to little more than a telephone conversation with the victim”.
Just six per cent of burglaries, three per cent of vehicle crimes and 13 per cent of violent crimes were detected across England and Wales in 2018/19, according to the report for Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS).
[ more...]
Technology
The number of forces who can upload multi-media digital evidence on a platform shared with the CPS has increased from about 20 to 39 since the start of the pandemic.
Before the lockdown around half of forces in England and Wales were still sending hard copy discs of CCTV footage, 999 calls, body worn video and video-recorded victim interviews to CPS administrative staff.
But a CPS inspectorate report has found that a new ‘can do’ attitude among forces has moved on projects that had been taking years to being completed in just a few weeks.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police forces will have to prioritise some crimes given that offences such as burglary have been reduced to “little more than a telephone conversation with the victim” according to the chief inspector of constabulary.
In his annual State of Policing report Sir Tom Winsor says that changes in the 43-force structure are needed as part of the review process and warns of the dangers of forces being set percentage targets on specific offences.
Just 6% of burglaries, 3% of vehicle crimes and 13% of violent crimes were detected across England and Wales in 2018/19, according to the report.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More than 40 MPs and peers have joined calls from 13 human rights groups, lawyers and campaigners for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) to look again at penalties handed out to those apparently flouting the rules.
A total of 18,439 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) including 15,856 in England and 2,583 in Wales were recorded by forces between March 27 and June 22, according to provisional NPCC data.
As the country reaches 100 days of lockdown, a letter sent to NPCC chair Martin Hewitt by the group led by organisation Big Brother Watch said the case for a review was now “extremely compelling”.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) has put aside £500,000 to fund potential legal action against Ealing LBC over a contract dispute.
CIPFA wants to recover its losses from the London Counter-Fraud Hub (LCFH) after the project failed to get off the ground.
London Councils had said that all boroughs intended to participate but, in its early stages, CIPFA publicly admitted that ‘coordinating agreement across 33 organisations, all of which might have their own priorities and political agendas’ would be a ‘significant challenge’.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Homelessness could treble this year due to financial impact of coronavirus, campaigners have warned today.
A new report, published by Generation Rent, shows that rent arrears has trebled since the start of the crisis, with over half a million households currently in arrears.
The report urges the Government to suspend evictions for rent arrears and ensure the benefits system covers housing costs.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
People planning on heading out to enjoy the reopening of pubs and restaurants this weekend have been told "it has never been more important to drink responsibly".
Saturday is the first day that people in England will be able to drink a pint in a pub or order a meal inside for over three months after the outbreak of coronavirus.
Many businesses have been rushing to make sure they are ready for so-called "Super Saturday" after Boris Johnson announced last week that they could reopen from 4 July.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Boris Johnson will promise to "build build build" as he unveils government plans to soften the economic impact of coronavirus.
Speaking in the West Midlands, the prime minister will say he wants to use the coronavirus crisis "to tackle this country's great unresolved challenges".
The prime minister's speech comes as BBC analysis found that the UK was the hardest hit of all the G7 major industrialised nations by the virus in the weeks leading up to early June. In April, the UK economy shrunk by a record 20.4% as a result of the spread of coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown measures.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Ministers will change the law in order to enforce the local coronavirus lockdown in Leicester, the health secretary has told Sky News.
"We will be bringing forward a legal change very shortly in the next couple of days," Matt Hancock said. "Some of the measures that we've unfortunately had to take in Leicester will require a legal underpinning."
A total of 10% of all positive cases in the country in the past week have come in the East Midlands city, which means the easing of lockdown across England on Saturday will not take place in Leicester.
[ more...]
Justice
Urgent action is required to address delays in “overburdened” youth courts, and there should be a time limit for police to charge a young person with a crime, a review of the youth justice service in England has concluded.
Though the number of children going to court has fallen by 75% in the last 10 years – with 27,000 appearing in court in England and Wales in the year to March 2019, compared with 107,000 in 2010 – delays have increased.
Delays affect victims and witnesses as well as the rehabilitative chances of the young offenders, the report found. It recommends that Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Home Office develop “a protocol which limits the amount of time young people can be kept under investigation before a charging decision must be made (though there may need to be exclusions for the most complex cases).”
[ more...]
Police Finances
Matthew Scott has awarded almost £700,000 in grants to services which help victims of crime.
The money is to help keep local charities financially stable after much of their normal fundraising work was curtailed by Covid-19. It will also help them run additional support programmes for victims of domestic abuse – a crime type which increased as more families spent more time at home during lockdown.
David Naylor from Victim Support said: ‘This funding has come at a crucial time. At Victim Support, we are supporting growing numbers of domestic abuse and sexual violence victims to cope and recover from experiences of crime since lockdown. As restrictions lift, we anticipate that even more people will reach out for practical and emotional help.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Dorset Police officers and staff have submitted more than 100 bids to a new fund aimed at enabling the Force to develop innovative projects and transform for the future.
Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill and Chief Constable James Vaughan set up the one million pound Innovation Fund in spring 2019, using money that had come from a combination of reserves and efficiency savings.
People from across the organisation were encouraged to come up with ideas and an Innovation Board was established to decide whether they were feasible.
[ more...]
Police Demand
There were 28,000 less recorded crimes in Greater Manchester during this time, which is the first real reduction in year-on-year comparison data.
GMP said even though the crime figures reduced, it still received a similar amount of calls to its Operational Communications Branch, around 1.15 million, when comparing the same period.
The data was extracted using iOPS Cognos, which is part of the new IT system launched at GMP in July 2019. This gives the force access to a large amount of data and a range of analytical tools that can extract the data and provide reports to use internally and to share with partners.
[ more...]
Police Demand
There was a 71% increase in drivers caught speeding in London when the coronavirus lockdown started, new figures show.
The Met Police issued 3,282 Traffic Offence Reports to drivers suspected of exceeding the limit in April, compared with 1,922 in April 2019.
A further 14,736 people were caught by London's roadside cameras in April 2020
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A statement by Priti Patel on Violence towards the police.
[ more...]
Fire
The United Nations’ special rapporteur on adequate housing has expressed ‘serious concern’ that 600,000 people in England continue to live in blocks with dangerous cladding.
Leilani Farha highlighted ‘allegations of multiple violations of the human right to adequate housing’ three years after the deadly Grenfell Tower fire, the spread of which was ‘greatly accelerated and exacerbated’ by highly-combustible aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding.
Of around 457 buildings in England that were identified as having been clad in ACM, 361 have still not had the cladding removed.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
A new devolution deal for South Yorkshire will be laid before Parliament today, handing new powers and millions of pounds of funding to the region.
Sheffield City Region Mayor, Dan Jarvis, described it as a ‘landmark moment’.
He said: ‘The journey to reach this point has been long and difficult. I firmly believe it is worthwhile, as it provides leaders in South Yorkshire the opportunity to transform our region. I am confident we will seize this moment to build back better, creating a stronger, fairer, greener economy and society.’
He vowed to work alongside the leaders of the South Yorkshire councils – Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield – as the region works to rebuild the economy post COVID-19.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police stretched to breaking point after a month of unrest were given no warning that pubs would be reopening next Saturday, a union claims.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been branded “reckless” for announcing July 4 as “Independence Day” in the latest easing of lockdown measures. A Police Federation source said it came out of the blue.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police have revealed the West Midlands has been hit by TEN known instances where guns have been fired so far this month.
There has been a cluster of four of the violence incidents in the west of Birmingham - but police have not revealed more details of the individual incidents.
Police believe the rise is due to tension between some criminal gangs.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence are benefiting from £22 million of emergency funding to help organisations providing support during the pandemic.
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Police and Crime General
A new state-of-the-art fully integrated service for victims of sexual violence and abuse has opened its doors in West Yorkshire today.
Work on the new purpose built Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) facility for West Yorkshire started in late 2018 and will now house a number of specialist services.
The project timeframe has been impacted by the ongoing Covid19 pandemic, which has slowed the progress on site, but has been successfully completed this week to ensure that the facility is now fully accessible for service users.
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Prisons
A new partnership project has been launched aimed at preventing homelessness among ex-offenders and reducing the likelihood they will return to criminal behaviour.
The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk (OPCCN) is working with St Martin’s to help people released from prison to find accommodation, bring stability to their lives and reintegrate into communities.
Having safe, consistent accommodation can reduce the likelihood someone will reoffend by 20%, but prison leavers are at high risk of homelessness. Other factors that can make individuals vulnerable to returning to crime include drug or alcohol dependency, financial worries and lack of opportunity to earn money, complex mental or physical health needs, and being unable to access help and support to address these issues.
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Economy & Public Finance
Council tax debt has become a real problem in recent months and new legislation put through by the government may only make this worse. Three of the UKs largest debt charities have called on the government to take urgent action.
Due to how dire the situation has become, Citizens Advice, the Money Advice Trust and Stepchange have joined forces, calling on the government to implement measures that could protect millions of people from spiralling into debt problems.
These changes could be desperately needed given new legislation that came into effect on Wednesday June 24.
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Economy & Public Finance
Some of the largest UK councils say they may have to declare themselves effectively bankrupt unless the government agrees to further support.
Five councils said emergency spending controls - so-called section 114 notices - could be needed due to the impact of Covid-19.
Nearly 150 authorities have forecast a combined budget shortfall of at least £3.2bn, the BBC found.
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Police and Crime General
More police officers are set to be deployed on roads to combat drink-driving, phone offences and the failure to wear seatbelts, The Times has learnt.
A review of roads policing will be launched by the government under plans to curb dangerous driving and reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured in crashes.
The Department for Transport and the Home Office are set to publish a “call for evidence” on the future of the system. It follows the publication of a report by road safety experts this month that called for an increase in the number of police specifically for the roads. The report also said there should be a new onus on police forces to make roads one of their main “strategic requirements” alongside terrorism and organised crime.
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Police and Crime General
Outdoor markets and summer fairs will not need planning permission while pubs and restaurants will be able to use car parks as seating areas, under a raft of new measures intended to boost the hospitality industry in the wake of Covid-19.
The Business & Planning Bill, announced by ministers today, will also make it easier for businesses to obtain pavement licences by reducing the consultation period from 28 calendar days to five working days. Consent will be granted automatically after 10 working days if the council does not issue a decision.
A government press release announcing the moves said councils would “need to continue to ensure their communities are consulted on licensing applications, that waste is disposed of responsibly, and that access to pavements and pedestrianised areas is not compromised”.
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Justice
Emergency Nightingale-style courts are to be opened to help to tackle a backlog of more than half a million criminal cases that have built up as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Ten sites have been identified after officials from the Ministry of Justice searched the country for suitable accommodation, including in town halls and university lecture theatres where cases could be held within social distancing guidelines.
Ministers are expected next week to announce the first tranche of venues where justice will be dispensed outside the usual court setting, with more to be identified in the next few weeks.
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Justice
APCC Victims Leads, Deputy Mayor of London, Sophie Linden, and Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner of North Yorkshire, Julia Mulligan released a statement. Please follow the link to read the statement in full.
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Police and Crime General
Despite it being compulsory, seatbelts were not worn by 20 per cent of fatalities last year – and young drivers are the worst offenders.
Over the last five years, the number of car occupants killed who were not wearing a seatbelt has remained at 20 per cent.
In the UK, if a seatbelt is fitted it is a legal requirement to wear it. Failure to do so can result in a fine of up to £500. Drivers are responsible for children under 14 being in a restraint appropriate to their age and height.
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Police and Crime General
Investigations into claims of excessive force should be sped up by the police watchdog to help provide a more balanced version of events to the public, a senior officer has suggested.
Ian Hopkins, Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, said that short clips of encounters between officers and ethnic minorities can be one-sided and do not always reflect the entirety of the situation.
In order to re-balance the “narrative”, Mr Hopkins told MPs that probes by the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) should be carried out more swiftly to determine whether the officers conduct was proportionate before public confidence is undermined.
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Police and Crime General
Chief constables have admitted their rush to publish data on lockdown fines may have understated how many were given to BAME people.
However, they denied it hid a deeper problem of racism in police forces across England and Wales.
Martin Hewitt, chair of the National Police Chiefs Council, told MPs: "It does not and that's unfair. This came in very quickly and we brought the data from all forces into one place and decided to be open with it every two weeks.
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COVID-19
Police are bracing for a “perfect storm” of drunkenness and disorder after ministers decided that pubs would open for the first time in more than three months on a weekend.
Drinking establishments will reopen their doors on Saturday 4 July, but senior officers warn that restrictions should have been lifted on a weekday to reduce the risk of chaos.
Police believe that the government’s “one metre plus” social-distancing rules could increase tensions, on what is forecast to be a warm and sunny day for much of the country.
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Justice
Domestic abuse victims will get greater protections in an "overhaul of how the family courts deal with the horrific crime", the government has announced.
Under new plans, more victims will have access to separate courtroom entrances, waiting rooms and protective screens to shield them from their alleged abuser.
A number of reforms will be included in the upcoming Domestic Abuse Bill.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The National Police Chiefs’ Council has handed over its data on lockdown enforcement to central government analysts after admitted errors had been made in interpreting the ethnicity of people given fixed penalty notices or were arrested.
But NPCC Chairman Martin Hewitt defended the way forces had handled enforcement, telling the Home Affairs Select Committee that they had responded very quickly to a complex situation.
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Economy & Public Finance
The ring-fenced fund is made up of £85m of new funding from the Treasury and £20m from refocusing existing homelessness and rough sleeping budgets.
The government said the fund will be used to support rough sleepers and those at risk of homelessness into tenancies of their own.
This will include help with deposits for accommodation and securing alternative rooms already available and ready for use, including student accommodation.
The funding is in addition to the ‘Everyone In’ scheme launched in April, which has seen local authorities house rough sleepers in hotels or emergency accommodation during the pandemic.
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Technology
Automated facial recognition technology that searches for people in public places breaches privacy rights and will “radically” alter the way Britain is policed, the court of appeal has been told.
At the opening of a legal challenge against the use by South Wales police of the mass surveillance system, lawyers for the civil rights organisation Liberty argued that it is also racially discriminatory and contrary to data protection laws.
In written submissions to the court, Dan Squires QC, who is acting for Liberty and Ed Bridges, a Cardiff resident, said that the South Wales force had already captured the biometrics of 500,000 faces, the overwhelming majority of whom are not suspected of any wrongdoing.
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Recruitment and Retention
Nearly 70% of BAME police staff say they have suffered racist abuse from the public while carrying out their job, an exclusive ITV News survey has revealed.
The survey of 238 serving black and minority ethnic police staff also found that 45% said they had been racially abused by BAME members of the public.
The figures are believed to be the first which indicate the levels of racism felt by police staff and highlight the shocking levels of abuse they can face.
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Economy & Public Finance
Councils in hard-up areas are more likely to see increases in demand for their services if poorer families are hit harder by the coronavirus crisis, a report warns today.
More deprived communities have populations likely to be more vulnerable to the health and social impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Institute for Fiscal Studies says.
Rates of mental illness are more than 1.5 times higher in the most deprived tenth than the least deprived tenth, and around twice as high in places such as Manchester and Hackney, London, than in Wokingham, Berks – the least deprived council in England.
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Economy & Public Finance
Rishi Sunak is ready to slash VAT and pump billions into the economy as the government prepares to ease social-distancing rules.
The chancellor has ordered officials in the Treasury and HMRC to prepare options to reduce the sales tax, including a cut in the headline rate, and zero rating more products for a fixed period.
In private briefings last week, Treasury officials pointed out that Sunak could lower VAT and business rates at the stroke of a pen when he makes a planned speech on the economy in early July.
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Police Demand
Britain’s biggest police force has carried out the highest number of stop and searches in more than eight years amid concerns of racial profiling.
Scotland Yard says it has increased use of the tactic, despite relatively empty streets during the pandemic, to try to target violent criminals.
Community activists said that black and ethnic minority groups are being unfairly targeted after a number of incidents in which police are accused of having dubious grounds for searches.
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Police Demand
Twenty-five terror plots have been foiled in the UK since the Westminster attack in 2017, a minister has told Sky News.
Security services are currently working on 800 live investigations into potential terrorists, security minister James Brokenshire revealed today.
It comes after three people died and another three were seriously injured in a terror attack in a park in Reading on Saturday evening.
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Police Demand
Lincolnshire Police wrote off 142 rape cases and 3,383 burglaries as unsolved last year.
Ther force logged a total of 20,593 cases as "investigation complete; no suspect identified".
This also included 321 sexual offences, 201 stalking and harassment cases, 51 threats to kill, 32 cases of modern slavery, 3,184 robberies, 5,581 thefts and 3,828 cases of criminal damage and arson.
The county force says it strives to prioritise cases to protect vulnerable people and ensure victims are supported in all it does.
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Recruitment and Retention
In 2016, a major change to police recruitment was announced. From 2020, new officers are supposed to either hold a degree – in policing or another subject – or undertake a three-year degree apprenticeship course at the start of their career.
Naturally, a growing proportion of police officers are graduates. Since Tony Blair set the target of 50 per cent of young people going to university, numbers have been on the rise. The target was met last year for the first time, so the pool of recruits is already more graduate-heavy.
But that is not the same as requiring that new recruits should have to hold or acquire a degree in order to get a warrant card. This was a dramatic change in the definition of a police officer. For the College of Policing, which introduced the new framework, it seemed to be as much about recognition that policing is professional work as about actually delivering better training for officers. In that respect, the decision felt like an extension of Blair’s doctrine, which fetishised the degree certificate in its own right, to the point of emphasising graduate status without necessarily taking into account the value of the qualification.
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Police and Crime General
Dale Semper is a driven man who worked six days a week as a high street bank manager to afford a comfortable lifestyle for himself and his family.
As a black man with an expensive car, he says he was used to being stopped by police.
But in August 2017, he was pulled over by Metropolitan police officers and his life was torn apart – with devastating impact on his job, finances and mental health.
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Recruitment and Retention
CC Skelly, a long-time critic of PEQF [Police Education Qualification Framework] who has taken two judicial reviews against the college, said the concerns he raised in the legal challenges remained.
The challenges have been dismissed, in his words, on a technicality. Part of the basis for concern was that officers would have to be removed from duties for study time - abstraction - which would leave the force short of officers at a time when under-staffing is still an issue.
He has since written to both the Home Secretary and the Shadow Home Secretary asking them not to lay before parliament regulations to mandate change to the entry route.
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Recruitment and Retention
Police forces are dumbing down education standards in a desperate bid to meet Boris Johnson’s pledge to recruit 20,000 extra officers, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
New schemes aimed at fast-tracking graduates and enrolling police officers in on-the-job degrees have been shelved in favour of a ‘blue collar first’ approach.
By last January, all 43 police forces in England and Wales were supposed to ensure that applicants were either graduates or non-graduates who agreed to study for three years to obtain a degree in professional policing.
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Justice
The early freeing from jail of the suspect at the centre of the Reading terror stabbing is likely to raise concerns over the continued use of automatic release on licence at the halfway point in sentences.
Khairi Saadallah, 25, had been jailed in October last year for minor, non-terrorist offences, for which it is understood he would have served half before being released earlier this month.
The Government has already moved to end early release for more serious crimes including terrorism but the vast majority of sentences continue to operate under rules introduced by Labour in 2004 for automatic release halfway through.
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Police Finances
Nearly half a million pounds of additional funding is to be quickly distributed by West Yorkshire PCC to support local charities and organisations supporting victims of domestic and sexual abuse.
The £25m extraordinary Covid19 funding via the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) will be distributed through two separate funds, one through Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and one through the national Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund.
On top of this, PCCs across the country have been given an extra £3million to specifically fund Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) until 2022.
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Technology
London’s Metropolitan Police Force will not reconsider its use of live facial recognition (LFR) technology, despite warnings from civil rights groups it is inaccurate and can encourage discrimination.
Britain’s biggest police force will not reconsider its use of live facial recognition despite tech giants Amazon and Microsoft restricting sale of the software to the US police amid concerns over the controversial technology’s accuracy.
London’s Metropolitan Police Force has been using LFR signposted cameras on the streets of the capital since January in a bid to find wanted criminals more efficiently, despite repeated warnings from civil rights groups that the technology is not fit for purpose.
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Fire
The Government has been warned it still “has a long way to go” to strip all high-rise buildings of dangerous cladding like that which covered Grenfell Tower.
Some 300 buildings are still undergoing work to remove aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding, three years after the west London tower block fire.
A report by independent watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) has found that the Government plans have “lagged behind (their) own expectations” when it comes to stripping all buildings over 18m of their ACM.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK's debt is now worth more than its economy after the government borrowed a record amount in May.
The £55.2bn figure was nine times higher than in May last year and the highest since records began in 1993.
The borrowing splurge sent total government debt surging to £1.95trn, exceeding the size of the economy for the first time in more than 50 years.
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Police and Crime General
Drug offences in England and Wales rose by 27 per cent during the lockdown despite total recorded crime dropping by a quarter.
Criminals adapted their enterprises to the pandemic and the drugs market apparently remained buoyant despite restrictions on movement.
Figures obtained under a freedom of information request showed that thousands more crimes linked to banned substances were recorded by police between March 23 and May 25 than in the same period last year. There was a rise of 11 per cent between January 20 and March 23 compared with a year earlier.
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COVID-19
Crime levels have risen back to pre-coronavirus levels despite the continuing lockdown, a chief constable has said. Across Wales and England, crime fell by 28% during the first weeks of lockdown.
But South Wales Police chief constable Matt Jukes said there had been a surge in the number of domestic abuse cases and violent offences in recent weeks. He said confusion over different lockdown rules in Wales and England had placed an additional burden on police.
Since the start of lockdown, more than 13,000 calls have been made to South Wales Police concerning coronavirus, Mr Jukes told a virtual Swansea University seminar.
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Economy & Public Finance
A record fall in fuel prices, including petrol, pushed the UK's inflation rate down to 0.5% in May, the second full month of the coronavirus lockdown.
Fuel prices declined by 16.7% during the month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, dragging the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) to the lowest level since June 2016.
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Police and Crime General
The government’s policy of making life intolerable for people who are suspected of illegally entering the UK is yet to show that it can persuade them to leave, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has found.
The National Audit Office said that Home Office officials admit that they have no specific evidence to show the “compliant environment” policy – the successor to the “hostile environment” that led to the Windrush scandal – encourages voluntary departures or fosters compliance with visa and passport conditions.
In a report issued on Wednesday, auditors also pointed out that the Home Office has not updated its estimate of the size of the illegal population for 15 years, and that nearly two-thirds of immigration enforcement detainees are released from detention without removal.
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Justice
Britain risks losing real-time access to European criminal databases if it does not strike a comprehensive Brexit deal, peers warned yesterday.
Lord Anderson of Ipswich, the former independent reviewer of terrorism, said that the “legalistic” approach taken in the negotiations so far could deprive the UK of vital intelligence from next year. He told the Lords EU security and justice sub-committee that police in Dover could at present use handheld devices to get real-time information on passengers from the Schengen Information System, allowing suspects to be “questioned before they could simply melt away”.
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Economy & Public Finance
Coronavirus has left a £500m black hole in the capitals' finances, the Mayor of London has revealed.
Sadiq Khan has warned services, including the police and fire brigade, will need to be cut back without a government bailout.
Local authorities across the country face a shortfall of business rate and council tax income caused by the impact of Covid-19, he said.
The mayor will cut his own pay by 10% and freeze pay for his senior staff.
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Justice
Less serious crimes should be tried in crown courts before a judge without a jury in order to tackle the thousands of cases building up during the pandemic crisis, judges have suggested.
The proposal emerged as the justice secretary, Robert Buckland, told MPs that the backlog in the criminal justice system in England and Wales had grown to around 41,000 cases.
There have been various suggestions to deal with the accumulation of untried criminal cases. Only a small proportion of crown courts are sitting, with jurors and court staff often spread out over three courts and linked by video in order to observe physical distancing requirements.
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Police and Crime General
The boss of West Midlands Police has apologised to black communities for things the force "got wrong".
Chief Constable Dave Thompson said he recognised the force was not "free from bias, discrimination or even racism".
Speaking at a police board meeting following the death of George Floyd in the US he said he understood the "anger towards the uniform" more now.
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COVID-19
The balance of protecting public health and returning to economic activity varies from one area to the next, research by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) has found.
In a report that could have wider implications for a localised response to the virus, the IFS found the cost of lockdown could even vary in neighbouring local authories.
Torbay and the Isle of Wight are the areas likely to be hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis, the IFS said, but there is no north-south or urban-rural divide.
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Recruitment and Retention
Specials will now undergo more of the same training given to first-year PC recruits. This means they will not have to repeat the training again, making it more easy, the college says, for them to join as a PC if they wish to do so.
The college said: “It follows extensive work with the Special Constabulary to provide a clear route from SC to PC for forces who wish to adopt it.”
If a special wants to go on to become a PC the college said they may have to undertake some additional assessment to gain academic credits towards the first year of the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (PCDA) or Degree Holder Entry Programme (DHEP). This will depend on their length of service as a special and what roles they have been deployed to.
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Fire
Families that lost their homes in the Grenfell Tower blaze are still waiting for permanent housing three years after the tragedy. More than 200 homes were lost in the blaze on 14 June 2017 that killed 72 in the West London tower and the walk beneath it.
Now figures from Kensington and Chelsea Council show that there are still seven households living in temporary accommodation. There are also said to be around 10 households who used to live in the tower who have since requested to be moved again as they were placed into permanent that was unsuitable.
Around half of these requests have been successful, with the others either unsuccessful or still pending, according to the North Kensington Law Centres (NKLC).
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Police and Crime General
Local councils and retail giants will deploy a small army of “social distancing wardens” on Monday to police crowds as non-essential shops open their doors after almost three months of lockdown.
Councils across the country have hired or redeployed staff to ensure shoppers and retailers comply with social distancing rules. And big chain stores, including Primark, Ikea and John Lewis, have brought in extra security staff.
The councils and retailers hope the wardens will prevent unruly queues as people rush back to clothes, homewares and electrical shops that have been closed since March. More than 1,000 people were reported to have queued outside Ikea warehouse stores, some turning up at 5.30am, when the Swedish chain was allowed to open two weeks ago.
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COVID-19
Boris Johnson has been warned by cabinet ministers to brace himself for unemployment to hit 4.5 million, the highest number since records began, as a poll finds one in three firms is poised to make staff redundant due to the coronavirus.
A survey by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) reveals that 34% of managers are set to lay off staff, with 26% expecting to do so this year.
The findings come before figures this week that are expected to show the worst rise in unemployment since the 1920s.
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Police and Crime General
The coronavirus reproduction rate may have risen above 1 in parts of England, government scientists have said.
Official figures indicate the rate - known as the R number - is between 0.8 and 1.0 across the whole of England. This range is slightly higher than for the entire UK, where it remains between 0.7 and 0.9.
The figure is crucial in guiding the government's gradual relaxation of coronavirus lockdown measures. If the R value is one, each infected person will on average pass COVID-19 on to one other.
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Police and Crime General
Police chiefs will review Taser use amid concerns that black and ethnic minority people are disproportionately affected, The Times has learnt.
Independent researchers will be asked to examine use of the stun guns after a series of controversial incidents involving black men, who are eight times more likely to have a Taser drawn on them by police.
It comes after protesters at Black Lives Matters events cited racial bias by police and Neil Basu, national head of counterterrorism, acknowledged the disproportionate representation of young black men in the criminal justice system.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK's economy shrank by 20.4% in April - the largest monthly contraction on record - as the country spent its first full month in lockdown.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the "historic" fall affected virtually all areas of activity.
The contraction is three times greater than the decline seen during the whole of the 2008 to 2009 economic downturn.
But analysts said April was likely to be the worst month, as the government began easing the lockdown in May.
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Police and Crime General
Councils are concerned about rising community tensions in the wake of Covid-19 amid fears that further inequalities caused by a prolonged recession will provide “fertile territory for extremists”.
The concerns come as the death of George Floyd in the US and the higher Covid-19 death rate among BAME communities in the UK has sparked protests over racial inequality across the world.
Several councils have reported concerns to the Local Government Association about simmering community tensions and how this will play out as the country emerges from lockdown.
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Police and Crime General
People living in the poorest areas of England and Wales have been twice as likely to die from Covid-19 as those in less deprived areas, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The analysis reveals the disproportionate impact of the death toll in some places, with London boroughs with high levels of socioeconomic deprivation particularly hard hit.
The figures covering March to May show that people living in the poorest 10% of England died at a rate of 128.3 per 100,000, compared with a rate of 58.8 per 100,000 among those living in the wealthiest 10% of the country.
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Police and Crime General
The two-metre social distancing rule can be abandoned by businesses reopening after lockdown if they introduce other measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus, Government scientists have told ministers.
Following a political backlash against the two-metre rule, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) published a paper on Friday which set out protocols – such as regular breaks, and getting workers to sit side by side – that would make it much safer for people to be within one metre of each other.
Over the past few days, officials have begun discreetly contacting business groups to ask whether they would object to it being watered down, The Telegraph understands.
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Police and Crime General
The introduction of a citizens’ basic income in Scotland would require a “massive fiscal effort” by taxpayers to fund a substantial reduction in poverty, according to new analysis.
The scheme – under which every individual is offered a regular, unconditional payment – had the potential to lead to an unprecedented fall in inequality and poverty, the research found but it could also lead to a 15% reduction in the size of the economy if people moved out of Scotland in response to the income tax hikes required to fund it.
The concept of a basic income has been gathering political support north of the border, winning the backing of first minister Nicola Sturgeon and gaining further momentum as the economic fallout of the pandemic becomes clear.
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COVID-19
Some high-risk offenders in England and Wales may not have been monitored as closely as they should have been during the lockdown, a report suggests.
An internal Ministry of Justice document shows probation staff did not carry out all the planned checks in half of cases, in one four-week period.
Emergency plans were drawn up for most offenders to be contacted by telephone or visited on their doorstep. But, according to the MoJ document seen by BBC News, in the four weeks to May 17, only 51% of high-risk offenders under supervision had all the contact that had been planned for.
[ more...]
Technology
Amazon is to suspend police use of its facial recognition software for a year to allow governments to put in place “stronger regulations” governing use of the technology.
The Seattle-based company said its decision followed concerns about the “ethical use” of facial recognition technology.
Amazon’s announcement came a day after IBM’s decision to stop offering “general purpose facial recognition or analysis software” amid worries over mass surveillance and racial profiling.
And Microsoft has also said it will limit the use of its facial recognition technology by police. It says it will not “start sales” to US police departments until national regulations are in place, “grounded in human rights”, that govern use of the technology.
However, Amazon said it would continue to allow organisations such as the anti-child sex trafficking agency Thorn and the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children to use its ‘Rekognition’ technology to “help rescue human trafficking victims and reunite missing children with their families”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police will not protect statues from protesters if it would put officers or the public at risk of harm, senior officers have said.
The toppling of a slave trader’s statue in Bristol has sparked a wave of activity across Britain, and clashes are feared this weekend after right-wing groups vowed to “defend” selected memorials against Black Lives Matter demonstrators.
Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington, the national lead for public disorder, said local police commanders would decide whether to intervene depending on the circumstances.
[ more...]
COVID-19
More than 17,000 fines for alleged breaches of coronavirus lockdown laws have been issued in England and Wales.
People have been fined by the police for driving with others not from their household, holding house parties, meeting in large groups and camping.
But the number of fines has fallen as restrictions have eased.
[ more...]
Prisons
The government has scrapped plans to let private firms run behaviour programmes and unpaid work schemes for offenders in England and Wales.
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said the "disruption" caused by coronavirus had led ministers to "reassess" their involvement.
He added that renationalising the services would give ministers "greater flexibility" during the crisis.
Labour said involving private firms was a "mistake" and welcomed the "u-turn".
[ more...]
Police Finances
Efforts are being made to head off the possibility of clashes between Black Lives Matters activists and far-right demonstrators in London this Saturday, as anti-racism activists gear up for another weekend of protests.
Black Lives Matters organisers said they had decided to call off a planned protest at Hyde Park at 1pm on Saturday, warning that “many hate groups” were threatening the safety of those planning to come.
“We want the protests to be a safe space for people to attend,” a post from the BLM LDN organisers said. “However, we don’t think it will be possible with people like them present.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The next time you hear of a heavy police presence, things may not be as they seem.
Chief Superintendent Lucy Hutson, of Hampshire police, has disclosed that two thirds of her officers are obese or overweight. She made the claim in an email raising concerns at the associated health risks.
The force said the figures were in line with national obesity statistics and a large number of its officers were heavier because they had a lot of muscle.
Annual fitness tests became compulsory for police officers in England and Wales in 2014 after a national review.
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Police and Crime General
One of the country’s leading police officers has defended his decision to “take the knee” as it emerged that Scotland Yard had ordered officers policing protests not to kneel.
Alan Pughsley, the chief constable of Kent, is believed to be the first top-ranking officer to make the gesture of solidarity since protests began.
Images and video emerged yesterday of Mr Pughsley kneeling at a community event of more than 50 people last week in Gravesend, Kent.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Riots could break out across the UK this summer as the effects of the coronavirus pandemic take hold, a scientific adviser to the Government has warned.
Professor Clifford Stott said there is a risk of disorder on a scale last seen during the London riots in August 2011 – sparked by the police shooting of Mark Duggan – if urgent efforts are not made by forces to quell any potential unrest in the neighbourhoods they serve.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Football supporters and far-right extremists have vowed to counter Black Lives Matter protests and keep vigil around war memorials and statues.
Officers fear a “perfect storm” as hundreds of fans attached to “firms” at various football clubs have begun planning counterprotests after a video plea from Tommy Robinson, the former English Defence League leader.
Yesterday a memorial to Queen Victoria in a park in Leeds was defaced with the word “murderer”, and Millwall fans spent the afternoon guarding the Churchill statue in Parliament Square.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Modern slavery victims are being deported to countries where they are at high risk of further exploitation because the Home Office is relying on a flawed interpretation of evidence, lawyers and researchers have warned.
Guidance used by caseworkers to assess whether people trafficked to the UK can be sent back to Vietnam or Albania – the two most common nationalities for modern slavery victims in Britain – is “significantly misleading” about the risks, one told The Independent.
The situation has “horrendous human consequences” if trafficking victims are refused asylum and returned to countries where they are unlikely to receive adequate protection.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The proposed change would see serial domestic abuse and stalking offenders registered and monitored in the same way as other serious violent and sexual offenders.
The amendment would require offenders to be registered on VISOR, the Dangerous Persons Database, and subject to monitoring and management through MAPPA (Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements).
It has been tabled by Yvette Cooper, chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee, and has the support of Caroline Nokes, chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee, Harriet Harman, chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, and Labour MP Rosie Duffield.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The mayors of Liverpool and Manchester have urged the Government to provide funds for ‘humanitarian assistance’ during local lockdowns as figures suggest COVID-19 is spreading.
Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said they were ‘disappointed’ at the lack of consultation on lockdown relaxations in a joint letter to the Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The mayors also said ‘significant support’ will be required in any local lockdown proposals, including a local furlough scheme. ‘The Government urgently needs to provide more policy detail to local authorities on the proposal for local lockdowns,’ they write.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Senior councillors from both major parties are calling for councils to be freed from the pressure of having to balance budgets on an annual basis, as the scale of the financial impact of Covid-19 becomes clear.
Figures released by the LGA last week showed the sector is facing a shortfall of £6bn between the financial impact of Covid-19 and £3.2bn emergency funding received from government.
Councils are facing a double whammy of increased costs as a result of new demands for services and lost income from fees and charges as well as council tax and business rates.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
A group of MPs have called on the Government to provide further details on its proposed Shared Prosperity Fund.
The MPs have warned that no details have been published yet about the fund, which is due to replace the European Structural and Investment Fund (ESI) at the start of 2021.
The chairs of the Housing, Communities and Local Government, and Northern Ireland, Scottish, and Welsh Affairs Committees have called for answers on potential timetabling and whether the cost of the Covid-19 crisis will be reflected in financial allocations.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson has issued a statement over recent protests in the UK, America and across the world about the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer.
Thousands of people attended a march in London on Saturday to protest at Floyd’s death but also highlight wider issues of racial inequality and discriminatory policing.
The statement he said: “The death of George Floyd took place thousands of miles away – in another country, under another jurisdiction – and yet we simply cannot ignore the depth of emotion that has been triggered by that spectacle, of a black man losing his life at the hands of the police.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Sunday trading laws will be suspended for a year and cafés and pubs will be given fast-track approval to serve food and drink outside under plans to boost the economy.
Downing Street is drawing up a package of measures in response to mounting concern that Britain will face mass unemployment as it emerges from the coronavirus lockdown.
The government is preparing legislation that will enable larger supermarkets to open for more than six hours on Sundays. Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s chief adviser, are said to be in favour of the move, which is also being pushed by Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, and Alok Sharma, the business secretary.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Planning powers could be shifted from local authorities to development corporations as part of an economic stimulus package to be announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson later this month.
A panel of experts has been put together by communities secretary Robert Jenrick to advise on changing planning laws that will create a zonal system, transferring powers to development corporations and speeding up permission for infrastructure building, according to reports.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Campaigners have threatened to bring legal action against the government for not providing free school meal vouchers during the summer.
Normally children only get free meals from school during term-time but eligible pupils received food vouchers over Easter as the country coped with the Covid crisis.
The Department for Education said the scheme will not continue in the summer holidays but campaigners say children in vulnerable families will go hungry. They have written to the Department of Education threatening to bring a judicial review of the decision.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police turned away more than 1,000 cars from one beauty spot in just two days for breaching lockdown rules.
Dyfed-Powys Police said many people officers spoke to in the Brecon Beacons were from England who said they did not know about Wales' different rules. People in England can travel an unlimited distance from home. In Wales it is limited to five miles.
The force said many of those stopped at the weekend claimed they thought the rules in Wales were the same as in England and came from as far afield as London and the Midlands.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police officers with coronavirus symptoms are to have their own test and trace unit to safeguard their confidential sources, information and methods.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) is proposing to set up a special “outbreak team” within Public Health England (PHE) where vetted staff would deal with cases involving highly sensitive information that could compromise investigations if leaked.
It is envisaged the new guidelines will affect undercover officers, detectives investigating sensitive crimes, National Crime Agency (NCA) officers pursuing organised crime gangs and counter-terror specialists.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A former Treasury director has been nominated to become the next chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the public finances watchdog.
Richard Hughes is a former director of the Treasury fiscal group and was previously acting chief economist.
Once his appointment is ratified by the Treasury Committee, Mr Hughes will take over from Robert Chote, the OBR’s first and only chair since 2010, when it was created by then chancellor George Osborn
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
In mid-May, a government document leaked to the Daily Telegraph estimated the cost of government measures to support firms and bolster health and social care services in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Treasury predicted that the UK’s deficit – the amount it needs to borrow to balance the books – is likely to reach £337bn this year.
This would be more than six times the £55bn predicted in the March Budget and the highest level since the Second World War. Officials believe the deficit could rise to £516bn in the worst scenario.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Court hearings held remotely in lockdown disadvantage vulnerable people and should not be used longer term, lawyers and charities have said.
Since the pandemic broke earlier this year, the number of virtual hearings held in England and Wales has increased five-fold but family law practitioners said video and phone calls were not suitable for some sensitive cases.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, so-called "priority courts" have remained open for urgent cases that could not be conducted over video link or phone, but other hearings, such as cases over guardianship of children, have been carried out remotely.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Clashes between police and protesters marred mainly peaceful London demonstrations in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
The day of action following the death of George Floyd in the US passed largely without incident, as thousands of people flooded into the centre of the capital.
Activists chanted "black lives matter" and "we will not be silent" at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, before tensions escalated when the demonstration moved to outside Downing Street.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
West Suffolk Council prevented 299 fraudulent single-person Council Tax discounts last year – resulting in a saving of £240,362, according to figures from the authority.
The council’s billing, collection and debt recovery is administered by the Anglia Revenues Partnership, a service provider which works on behalf of five local authorities including West Suffolk – and the authority has been working with ARP to enhance its fraud-prevention measures.
The local authority also said its fraud and compliance teams are now reviewing all newly awarded single-person discounts, to confirm that customers are still entitled to the discount.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Paedophile hunting groups have seen a five-fold increase in the number of sex offenders trying to make contact with children online since the lockdown.
Several groups have told Sky News that the decoys they use to pose as underage girls and boys in online chat rooms, are being messaged up to 200 times a day by adults.
It comes as police chiefs warn of a likely increase in vigilante action against suspected sex offenders once the lockdown is lifted.
[ more...]
Fire
Thousands of staff from UK Fire and Rescue Services will continue to support the NHS, ambulance services, local authorities and other vital organisations in the fight against COVID-19, following extensive negotiations.
The talks, spanning a number of days, agreed that fire services will remain at the heart of the response to COVID-19 and continue to carry out agreed activities. The agreement was reached between the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), the National Employer and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU).
This means COVID-related activities such as assisting care homes, helping with testing, driving ambulances, face fitting masks for the NHS/clinical staff and supporting the most vulnerable through deliveries will continue to take place until at least July 26th.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A third police force in the UK is set to be run by women after Deputy Chief Constable Jo Shiner was nominated to become Sussex chief constable.
She will work alongside Katy Bourne, the Sussex police and crime commissioner (PCC), if the appointment is confirmed this month.
Both the Met Police and North Yorkshire force have women in the posts of chief constable and police commissioner.
[ more...]
Prisons
MPs have been warned it is “unacceptable” that children in young offenders institutions are still being locked up for in excess of 22 hours a day, 10 weeks after lockdown.
Many of them have had no access to face-to-face education during that time, the justice select committee hearing on the impact of Covid-19 on the youth justice system was told.
The custody estate should have moved more swiftly, and there are now real concerns that young offenders, who had initially accepted the restrictions placed on them, would lose patience if they see changes to lockdown in the community, but no relaxation of regimes in YOIs.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police have shut down almost 90 “county lines” phone numbers that were used to deal drugs from London across the country in a national crackdown.
Officers are targeting senior “controllers” who operate branded phone lines to sell their product, and then organise distribution of heroin and crack cocaine to smaller cities and towns.
Children and vulnerable people are frequently used as couriers, and the model has been linked to increases in knife carrying and violence across Britain.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Drug gangs have been on a "recruitment drive" during lockdown, targeting vulnerable children and increasingly girls, according to a report.
They are being groomed to carry drugs, because they are unknown to police, the National Youth Agency says.
And social media and "unsafe outdoor spaces" are being used to recruit them.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Suspects are being held in police custody more than 50 per cent longer on average than they were a decade ago, according to a report published today.
The charity Transform Justice warns that too often detention is authorised automatically by custody officers despite police guidance stating that it should be a last resort.
The average length of time that those who have been arrested spend in police custody before being charged or released on bail or under investigation has risen from nine hours to 14 hours, the report says.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
The College of Policing has confirmed it will be delivering officer exams ‘virtually’ through an online platform from September.
Changes to the exam format will also be made to ensure it is “appropriate for this new method of delivery”.
“Covid-19 has had an unprecedented impact on the delivery of this year’s National Police Promotion Framework (NPPF) Step Two Legal Exams and the National Investigators’ Exam (NIE),” said the college. “This has affected the ability of forces to promote and progress their officers into supervisory and investigative roles.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Fake contact tracers may try to visit people's homes, the City of London Police force has warned.
The force, which oversees financial fraud cases, said the Government's test and trace scheme could see scammers trying to con people while impersonating NHS tracers.
It said Government tracers would only be contacting people via phone calls and text messages, and not in person.
The warning comes after the Government launched its test and trace system last week. The system sees 25,000 tracers contacting people who have tested positive for coronavirus and those with whom they have had close contact.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The political, economic and social consequences of the pandemic are only just beginning, writes the director of LSE London.
Local government has performed well in the months since Covid-19 engulfed all aspects of British public and private life. Councils have maintained a full range of public provision in the neighbourhoods where 67 million people have overwhelmingly been required to remain on lockdown since late March.
There is no evidence of any reduction in the quality of street services, parks, refuse collection, roads maintenance, children’s social care or public health. Care for older people has faced problems, but these have occurred because of the failure of successive governments to fund the service properly.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Thousands of people gathered in central London on Sunday as the protests in American cities spread to the UK.
The protesters were supporting Americans angry about violence suffered by black people at the hands of police in the US, a feeling galvanised by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis earlier this month.
Demonstrators ignored social distancing rules as they gathered at Trafalgar Square and marched to the US Embassy, where a long line of police surrounded the building.
[ more...]
Fire
Residents of a Manchester tower block facing bills of thousands of pounds to fix dangerous cladding have been dealt “a massive blow” after finding out they are ineligible to apply for the government’s new £1bn building safety fund.
The fund, which was officially launched on Tuesday, excludes remediation work that started before 11 March, the day the fund was announced as part of the spring budget.
A leaseholder at Skyline Central in Manchester, where work to remove the cladding and fix other fire safety issues started in November and is nearing completion, said: “When they announced the fund it was a massive relief because we thought this was all over. So to find out a few days ago that it is not applicable to work that’s already started is a massive blow.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police forces across the world are warning that criminals and paedophiles are using the coronavirus lockdown to target children. Data gathered by the BBC reveals demand for abuse imagery has shot up.
Reports of obscene online material more than doubled globally to more than four million between March and April. The US-based Center for Missing and Exploited Children said some of that rise related to one especially horrific and widely-circulated video.
In the UK, where 300,000 people are considered a threat to children, there were nearly nine million attempts in the last month to access child sexual abuse websites which had been previously blocked by the Internet Watch Foundation.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The police watchdog has promised to investigate allegations of racially motivated brutality by England’s second biggest force.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said that it was carrying out nine “full, fair and thorough” inquiries into officers at West Midlands police over use of force on black men.
The investigations are connected to six incidents in Birmingham, including claims black men were wrongly tasered by a rogue officer, the watchdog said.
[ more...]
COVID-19
There could be a significant increase in violent crime fuelled by gang rivalries on social media which may spill on to the streets when lockdown rules are lifted, a senior police officer has warned.
John Apter, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said social media sites "have been a breeding ground" for gangs to taunt each other.
"We are very much aware of the pressure cooker that has developed when it comes to gang members who want to create mayhem when this lockdown is eased," he said.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The government's coronavirus contact tracing site crashed on launch this morning amid complaints it has been a 'complete shambles'.
Doctors and other staff reported major teething troubles as the much-trumpeted scheme finally got up and running, with some saying they had not even received passwords to start work.
Meanwhile, NHS chiefs have warned that 'key bits' of the system are not yet operational and it cannot be described as 'world class'.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police are “retreating” from lockdown enforcement and will now only break up large gatherings.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) have told ministers that most lockdown issues are now a “personal and moral responsibility” rather than a policing issue, The Times has learnt.
Kathryn Holloway, the Conservative Bedfordshire police and crime commissioner and APCC spokeswoman for civil contingencies, wrote to fellow commissioners on Tuesday and said the government had accepted that police had “retreated” to engaging, explaining and encouraging rather than enforcing the lockdown.
[ more...]
Fire
Salford City Council has revised a deal with a property management organisation to remove dangerous cladding from nine tower blocks in the city.
Deputy mayor John Merry signed the agreement at a cabinet meeting earlier this week, after a previous proposal was rejected by the government.
Pendleton Together, a subsidiary of housing association Together Housing, estimates that the cost of the work is around £32m, which it would fund under the proposed deal, a council report said.
[ more...]
Technology
Drug dealers have shifted from street-level dealing to online sales during the coronavirus pandemic, according to new research.
Listings for illegal drugs on the dark web – a hidden section of the internet that is only accessible with specialist software – surged by 495 per cent in recent months, as lockdowns forced dealers to seek alternative ways of distributing their products.
Cannabis postings on illicit marketplaces grew by 555 per cent, while postings for MDMA jumped by 224 per cent.
[ more...]
COVID-19
People are breaking lockdown rules and using the actions of Boris Johnson's special adviser - Dominic Cummings - as an excuse, a senior police commissioner has said.
David Jamieson, the West Midlands police and crime commissioner, said members of the public were telling officers "if it is okay for Cummings, it is okay for us".
Mr Cummings has been accused of breaching coronavirus lockdown rules by travelling 260 miles with his wife and child from London to Durham, then making a 30-mile trip to Barnard Castle - which he claims he did to check if he was fit to drive.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Future "flare-ups" of coronavirus infections could lead to localised lockdown measures, the health secretary has said.
Matt Hancock revealed stricter social distancing measures could be introduced in certain areas in future as part of the NHS "test and trace" system for continuing to suppress the spread of COVID-19.
"We will have local lockdowns in future where there are flare-ups," he said at the daily Downing Street coronavirus briefing on Tuesday.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Young drivers are seeking solitude in their cars during the coronavirus lockdown, a new survey suggests.
Some 30 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 have escaped their household by finding an excuse to go for a drive, an AA poll of 18,000 motorists indicated.
The vast majority (84 per cent) of respondents aged 18-24 said they have taken action of some sort to give themselves space away from people they live with, compared with an average across all age ranges of 62 per cent.
[ more...]
COVID-19
A nationwide rise in assaults on emergency workers may be due to a new trend in criminals spitting on officers during the coronavirus outbreak, police have said.
New data published this week showed a 14 per cent rise in attacks in the month leading up to May 10 compared to the same period last year. The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) for England and Wales suggested the rise is driven by ‘common assaults on police constables, including suspects spitting on officers while claiming to be infected with Covid-19.’ It said the figures were surprising given that most assaults on emergency workers tend to be alcohol-fuelled incidents that have otherwise fallen with the closing of Britain’s nightlife. Overall crime fell a staggering 25 per cent, with every other category of offences showing a fall in figures.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers are still required to pay while NHS staff, ambulance staff and care workers exempt from the charge, a decision which the Federation has called “inexcusable”.
The charge was re-introduced on Monday 18 May at £11.50. It applies seven days a week and will rise from to £15 on 22 June with extended hours from 7am to 10pm. The Federation have estimated it could cost officers over £300 a month.
The letter – jointly sent from Met Federation Chairman Ken Marsh and City Police Federation Mike Reed – reads: “The Police Officers we represent have without hesitation performed their duty as asked of them by the Government to support the wellbeing of the public and limit the spread of this deadly virus.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Police Federation has called more for more help to protect mental health, as a quarter of police officers worldwide drink to “hazardous” levels, according to a new University College London study.
The research, published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, revealed that one-in-seven police officers worldwide meet the criteria for post traumatic stress disorder and depression.
John Apter, National Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: "The Government should do more to protect police officers both physically and mentally.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Charitable and community organisations across the Thames Valley can now apply for funding to support them in helping victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
The Ministry of Justice funding, which has been announced this week as £814,000 for the Thames Valley area, is available to charities, charitable incorporated organisations, company limited by guarantee, community interest and social enterprise organisations who have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and who support victims of this type of abuse.
Anthony Stansfeld, Police and Crime Commissioner for the Thames Valley, said: “We’re delighted to be able to help charitable organisations with further funding in response to this pandemic. We know that the lockdown will mean that there could be increases in cases of domestic abuse and sexual violence which, of course, is extremely concerning.
[ more...]
COVID-19
South Wales Police & Crime Commissioner Alun Michael is asking everyone in our communities - family, friends, neighbours, postal workers, delivery drivers - to act as eyes and ears for our children during the Covid-19 pandemic, and to alert their local safeguarding team or the police if they believe a child is being neglected, experiencing abuse, or is at risk of harm.
Lockdown has reduced the opportunity for young people to let someone know what is happening at home. The usual referral routes such as schools and nurseries are closed, resulting in a decrease of about 40% in cases being brought to the attention of police and partner agencies.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Maximum penalties in Wales for breaching lockdown will rise to £1,920, the Welsh Government has confirmed. First Minister Mark Drakeford has faced calls to raise the penalties to deter breaches.
Initial fixed penalties will stay the same at £60, but will double for each time someone is caught but the police and crime commissioner (PCC) for Dyfed-Powys Police said the changes to penalties do not go far enough.
PCCs had been pushing for tougher penalties, amid claims Wales' tougher restrictions are more difficult to enforce when they were lower than in England.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A specific phrase could be used to alert shop workers, who have been trained to identify the key words, the Home Office said.
The codeword scheme is set to be discussed at the virtual Hidden Harms Summit, which is to be hosted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson today (May 21). Representatives from the National Crime Agency (NCA), National Police Chiefs’ Council, the children’s, domestic abuse, anti-slavery and victims’ commissioners and leaders from domestic abuse and children’s charities, including the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), Refuge and Women’s Aid, are among those who are set to attend.
Mr Johnson said: “I am acutely aware that for some people home is not a safe space, and that coronavirus has brought with it additional dangers.”
[ more...]
COVID-19
Benefit officials have told the BBC they fear that as much as £1.5bn may have been lost in fraudulent claims for Universal Credit in recent weeks.
Huge demand for the benefit has seen some processes relaxed to ensure the majority of claims are paid quickly but officials believe that some organised crime groups - as well as individuals - may have taken advantage of the system.
While officials are keen to emphasise that the vast majority of claims came from genuine applicants, especially in the initial surge, they fear the looser checks have opened the door to individuals and some organised crime groups exploiting the system.
[ more...]
Technology
The programme, which works with 30 forces across England and Wales, was targeted by a phishing attack – aimed at stealing people’s data – between April 30 and May 5.
Candidates who applied to its graduate detective scheme were told that an email pretending to be from Police Now had been sent, asking people to click on a link suspected to be “malicious”.
The registered charity, which has received millions of pounds in Government funding, said a single inquiry mailbox was compromised, but other systems, including those used to submit applications, were not affected.
[ more...]
Justice
Terrorists face at least 14 years in prison for serious offences and up to 25 years of monitoring when they are released, in changes to sentencing after the London Bridge and Streatham attacks.
Those only suspected of involvement in terrorism could have indefinite restrictions on their movements, a proposal likely to start a battle with civil liberties campaigners.
Judges would be able to give tougher sentences to people convicted of non-terrorist offences considered to be linked to terrorism, such as fraud or firearms offences. Adult terrorists would be made to take lie-detector tests as part of licence conditions on release from prison, and automatic early release for serious offenders given extended fixed-term sentences will end.
[ more...]
Justice
Court orders restricting the movements of suspected terrorists could be renewed indefinitely under new legislation unveiled by the government.
The bill would lower the standard of proof to impose the orders, known as TPims, and remove the current two-year limit that applies to them.
Suspects would also have to register all electronic devices at their home address.
[ more...]
Technology
Supercomputers across Britain and the world have been hacked by criminals trying to mine for cryptocurrency.
At least a dozen of the supercomputers, many of which were being used for coronavirus-forecasting models and to help develop a vaccine, have shut down. This includes the £43 million Archer supercomputer at the University of Edinburgh, which can perform a million billion calculations a second and was used for modelling on the pandemic.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A Europe-wide network to share best practice on policing the coronavirus crisis has been established by a professor from the University of South Wales (USW).
Professor Christian Kaunert, director of the International Centre for Policing and Security at USW, has joined forces with almost 50 other people across Europe to create the interdisciplinary network.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A statement from Police Federation Chair, John Apter, thanking Special Constables for their service during the Coronavirus crisis.
[ more...]
Technology
Wide-ranging security flaws have been flagged in the Covid-19 contact-tracing app being piloted in the Isle of Wight.
The security researchers involved have warned the problems pose risks to users' privacy and could be abused to prevent contagion alerts being sent.
GCHQ's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) told the BBC it was already aware of most of the issues raised and is in the process of addressing them.
[ more...]
COVID-19
More than half a million people have accessed online training that aims to prevent suicide in the last three weeks alone, a charity has said.
The Zero Suicide Alliance said 503,000 users completed its online course during lockdown. It aims to help spot the signs that a person may need help. It comes as health leaders warned front-line workers tackling coronavirus could suffer from mental ill health.
The NHS Clinical Leaders Network warned of the possible impact of the pandemic on the mental health of front-line and other workers.
The group wrote in a paper released on Monday that past outbreaks show "we can expect notable increases in mental ill health and related issues for front-line workers as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic".
[ more...]
Fire
The government has backed away from its pledge to have Grenfell-style cladding removed from tall buildings by next month, with the dangerous material remaining on hundreds of buildings.
In July last year, James Brokenshire, then communities secretary, said in a written statement he expected all remediation work to be finished by June 2020 and warned building owners should “expect enforced action” if they did not meet the deadline.
A spokesperson for the government did not say whether it would be able to uphold the pledge and said “remediation work takes time and must be done safely and properly”.
[ more...]
Prisons
Prisoners with coronavirus symptoms have been prevented from showering or doing exercise for up to 14 days, a new report from the prison watchdog has revealed.
The Prison Inspectorate said tightened restrictions in three large men’s local prisons meant inmates were often out of their cells for only 30 minutes per day, while those who were symptomatic had sometimes gone weeks without showering or exercising.
Phil Copple, director general of prisons, said: “In the face of extraordinary challenges, staff at these three prisons have worked hard to protect the men in their care and the wider public. I am pleased this has been recognised by the inspectorate.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police in some parts of the country are handing out up to 26 times more coronavirus lockdown fines than officers in others amid a “postcode lottery” of enforcement, figures reveal.
Analysis by The Independent shows stark differences between neighbouring forces, leaving people 10 times more likely to be fined in North Yorkshire than Humberside, or in Northamptonshire than Warwickshire.
But campaigners said the figures showed a “worrying postcode lottery of policing” that must be addressed urgently after fines were increased to £100 in England.
[ more...]
Police Finances
COUNTY crime chiefs are offering thousands of pounds in support to help communities in Hampshire and Dorset get through the coronavirus crisis.
The funding pots from Hampshire and Dorset’s police and crime commissioners are open to services which help protect victims and support those vulnerable to crime, and those which work with offenders to reduce demand on hard-pressed providers.
Hampshire’s PCC, Michael Lane, has set up a £500,000 Covid-19 Response Fund to help tackle issues directly linked to the pandemic, including domestic abuse, missing children, hate crime, cyber-crime and the vulnerability of older people and exploitation of youngsters.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Chief constables and police and crime commissioners in Wales want fines issued for breaching lockdown rules to be the same as England. Fines in Wales are £60 but now start at £100 in England.
In a letter to the first minister, they said there has been "cross-border confusion" and more people travelling into Wales for exercise where rules are different.
In Wales, people have to exercise close to home, whereas those in England can travel further afield, although they have been advised to avoid Wales for the time being.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Stop-and-search powers were used more than 30,000 times in London last month, the highest level in seven years.
Scotland Yard has markedly increased its use of stop and search, despite relatively empty streets during the lockdown, in an attempt to catch violent criminals.
However, the present arrest rate following stop and search is half that of 2015, when the number of searches was about a third the number carried out now, a statistic that will renew concerns about use of the controversial tactic.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Judges’ summer holidays could be cancelled and magistrates required to sit at weekends to help clear the backlog of cases from the coronavirus lockdown.
Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, has been working with ministers and senior officials on new measures to help clear the backlog of 37,000 crown court cases and nearly 300,000 magistrates cases.
The traditional judicial two-month Summer recess - which largely affects the appeal and higher courts - could be axed while evening and weekend magistrates hearings - which have been trialled in Medway, Kent - are likely to be extended throughout the country, according to legal sources.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Beaches, country parks and beauty spots across England were busy on Wednesday as people were allowed to drive as far as they wished to exercise for the first time since the coronavirus lockdown was initiated, with police saying it may become more difficult to enforce the new regulations.
Despite pleas from local authorities, public health chiefs and even tourist bosses for people to stay away from visitor hotspots, routes to coastlines and countryside were congested.
Julian German, leader of Cornwall council, said that as far as he was concerned, the county remained shut to visitors. He expressed concern over the lack of clarity from the UK government. He said: “I find it amazing that the government is telling people they cannot see their close family members due to the risk of spreading the virus, but is also telling them they are fine to drive hundreds of miles for a day out.”
[ more...]
Technology
Members of the public have been alerted to a scam in which fraudsters use a bogus version of the UK contact-tracing app being trialled on the Isle of Wight.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) said it had evidence of a phishing scam that uses a text message to try to fool people into believing they have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus.
Huge rise in fake goods and scams amid coronavirus lockdown, say UK councils
Trials of the NHS contact-tracing app are under way on the Isle of Wight, ahead of a rollout across the rest of the country later this month.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The lockdown could help teenagers caught up in drug violence turn their lives around, an experienced inner-city youth worker says.
The stay-at-home rules had led many to reflect in a "profound" way on their risky lifestyles, Mahamed Hashi, from south London, told BBC News.
The National Crime Agency said crime gangs and dealers had been forced on to the back foot by the pandemic.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Rishi Sunak today extended the government's massive coronavirus bailout to October.
The Chancellor said the multi-billion pound subsidy, which had been due to end next month, will stay in place for four more months, and it will still cover 80 per cent of wages up to a ceiling of £2,500 a month.
With concerns the scheme is costing £14billion a month - roughly equivalent to the NHS budget - Mr Sunak also told the Commons that from July it will be available for workers who go back part-time, in a bid to 'wean' businesses off the support.
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COVID-19
Police leaders have been told by the Home Office they will only be expected to intervene in large gatherings after they warned that the new rules could make lockdown impossible to police.
Police chiefs said the relaxation of the regulations allowing unlimited exercise, the freedom to travel any distances to open spaces and socially-distanced meetings outside would be unenforceable in full.
It followed a bank holiday weekend of hot weather when daytrippers travelled to beauty spots, friends crowded into parks and socially-distanced street parties spilled into houses after briefings about the prospective relaxation of the rules.
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COVID-19
Jury trials will resume under physical distancing restrictions in a limited number of crown courts in England and Wales from 18 May, the lord chief justice has announced.
Lord Burnett of Maldon said the first courts where fresh juries would be sworn in will include the Old Bailey in London and Cardiff crown court.
Special arrangements to maintain the safety of lawyers, court staff and the jury have been agreed with the Ministry of Justice in line with Public Health England and Public Health Wales guidelines.
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Recruitment and Retention
The final group of candidates hoping to become inspectors with the Metropolitan Police will be interviewed on Friday following online tests.
National sergeant exams are still scheduled for the traditional date of the second week in October, the College of Policing has confirmed. It followed the decision in March by the College to cancel the Spring exams the night before candidates were due to sit them.
Forces that urgently needed to fill posts or had already started selection procedures for sergeants have promoted some candidates that had already passed the Part One exam.
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Police Finances
Home Secretary Priti Patel was urged to guarantee tens of millions of pounds for police recruitment today amid fears cash has been diverted to help the fight against coronavirus.
The Conservative minister faced calls to replace £84million to ease pressures on forces in the Covid-19 battle – cash which had been earmarked to boost officer numbers.
A letter from Policing Minister Kit Malthouse sent to Chief Constable David Thompson – the National Police Chiefs Council's finance coordination committee chairman - suggested money would be stripped out of the recruitment pot.
It indicated a ring-fence for half the £168million planned for recruiting extra constables will be removed and “repurposed” to allow it to be spent on pressures linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Police and Crime General
The poverty and hopelessness that fuel violence have worsened during the coronavirus lockdown and offending will increase unless the government finds more money to thwart a crime rise, Sadiq Khan has said.
The mayor of London has demanded the prime minister spearhead efforts to stop a rise in offending that police around the country have raised fears about as relaxed lockdown restrictions allow more people back on to the streets.
Khan said there was a “proven link” between rising poverty, increasing deprivation, increasing mental health problems and rises in serious violence.
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Police and Crime General
Police officers in Scotland can be tested for coronavirus if they fear an attack has put them at risk of the disease — even if they display no symptoms.
Ash Denham, community safety minister, said that there was “no barrier to accessing testing”, though officers would first have to contact Police Scotland’s HR department to determine if checking them was appropriate.
Alexander Stewart, the Conservative MSP, pressed the minister on the issue in Holyrood, and said: “Unfortunately some officers report being spat at and coughed at in a disgusting attempt to spread coronavirus.”
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COVID-19
People in England can meet another person from outside their household as long as they are outside and stay 2m apart, the government has confirmed.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said people should "use some common sense" and cannot visit others at their home.
The new rule is part of a 50-page guidance document to be published by the government later. On Sunday, Boris Johnson announced a "conditional plan" to begin lifting England's coronavirus lockdown.
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COVID-19
Police and Crime Commissioners have sought clarifications from Policing minister Kit Malthouse in a conference call yesterday which took place as the government published a 60-page document detailing new rights for the public to be able to travel, exercise and meet people.
Chief Constables and PCCs are concerned that they will be scapegoated if there is an increase in deaths as a result of the changes – by being blamed for not enforcing hard enough.
The government has been warned by PCCs that “we cannot police our way out of this”.
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COVID-19
Doctors and police reacted to the government’s new “stay alert” slogan and Boris Johnson’s lockdown-easing measures with warnings of growing non-compliance and the “impossibility” of policing.
New guidance is hurriedly being drawn up for officers around the country about the new rules set out by the prime minister, and what they should and should not police.
John Apter, national chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “Police officers will continue to do their best, but their work must be based on crystal clear guidance, not loose rules that are left open to interpretation – because that will be grossly unfair on officers whose job is already challenging. If the message of what is expected of the public is not clear then it will make the job of policing this legislation almost impossible.”
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COVID-19
Boris Johnson was urged to quickly share details with forces and explain exactly what the public will be allowed to do in the next phase of the lockdown aimed at halting the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
The Police Federation warned that If the message of what is expected of the public is not clear then it will make the job of policing the revised legislation “almost impossible.”
It follows a fractious weekend in which chief constables warned they are finding it increasingly difficult to enforce the legislation.
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COVID-19
Boris Johnson will review the coronavirus lockdown in England with his cabinet later, after suggesting some rules could be eased from Monday. By law the government must review the restrictions every three weeks, and Thursday marks the latest deadline.
The prime minister will address the nation on Sunday to outline plans for the next stage of the lockdown.
The "stay at home" message is expected to be scrapped, with ministers keen to restart the economy.
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Police Finances
Police and crime commissioner (PCC) Kim McGuinness has called on the government to reimburse the “vast majority” of the extra money it has been forced to spend in response to the pandemic.
Force finance chiefs say that, in a worst-case prediction, the estimated cost of Covid-19 to Northumbria Police is £2.87million.
That includes £863,000 spent on procuring personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline staff, £811,000 to cover extra staffing costs like overtime pay, and £258,000 on IT upgrades to allow people to work from home.
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Police and Crime General
The APCC and NPCC Leads on Hate Crime, Hardyal Dhindsa (PCC for Derbyshire) and DCC Mark Hamilton (PSNI), have written to the Independent Advisory Group on Hate Crime and also force IAGs across England and Wales, to reaffirm their commitment that hate crimes and incidents will be not be tolerated during this time.
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COVID-19
Police are concerned that a post-coronavirus recession may worsen domestic abuse amid a suspected spike during the UK’s lockdown.
Officers are appealing for victims to seek help after calls to charity helplines rocketed but reported crimes only saw a modest rise.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) said forces were bracing for a potential influx of reports when restrictions lift, and victims are no longer confined with perpetrators inside their homes.
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Prisons
Five hundred prisoners are set to be released early from jails in England and Wales to combat the spread of coronavirus, according to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
Lawyers for the MoJ told prison reform charities that 200 have been approved for temporary release while a further 300 are being considered.
It came as documents revealed to the charities as part of their threatened legal action against the MoJ showed that the Government was warned in late March that as many as 3,500 people in prison could die in the pandemic.
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Police Demand
Dorset Police has a backlog of more than 100 digital devices waiting to be examined by investigators, new figures reveal.
The Police Federation of England and Wales said officers are "overwhelmed" by the amount of digital evidence they are faced with, warning that mounting workloads are a result of forces struggling to attract new detectives.
Data provided to the Press Association news agency through a freedom of information request showed a total of 132 devices were awaiting examination by Dorset investigators.
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Police and Crime General
The Met Police has arrested 45 suspected paedophiles since the lockdown began, new figures reveal.
Specialist officers safeguarded 92 people in the first four weeks after 23 March, when severe restriction on people's movement were put in place.
Over the same period the Met's Online Child Abuse and Exploitation Unit (OCSAE) received 202 reports of crimes.
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Police and Crime General
Nearly 100 children who were being targeted online by child abusers were saved by police in London during the first four weeks of the lockdown, Scotland Yard revealed today.
New Met figures show that 45 suspects were also arrested during the same period and dozens of homes searched for possible evidence of crimes.
At the same time, an average of 50 alerts a week about potential online abuse cases in the capital are being passed to detectives by the National Crime Agency.
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Police Demand
Assaults on emergency workers have risen during the coronavirus pandemic even as other crimes have declined substantially, according to police data obtained by BuzzFeed News.
During a four-week period ending in mid-April, police recorded around 260,000 offences — a 29% decrease compared to the same stretch in 2019. Murders fell by 20%, rapes by 35%, vehicle crime by 42%, and shoplifting by 59%.
But assaults on emergency workers increased by 16% — the only crime in the data reviewed by BuzzFeed News that had gone up. Police have been called to more than 3,000 such cases since mid-March, compared to 2,600 during the same period in 2019. More than 300 involved “coughing or spitting on emergency workers” which were often “followed by other assaults”, according to the report.
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Recruitment and Retention
The National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing confirmed that assessments of new recruits is continuing despite training centres being closed and most other police buildings having restricted access
Two forces, Hampshire and West Midlands, have started piloting online assessments including vetting. Changes have also included holding interviews over Skype.
The NPCC and Home Office Uplift teams have issued new guidance to forces recommending they defer fitness testing for new recruits until just before they join. With public gyms closed and limited time for people being allowed outside their homes, some potential recruits could struggle to meet minimum standards.
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COVID-19
Police Federation National Chair John Apter has pleaded with the UK Government to have "absolute clarity" when easing the lockdown or risk a situation that is "near-on impossible" to police.
The Government must include "no surprises" and have "absolute clarity" when it comes to easing lockdown restrictions, the National Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales has warned. John Apter spoke to the BBC's World at One about the challenges involved in policing the reopening of the UK. The police have been criticised for an over-interpretation of the rules regarding the coronavirus shutdown and perhaps enforcing the guidelines too heavily.
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Recruitment and Retention
Police ranks across England and Wales have been bolstered with an additional 3,005 officers since the government launched a major recruitment drive, according to figures released today (30 April).
The figures follow the launch of the government’s campaign in September 2019 to recruit 20,000 extra officers over the next three years.
They show 3,005 recruits joined the police specifically as part of the uplift programme. In total, forces recruited 6,435 officers from November 2019 to March 2020, including recruitment planned before the government campaign was announced.
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COVID-19
More than 9,000 fines have been issued in England and Wales for breaching coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
Almost 400 of those fined are repeat offenders and one individual was fined six times, according to data from the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC).
Police have been given powers to hand out a £60 penalty, reduced to £30 if paid within two weeks, for breaches of the lockdown rules. The fine is doubled for each repeat offence up to a £960 maximum.
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COVID-19
Patients have begun receiving medical cannabis through the post, as the coronavirus pandemic has left them unable to access the drug any other way.
Many medical cannabis users suffer from chronic pain and some have had other types of care, including non-emergency surgeries, postponed because of the outbreak.
Dr Alan Fayaz, a consultant in chronic pain medicine at University College London Hospital, says his patients had been left "very vulnerable".
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Police Demand
West Midlands Police is bracing itself for a summer crime wave led by alcohol-fuelled young men who have lost their jobs during the coronavirus crisis.
The region’s Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson said the force is planning for a huge spark in crime in June and July, when pubs may have re-opened if lockdown restrictions are relaxed.
He said he had serious concerns that thousands of young men across the region will find themselves jobless, prompting them to hit the booze heavily and get involved in crime.
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Police Demand
The coronavirus outbreak could lead to court case delays of up to six months and record prisoner numbers once the lockdown has been lifted, according to a leading Whitehall thinktank.
Pressure on the criminal justice system from the pandemic combined with an anticipated rise in suspects facing charges could cause an “unprecedented” backlog of court proceedings in England and Wales, the Institute for Government (IfG) said.
Working alongside the Chartered Institute for Public Finance and Accountancy (Cipfa), researchers said waiting times to hear cases could increase by more than 70% after a six-month lockdown, with many defendants and victims forced to wait more than half a year for crown court trials.
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Technology
Kit Malthouse has told every chief constable and police and crime commissioner that the pensions grant Uplift programme cash has been brought forward and released from ringfencing rules to ease short-term cash flow pressures.
He explained the Home Office was taking a “a flexible and pragmatic approach” to the crisis and did not rule out further funding if needed.
Paying for overtime, PPE, emergency accommodation and more would normally come out of force reserves. With the crisis looking set to last at least a month, forces would be pushed to the financial brink as their funding is agreed on a yearly basis.
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Police and Crime General
The rationing of fresh meat in supermarkets at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic led to a surge in sheep rustling cases across the countryside, according to farmers’ groups.
Criminals gangs, seeking to cash in on food shortages caused by panic buying last month, struck at livestock farms across the UK stealing hundreds of animals.
In some cases they even butchered the lambs in the fields before making off with the carcasses to sell on the black market.
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Police and Crime General
County lines drug dealers are buying taxis in a bid to outwit police, says Priti Patel as she revealed the coronavirus lockdown was making it harder for them to operate.
The Home Secretary said the gangs changed their tactics every day including using different modes of transport but were now “more visible, more prevalent” on the emptier streets.
“[Police] have been able to swoop up, do more gang busting, pick up more drugs and shut down more county lines because these individuals are out there when the rest of society is not,” she told MPs on the Home Affairs Committee.
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COVID-19
There has been an almost 20% rise in calls to the NSPCC since the start of the coronavirus lockdown from adults concerned about child abuse.
Figures show calls about children facing potential emotional abuse rose from 529 to 792 in the first month since government measures were imposed.
Calls could be from neighbours, extended family or delivery drivers.
Overall calls rose from 1,867 in the four weeks before lockdown to 2,216 between 23 March and 19 April.
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COVID-19
Boris Johnson has returned to Downing Street to take charge of the UK's response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The prime minister will chair the regular morning cabinet meeting on Covid-19 before holding talks with senior ministers and officials.
He arrived back at No 10 on Sunday evening amid mounting pressure from Tory MPs to begin lifting the lockdown but Health Minister Edward Argar said "now is not the time to ease up" even if people were feeling frustrated.
The latest official figures bring the total number of deaths in UK hospitals to 20,732, after a further 413 were announced on Sunday.
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Prisons
Some weeks ago the government announced that it would be releasing prisoners early in order to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on prisoners and staff living in our overcrowded prisons and “to protect the NHS and save lives”.
The MoJ announced that early release would be focused on two groups:
1) Pregnant prisoners who do not pose a high risk of harm to the public would be temporarily released from prison to protect them and their unborn children from coronavirus. The same criteria applied to women prisoners in Mother and Baby Units who would also be released along with their children.
2) All prisoners who are within two months of their release date and are also assessed as low risk would be temporary released from jail.
So far, there has been relatively little activity with less than 100 individuals released from both these cohorts combined and the early release scheme for prisoners within two months of their release date was suspended after six prisoners were mistakenly freed early.
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COVID-19
Prisoners are being put to work making personal protective equipment to help in the battle against coronavirus and save hospitals money.
Inmates at eight category B and C jails around the country will start making hospital scrubs and face visors this week as part of a “national effort” to beat the disease, the Justice Secretary said.
The items will cost around a third of the normal commercial rate, with a typical set of scrubs costing around £5, compared with £15 on the open market.
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COVID-19
Calls to a national domestic abuse helpline rose by 49% and killings doubled weeks after lockdown, a report by MPs has revealed.
Following the "surge" in violence, the report called for a government strategy on domestic abuse during the pandemic.
MPs also said "safe spaces", where victims can seek help, should be rolled out to supermarkets and other shops. The Home Office said it was increasing funding to support helplines and online services.
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Police and Crime General
Knife crime in England and Wales increased last year to a new record high, figures released by the Office for National Statistics have shown.
The ONS said police recorded 45,627 offences in the year to December 2019, that is 7% more than in 2018, and the highest since knife crime statistics were first collected in 2010-11. The figures - which do not include Greater Manchester Police because of IT issues - showed a 13% rise in the West Midlands.
Downing Street acknowledged there was "more to be done to crack down on thugs carrying knives and ensuring they are properly punished".
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Technology
Every region of the 43 in England and Wales has its own set of challenges when it comes to Policing. Cumbria’s challenge is one of size. With the 7th fewest officers in their ranks, but with the 7th largest geographic area of responsibility, efficiency of communication is key. We wanted to learn more about how Cumbria Constabulary have been removing barriers to communication and information with their new mobile devices, so we [transformation police] caught up with PCC Peter McCall and PC Mark Christie to find out more...
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COVID-19
The UK will have to live with some disruptive social measures for at least the rest of the year, the government's chief medical adviser has said.
Prof Chris Whitty said it was "wholly unrealistic" to expect life would suddenly return to normal soon. He said "in the long run" the ideal way out would be via a "highly effective vaccine" or drugs to treat the disease. But he warned that the chance of having those within the next calendar year was "incredibly small".
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COVID-19
The House of Commons has been trying out its new working arrangements in preparation for MPs' return later.
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle led a rehearsal on Monday in which ministers faced questions via video link. Screens have been installed in the chamber to allow MPs to speak remotely while the limited number attending in person will be signposted where to sit.
They are part of a raft of changes designed to allow Parliament to continue to operate during the coronavirus outbreak, including reduced sitting hours, virtual committee meetings and strict social distancing measures within the Palace of Westminster.
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Police and Crime General
A police officer who was filmed threatening to “make something up” in order to lock up a young man has been suspended after a public outcry.
The man was reportedly pulled over in Accrington, Lancashire, on Friday by police after purchasing a quad bike for a relative when he was accosted by an officer and ordered to surrender his car keys, prompting him to protest he had done nothing wrong.
He was then told at a close distance that police would fabricate evidence to justify detaining him. The footage, filmed by a friend, went viral on social media and Lancashire police issued an apology, which admitted that threatening to make offences up damaged public confidence in the police and that the officer had behaved in an unacceptable fashion.
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Police and Crime General
Britain will be a 'more volatile and agitated' society when it comes out of lockdown, a senior police officer has warned.
With the UK lockdown in place until at least May 7, concerns have been raised about the effects of mass unemployment, abuse inside homes and mental health issues on society when the measures are eventually lifted.
Police Superintendents Association (PSA) President Chief Superintendent Paul Griffiths told The Independent senior officers fear a rise in crime and disorder post-lockdown - and urged leaders to engage with communities to quell this.
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COVID-19
The Countryside Alliance, National Rural Crime Network, NFU and CLA are asking the Justice Secretary to urgently review the interpretation of the coronavirus lockdown enforcement measures following last week's guidance from the National Police Chiefs' Council and College of Policing.
In a letter to Robert Buckland QC MP, Tim Bonner (Chief Executive, Countryside Alliance), Julia Mulligan (Chair of the National Rural Crime Network), Stuart Roberts (Deputy President, NFU) and Mark Bridgeman (President, CLA) said:
"There are, sadly, a great many of us who believe that the published NPCC and College of Policing guidelines around exercise and permissible distances to travel to do so, will make managing COVID-19 more difficult, as well as cause untold anxieties across rural communities.
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COVID-19
Police should be ready to deal with a "more volatile and agitated society" after lockdown measures are eased, a senior officer has warned.
Crime levels in England and Wales have fallen by more than a quarter during the pandemic, with a 28 per cent decrease in the four weeks to April 12 compared with that period last year.
There has been a 27 per cent drop in vehicle crime, serious assault and personal robbery, and recorded rape offences have fallen 37 per cent.
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COVID-19
The coronavirus pandemic could provide an unexpected opportunity for police forces to tackle county lines drug dealing as the lockdown means criminals “stick out like a sore thumb”, senior officers have said.
They said a reduction in street crime such as assaults and burglary had also allowed police more time to be proactive in focusing on the issue.
But officers cautioned that the pandemic could also lead county lines networks to move the trade “behind closed doors” and into the homes of vulnerable individuals during lockdown.
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COVID-19
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) had deferred to Public Health England and the Health and Safety Executive. Because it is a workplace issue, the final decision rests with the HSE.
The Police Federation’s Chairman, John Apter, told Police Oracle that provision has improved but clarity on what should be used and what could be reused remains unclear.
The HSE said forces had to work within the Health and Safety at Work Act and it has accepted that officers have to work in circumstances that can rapidly change.
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COVID-19
Six inmates were mistakenly freed from prison under the government’s temporary release scheme to combat the spread of the coronavirus, it has emerged, prompting an urgent suspension of the programme.
The inmates were wrongly let out of two open category D prisons – Leyhill in Gloucestershire and Sudbury in Derbyshire – along with another from the Isis category C prison and young offenders institute in south-east London. The Ministry of Justice said the men “returned compliantly”.
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Police Finances
The Government should provide extra funding to give council workers a 'proper' pay rise during the pandemic crisis, trade unions have said.
Unison, Unite and GMB have branded the 2.75% pay offer from the National Employers as 'woefully low' arguing it fails to recognise the efforts of local government staff in delivering frontline services during the lockdown.
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COVID-19
The government’s overall handling of the response to the coronavirus crisis has largely been rated positively by LGC readers.
Asked to rate the response on a scale of one (very poor) to five (excellent), most (41%) opted for average or good (34%). Fewer than a fifth (18%) rated it very poor or poor but only 7% went for excellent. Ratings were slightly higher among senior respondents with 88% of chief executives, directors and senior managers giving a rating of three or more compared to 82% overall.
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Economy & Public Finance
Council employees have been offered an improved pay increase of 2.75%, with an extra day’s annual leave.
In February, unions rejected a previous 2% pay offer as “more than disappointing”.
The National Employers, who negotiate pay on behalf of 350 local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, described this afternoon’s announcement as the “final offer”.
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COVID-19
Lockdown restrictions in the UK will continue for "at least" another three weeks as it tackles the coronavirus outbreak, Dominic Raab has said.
The foreign secretary told the daily No 10 briefing that a review had concluded relaxing the measures now would risk harming public health and the economy.
"We still don't have the infection rate down as far as we need to," he said.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK government deficit could rise to as high as £260bn – about 12% of GDP – this financial year, as a result of the measures taken amid the coronavirus pandemic, economists at PwC have predicted.
An estimated £60bn-£80bn of direct fiscal stimulus, added to the effects of slower economic growth in the wake of the crisis, could cause the deficit to leap to between £180bn and £260bn in 2020-21, PwC’s report said.
The Office for Budgetary Responsibility forecast, pre-coronavirus, was that the deficit would be £55bn.
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COVID-19
Police have been told to stop people "home-working" in parks or sitting on a public bench for long periods of time.
Guidance to officers in England says neither activity is likely to be a "reasonable excuse" for someone to leave their home in the lockdown.
But the advice from police leaders and trainers says that people can move to a friend's address for a cooling-off period "following arguments at home".
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COVID-19
More than 3,200 fines have been issued for alleged breaches of the coronavirus lockdown by police forces in England.
The National Police Chiefs Council said people as old as 100 were given the £60 penalties from 27 March to 13 April. Nearly 40 fines mistakenly issued to children were withdrawn.
Deputy Chief Constable Sara Glen said Lancashire Police handed out the most with 380 due to "barbecues, parties and Blackpool beaches", followed by Thames Valley with 219 and Surrey with 205.
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COVID-19
People and businesses should be wary of scammers trying to turn the coronavirus pandemic to their advantage, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned.
Scammers have been targeting vulnerable people including those self-isolating at home, the NCA said.
Graeme Biggar, director general of the agency's National Economic Crime Centre, said the virus was increasingly being used as "a hook to commit fraud".
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Police and Crime General
British criminals are exploiting the “fast parcel” system to buy blank-firing handguns from European dealers before converting them to fire live ammunition, the National Crime Agency has warned.
Law enforcement officials are alarmed by poor postal security which has allowed the trade to go undetected.
An assessment by the NCA reveals that the blank firers are shipped to the UK in fast parcels by dealers in eastern Europe and the western Balkans. The weapons are legal to own in some EU countries but prohibited in Britain.
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COVID-19
Increasing numbers of drones are to be deployed to enforce the lockdown after police were given emergency powers by the aviation watchdog.
Air safety regulations governing the use of the technology have been relaxed to allow police to enforce social distancing rules in locations such as parks, beaches and housing estates.
An exemption introduced by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) will permit forces across the UK to fly drones at a higher altitude and closer to people than previously allowed. It also slightly relaxes rules around the operating of devices beyond a drone pilot’s visual line of sight — extending their range — providing they are observed by a second officer.
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Police Demand
Suspected offenders are set to avoid criminal charges under unprecedented new guidance to ease the burden on the justice system during the coronavirus outbreak.
The latest guidance from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) tells prosecutors in England and Wales to use alternative options to charges, including dropping cases for less serious offences, to alleviate pressure on courts. They have also been told to prioritise the most serious criminal cases during the crisis.
With “less serious” crimes prosecutors are asked to consider out of court disposals, such as a caution or community resolution, as well as stopping cases where the public interest does not require a prosecution.
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Police Finances
Chief executives have condemned the Taxpayers' Alliance’s annual attack on local government pay as “inane and distasteful”, particularly in light of the work councils are doing in the Covid-19 outbreak.
Graeme McDonald, managing director of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives & Senior Managers also called the alliance’s report “innumerate” and “crass”.
The alliance - which operates as a limited company - has published the list for 13 years and targets what it believes is profligate pay levels in councils.
It said: “The country is facing a profound challenge and the response of workers from the public, private and voluntary sectors has been laudable. But accountability still matters and taxpayers deserve to know if they are getting value for their hard-earned money.”
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Economy & Public Finance
Public sector borrowing as a result of the coronavirus lockdown is set to hit a record 14% of GDP this year but then decline rapidly to the levels predicted in the March Budget, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility.
The OBR says borrowing as a result of the virus could hit £218bn this year, making total borrowing £273bn or 14% of GDP, the largest deficit in a single year since the Second World War and almost half as much again as the 10% deficit in 2010. Once the crisis has passed and ‘the policy interventions’ have unwound the deficit will then fall back to the Budget forecast of around 2% of GDP.
Total public spending is set to hit 52% of GDP this year, also the highest since the Second World War. Total public sector net debt would hit 100% of GDP this year before falling back to 95%. By 2024/5 it would still be £260bn higher than the Budget forecast, or 10% of GDP.
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Economy & Public Finance
A combination of higher public spending due to coronavirus and rising social care costs means the tax system is in need of a fundamental overhaul, says a report from the Institute for Government (IfG).
The institute says ‘the UK tax system has long been in need of reform to shore up the tax base and address long-standing weaknesses’ and that ‘the aftermath of this crisis could provide an opportunity to address these long-standing problems and improve the way in which we raise tax – and indeed, to move to a higher tax system if that is indicated by public desire.’
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COVID-19
Reports of anti-social behaviour have increased substantially during the coronavirus outbreak, police have said.
In the last four weeks, there were 178,000 incidents across England and Wales - a rise of 59% on last year.
The National Police Chiefs' Council, which published the figures, said the rise was likely linked to breaches of lockdown measures - with more than 3,200 fines issued in England.
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COVID-19
Priti Patel has shut down demands from police asking for extra powers to enforce social distancing.
Emergency measures won't be extended to let cops enter private homes to shut down parties.
She told ITV: "The answer is no (to extra powers) I speak to the Police Federation on a regular basis, on a weekly basis."
"In Greater Manchester they have had over 600 examples of house parties taking place and to be fair to their police officers, by policing by consent... they've been able to break up those house parties."
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Economy & Public Finance
An effort to reduce the accounts preparation burden on local authorities in the midst of coping with the Covid-19 crisis was recently abandoned.
CIPFA/LASAAC had made clear that they were considering radical proposals to streamline the 2019-20 statement of accounts. It was not revealed what these proposals were, but if they were in line with the suggestions, the intention would have been to secure the sign-off of the minimum information needed for the effective financial management of the authority as soon as feasible.
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COVID-19
Frontline police officers are seeking extra powers to enter private homes to break up parties and prevent the spread of coronavirus but are expected to be rejected by Priti Patel.
The Police Federations believe there is a loophole in the coronavirus rules which means they cannot enter a private dwelling to stop a house party or even a barbecue at a private house.
They can only act if they are allowed in by the householders which they say has hampered efforts to combat such gatherings, a key source for the spread of the disease.
[ more...]
Fire
Around 12% of firefighters and control room staff in some areas are self-isolating during the coronavirus pandemic, says the firefighters' union.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) says nearly 3,000 fire and rescue staff across the UK are in isolation.
It has called on the government to provide urgent coronavirus testing of its members so they can return to work. A government spokesman said it is working with fire chiefs to ensure they have the support they need.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Parliament is still on course to return on 21 April to debate coronavirus measures and authorise spending on the UK's pandemic response.
It will not be business as usual for MPs, with social distancing measures still likely to be in place.
The government needs to pass its Finance Bill, enacting measures in the Budget, which is due to get its second reading on 22 April.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The government’s coronavirus emergency response fund, set up during last month’s budget to provide financial assistance to public services, has been almost tripled to more than £14bn, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has announced.
The move comes as the government faces mounting criticism of its response to the pandemic, amid concerns that frontline health workers have not received sufficient protective equipment and that hospitals urgently require more ventilators.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Householders are being warned that they face up to five years in prison if they burn recycling because councils have cut back their regular bin collections.
Some councils have already started to cut back collections to focus on rubbish destined for landfill. More services are expected to be cut this coming week as the coronavirus lockdown continues.
Last week the Government said in official guidance that councils could start to cut back on kerbside collections of recycled waste or garden waste to focus on picking up black bin rubbish and food waste due to staff shortages.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Shocking statistics revealed that domestic violence has surged since the start of the coronavirus lockdown, as the home secretary, Priti Patel, insisted that help for all victims of abuse was available.
Patel said that all support services were operating “during this difficult time” and promised that assistance was available for anyone at risk.
The UK’s largest domestic abuse charity, Refuge, has reported a 700% increase in calls to its helpline in a single day, while a separate helpline for perpetrators of domestic abuse seeking help to change their behaviour received 25% more calls after the start of the Covid-19 lockdown.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Ministers will discuss a review of the UK's coronavirus lockdown later to consider whether restrictions on people's movements should be extended.
The government's emergency Cobra committee will look at evidence from scientists on the impact of measures brought in on 23 March - although a formal decision is not expected.
[ more...]
COVID-19
?Police chiefs want the government to consider toughening coronavirus lockdown restrictions, the Guardian has learned, as they head into the Easter bank holiday weekend with concerns that a growing minority will flout the rules.
More stringent restrictions to prevent people driving long distances are among options supported by at least five chief constables who want enforcement action to be bolstered by clearer and tougher government curbs. Other options include using legislation to enforce the order to limit exercise to once a day.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Gang rivalries have been "put on hold" and violence has "stopped" as members follow coronavirus lockdown rules, the head of a charity has told Sky News.
Sheldon Thomas, who founded the Gangsline Foundation Trust, said county lines activity has also fallen as police enforce the "stay at home" guidance.
County lines refers to when city gangs exploit children into selling drugs in rural areas and small towns.
[ more...]
COVID-19
A special remote hearing of the Home Affairs Select Committee on Monday (April 6) on police preparedness for the pandemic heard evidence from a number of witnesses that restrictions on outdoor access and a general increase in overall anxiety were factors in the rise.
Simon Kempton, operational lead for Covid-19 at the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW), said officers were seeing more cases as pressure on the emergency services meant more vulnerable people were “falling between the gaps”.
Mr Kempton said: “There are very early indications of an increase in suicide attempts and suicides – far too early to say if that’s a real trend, but there are early indications of that. Quite often the police are the agency who are trying to deal with that situation.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
MPs have been told that all police officers should be issued with spit guards to prevent some offenders biting, coughing and spitting at officers after claiming they have COVID-19.
The president of the Police Superintendents' Association told members of the home affairs select committee that a minority of offenders had resorted to behaviour which was putting officers at risk of contracting the virus.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A man who claimed to have been infected with coronavirus before coughing on police has been jailed for 16 weeks.
Christopher McKendrick was detained on Thursday afternoon after officers were called to reports of someone being abusive and threatening in South Derbyshire, and found him waving a piece of wood “in a threatening manner”, police said.
When police asked if he had the virus, he replied: “I’ve already had it, I’ve got over it and now I am a super-spreader.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Organisations providing domestic abuse support services during the Covid-19 crisis must get an emergency financial package from the government, the new shadow home secretary has said in his first intervention in the role.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, who was appointed to the shadow cabinet by the new Labour leader Keir Starmer on Sunday, has written to his Conservative counterpart Priti Patel to request funds for organisations that run “frontline” domestic abuse services, as well as to turn underused hotel chains and university halls into emergency accommodation.
[ more...]
Police Finances
In a virtual meeting on April 3, the Big Four, alongside competitors BDO and Grant Thornton, met to discuss the reputational risks and appropriateness of accepting coronavirus-driven government assistance, according to reports.
The meeting was organised by the ICAEW and attended by a lawyer appointed by the membership body, according to the Financial Times.
Leadership from the accountancy firms debated whether to utilise the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, while two of the Big Four firms confirmed having applied for the Covid Corporate Financing Facility, according to two FT sources.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
More than nine million workers are expected to be furloughed under the government's job retention scheme (JRS).
That is according to analysis by the Resolution Foundation, using the latest figures on take-up of the scheme from the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC).
The cost to the taxpayer over three months is estimated at £30-40bn.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has spent the night in intensive care at a central London hospital after his coronavirus symptoms worsened. Downing Street said he was moved to the unit on the advice of his medical team and was receiving "excellent care".
Mr Johnson has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputise "where necessary", a spokesman added. The prime minister, 55, was admitted to St Thomas' Hospital with "persistent symptoms" on Sunday evening.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Violent crime has fallen by up to 40 per cent in parts of Britain as a result of restrictions on people’s movement in the coronavirus lockdown, according to the first official figures.
Police forces are reporting falls in overall crime rates of between eight and 30 per cent but street crime and burglaries have seen even steeper declines compared year on year or March on February.
West Midlands, one of Britain’s biggest forces, saw a 41 per cent fall in serious violence and a 39 per cent drop in knife crime during March compared to the same month last year.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers have called in experts amid claims that those on the frontline are being put at risk of contracting Covid-19 by government advice.
A panel of scientific and medical academics has been set up by the Scottish Police Federation, which represents the rank and file, to ensure that officers are able to carry out their duties in relative safety.
Sir Harry Burns, the former chief medical officer for Scotland, will offer medical advice to the panel alongside Hugh Pennington, the microbiologist, and George Crooks, the chief executive of the Digital Health and Care Institute and former medical director of NHS24.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Allowing young people aged between 20 and 30 out of lockdown early could help get Britain moving again and avoid an "extraordinary recession", business experts have said.
As the Government's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, told the daily press conference that the epidemic curve appeared to be "flattening off", speculation is growing as to how the UK can escape from its lockdown.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Plans outlined by the CIPFA/LASAAC Local Authority Code Board– sought to replace the 2019-20 Accounting Code with a simplified alternative, to “relieve the burden on finance professionals” during the coronavirus pandemic.
However, the plan has been rejected by auditors and regulators, and the institute has confirmed the 2019-20 accounting code will now be used in full – with CIPFA chief executive Rob Whiteman concerned about the impact that will have on the sector.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Britain's biggest business lender has told the BBC that it is receiving nearly 10 times as many calls as usual from firms wanting to take out emergency loans.
Despite the Chancellor's announcement of an unprecedented package of £330bn in 80%-government-backed loans, there is little evidence that the support is hitting the target yet.
Alison Rose, Chief Executive of Natwest Group (formerly known as RBS), the biggest lender to UK businesses by far, said that although some of the money was beginning to get through, they were facing operational challenges in delivering these unprecedented financial assistance programmes.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been admitted to hospital for tests, 10 days after testing positive for coronavirus, Downing Street has said.
He was taken to a London hospital on Sunday evening with "persistent symptoms" - including a temperature. It is said to be a "precautionary step" taken on the advice of his doctor.
The prime minister remains in charge of the government, but the foreign secretary is expected to chair a coronavirus meeting on Monday morning.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The virus could permanently change the way people think about government, community, travel, work, shopping and open spaces.
While thousands of people will have lost loved ones, the biggest impact coronavirus could have is on the way millions of people behave in the future.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Vulnerable people and those most affected by the coronavirus outbreak are being offered help to pay their council tax. Support ranges from deferred payments to discounts for those on low incomes.
A petition on the Parliament website calling for council tax to be scrapped during the duration of the crisis has attracted almost 100,000 signatures. One council said it would be impossible to keep public services going if relief was applied "across the board".
[ more...]
COVID-19
The National Domestic Abuse helpline has seen a 25% increase in calls and online requests for help since the lockdown, the charity Refuge says. It received hundreds more calls last week compared to two weeks earlier, the charity which runs the helpline said.
Campaigners have warned the restrictions could heighten domestic tensions and cut off escape routes. The charity said pressure on other services and awareness campaigns could have also led to the increase.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police forces are receiving phone calls from residents tipping them off about people flouting lockdown laws as often as every five minutes, a chief constable has revealed.
Peter Goodman, Derbyshire’s police chief, said just over 11 per cent of his force’s 2,300 calls a day were from members of the public concerned at other neighbours’ behaviour or breaches of the social distancing restrictions in towns or countryside.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Increasing numbers of mental health incidents are being reported to police during the coronavirus lockdown, senior officers have said.
Amid a raging debate about access to public spaces and the impact of restrictions, witnesses told the Home Affairs Committee that issues were being compounded by mental health and social care services losing staff because of the outbreak.
The Police Federation’s lead for coronavirus, Sergeant Simon Kempton, said it was becoming “all too easy for some of these people in crisis to fall through the gaps”.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The British Transport Police Authority (BTPA) has taken the “unprecedented decision” to delay publication of its 2020/21 Policing Plans to allow officers to focus on the Covid-19 crisis.
Every April, the BTPA publishes the policing plans for the year, including objectives, measures and resource numbers for each of its regional divisions. Prior to this, the police authority reaches out to colleagues in the rail industry, British Transport Police staff and officers, and other interested parties to consult on the draft content of those plans.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Ministers have ordered the release of 4,000 prisoners because of the coronavirus crisis, despite officials warning that some of them will reoffend and may even commit murder.
About 3,500 prisoners within two months of the end of their sentence will be temporarily released from jail on licence, and will be fitted with GPS tags from this week.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to lead Labour "into a new era with confidence and hope" after decisively winning the contest to succeed Jeremy Corbyn.
The 57-year old defeated Lisa Nandy and Rebecca Long-Bailey in a ballot of party members and other supporters.
The lawyer, who became an MP in 2015, won on the first round of voting, with more than 50% of ballots cast.
[ more...]
COVID-19
New guidance on the types of personal protective equipment (PPE) that is needed in different circumstances for those on the frontline of the coronavirus crisis has been published by the government and NHS leaders.
The updated guidance comes after widespread concern and uncertainty about when PPE was required amid a national shortage of equipment.
The guidance has been agreed by the four chief medical officers, chief nursing officers and chief dental officers, and reflects the fact that coronavirus is now widespread in the community.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Local authorities in England have been handed new powers to hold public meetings virtually by using video or telephone conferencing technology from Saturday (4 April 2020).
The government has temporarily removed the legal requirement for local authorities to hold public meetings in person during the coronavirus pandemic.
This will enable councils to make effective and transparent decisions on the delivery of services for residents and ensure that local democracy continues to thrive.
[ more...]
COVID-19
A funding package worth £20m has been announced by Government to help businesses boost the UK’s resilience to the long-term impact of coronavirus and similar future situations.
Technology businesses will be able to apply for grants of up to £50,000 to help develop new ways of working and enhance certain industries including delivery services, food manufacturing, retail and transport.
New technologies will be focused on more reactive responses within retail to sudden spikes in demands and the improvement of deliveries across the UK.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police have been accused of using the wrong law to prosecute a woman and fine her £660 in the first arrest on the railways under the lockdown.
Marie Dinou, 41, from York, was arrested and fined after failing to tell police why she was at Newcastle Central station on Saturday morning.
British Transport Police said she was detained because she “refused to speak” to officers after being seen “loitering between platforms”.
[ more...]
Fire
Ministers have announced a major overhaul of building regulations in an effort to boost fire safety in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster.
Housing developers will be forced to include sprinkler systems and better safety signage in their properties in a bid to protect residents, under new plans announced by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick.
The measures, which will apply to all new builds over 11 metres, come as part of a wider government initiative to improve fire safety following the the Grenfell Tower fire which saw 72 people lose their lives.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Breaches are a criminal offence and the police can issue fines. They can tell people to disperse, go home or leave an area. Anyone can be prosecuted for “a gathering in a public place of more than two people” unless they are from the same household, with limited exceptions for work, funerals, moving house, where legally obliged to do so or in an emergency. The owners of non-essential premises that stay open can be fined.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police chiefs have told officers that people should not be punished for driving a reasonable distance to exercise, and that blanket checks were disproportionate, in a bid to quell a row about heavy-handed enforcement of the coronavirus lockdown.
Amid anger at some forces setting up checkpoints and using drones to target people visiting rural beauty spots, the guidance reissued and updated late on Tuesday aims to forge more consistency across 44 forces in England and Wales.
It is issued by the College of Policing, which sets professional standards, and the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), and tells officers both what they can do and what police leaders would prefer them to refrain from doing
[ more...]
COVID-19
Chief constables began to turn on each other yesterday about how to enforce the coronavirus lockdown as police forces continued to take drastically different approaches.
Peter Goodman, the chief constable of Derbyshire, criticised other forces for using “more draconian” measures than his own, which had deployed drones to discourage walkers from going to the Peak District. Derbyshire’s tactics were attacked by the former Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption.
Mr Goodman said that some forces were using “roadblocks” to enforce the lockdown, which he would not do.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
APCC Chair, Katy Bourne OBE said:
“Police and Crime Commissioners fully understand the impact that these massively disruptive measures are having on the public. We are rightly proud of our policing by consent model in this country and PCCs know that, in order for these measures to be truly effective, the police will need to maintain public confidence. That means calmly engaging, explaining and encouraging people to do the right thing, not being overzealous and only taking enforcement measures as a last resort.
“The current situation is unparalleled and it is vital that the right balance is struck. On behalf of the public, all PCCs will continue to support their Chief Constables whilst also holding them to account over how these powers are being used.
“Ultimately though, people understand that this is about protecting the NHS and saving lives. I want to thank all emergency services and frontline workers for the incredible work they are doing to keep us safe. We will, in turn, continue to play our part by staying at home to reduce the spread of this virus and cooperating as fully as possible with the new restrictions so as not to put unnecessary strain on our emergency services.”
[ more...]
COVID-19
The vast majority of police officers did not know that Boris Johnson was going to announce a nationwide lockdown in response to the coronavirus outbreak, and learned about it at the same time as the public, a senior officer has said.
While national police leaders were informed of the impending measures shortly before the prime minister’s address to the nation on 23 March, there was no time to pass the message down to the rank and file.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Home Office has granted the Community Security Trust (CST) £14 million for security measures to help keep members of the Jewish community safe in their daily lives.
The grant will cover protective security for the next financial year at Jewish institutions such as schools and synagogues.
CST, a charity that monitors and helps protect against antisemitism, recorded 1,805 antisemitic incidents in the UK in 2019, a 7% increase on the previous year.
[ more...]
COVID-19
A former chief inspector of prisons has called for the early release of some prisoners to help overcrowded jails cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
Lord Ramsbotham, a former army lieutenant general before heading the inspectorate, said he was “very worried” that prison staff depleted by the coronavirus would not be able to handle the crisis.
He said many prison officers were inexperienced as the service had lost the equivalent of 80,000 years of operational expertise through cuts to staff in the past eight years at the same time as violence and drug abuse had risen.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police are patrolling high street pharmacies as staff struggle with fights over medicines, aggressive customers and a lack of protective equipment.
The coronavirus outbreak has pushed chemists to “breaking point” as frustrated shoppers react against large queues and limited supplies of some over-the-counter treatments, the National Pharmacy Association (NPA) said.
Officers have launched routine patrols as a deterrent in some areas. Last week, Arfon Jones, the police and crime commissioner for north Wales, welcomed them in his area after scuffles in queues.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police have been told not to carry out blanket checks on cars or penalise people for travelling a "reasonable distance" for exercise, after complaints some forces had overreached their powers in attempting to curb the spread of coronavirus.
The new guidance released by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing on Tuesday night comes after inconsistencies between government guidance and emergency legislation was blamed for the apparently isolated use of heavy-handed tactics by officers.
[ more...]
COVID-19
UK police officers have been told to take a "consistent" approach when ensuring people comply with emergency measures aimed at curbing coronavirus.
Guidance to officers calls on forces to "coordinate" efforts and emphasises the importance of professionalism.
It comes amid criticism of the way some forces have handled the new measures.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The government is cracking down on misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic.
A rapid response unit within the Cabinet Office is working with social media firms to remove fake news and harmful content.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said action was needed "to stem the spread of falsehoods and rumours, which could cost lives".
[ more...]
COVID-19
Unemployment in Britain is expected to more than double in coming months, as economists warn that the impending rise will be even sharper than during the 2008 financial crisis.
Investment bank Nomura predicts an unemployment rate of 8% in the April-June quarter, rising to 8.5% in the following three months. In January, the figure was 3.9%
It says the effects of the pandemic will be an economic hit “multiple times that of the global financial crisis”, despite government efforts to stabilise the economy with huge stimulus pledges.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police will cut services, drop investigations and scale back their response to crime as forces hit different “tipping points” in the coronavirus crisis.
A “graduated withdrawal of service plan” details how officers will be redeployed to critical activities such as 999 calls and serious crime if forces reach black status — the most severe level of interruption to ordinary services — in which they cannot deliver ordinary tasks, according to documents seen by The Times.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Some people in the UK are still not getting the message about the severity of the coronavirus pandemic and the government needs to be more inventive with its information campaign, a police chief has said.
David Jamieson, the police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands, said certain demographics in the country were struggling to access important information due to language barriers. Other groups, including teenagers, were also not being reached because of the way information was being distributed.
[ more...]
Fire
The owners of tall buildings face pressure to continue removing dangerous cladding, despite coronavirus, after a new fire test showed how quickly flames can spread.
Cladding previously deemed safer than that used at Grenfell Tower burned almost as rapidly as the aluminium and plastic panels blamed for the disaster.
These high pressure laminate panels are common in the UK.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police have been accused of overreaching their powers in the wake of new coronavirus legislation, after one force said it was prosecuting people for activities including driving "due to boredom" and "going to the shops" with other members of the same household.
Legal and human rights experts described Warrington Police's actions as "dystopian" after officers opted to summon people to court for supposed offences such as "returning from parties", with critics arguing the measures were not justified by the new legislation and risked harming the ongoing effort to combat the outbreak.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The criminal justice system is going into “meltdown” because of coronavirus and a huge backlog of cases caused by government cuts, lawyers have said.
Thousands of hearings have been delayed indefinitely because of the outbreak, which has also sparked the collapse of several high-profile trials, as courts restrict operations to urgent matters.
But official figures show that a backlog of cases waiting to be heard was growing rapidly before coronavirus had an impact.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police are responding to burglaries at shops and pubs across deserted city and town centres as criminal gangs begin to take advantage of the lockdown.
Many forces are carrying out night patrols in “ghost town” urban centres as burglars shift their focus from residential homes to unoccupied commercial properties.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Life in Britain will not return to normal for six months, England’s deputy chief medical officer has warned, as ministers begin preparing the public for an extended period of lockdown.
At the government’s daily press conference, Jenny Harries said that strict social distancing rules may have to be in place for between two and three months.
But she added that it would be a further three months before all restrictions were lifted, and even then there were likely to be “bumps” as new clusters of cases of coronavirus were identified.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Measures announced over recent weeks to tackle coronavirus (COVID-19) have seen people’s day-to-day life be drastically altered. These changes are essential to beat coronavirus and protect our NHS.
The government acknowledges that the order to stay at home can cause anxiety for those who are experiencing or feel at risk of domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is unacceptable in any situation, no matter what stresses you are under.
For anyone who feels they are at risk of abuse, it is important to remember that there is help and support available to you. Guidance is also available to help perpetrators change their behaviour.
The government supports and funds a number of charities who are able to provide advice and guidance and we are in regular contact with the charity sector and the police to ensure that these support services remain open during this challenging time.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Home Secretary Priti Patel has vowed to crack down on domestic abusers who are exploiting the lockdown to make their victims feel 'especially isolated, vulnerable and exposed'.
Ms Patel told The Mail on Sunday she was aware that 'home is not the safe haven it should be' – but abusers would be hunted down and punished.
Her remarks come as a police chief revealed that cases of online child abuse have increased during the coronavirus crisis, as home-schooled pupils spend more time unsupervised on their computers.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The military could be brought in to bolster police numbers during the coronavirus crisis, with up to a fifth of officers expected to be absent in the Government’s worst-case scenario.
National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) chairman Martin Hewitt said members of the armed forces would take up back office roles which would not involve interaction with the public in order to free up officers for frontline policing.
The body also revealed officers had already issued some fines to people breaching lockdown rules, less than 24 hours after new laws came into force.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Members of the fire and rescue service are going to receive training in driving ambulances and retrieving bodies.
Fire service bosses say a new agreement between their various organising bodies reflects the "scale of the national crisis and the urgency of the response required".
It comes as the number of people in the UK to have died with coronavirus reached 584 on Thursday, with almost 12,000 people infected.
[ more...]
COVID-19
More than a thousand people who are still having to go into work have written to MPs to raise concerns about their health.
A BT employee who works in the company’s sales department told the Commons business select committee that staff had been told to come into a call centre as a “key worker”.
“It’s just more people in one call centre, shoved in like sardines, possibly infecting or spreading Covid-19 or symptoms to the people who work in the centre that take the 999 calls,” the employee said. BT call centres handle 999 calls.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Boris Johnson today dramatically announced he is suffering from coronavirus.
The Prime Minister said he had tested positive for the disease, after being advised by Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty to get checked as the outbreak spreads across the country.
The 55-year-old insisted he has 'mild' symptoms', and will be continuing to lead the national response over video-conference.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Waste collection services are being cut to the bare minimum, libraries closed and road repairs postponed as councils redeploy staff to the frontline of the coronavirus crisis.
This week, county councils began to set aside hundreds of millions to purchase thousands of new beds to ensure that those requiring social care are released quickly from hospital, to free up more space for coronavirus patients, including Buckinghamshire CC, which is taking over a hotel to use its beds to free up hospital wards.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Martin Hewitt, head of the National Police Chief's Council, said the UK was in a "national emergency, not a national holiday" .
The NPCC said going to local beauty spots was not banned as long as there was no mingling.
Police chiefs say the vast majority of people are following social distancing measures to help protect the NHS.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Two new temporary hospitals will be set up to help cope with the coronavirus crisis, the head of the NHS in England has said.
Sir Simon Stevens said the new hospitals will be built at Birmingham's NEC and the Manchester conference centre and will be ready next month.
A hospital being set up in London's ExCeL centre will be available for use next week, it was announced.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The system developed by Sussex Police is reducing the amount of time officers need to spend giving evidence in court.
It combines on-camera evidence with an email and messaging system that means officers are notified when court hearings are set to take place - and critically when they are cancelled.
Its use is being stepped up by the force as the Ministry of Justice called for all forces and partner agencies to make greater use of video links to keep the criminal justice system going.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The coronavirus crisis has led to a drop in recorded crime, by as much as 20% in some areas.
Offences such as burglary and violence were down last week compared with the previous seven days, after Boris Johnson made his first request for people to stay home on the Monday.
The fall this week could be even larger after the prime minister changed his pleas for social distancing into an order to stay inside.
[ more...]
COVID-19
People should inform police of large public gatherings during the lockdown, a chief constable has said amid continuing confusion over the new rules.
Floods of calls to the police non-emergency number about minor incidents have been discouraged but larger groups that risk spreading the virus should still be reported, said Andy Cooke, chief constable of Merseyside.
Asked what the public should do if they see public gatherings with dozens of people, Mr Cooke said: “We would expect people to call us . . . [but] would urge them to be sensible. When you’ve got two or three people stood at the end of the road we don’t need to be told.
[ more...]
COVID-19
New public health regulations will strengthen enforcement powers to reduce the spread of coronavirus, protect the NHS and save lives.
To ensure people stay at home and avoid non-essential travel, from today, if members of the public do not comply the police may:
- Instruct them to go home, leave an area or disperse
- Ensure parents are taking necessary steps to stop their children breaking these rules
- Issue a fixed penalty notice of £60, which will be lowered to £30 if paid within 14 days
- Issue a fixed penalty notice of £120 for second time offenders, doubling on each further repeat offence
[ more...]
COVID-19
Policing Minister Kit Malthouse has been urged to escalate to central government concerns raised by members of some local resilience forums (LRFs) that councils haven’t got the measures in place to lead with support for vulnerable people during the lock down.
The leading charity for older people warned it was vital that “national and local support mechanisms” were operating within days.
But concerns have been raised that some councils have not taken decisions fast enough to be ready. Contacts outside of gold groups were described by one official as “patchy”.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Councils had been looking forward to a promised multi-year settlement to give them more certainty about future funding for services.
However, chancellor Rishi Sunak has delayed the upcoming Spending Review so the government can focus on dealing with the coronavirus.
Reacting to the news of the delay, Joanne Pitt, CIPFA local government policy manager, said: ‘’During this time of increased uncertainty and strain on public services, it is understandable that the spending review has been postponed to focus efforts on combatting the Covid-19 pandemic.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The University of Cambridge will be taking a major role in the fight against the coronavirus spread after it was announced that a £20m investment will allow for large-scale investigation into the cause of the virus.
The national effort to understand and restrict the novel coronavirus infection is set for a boost as the Government and the UK’s Chief Scientific Adviser announced the role of the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium.
Included in this collaboration is the NHS, Public Health Agencies, UK Research and Innovation, Wellcome Sanger Institute and numerous academic institutions, who will work to map the cause of the disease with a view to share that data with hospitals, NHS centres and the Government.
[ more...]
Prisons
The government is considering releasing some offenders from prisons in England and Wales to ease pressures caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said the virus poses an "acute" risk in prisons, many of which are overcrowded.
Some 3,500 prison staff - about 10% of the workforce - were off work on Tuesday because they were ill or self-isolating, a committee of MPs was told.
Mr Buckland said releasing some inmates could help to "alleviate" pressures.
[ more...]
COVID-19
People who flout new lockdown rules could be left with a criminal record as it emerged that police will use drones to enforce the measures.
From tomorrow police can levy a fine of £30 on those breaking the rules, rising to £1,000, and a refusal to pay would be a criminal offence, Downing Street confirmed.
Officers stopped cars and broke up public gatherings across the country using roadside checkpoints and patrols.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Parliament has shut down until 21 April at the earliest to combat the spread of coronavirus.
Emergency laws to deal with the pandemic have been rushed through both Houses and were given Royal Assent earlier on Wednesday.
MPs voted to plan for a managed return to work on Tuesday 21 April, to deal with Budget legislation.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police will be authorised to use force to send people back home if they refuse to obey the coronavirus lockdown, under government plans.
Ministers will issue fuller details by Thursday of how police will enforce the lockdown ordered by the prime minister on Monday, aimed at stopping the spread of the virus by keeping people apart.
It has been learned that, under plans being discussed by ministers and senior officials, officers would first encourage and cajole people to go back indoors if they suspect them of being out of their home in breach of the ban. If that and the issuing of a fine failed, reasonable force could be used as a last resort.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Ken Marsh, chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said 19 per cent of police, civilian and community support officers were not available for duty because they either had Covid-19 themselves or were self-isolating because they were displaying associated symptoms.
London is the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in the UK, and Mr Marsh said 2,100 of the MPS’s 31,000 officers were off work, including one high-ranking officer. No figures were available for police staff or police community support officers.
Forces nationwide are also reporting higher than average levels of sickness during the pandemic – up from six per cent to ten per cent in Devon and Cornwall, while rates in Northamptonshire have doubled to around eight per cent.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The government has been urged to introduce emergency measures to protect women trapped at home with abusive partners in the wake of concerns domestic abuse could soar under social isolation measures brought in to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
Frontline service providers warned women who have escaped their abusive partners are fearful about having to continue handing over their children to ex-partners for meetings ordered by the family courts as the coronavirus crisis deteriorates.
Mandu Reid, leader of Women’s Equality Party, urged the government to protect women and children confined to their homes with abusers in the wake of the government’s police-enforced lockdown which has warned citizens not to venture out of the house for all but essential journeys to stop coronavirus spreading.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Boris Johnson declared a “moment of national emergency” last night as he finally imposed a near full lockdown of Britain to protect against the spread of coronavirus.
Police will enforce new quarantine rules under which people will be allowed to leave their home only for essential supplies, one form of daily exercise, medical care or “absolutely necessary” work.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation Ken Marsh warned "large amounts of sickness" among the police would make the new measures introduced by Boris Johnson challenging to uphold
It comes after the Prime Minister placed the nation on lockdown, threatening police fines for anyone who ignores the new measures.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The comprehensive spending review setting out government expenditure plans for the next three years will be delayed from July because of the coronavirus outbreak, chancellor Rishi Sunak has told cabinet.
Mr Sunak and other cabinet colleagues joined the regular Tuesday meeting of cabinet by video conference call, for the first time.
Today's postponement reflects the uncertainty into which government finances have been thrown by the shutdown of much of the economy and the chancellor's multi-billion pound bailout forced by the coronavirus outbreak.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Criminals are using the internet, telephones and doorstep calls to exploit fear of the coronavirus pandemic, investigators have warned.
They have revealed a blitz of scams that include the sale of fake sanitisers, bogus demands for donations and false offers to run errands for the elderly and vulnerable.
Some scammers are offering "health supplements" that claim to prevent infection from the COVID-19 virus.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Boris Johnson has been urged to deploy police at train stations to make sure only those allowed to travel are on board after carriages remained packed with commuters on the first day of a nationwide lockdown.
NHS nurses expressed their frustration on social media on Tuesday morning after being faced with busy services, despite the PM urging the country to remain at home unless absolutely necessary to fight coronavirus.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Rishi Sunak’s support package for workers could cost several billion pounds per month, according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies.
The new package, announced last week, will see the government cover 80% of employees’ wages for up to £2,500 per month, if they are unable to work.
The IFS predicts that if 10% of employees are affected, this could cost up to £10bn over the next three months. If more take advantage of the support then the cost will be “proportionally higher”.
IFS director Paul Johnson said: “The chancellor has announced a huge package of support aimed at keeping people in employment. The cost of the wage subsidy package is unknowable at present but will run into several billion pounds per month that it is in operation.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police officers are to "persuade, cajole, negotiate and advise" the public to follow lockdown restrictions, as police leaders said they did not want to be forced to take more draconian measures.
Hundreds of thousands of people continued to travel to work on Tuesday with the blessing of the government, as Downing Street said that construction work could carry on despite the restrictions on movement announced by the Prime Minister on Monday.
This provoked a row with the mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who said that more workers should be staying at home and insisted that the Tube - which was crowded during rush hour - could not run more services.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Ministers were told by the Police Federation that issues such as closing pubs should be led by council licencing officers, trading standards leads and that local authority public health officials should be leading the response to the virus.
Police Federation Chairman John Apter warned officers were still not getting enough protective equipment.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police will not be able to enforce all the rules of the coronavirus “lockdown” imposed by the prime minister, a senior officer has said.
John Apter, chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said it was “not realistic” for officers to check how many times people had exercised in a day.
“Certainly the police will get involved with more than two people gathering in the same place, but as far as policing the bread aisles in the supermarkets, or checking how many times people are going to the shops, that’s simply impractical,” he told BBC News.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Boris Johnson is to address the UK on new measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, amid concerns people have been ignoring government advice.
The UK has been under growing pressure to follow other countries by ordering the closure of more shops, and enforcing rules on social distancing.
The PM will make a statement at 20:30 GMT. Meanwhile, people in the most at-risk groups have begun getting an NHS text urging them to stay at home for 12 weeks.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Ready meals will be delivered to prison cells and the Royal Navy will be drafted in if large numbers of prison officers go off sick with the coronavirus.
Prison governors have been told to ensure that each wing has the resources to cope. There will need to be enough kettles available so inmates can rehydrate food and prisons will have to consider renting extra freezers to store contingency supplies of microwaveable meals and sandwiches.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The Army will be brought in to help get deliveries of protective equipment to frontline NHS staff who are battling the coronavirus pandemic.
Hospital trusts have been told they will be receiving deliveries of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, safety glasses, gloves, aprons and protective suits "around the clock" during the COVID-19 outbreak.
[ more...]
COVID-19
All new jury trials in England and Wales have been halted until they can be conducted safely, the Lord Chief Justice has announced.
In a letter to judges and magistrates, Lord Burnett said the decision was made to "ensure social distancing in court" amid the ongoing spread of coronavirus.
But he added that, where safe to do so, "efforts to bring existing jury trials to a conclusion should continue".
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police officers could be brought out of retirement to help in the fight against coronavirus, as Home Secretary Priti Patel revealed she was seeking to change the rules.
Police chiefs believe many officers - as has already happened with doctors and nurses - would be keen to return to the frontline to help their colleagues potentially depleted by sickness.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The coronavirus outbreak could increase gang violence in Britain as drug dealers compete over a shrinking market, a report has warned.
With bars and nightclubs closed, and most parties cancelled, the Policy Exchange think tank forecast a dramatic reduction in purchases of cocaine and other drugs.
A report released on Monday said the change “may cause an increase in inter-gang rivalry faced with dwindling revenue streams, resulting in increased violence”.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Emergency legislation giving sweeping powers to ban gatherings and forcibly quarantine suspected coronavirus patients was passed by MPs on Monday night, despite continued worries about civil liberties and the potential effect on vulnerable people.
The coronavirus bill, which will be in force for two years, completed all its stages through the Commons in one day without opposition MPs forcing any votes after Downing Street offered the concession that it would be reviewed every six months.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Fraudsters are knocking on the doors of the elderly and scamming them out of their savings by impersonating officials during the coronavirus crisis, a body has warned.
Exploitative criminals are committing burglary or fraud by pretending to be Government, council or medical officers, the Local Government Association (LGA) said.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police officers were mobilised last night to enforce the shutdown of bars, pubs, restaurants and gyms for public safety.
Chief constables in every force in the country engaged civil contingencies designed to respond to events such as rioting and terrorism, allowing longer shifts and making more officers available.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Ministers are being urged to release hundreds of inmates on short sentences in an effort to slim the prison population and aid the government’s efforts to combat the coronavirus outbreak.
It comes after a prisoner tested positive for covid-19 at HMP Manchester earlier this week, and campaigners warned the virus could “spread like wildfire” if it were to infiltrate Britain’s prisons.
The Reform think-tank estimated there are 2,305 “low risk” offenders currently serving sentences for crimes such as shop-lifting and should be released into the community.
[ more...]
Fire
Building owners and managers of high-rise and multi-occupied buildings are to be held to account for the safety of their residents thanks to new legislation.
The Home Office is today introducing a new Bill to improve fire safety in buildings in England and Wales. It aims at clarifying that a building’s owner is responsible for ensuring the property is safe.
The Bill, which will amend the Fire Safety Order 2005, states that a building’s owner must manage and reduce the risk of fire for the structure and external walls of the building, including cladding, balconies and windows.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The government will today outline details of new emergency powers to contain the spread of COVID-19 when it publishes the Emergency Coronavirus Bill.
It is expected to include details for shutting down the UK's ports and airports and giving police powers to detain people suspected of having coronavirus.
It follows significant economic measures introduced by Chancellor RIshi Sunak
[ more...]
COVID-19
Up to 20,000 service personnel will be put on standby to help combat the coronavirus, with troops gearing up to drive oxygen tankers, support the police and boost hospital capacity.
On Thursday, reservists will be put on notice to mobilise if required as part of a war-like effort to prepare the armed forces in case the government calls upon them in large numbers.
But the military must also deal with the threat posed by COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Police, public health and immigration officers will be able to detain people suspected of having Covid-19 and exact £1,000 fines for refusing tests under emergency powers rolled out by the UK government.
The guidance detailed in the coronavirus bill allows public health officers to order someone believed to be infected to undergo screening and testing within 14 days. They will be required to provide biological samples and disclose their travel history.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Supermarkets are expecting to get police support to deter unruly behaviour if London goes into lockdown because of the coronavirus.
Source within the industry say they are concerned that panic buying could spike if further restrictions are imposed.
On Thursday, there were frenzied scenes in some stores as shoppers sought to buy bottled water, tinned goods and toilet roll.
[ more...]
COVID-19
Ministry of Defence Police and the Civil Nuclear Constabulary will backfill officer numbers of the COVID-19 outbreak impacts staffing but the Police Federation have called for clarity from the government on how frontline officers must respond
Police Federation National Chair John Apter, said: “We are in unprecedented and uncertain times, with government advice frequently changing as COVID-19 affects more people.
[ more...]
COVID-19
The government’s implementation of the controversial IR-35 tax rules has been postponed until April 2021, due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Chief secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay announced the delay to Commons yesterday, less than a week after the Budget confirmed that tax was to go live next month.
"I can also this evening announce the government is postponing the reforms to the off-payroll working rules, IR35, from April 2020 to April 6, 2021”, Barclay said to Commons.
[ more...]
Prisons
The government is planning to extend a scheme which allows some prisoners to be freed early to ease pressures in jails across England and Wales.
Under the programme, certain inmates jailed for less than four years can be let out before the halfway point of their sentence.
They are made to wear an electronic tag and abide by a curfew.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Online political adverts should be labelled or “imprinted” to show who is paying for them, according to the Law Commission, which warns that there is a “very real risk of the electoral process losing credibility”.
The Law Commission’s review is aimed at modernising ballot rules and bringing them together in a single, consistent legislative framework. Other changes proposed include simplifying the nomination process.
[ more...]
Fire
A number of fire and rescue services have already decided to take measures to restrict interaction between firefighters and the public.
Firefighters have been told to cease ‘non-essential’ action amid fears over keeping the “core emergency service” healthy for as long as possible.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU), which represents workers within the fire and rescue services across the UK, issued the warning despite what it deems as “little directive from central government”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Children who experience domestic violence at home are twice as likely to become involved in serious youth violence as those from stable homes, a major Home Office study has found.
The research showed 14 per cent of 18 year olds exposed to domestic violence engaged in serious violence compared with 7.4 per cent of those who had no experience of it in the family home.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Thousands of major criminal trials including at the Old Bailey are to be halted or postponed as judges, jurors and court staff are expected to be laid low by the coronavirus.
Robert Buckland, the Lord Chancellor, and Lord Burnett, the Lord Chief Justice, agreed that all new jury trials lasting longer than three days will be delayed until after the coronavirus pandemic abates.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
A chief constable broke down and wept as he described the weight of responsibility of running a force struggling to keep the public safe amid severe budget cuts.
Gareth Morgan, the head of Staffordshire police, said that he had found it hard to decide how to best serve the public with diminishing resources.
“My job is to try and balance those competing needs. With what I’ve got, where can I get the best return to keep the public as safe as I can? And that’s a continual challenge and I feel that very powerfully with the staff.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police have been granted additional powers to intervene and force anyone refusing to self-isolate into their homes.
Chief constables have been told that they will have to prioritise time- sensitive investigations and serious crime. This could mean focusing solely on cases involving the loss of life or risk to life.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The PM has said everyone in the UK should avoid "non-essential" travel and contact with others to curb coronavirus - as the country's death toll hit 55.
Boris Johnson said people should work from home where possible as part of a range of stringent new measures.
Pregnant women, people over the age of 70 and those with certain health conditions should consider the advice "particularly important", he said.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Retired police officers and volunteers could be drafted in by Britain’s biggest force if Covid-19 causes staff shortages.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said she had not “ruled out any option” to boost numbers and protect essential services.
National plans have been drawn up if a fifth of officers are put out of action due to the outbreak, including moving staff from neighbourhood teams and cold case squads to frontline duties.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The chief constable of Merseyside Police is in self-isolation after developing potential coronavirus symptoms.
Andy Cooke said he took the decision to self-isolate to prevent putting his colleagues at risk.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A former Police Federation chairman who "kissed and fondled" a woman whose complaint he had been handling has been found guilty of gross misconduct.
The Northamptonshire Police disciplinary hearing was told Sgt Risby had resigned on Friday.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A new programme will see violent young offenders being offered support to make positive changes in their lives.
The new police Divert programme, which has already been used in the Metropolitan Police, will now be adopted across Blackburn, Blackpool, Lancaster and Preston.
The programme has already reduced reoffending from 27 per cent to eight per cent in London.
Young people will be invited to engage with a Divert coach who will work to move them away from crime.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A Scotland Yard chief has vowed to prosecute rapists even if victims are unwilling to testify as part of a radical shake-up to improve conviction rates.
Detective chief superintendent Helen Lyons, the Met’s lead on rape investigations, said it showed prospective victims that the police took all sexual offences "extremely seriously" and would prosecute in the public interest amid concerns over falling conviction rates.
[ more...]
Prisons
Prisons across the UK could be forced to release low-category inmates to control the spread of coronavirus across the British justice system.
General Secretary of the Prison Officers Association Steve Gillan this morning said that some prisoners across sites in the UK have already been forced to self-isolate within the prisons due to the virus.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The government has announced that May's local and mayoral elections in England will be postponed for a year due to the coronavirus outbreak.
It comes after the Electoral Commission said on Thursday the polls should be delayed until the autumn to "mitigate" the impact of the virus.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan police is bracing for fresh criticism in an official report into its response to the disastrous Operation Midland, which investigated innocent people based on the lies of a fantasist, the Guardian has learned.
After Carl Beech falsely claimed to detectives that he was the childhood victim of a fictitious establishment paedophile ring, police raided properties linked to a D-day hero, a former home secretary and another former MP.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England has announced an emergency cut in interest rates to shore up the economy amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Policymakers reduced rates from 0.75% to 0.25%, taking borrowing costs back down to the lowest level in history.
The Bank said it would also free up billions of pounds of extra lending power to help banks support firms.
[ more...]
Fire
A £1bn fund to help strip combustible cladding from homes in privately owned tower blocks is “a huge step forward”, but likely to be too little and would still leave thousands of people in financial and safety limbo, leaseholders said.
The building safety fund goes beyond the £600m already set aside by the Treasury to remove the specific type of aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding used on Grenfell Tower.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The government must stop applying the so-called "bedroom tax" to domestic abuse survivors fleeing their partners, 44 MPs have written in a letter seen by the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire show.
One rape survivor, living in a home adapted for her safety, had her housing benefits cut because of her spare room.
The European Court of Human Rights said her case was discriminatory. A government bid to appeal was refused.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Teachers have taken action against the potential risk to children being recruited by county lines drug gangs in Hampshire.
It comes after reports gangs are moving their trade to the south, prompting police to warn that drug runners target young or vulnerable people to sell their product.
Now staff in Swanmore College, Wildern School, Wyvern College, The Hamble School, Toynbee School and Thornden School have teamed up to pay privately for a visit from sniffer dogs.
[ more...]
Technology
Police are using forensic linguists to help the mount undercover operations that are so realistic they convince online paedophiles into betraying their identities, according to the authors of a new book.
Professor Tim Grant, a forensic linguist at Aston University, and Dr Nicci MacLeod, of Northumbria University, teach police and other law enforcement agencies the authentic linguistics they need to avoid their cover being blown.
It is understood the National Crime Agency (NCA) which leads the fight against online child abuse has a database of advisers that includes six forensic linguists.
[ more...]
Fire
The project manager for the architects that refurbished Grenfell Tower has said a firm which made flammable insulation used "deliberately misleading" sales tactics comparable to "masquerading horse meat as beef lasagne".
Neil Crawford, of architects Studio E, told the inquiry into the disaster that Celotex "clearly sought to deceive" and exploit "the understanding that an average architect would have" with the way it presented sales literature for its RS5000 insulation.
The insulation - combined together with Reynobond PE cladding panels - made up the external cladding system, which was found to be a key factor in the fire's rapid spread by acting as a source of fuel.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Community sentences are to be made tougher for offenders with more unpaid work, “sobriety tags” and 24-hour GPS tagging under a £100 million Budget package to be announced by the Chancellor.
The cash injection will help fund extra hours on “community service” which is currently limited to a maximum of 300 hours and the nationwide roll-out of sobriety tags that alert police when released criminals with alcohol problems drink.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The National Police Air Service is adding four Vulcan P68R planes to its capacity to support all 43 forces across England and Wales plus British Transport Police.
Based at Doncaster Sheffield Airport, the planes will do the same work as police helicopters but will offer greater endurance times and increase attendance rates to some of the more remote areas of the UK.
The Italian-made aircraft has six seats and boasts a top speed of nearly 200mph.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
HEADLINES
Return to work scheme for female officers assessed by CoP - Two schemes from the...
Use of Covert Human Intelligence Sources falls to 10-year low - Investigatory Powers...
Recording of all search warrant hearings recommended by IOPC - New guidelines on...
PCC breaks ranks over traveller laws - The government has been urged to give police...
Return to work scheme for female officers assessed by CoP
Two schemes from the CoP that aim to encourage women into detective and senior leadership roles approach the end of their first year.
Return to work scheme for female officers assessed by CoP
Date - 6th March 2020
By - Chloe Livadeas6 Comments6 Comments}
A pilot initiative by the College of Policing which encourages those who left the police due to care-giving responsibilities to re-join investigative roles is approaching the end of its first year.
The Return to Investigative Practice was launched in the spring of 2019 and aims to support forces to rehire those qualified in investigative and detective work who left the service to care for elderly or disabled relatives or because of child minding responsibilities.
Ten forces are currently part of the scheme: Avon and Somerset, City of London, Essex, Hampshire, Kent, North Yorkshire, South Wales, Surrey, Sussex and Thames Valley.
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Economy & Public Finance
Parliament could shut its doors for months under emergency government plans to tackle the spread of the coronavirus.
It follows the UK's biggest day-on-day increase in cases, with 87 people now confirmed to have the disease.
MPs on the Health and Social Care Committee committee are due to question England's chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty on Thursday as to how well prepared the UK is to deal with the impact of a possible global pandemic.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
People suffering mental health crises will be able to make use of 24-hour support across England by next year, NHS chiefs said yesterday.
Specialist crisis teams and expanded 111 telephone helplines, as well as mental health cafés or “safe haven” houses where people can go for help, will receive £200 million of national funding.
Sir Simon Stevens, NHS chief executive, said: “The NHS is delivering on its pledge to improve mental health support, with every local health service now signed up to providing a round-the-clock community mental health crisis service by 2021.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Knife crime suspects could be forced to play football under new Asbo-style orders to be trialled from next month.
Ministers yesterday introduced in Parliament new powers for police to take out the orders against anyone suspected of regularly carrying knives or convicted of a knife offence.
The court orders can not only to impose punitive conditions such as curfews and exclusion zones but also “preventative” measures to reform their behaviour such as requiring them to join a sports club or participate in sports.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A civil servant allegedly attempted to kill herself after being bullied by Priti Patel and later received a £25,000 payout, it has been claimed.
The BBC said it had seen legal correspondence claiming the woman had taken an overdose following the alleged incident in October 2015, when Ms Patel was employment minister.
The woman claimed that Ms Patel had shouted at the woman in her private office and told her to "get lost" and "get out of her face". Ms Patel denies the claims.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Proposed domestic abuse laws must be strengthened to give more protection to children, campaigners say.
Barnardo's and the NSPCC said measures due to be published on Tuesday were "disappointing" and risked perpetuating a situation in which children were the "hidden victims" of domestic abuse.
However, Women's Aid welcomed a new legal obligation on councils to provide secure refuges for victims.
[ more...]
Technology
Domestic violence offenders in England and Wales could face compulsory lie-detector tests when released from prison under proposed new laws.
Those deemed at high risk of re-offending will be given regular polygraph tests to find out if they have breached release conditions.
Measures to combat "tech abuse" and "financial abuse" are also in the long-awaited Domestic Violence Bill.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Met submitted highest bid and will get £2 million as £3.5 million of ring fenced cash left unspent.
North Yorkshire and Staffordshire did not submit bids for the £10 million ring-fenced taser funding leaving £3.3m unspent which the Home Office will now switch to tackling serious violence and County Lines gangs.
Nearly 8,000 new Tasers will be issued to officers – including Special Constables in Kent – at a cost of £6.5m from the Home Office budget allocation.
[ more...]
Technology
Artificial intelligence (AI) could be used to reverse the slump in rape prosecutions under plans being considered by the Justice Secretary Robert Buckland.
He believes the use of AI could protect victims from overly “intrusive” investigations into their personal sexual history by screening out irrelevant data on their mobile phones and identifying only the most pertinent.
Up to half of rape victims withdraw their allegations before their cases come to trial partly because of “digital intrusion” and delays due to the length of time investigators have to spend trawling through messages and social media.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The UK’s crime minister walked out of a national drug summit in Glasgow before hearing from addiction experts - hours after branding safe consumption rooms ‘a distraction’.
Kit Malthouse missed key evidence from internationally renowned drug specialists and Irish and Welsh ministers before departing the conference less than three hours after it began to return to London.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Car theft gangs are using county lines recruitment tactics to groom youngsters into stealing high-value vehicles, a police chief has said.
Dave Thompson, Chief Constable for West Midlands Police, said cars are now easier than ever to steal because keyless technology has led to a "dramatic" increase in vehicle crime.
Criminals are turning to "exactly the same" strategies as those employed by county lines gangs to encourage children and teenagers to work for them, such as offering to buy food for their family, said Mr Thompson.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Stock markets across the globe are suffering their worst week since the global financial crisis of 2008 as fears over the impact of the coronavirus continue to grip investors.
Markets in Europe fell sharply on Friday morning, with London's FTSE 100 index sinking more than 3%.
Asian markets saw more big falls, while in the US, the Dow Jones recorded its biggest daily points drop on Thursday.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Priti Patel has refused to hold meetings with her most senior civil servant, amid a continuing toxic atmosphere at the top of the Home Office.
The Times understands that relations between Ms Patel and Sir Philip Rutnam, her permanent secretary, have all but broken down after she blamed him for allegations of bullying in the department becoming public.
The two are understood not to have held a single one-to-one meeting for more than a week, with one source describing the top of the organisation as being “utterly dysfunctional”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers are helping convicted prolific offenders to fill in forms to claim benefits, watchdogs have revealed, amid growing concern they are being distracted from crime fighting.
Inspectors disclosed that police officers appeared to have taken over some of the rehabilitation work traditionally carried out by probation services even though they were not trained in it and was “not the best use of their time.”
It included helping the offenders to “complete benefit applications or taking them to appointments” such as with doctors, housing officials or drug misuse specialists.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The UK is to abandon a crucial tool used to speed up the transfer of criminals across borders with other European countries.
Acting against the warnings of senior law enforcement officials, the government said it would not be seeking to participate in the European arrest warrant (EAW) as part of the future relationship with the European Union.
In a document setting out the UK’s approach to negotiations with the EU, the government said: “The agreement should instead provide for fast-track extradition arrangements, based on the EU’s surrender agreement with Norway and Iceland which came into force in 2019, but with appropriate further safeguards for individuals beyond those in the European arrest warrant.”
[ more...]
Technology
Scotland Yard has made its first arrest using controversial facial recognition technology.
The country’s biggest police force began rolling out the live technology in London last month despite concerns from privacy campaigners that it eroded civil liberties.
Cameras are now regularly positioned at designated locations around the capital to scan crowds and check against a watchlist of wanted suspects.
[ more...]
Technology
Researchers are asking for help from the public to help build a database of hands that would allow police to identify tens of thousands of paedophiles every day.
Forensic scientists currently can link suspects to child abuse footage, through analysing the back of the hands in the footage and whether things like blood vessels map up to those on the hands of a suspected child offender.
However, the process is thought to be very slow, with one case taking at least two weeks, and the success rate at around 86pc.
[ more...]
Technology
A specialist cyber force of hackers who can target hostile states and terror groups is due to be launched later in the spring, after many months of delays and turf wars between the Ministry of Defence and GCHQ.
The National Cyber Force – containing an estimated 500 specialists – has been in the works for two years but sources said that after months of wrangling over the details, the specialist unit was close to being formally announced.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The new chancellor must raise taxes in his first Budget or break the government's rules on borrowing, a leading economic think tank has warned.
Rishi Sunak is under pressure to increase spending on the NHS, social care and schools.
He has also inherited a fiscal target from his predecessor Sajid Javid to bring spending in to balance by 2022.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Children should get support under forthcoming domestic abuse laws designed to protect victims, campaigners have said.
The charity Barnardo’s called on the Government to expand its plans for the Domestic Abuse Bill so it “explicitly recognises the impact of this crime on children”.
Its report also called on ministers to ensure the Bill includes a “statutory duty on public authorities to commission specialist domestic abuse support for all victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse”.
[ more...]
Technology
The director general of MI5 has called on tech companies to create methods which would allow the security services to access the secret, encrypted messages of people suspected of plotting terrorist attacks in the UK.
Speaking to ITV, Sir Andrew Parker says while the real world is regulated and policed, he finds it "mystifying" the same does not apply to cyberspace, calling it "a wild west, unregulated [and] inaccessible to authorities."
Some messaging apps use end-to-end encryption, which means the content of messages can only be read by the sender and recipient, and cannot be intercepted by a third party - such as security services.
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Technology
A helpline for people concerned about their own sexual feelings towards children says the number of calls its has received has doubled.
Stop It Now! is an anonymous helpline and website which tries to help people understand the reasons for their illegal behaviour and how to get support.
The organisation says 94,342 people in the UK asked for help via its website and helpline last year - a 119% increase from the previous year, when more than 43,000 made contact.
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Police and Crime General
Innocent people are being wrongly convicted and criminals are escaping justice because of the failure of the forensic science system to meet basic standards, the regulator has said.
Delivering a stark message before the release of her annual report on Tuesday, the forensic science regulator, Dr Gillian Tully, told the Guardian the service had been operating “on a knife-edge” for years.
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Police and Crime General
About 50 terrorists will no longer be automatically released halfway through their sentences as emergency legislation becomes law later this week.
The government has rushed The Terrorist Offenders (Restriction of Early Release) Bill through parliament - days before the previously scheduled release of the next offender is due to take place.
The bill cleared the Commons earlier this month and was backed unamended in one sitting by peers in the Lords.
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Police Demand
The owners and operators of businesses and public spaces such as concert halls, shopping centres and parks will be legally bound to protect such venues from terrorism under a new statutory duty proposed by the government.
The so-called “protect duty” reflects proposals put forward by the family of Martyn Hett, who was killed in the Manchester Arena bombing attack in 2017.
Home Office officials are to launch a consultation on legally forcing organisations to increase physical security at venues and train staff to respond to terrorist attacks, as well as putting in place incident response plans – and how failure to comply would be enforced.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The racial imbalance that has existed in policie forces needs a radical change in the law to allow positive discrimination in favour of ethnic minority recruits, Labour has said.
New research shows the “race gap” in policing has grown in the last two decades and Labour’s policing spokesperson, Louise Haigh MP, said the move was needed to make police forces less white and speed up the “glacial” pace of change.
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Police and Crime General
Former Treasury chief secretary David Gauke has called on chancellor Rishi Sunak to add additional council tax bands in next month's Budget.
Speaking at a Resolution Foundation think-tank event, Mr Gauke, who held three different ministerial roles at the Treasury between 2010 and 2016, said: ‘Clearly there’s a strong case for ensuring a property tax system is more progressive and the case for additional bands is extremely strong.
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Police and Crime General
The civil war in the Home Office erupted again last night with claims that intelligence chiefs at MI5 do “not trust” Priti Patel.
Officers in the security service have reduced the volume of intelligence they show to the home secretary and regularly “roll their eyes” at her interventions in meetings, it was claimed.
Sources said that Patel has not attended a weekly meeting with security officials from different Whitehall departments for several months, and that she was informed of some issues later in the decision-making process.
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Recruitment and Retention
Officers in Northern Ireland have been awarded a backdated 2.5% pay increase which had been left unsigned due to a lack of a minister.
Northern Ireland’s Department for Justice has announced a police pay deal has been signed off thanks to the devolved government being up and running again with a ministerial team in place.
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Technology
America’s top cyber-security official has said that the Trump administration has not given up its fight to stop the UK using Huawei for its 5G networks.
Robert Strayer, the US deputy assistant secretary for cyber and communications, told the BBC he did not believe the UK government’s decision to give the Chinese firm limited access was final.
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Police Finances
New chancellor Rishi Sunak has received a pre-Budget boost on the public finances, with latest figures showing a record January for tax receipts.
Government borrowing in January 2020 was in surplus by £9.8bn thanks to self-assessed income tax and capital gains tax receipts which were £22.7bn, according to the Office for National Statistics.
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Police and Crime General
Convicted criminals are being spared jail terms despite committing the same serious offence dozens of times, new figures revealed last night. Police data released in Parliament showed courts gave suspended sentences and community penalties to offenders with long records of knife crime, assault and burglary.
Tory MP Philip Davies, who obtained the information by tabling a series of Commons Written Questions, said the statistics showed the legal system had been “hijacked” by soft-touch judges and magistrates. “These figures will leave people wondering what on earth a criminal has to do in this country to get put in jail,” the senior backbencher said.
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Police and Crime General
Keeping prisoners behind bars for longer could "expose them to worse influences" than if they were released, the government's terror laws adviser has said.
Jonathan Hall QC raised doubts about the "effectiveness" of legislation being rushed through parliament after the Streatham and London Bridge attacks.
He questioned whether keeping "non-risky prisoners" in jail for longer would really "protect the public" in an analysis of the Terrorist Offenders (Restriction of Early Release) Bill, which has completed its journey through the Commons and will be debated by the House of Lords next week.
[ more...]
Technology
Social media firms will face multi-million pound fines and the suspension of their services for showing “harmful” videos under a crackdown by Ofcom in just seven months time.
The Government has quietly handed Ofcom powers to investigate, fine and disrupt video-sharing and live streaming platforms to protect children from “harmful” content including violence, child abuse and pornography.
The legal requirement to protect children from any video content that “impairs their physical, mental or moral development” will come into effect in September as part of an EU-wide directive that Britain has agreed to enact as part of the withdrawal agreement.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The government will not be changing the date of the Budget, Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced. It will go ahead as previously scheduled on 11 March.
There had been speculation that the Budget could be delayed after Mr Sunak replaced Sajid Javid following his resignation last week.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Councils are being given a boost (£16.6m)to provide essential, life-saving support in safe housing for survivors of domestic abuse and their children, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick has confirmed today (17 February 2020).
Seventy-five projects across England will share over £16 million, helping up to 43,000 survivors have access to the help they need as they move towards a safe future, free from domestic abuse.
The new funding will enable victims and their children to stay safe, recover from the trauma, and access safe permanent rehousing where needed.
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Police Demand
POLICE must be more visible on the beat and focus on violence, says research out today. The public are concerned officers have abandoned town centres, said the Police Foundation study.
They fear the service is being forced to plug gaps for other areas, such as mental health, and this is hitting the fight against crime. Police chiefs should prioritise emergency response, violent and sexual crime, organised crime and terrorism, researchers were told. Just 16 per cent of people said they saw an officer on foot patrol last year – down from 39 per cent in 2010.
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Technology
The numbers recorded across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire have risen from 729 in 2013 to 1,216 in 2019.
The figures, obtained by the Press and Journal under freedom of information legislation, relate to serious matters like rape, the sharing of indecent images of children and public indecency.
The force says such crimes have been under-reported historically, and believes the rise can partially be attributed to more victims having the confidence to come forward.
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Technology
A record number of people took driver awareness courses for motoring offences rather than fines and penalty points last year, in part because of a surge in offences on smart motorways.
Figures show that almost 1.5 million drivers — more than 4,000 a day — opted for a course to avoid points and a possible ban. The number of courses taken has more than tripled in the past nine years.
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Police and Crime General
Persistently naughty children from primary school upwards and their parents should be given professional support to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour further down the line, experts said.
People who engage in antisocial behaviour throughout their lives tend to start acting out earlier on in childhood, which is when they should be given help, authors of a new study said.
Their research, launched on Monday, suggests that the brains of people who engage in lifelong antisocial behaviour may be smaller and structured differently to those without such a history.
MRI scans on adults aged 45 who had persistently engaged in stealing bullying, lying, aggression or violence throughout their lives revealed a thinner cortex and smaller surface area in certain brain regions.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Burglars are ending up in court in just four per cent of cases, almost half the rate of just four years ago, Home Office data reveals.
More than eight in ten burglaries across England and Wales are closed without police identifying a suspect, with only 4.4 per cent of offences resulting in a charge or a summons in 2018/19.This is down from 7.6 per cent in 2015/16.
The figures will add to growing concerns at the failure of police to investigate so-called low-level but high volume crimes following reductions in police officer numbers of 22,000 since 2012.
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Economy & Public Finance
The government's budget may be delayed, a cabinet minister has said. It had been set for 11 March, but the timetable was thrown into doubt after the surprise resignation of former Chancellor Sajid Javid on Thursday.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the date would be a matter for Mr Javid's replacement, Rishi Sunak. He told the BBC's Andrew Marr programme: "The guy's only been in place for a few days, let's give him a few days to decide on the date."
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Police and Crime General
Retired couples and a smattering of teenagers bunking off school watch the grey swell of the Channel under a pale winter sky. The gaudy amusement arcades of penny-pushers and flashing gambling machines are almost completely deserted. The bored-looking staff in the ice-cream parlours and takeaways gaze into their phones, waiting for customers.
Dawlish on the south Devon coast is everything you might expect of a seaside resort in February. Yet this ostensibly sleepy West Country town was the nerve-centre of a violent gang from the north-east who over a decade built a brutal drug empire worth at least £1m while also preying on vulnerable young women who fell under their spell.
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Police and Crime General
A young and highly vulnerable British sex trafficking victim was re-trafficked by county lines drug gangs on multiple occasions after the Home Office repeatedly refused to fulfil its legal obligation to provide her with safe accommodation.
On 2 January this year, the Home Office replied to the hospital, saying the woman’s complex mental health needs made her a danger to herself and others and that there were no appropriate safe-house places available.
Hours before she was due to be discharged on to the street, a high court judge forced the Home Office to act, and 24-hour support was found.
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Technology
Controversial facial recognition cameras used by Britain's biggest police force correctly identify only a third of women, an official report admits.
A review of the technology by Scotland Yard also reveals that two in three men are accurately identified, while black people are far more likely to be wrongly flagged up than white people.
Critics say the findings underline their concern that the system will lead to innocent people being wrongly stopped and searched by police, while genuine suspects are not identified.
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Police and Crime General
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, nnounced that £55.5m of new funding will be available for tackling the underlying causes of violent crime in the capital.
The funding announcement brings the total additional amount the mayor has invested in tackling violent crime in this year’s budget to £100.6m.
Around £25m of the new funding will go to the Young Londoners Fund, which supports projects aimed at providing positive opportunities for disadvantaged young people and helping steer them away from crime.
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Police Demand
It found that inequality within communities and difference in opportunities provided across the country makes some young people vulnerable to the draw of violence and gangs.
It also said that school exclusion should be the last step in a long line of disciplinary measures, and schools should be held accountable for their exclusions.
The Youth Select Committee urged the Government to develop long-term funding plans of at least five years to develop effective ways of helping and reaching young people at risk of getting involved in knife crime.
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Economy & Public Finance
Britain had the third-fastest growing economy in the G7 group of advanced nations last year even though it stagnated in the final quarter.
Official figures show that the economy beat expectations to grow by 1.4 per cent last year. The UK outperformed France, Germany and Italy, which grew by 1.3 per cent, 0.5 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively.
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), growth picked up to 0.3 per cent in December alone. The annual 1.4 per cent growth rate meant that Britain was behind only the US and Canada, which posted growth of 2.2 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy saw no growth in the final three months of 2019, as manufacturing contracted for the third quarter in a row and the service sector slowed around the time of the election.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the car industry had seen a particularly weak quarter.
The ONS figures also showed the economy grew by 1.4% in 2019, marginally higher than the 1.3% rate in 2018.
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Economy & Public Finance
Local government minister Luke Hall tweeted: ‘Such swift action to protect the public means we will now hold the vote on the #localgov settlement as soon as possible after recess.
‘Confirming this funding as soon as possible remains a priority and we laid the final material in the House last week to help to give councils the certainty they need to deliver vital services.’
The Local Government Association had been fighting proposals to restrict council tax rises to 2% without the holding of a referendum, but the latest policy proposals in the final settlement are largely unchanged from earlier plans.
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Police Demand
Emergency legislation designed to end the release of people convicted of terrorism offences halfway through their sentence has been presented to Parliament.
The measures - which would apply to England, Scotland and Wales - were drawn up after the attack in Streatham, south London, earlier this month.
MPs will consider all stages of the Terrorist Offenders Bill, before the Commons goes into recess. The bill will then move to the Lords in time, ministers hope, for it to become law by 27 February.
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Technology
A report said the software would be a "radical departure" from the current practice of policing by consent.
The report from the justice sub-committee on policing was published as part of their inquiry into the advancement of live facial recognition.
It highlighted the technology was "known to discriminate against females and those from black, Asian and ethnic minority communities". The report added: "The use of live facial recognition technology would be a radical departure from Police Scotland's fundamental principle of policing by consent."
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Technology
The Metropolitan police have been accused of defying the warnings of its own watchdogs by beginning operational use of facial recognition CCTV, despite a scathing assessment of its effectiveness from the expert hired to scrutinise its trials.
Commander Mark McEwen, the Met’s lead on crime prevention, said Stratford had been chosen because it had been the scene of “public space violence”, and that there was support from the community for the police to use “whatever tactic we can to deal with violence”.
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Police and Crime General
Police have criticised residents of a market town for failing to report drug crimes out of fear that it could lower house prices.
Melbourne, south Derbyshire, has been ranked one of the best places to live in the UK and the average home sells for more than £300,000.
The town boasts an attractive Georgian marketplace surrounded by bistros, boutiques and art galleries. One of Britain’s top arts and crafts festivals is held there each September.
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Recruitment and Retention
Gwent Police has recruited 15 new Police Staff Investigators who are now commencing their initial 16-week training period.
The PSIs who will take two years to become fully accredited, have designated powers from the Chief Constable and can carry out searches, interviews and other duties but cannot make an arrest.
They are required to have successfully passed the PIP Level 1 and 2 exam - the same as a DC – and will be paid between £25,566 and £30,195 for a 37-hour week.
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Fire
Thousands of people in the UK are living in flats they cannot sell, because the outside wall is covered in cladding. Sometimes it's combustible, like the material that turned Grenfell Tower into an inferno.
Since the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, in which 72 people died, cladding has become a national concern. Highly combustible "aluminium composite material" (ACM) cladding spread the Grenfell fire at terrifying speed. The most recent government figures show that 450 buildings are covered in it, 356 of which are residential.
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Police Demand
Police were deluged with nearly 500,000 call-outs to deal with mental-health crises in the last 12 months.
Data uncovered by think tank Parliament Street shows incidents have rocketed by
20 per cent since 2016.
he Metropolitan Police had most mental health call-outs in 2019 with 39,584.
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Recruitment and Retention
Home Office and police officials say the target is not high enough because so many are set to leave the service.
It comes as campaigners say officers need a starting salary of £24,000 or more for the original target to be met.
Current figures show that only one in 10 candidates who applies to join the police is successful - meaning half a million would have to apply to reach the 53,000 goal.
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Police Finances
The move will increase the money available – up from £8 million to £12 million per year – to total £32 million over three years for a range of services including tailored face-to-face support and counselling.
Nationally more than 160,000 sexual offences were recorded by police last year, and this funding will ensure help for victims is available in all 42 of the country’s Police and Crime Commissioner areas.
Today’s (7 February 2020) announcement will also see a £1 million investment to recruit more Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) across the country, who provide advice and support for victims, acting as the link between police, support services and criminal justice agencies.
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Recruitment and Retention
In a report submitted on Friday (February 7) to the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) – the independent team that recommends to the government what pay increase police officers should receive – the two staff associations warn that ahead of an increase in numbers, it is more important than ever that officers are “paid a fair wage for the unique job they do”.
Other parties who are expected to make submissions to the PRRB include the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, the Home Office and the Chief Police Officers’ Staff Association.
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Technology
An agreement to share network equipment in order to improve phone coverage in rural areas has hit a stumbling block over costs.
Rival operators are unhappy at the price BT-owned EE is asking them to pay to share its equipment.
O2's chief said the fees being sought by its rival "may undermine the viability of the project".
[ more...]
Technology
British spies are designing a hotline for businesses that fall victim to cybercrime after failings at Action Fraud, the national fraud reporting centre, The Times can reveal.
The National Cyber Security Centre, a branch of GCHQ, is planning to launch the phone line by March next year, promising to make it easier for companies to report online crimes.
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Prisons
Another terrorist, released early from prison, bent on violence, shot dead on the streets of London.
Prison certainly had not deradicalised either Streatham attacker Sudesh Amman, nor the London Bridge attacker Usman Khan.
It may have made matters worse. Both went from plotting, reading, considering acts of terror - to violently acting them out.
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Police and Crime General
Tens of thousands of people have been left out of pocket after being acquitted of serious crimes over the past four years because the government ended the reimbursement of legal fees.
More than 120,000 acquitted defendants have had to pay significant legal bills after Whitehall cut legal aid, official figures obtained by The Times reveal.
Since 2014, when a means test for criminal legal aid was introduced, more than 126,000 defendants have paid for lawyers in crown court trials and been acquitted. They accounted for a third of crown court trials over that period.
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Police Finances
Reforms to vocational training are failing young people and small and medium companies, according to a poll by the Federation of Small Businesses.
The apprenticeship levy has made it harder to access entry-level training and is not providing enough support for smaller companies, its critics say.
More than one in four small companies that employ apprentices say that changes introduced three years ago have been counterproductive.
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Technology
BT will use Huawei kit to build a telecoms network for Britain’s emergency services despite government advice that it could pose a security threat.
The much-delayed £9bn Emergency Services Network (ESN) is designed to provide the benefits of mobile internet to 300,000 first responders.
This weekend, BT insisted kit from embattled Chinese telecoms giant Huawei could be used in the network, despite Britain’s cyber spy agency warning against “any” kit from the “high risk vendor” being used in critical national infrastructure.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Rape victims are being forced to wait, on average, more than two and a half years to find out if their attackers will face charges, amid accusations that the police are wasting time gathering evidence they do not need.
Lengthy delays, which have soared by a staggering 64 per cent over the last decade, are contributing to plummeting conviction rates, with many victims preferring to withdraw their complaints rather than endure an agonising wait for justice.
Police investigations into sexual offences often become bogged down as detectives are forced to trawl through vast amounts of digital data - including social media exchanges between the two parties.
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Police and Crime General
Knife crime will be among the biggest threats to the safety of British children over the next decade, according to a new survey.
Mental health problems and dangers online make up the rest of the top three concerns among parents polled for the children's charity Barnardo's, with the latter encompassing the likes of grooming and self-harm content.
Social media platforms have come under increased pressure to crack down on graphic images of self-harm since teenager Molly Russell took her own life after viewing such content on Instagram.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Surrey, David Munro, has written to the Home Secretary calling for the current police funding formula to be urgently reformed following last week’s government settlement.
PCC Munro said the announcement was good for getting more officers on the streets over the next year but warned Surrey’s residents are being short changed by receiving the lowest percentage increase in overall funding in the country at 6.2 per cent.
The figure takes into account the combination of central government grant allocated to Surrey Police and the maximum amount the PCC could raise through the council tax precept for policing.
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Police and Crime General
Parents of children sexually exploited by criminal gangs can be blamed for not preventing abuse, report finds.
The report draws on semi-structured interviews and focus group sessions with 32 parents or grandparents whose children were sexually abused outside the home.
Their testimony makes disturbing reading: lengthy delays in any action taken; not being listened to by social workers; feeling that their child had not been helped; and that they were often viewed as bad parents, or even possible abusers themselves.
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Technology
It is understood the force provided photographs of three serious offenders and a vulnerable missing person as part of the trial.
A spokesperson for British Land, which owns Meadowhall, admitted the company had not put up signs warning visitors that the technology was being used.
“In 2018 we operated two short trials of facial recognition technology (FRT) at Meadowhall. The number of individuals with access to this database was strictly limited,” they said.
[ more...]
Fire
Witnesses involved in designing and choosing materials for the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower are applying to claim “privilege against self-incrimination” to protect themselves from the prospect of prosecution, the inquiry into the disaster has been told.
Chairman Sir Martin Moore-Bick said on Wednesday that he had been invited to ask Attorney General Geoffrey Cox QC for an undertaking that “nothing said by a witness in answers to questions in the inquiry will be used in furtherance of a prosecution against them”.
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Police Finances
London's mayor has nearly doubled a planned rise in council tax he says will raise £16m more to fight crime.
A London household in Band D will pay £332 to City Hall next year, a 3.6% increase from £320.51 last year. In December Sadiq Khan proposed to increase on council tax by 2%.
The fund will pay to fast-track an extra 600 police officers next year.
[ more...]
Recruitment and Retention
Crimes will be investigated by civilians who are being fast-tracked by Gwent Police to help ease workloads.
They will have powers similar to detectives who have worked their way through the ranks but will not be able to make arrests.
The force denied it was policing "on the cheap" and said the first 15 trainees would play supporting roles.
[ more...]
Technology
Facial recognition could be a “spectacular own goal” for police if it fails to be accurate and effective, the government has been warned.
MPs raised concerns about the technology after the Metropolitan Police announced the start of live deployments in London.
Only eight arrests were made as a result of facial matches in almost three years of trials in the capital, which saw a high rate of “false positive” alerts wrongly flagging innocent people as wanted criminals.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A cross-party group of MPs has called for a change in the law that allows adults in positions of trust, from sports coaches to faith leaders, to legally have sex with children aged 16 and 17 in their care.
At present, the law allows only for adults in certain jobs to be prosecuted, such as teachers and social workers. Roles that fall outside this definition of “position of trust” include private tutors, driving instructors and coaches in after-school clubs, as well as vicars, imams and other religious leaders.
[ more...]
Technology
The number of officers involved in policing the roads has fallen by 24 per cent since 2012. Some forces have seen even more dramatic declines. In Northamptonshire, the number of roads officers has fallen by 83 per cent.
Mr Bangham, who is the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for Roads Policing, said there were 1,784 road deaths last year.
“Five people a day are dying on our roads. That cannot be right. Twice as many people die on our roads than through homicide,” he added.
[ more...]
Technology
The UK has decided to let Huawei continue to be used in its 5G networks but with restrictions, despite pressure from the US to block the firm.
The Chinese firm will be banned from supplying kit to "sensitive parts" of the network, known as the core.
In addition, it will only be allowed to account for 35% of the kit in a network's periphery, which includes radio masts.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A judge has dismissed all charges against five Extinction Rebellion protesters after a police officer due to give evidence in their case went on holiday.
Deputy District Judge Vincent McDade accused the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of “abject failure” over the blunder.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The government has acted to give police forces across the country new powers to tackle the misuse of unmanned aircraft, including drones, as the Air Traffic Management and Unmanned Aircraft Bill has its second reading in Parliament today (27 January 2020).
The legislation will give the police new powers to land, inspect and seize drones if an offence has been committed and a warrant is secured.
Drone users could also face an on the spot fine for certain offences such as failing to provide evidence that they have the correct permissions and exemptions if found to be flying their device too high or too close to buildings, or failing to provide evidence of competency or registration.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police chiefs have admitted they have been too slow to boost diversity in the ranks and still have a long way to go, almost 21 years since a landmark report into race and policing triggered promises of radical change.
The admission came as a study found that black police officer numbers barely increased since the middle of the last decade, rising by 86 officers across the 44 forces of England and Wales between 2007 and 2018.
[ more...]
Technology
Forces who sign up to national ICT systems and then pull out at the last minute should be named and shamed, according to an academic who leads on the government’s digital transformation strategy.
Professor Mark Thompson who has advised the government on how to digitize large public services such as the NHS, told delegates at last week’s Police ICT summit in Manchester that the lack of a central body driving through much needed police ICT changes was a problem
[ more...]
Police Finances
A new £25 million scheme to tackle burglary and theft in crime hotspots has been launched by the Policing Minister.
The Safer Streets Fund will open this week for bids from police and crime commissioners (PCCs) across England and Wales to fund initiatives aimed at stopping these offences happening in the first place.
The fund is specifically designed for areas that need to tackle theft, robbery and burglary – known as acquisitive crimes.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Most incidents (111,670) were in the North West, followed by the South East (107,692) and Yorkshire and Humber (94,499).
Domestic violence incidents now account for 14 per cent of crimes dealt with by police.
Murders, violent attacks, rapes, sexual assaults, harassment and stalking are included as domestic abuse crimes in the Office for National Statistics data.
It also showed referrals of suspects from domestic abuse-flagged cases to the CPS for a charging decision fell 11 per cent from 110,653 to 98,470 from the previous year.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of knife crimes being dealt with by the police and courts is the highest in a decade, official figures show.
There were 22,286 knife and offensive weapon offences formally dealt with by the criminal justice system in England and Wales in the year ending September 2019, according to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) statistics.
This is a three per cent rise on the previous year (21,553) and the highest since September 2009 (26,364).
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Terror offenders will face more time in jail and be monitored more closely as part of new laws being introduced within weeks, the government has said.
Automatic early release from prison will be scrapped for terror offenders while a minimum jail term of 14 years for serious crimes will be introduced.
The Home Office said a bill would be brought before Parliament by mid-March.
[ more...]
Prisons
Children are being held in “harmful” solitary confinement in prison with some let out of their cells for just 15 minutes a day, a damning report from jail inspectors said.
Peter Clarke, the chief inspector of prisons, has called for a “major overhaul” of the policy of separating children in young offender institutions (HMYOIs). He said this in effect amounted to them being held in “harmful solitary confinement with little human contact and in conditions which risk damaging their mental health”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Home Secretary joined Merseyside Police on a county lines raid funded by a new £25 million package of measures.
Home Secretary Priti Patel has backed police to step up their fight against county lines gangs as she welcomed the results of a recent crackdown.
British Transport Police (BTP) and Merseyside Police have made over 100 arrests during intensive operations that have taken place in the past 2 months. Officers have also made a number of seizures of weapons, phones, drugs and cash.
This action was funded by £5 million of Home Office money from £20 million that was previously committed by the Home Secretary to dismantle county lines.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Spending on youth services in England and Wales has been cut by 70% in real terms in less than a decade, with the loss of £1bn of investment resulting in zero funding in some areas, according to research.
Analysis by the YMCA youth charity found that local authority expenditure on youth services dropped from £1.4bn in 2010-11 to just under £429m in 2018-19, resulting in the loss of 750 youth centres and more than 4,500 youth workers.
[ more...]
Prisons
The drug problem in jails is becoming more serious with the number of inmates developing an addiction behind bars more than doubling in five years, new research suggests.
The proportion of prisoners who said they had experienced a problem with illegal substances rose from around 6.4% to about 14.8%.
And almost 15% of inmates said they were drawn to drugs after being sent to jail, said the report by the Reform think-tank.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A taskforce has been set up to tackle “waste crime” such as dumping hazardous materials on private land and false labelling so waste can be exported.
The Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC) will bring together law enforcement agencies, environmental regulators, HMRC and the National Crime Agency.
Environment secretary Theresa Villiers said the taskforce will “crack down” on the criminals responsible for waste crime, which she called “a scourge on our environment”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Dangerous drivers who cause deaths on the roads face life imprisonment under Boris Johnson’s plans for longer sentences.
The maximum sentence for causing death by speeding, racing or using a mobile phone will be raised from 14 years to life, making the offence equivalent to manslaughter.
A separate offence, causing death by driving whilst under the influence of drink or drugs, will also rise from 14 years to life.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
New measures are set to come into force which hope to protect victims of stalking at "the earliest opportunity".
From Monday officers will be able to apply to magistrates for a Stalking Protection Order (SPO) - blocking alleged perpetrators from contacting or approaching their victims while a probe into their behaviour continues.
The measures have been introduced in a bid to take a tougher stance on stalkers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Items previously sold include a Cartier Santos watch for £4,750 and a Panasonic camera for £972 but the force now needs an administrator to list property and arrange postage and packaging. The salary ranges from £19,359 to £20,619 — just shy of the £22,380 starting constables are paid.
The employee must “describe items honestly, to maintain the integrity of Sussex Police”. The 37-hour-a-week job is described as an “exciting opportunity” and is a fixed-term contract running until December.
[ more...]
Fire
There are still 91 social housing buildings covered in Grenfell-style ACM cladding over two years after the tragedy, official figures have shown.
According to government data just one private tower block has received full funding for removal of the cladding despite a £200m pot created last summer to fund such work.
The government had initially provided £400m for local authorities and housing associations to remove the dangerous cladding after the Grenfell Tower fire in which 72 people died.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
A Ministry of Justice civil servant has been jailed for a “sophisticated” fraud worth £1.7m.
Allan Williams created a £7m purchase order in 2017 for a bogus IT company that he set up.
Sopra Business Consulting Ltd was sent monthly payments which Williams, 37, later transferred to his personal bank account.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Knife offences have hit a ten-year high but the number given jail sentences has fallen, according to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures.
The number of offences for knife and offensive weapons rose by three per cent to 22,286, the equivalent of 60 a day and the highest number since 2009 when there were 26,364.
The increase was driven by knife possession offences which hit 14,135, the highest number since figures were first compiled in 2009.
[ more...]
Fire
The fire service’s average response times to serious fires is more than half a minute longer than it was five years ago, according to the latest Home Office figures.
The average total response time to “primary fires” in England (more serious fires that tend to harm people or cause damage to property) was eight minutes and 49 seconds between 2018-19. This response time is 11 seconds longer than last year’s and 33 seconds longer than in 2013-14.
Although total response times to fires have increased gradually over the past 20 years, the figures plateaued from 2014 up until last year, when they started to rise once again.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A chief constable has been named as the senior police officer who allegedly claimed that an investigation into child sexual exploitation had to close because there were not enough staff.
Dave Thompson, the head of West Midlands police since 2016, confirmed yesterday that he was identified in a damning report into how the authorities in Manchester failed dozens of children who were systematically groomed and abused by gangs of men.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK's inflation rate fell to its lowest for more than three years in December, increasing speculation that interest rates could be cut.
The rate dropped to 1.3% last month, down from 1.5% in November, partly due to a fall in the price of women's clothes and hotel room costs.
December's inflation rate was the lowest since November 2016.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A "network of paedophiles brazenly abusing young people" was allowed to escape justice and reoffend, Greater Manchester's mayor has said.
His comments come as a report criticised the "appalling failings" of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) during a 2004 police investigation into the sexual exploitation of children within the Manchester care system.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Up to 52 children may have been victims of a sex abuse scandal in Greater Manchester, with most offenders getting away with their crimes because of errors by police and children’s services, the Guardian has learned.
Some of the police officers involved in the 2004 case are still serving and the police watchdog has been called in to re-examine if there was any wrongdoing.
The revelations came as an independent report found that the police investigation into child sexual exploitation failed vulnerable girls in care after being shut down prematurely — partly because senior officers prioritised solving burglaries and car crime.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Ninety cyber crimes a day have been recorded against children since the introduction of Government plans to tackle online harms, the NSPCC estimates.
The charity predicts that more than 25,300 child abuse image and sexual grooming offences have occurred since the Online Harms White Paper was released in April 2019, plans which aim to make the UK one of the safest places to be online.
Based on police data from April to June 2019, it estimates an average of one online abuse offence against a child was recorded every 16 minutes in England and Wales in little over nine months.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The UK has failed to pass on the details of 75,000 convictions of foreign criminals to their home EU countries and concealed the scandal for fear of damaging Britain’s reputation in Europe’s capitals, the Guardian can reveal.
European trust in the UK on security issues sank to a new low on Tuesday night after details emerged of the apparent cover-up, which prompted calls for an investigation in the UK and a warning from one senior MEP that a Brussels inquiry was inevitable.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Nearly a quarter of a million people with arthritis, 100,000 cancer patients and 50,000 multiple sclerosis sufferers are among 1.4 million unwell Britons who are being forced to buy cannabis illegally to treat their symptoms.
A landmark YouGov poll of more than 10,000 people has found that almost 3 per cent of the adult population uses cannabis to treat a medical condition, with usage across all age groups, social classes and genders.
More than half are using the drug every day and the average spend is £163 a month. This means patients are spending more than £2.6 billion a year on black market cannabis.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A total of 379 suspects were charged with knife crime homicides between the start of November 2016 and the end of October 2019.
Some 173 of those charged in that period (46%), had previously committed a knife offence, according to data released by the force.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales can start bidding today (Monday 13 January) to equip more of their officers with Taser as part of a Home Office drive to give police more powers and tools to tackle crime.
This follows the Home Secretary’s commitment to put more officers carrying Taser on our streets through a £10 million ringfenced fund, allowing them to better protect themselves and others from harm.
Bidding will open on a new online platform launched by the Home Office, where forces will decide how much funding they apply for based on the threat and risk in their local area.
[ more...]
Technology
The head of MI5 has said he has no reason to think Britain’s intelligence-sharing relationship with the United States will be damaged if the Chinese tech giant Huawei is given access to the UK’s 5G network.
The government has come under intense pressure from the US administration not to allow Huawei a role in building 5G network amid fears that granting a Chinese firm access to the communications network could be a security risk.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Parents are wrongly being arrested and having their children taken into care due to the stigma around female genital mutilation (FGM), members of the UK Somali community have told the Victoria Derbyshire programme. They say figures suggesting tens of thousands of girls are at risk in the UK are inaccurate.
"Social services with the police came to the house, removed our children and arrested my wife. We didn't know what the allegations were - nobody said anything, nobody asked us anything, it was just really a shock," said Yusef - not his real name.
[ more...]
Prisons
Investigations into alleged misconduct by prison staff have risen by a third in a year, figures have revealed. More than 2,500 charges were investigated in 2018-19, up from 1,894 the previous year.
Alleged "breach of security" - which can include bringing contraband into jails - and use of "unnecessary" force contributed to the rise. The Prison Service said action was taken against the "small minority that engaged in inappropriate behaviour".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Airport-style security checks could be introduced across public venues after the government backed a campaign by the mother of a Manchester Arena attack victim.
Figen Murray, whose son Martyn Hett was one of the 22 people who died in the 2017 attack, has lobbied for stronger anti-terror security measures.
Brandon Lewis, the security minister, said Boris Johnson was “100%” behind the proposals for bag searches and metal detectors at big venues such as concert and sport arenas.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Today the Home Office is introducing legislation that will shake up how complaints made against the police are handled and improve the discipline system for officers.
The changes, which will come into effect on 1 February, ensure that complaints can be dealt with quickly, effectively and proportionately, not just for the benefit of the public but also for the police.
[ more...]
Prisons
Campaigners warn that troubled youngsters are being failed by system that is starved of resources – amid a surge in cases of children suffering injuries and struggling to breathe after being restrained.
Hundreds of children are alleged to have been abused and neglected in prison over the last three years amid a dramatic rise in young offenders being injured.
There were more than 550 allegations of child abuse or neglect made against staff in England’s seven child prisons between 2016-17 and 2018-19, according to figures obtained through freedom of information (FoI) requests to local councils by charity Article 39.
[ more...]
Prisons
A prisoner has died after his throat was slashed inside a privately run jail in southeast London.
Scotland Yard said the man, who was in his 40s, was attacked at HMP Thameside in Greenwich in the early hours of Sunday.
He was discovered suffering a slash injury to his throat and died at the Serco-run facility, which opened in 2012 and holds around 1,200 inmates.
A man in his late 30s has been arrested on suspicion of murder, police said.
A spokesman said: "Police were called at 02:37hrs on Sunday, 12 January to HMP Thameside in Greenwich after an inmate was discovered suffering from a slash injury to his throat.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Sterling has slipped following news that the economy shrank unexpectedly in November, extending earlier losses against the dollar.
The UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 0.3 per cent during the month as the manufacturing and production sectors declined more than expected. The figure was expected to be flat.
[ more...]
Technology
The government has been urged to consider imposing restrictions on pay-as-you-go mobile phones to prevent county lines drug gangs using them.
Current rules that allow people to buy the phones anonymously are being exploited by drug dealers, the policing watchdog for England and Wales said.
It called for a Home Office review of the "criminal abuse" of mobile phones. The Home Office said it was investing £20m to further disrupt county lines activity.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are failing to comply with evidence disclosure rules in 80 per cent of cases, a watchdog has revealed, highlighting continuing concern over potential miscarriages of justice.
The latest report from HM Inspectorate for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) found that although the police “almost always” used the correct disclosure forms, they were completed in full in only about 20 per cent of cases.
Lawyers described the findings as a demonstration of “ongoing failings in core evidence-gathering and analysis”.
[ more...]
Technology
British police are struggling to catch paedophiles and find victims of child sexual exploitation because their computers are too slow to use essential software required to identify and analyse images of abuse, according to a technology partner.
Griffeye, which works with police forces across the UK, said years of budget cuts mean "the majority" of UK forces lack the cash or essential hardware powerful enough to use cutting edge artificial intelligence software which is now routinely being applied in the US and other countries.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Britain’s anti-slavery tsar and a former commissioner of Scotland Yard have added to mounting pressure on the government to overhaul the police force system.
Several senior policing figures today call for the 43 forces in England and Wales to be replaced with fewer, larger forces to tackle organised crime including county lines drug dealing, cybercrime and modern slavery.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Between November 2018 and 2019, 19,771 offences were charged under the Act, which created a specific offence of attacking an emergency worker. Of the total, 14,372 were assaults by beating, 5,362 common assault and 36 were attempted assaults. There was also one case of aiding/abetting an assault.
The CPS figures relate to the number of offences charged, rather than individual defendants.
Nine out of every ten assaults took place against police officers. These invariably occurred when the attacker was intoxicated on drink or drugs and being arrested for an unrelated offence. Spitting was one of the most common forms of assault, but the violence perpetrated was wide-ranging and included kicking, punching, head-butting, slapping and biting.
[ more...]
Police Finances
One of the most senior policing figures in Wales has warned that the use of facial recognition technology at the country’s biggest football derby this weekend could create miscarriages of justice.
Arfon Jones, a veteran Welsh police officer and the North Wales police and crime commissioner, has expressed grave concern about the deployment of the surveillance technology at Sunday’s clash between Cardiff City and Swansea City.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Chancellor Sajid Javid has set 11 March as the date for his first Budget - the first since the general election.
Mr Javid says billions of pounds will be invested "across the country".
The Treasury will "prioritise the environment", he said and reiterated a plan to make use of low borrowing rates to spend on public services.
John McDonnell, Labour's shadow chancellor, said he doubted whether the government would deliver on its investment or climate goals.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Ministers must seize the opportunity to restructure the UK’s 43-force system as part of a forthcoming review of criminal justice, one of Britain’s most senior police officers has told The Times.
Martin Hewitt, head of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said that now was the right time to rethink policing priorities and set out proposals addressing the national impact of having dozens of force areas.
Mr Hewitt called on the government to include policing in the royal commission on criminal justice set out in the Queen’s Speech.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A third of child sex abuse images are originally posted online by children themselves, it has emerged – with warnings of a growing trend where minors share graphic footage for “likes”.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said the past year has seen a “significant change” in the amount of self-generated images, which are mostly taken by girls aged between 11 and 13.
A record of 260,400 web pages were reported in 2019, of which 132,700 showed children being sexually abused.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are teaming up with universities to stop county lines gangs infiltrating campuses to sell drugs.
Officers have already caught some criminals signing up for courses as a front. They also fear the gangs are recruiting hard-up students on the promise of making money.
Jon Aspinall of North Wales Police said students have been found with ‘large quantities of drugs and cash’.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Councils are paying a "private police force" millions of pounds a year to do the job of normally associated with bobbies on the beat, the Telegraph can reveal.
The team of uniformed officers, who often patrol with search dogs, have been given delegated powers from the police which allows them to issue fines and carry out searches.
The security firm Parkguard, which describes itself as part of the “extended policing family”, estimates that it now works across a fifth of a capital as well as in areas of Essex and Hertfordshire.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The Metropolitan Police commissioner’s policy of intensifying stop and search has been called into question after Times analysis showed no correlation with reductions in knife crime.
The use of blanket orders that allow officers to stop members of the public without cause for suspicion has increased by more than 800 per cent since Dame Cressida Dick assumed the role in 2017.
Some London boroughs that have seen huge increases in the use of section 60 orders have seen a rise in knife attacks in the past year, others have seen a fall and the one borough that used fewer orders also saw a fall.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
“I am not in a place that’s just ‘lock everyone up’,” says Martin Hewitt, Britain’s most senior police chief.
“We are part of a system that is designed to protect people, to stop people being victimised and equally to stop people offending. I would in every circumstance prefer to be in a prevention space than arresting and prosecuting.”
The chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) strikes a markedly different tone to Boris Johnson’s new government, which has pledged to create thousands more prison places and keep offenders in jail for longer.
[ more...]
Police Demand
police forces are recording thousands of hate incidents even though they accept that they are not crimes.
More than 87,000 ‘non-crime hate incidents’ have been recorded by 27 forces in England and Wales over the past five years, when the national policing body introduced its Hate Crime Operational Guidelines.
The guidelines state that an incident - perceived to be motivated by hostility towards religion, race or transgender identity - must be recorded “irrespective of whether there is any evidence to identify the hate element” and can even show up on an individual’s DBS check, despite them not committing a crime.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government's Troubled Families project is getting £165m in funding to ensure it continues for another year.
Launched by David Cameron in 2012, the scheme targets families with multiple and complex social and health issues. Existing support for the project was due to run out later this year, prompting speculation about its future but Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said it had proved a success in transforming lives and relieving the burden on public services.
The programme was set up by the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government in response to the 2011 riots in English cities, at a cost of £448m.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Government plans for a “target culture” in policing have been criticised by police chiefs.
One of Boris Johnson’s highest-profile election pledges was to recruit 20,000 extra police officers to combat violent crime.
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Bill Skelly, the chief constable of Lincolnshire police, who is involved in negotiations with the Home Office, said the government was “going down the road of targets”, which would create “unintended or perverse consequences”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Young boys forced to work for county lines drug-running gangs must be seen as exploited victims and not criminals, the police chief heading the national response to modern slavery has said.
Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer said that girls being sexually exploited would be seen as victims but it was less likely that the authorities would regard boys pressed into working for drugs gangs as victims rather than criminals.
He called for more to be done to stem the huge rise in referrals of children for safeguarding from exploitation under modern slavery legislation. He said that austerity measures had contributed to the increased exposure of youngsters to county lines drugs gangs.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Most voters want more cash for public services before tax cuts, insisting Boris Johnson should make good on his promise to end austerity.
Polling for The Times by YouGov found that 57 per cent believed it was more important to increase spending on services such as the NHS and schools than to cut their taxes, against only 16 per cent who felt the opposite.
Among those who voted Conservative last month, 54 per cent wanted increased spending, with 22 per cent preferring tax cuts, after Mr Johnson overturned the traditional party order by winning the support of working-class voters in the north and Midlands.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The region’s police forces have paid out millions to tackle compensation claims lodged by their own officers and staff in recent years, The Northern Echo can reveal.
An investigation uncovering unsafe practices and dangerous incidents linked to forces across the country found that scandal-hit Cleveland Police has spent the equivalent of £640 per employee dealing with such claims.
The spend per employee for the beleaguered force is the highest in the country, almost triple that of the Metropolitan Police and more than the total for Durham Constabulary, Northumbria and North Yorkshire Police.
[ more...]
Technology
Social media executives will face fines and the threat of criminal prosecution for failing to protect people who use their services under plans to regulate tech giants in Britain for the first time.
The government is to publish next month its response to a consultation on policing social media companies such as Facebook and Google after Britain leaves the European Union.
Ministers want to place the companies under a statutory duty of care, which will be enforced by Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than 6,000 children under 14 have been investigated by police for sexting offences in the past three years, including more than 300 of primary school age, the Guardian has learned.
Figures disclosed by 27 police forces in England and Wales revealed 306 cases of children under 10, including some as young as four, being investigated on suspicion of taking or sharing indecent images of themselves or other minors since 2017.
In one case, a nine-year-old boy was recorded on a police database for sending a naked selfie to a girl on Facebook Messenger. In another, a nine-year-old girl was recorded as an “offender” for sending images to someone on Instagram.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A £35m-a-year scheme to tackle violent crime “by understanding its root causes” is being extended.
The home secretary, Priti Patel, is spending a further £35m on violence reduction units, insisting she “will not tolerate criminals drawing vulnerable young people into a life of violence”.
The money will go to 18 police and crime commissioners in England and Wales to fund early intervention teams for another 12 months.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson’s constituency has the fastest rising rate of burglary in England and Wales, with the number of break-ins in Uxbridge and South Ruislip soaring by 68% in a year.
The Sunday Times has analysed street-by-street crime data for the past two years showing the prime minister’s seat in west London has experienced the sharpest rise in break-ins during this period.
There were 692 burglaries in the 12 months to November 2019 in Uxbridge, up from 412 a year earlier.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Almost 19,000 children have been sexually groomed in England in the past year, according to official figures that have prompted warnings of an “epidemic”.
Campaigners say the true figure is far higher and accused the government of failing to tackle child sexual exploitation, despite promises made after high-profile cases in Rotherham and Rochdale.
More than 18,700 suspected victims of child sexual exploitation were identified by local authorities in 2018-19, up from 3,300 five years before.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The families of murder victims are taking legal action against police for secretly retaining the body parts of their relatives.
In the landmark legal action which could lead to a multi-million pound payout hundreds of families could be awarded compensation after police kept relatives’ organs without their consent, long after investigations into their deaths ended.
Bereaved mother Janine Aldridge, whose newborn baby, Leah, was murdered in 2002 by the child’s father, Andrew Ashurst, is the first to take legal action and is suing Greater Manchester police (GMP).
[ more...]
Police Finances
Almost £900,000 will be allocated to south Wales to tackle a rise in violent crime, as part of a £35m pot being spent by the Home Office
The funding is given to run an agency of police, councils and health boards to cut violent crime, which has risen by 35% in some areas.
Almost 40,000 violent crime incidents were recorded in the area last year.
[ more...]
Police Finances
West Yorkshire is to get an additional £3.3m from the Government to help tackle violent crime across the region.
The cash - from a £35 million pot - has been allocated to the West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) to continue running West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Unit.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police and crime commissioners will receive an additional £35 million to continue funding specialist teams to tackle violent crime in their area.
Eighteen police and crime commissioners (PCCs) will receive an additional £35 million to continue funding specialist teams to tackle violent crime in their area, the Home Secretary has announced today (29 December 2019).
Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) bring together different organisations including police, local government, health, community leaders and other key partners to prevent serious violence by understanding its root causes.
[ more...]
Fire
Today the Brigade’s first ever woman Commissioner Dany Cotton leaves London Fire Brigade after 32 years. Her long career has seen her break new ground for women in the fire service and open up the discussion around mental health issues in the emergency services.
She joined the Brigade at the age of 18 and at that time was just one of 30 female firefighters in London. Within 12 years, Dany became the UK’s first female station officer and from there, steadily rose through the ranks to become London fire Commissioner in 2017.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Domestic violence kills 15 times as many people in Britain as terrorism, say campaigners who want the police to be given more money to tackle the problem.
The huge disparity is highlighted in figures obtained from official sources by victims’ rights campaigners, who say the police budget for combating domestic violence must be ringfenced, as it is for terrorism.
Official figures show there were 1,870 domestic murders in England and Wales between 2000 and 2018, compared with 126 that were terrorism-related. The vast majority of domestic murder victims were women. In addition, campaigners say an estimated 400 victims of domestic violence a year take their own lives.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Treasury is planning to rip up decades-old public spending rules in an effort to boost economic wellbeing in the north and the Midlands.
Under proposals being drawn up before the spring budget, ministers will reassess how officials calculate the value for money of government investments in transport infrastructure, business development and initiatives such as free ports.
Investment decisions would be less focused on overall national economic growth and, for the first time, Whitehall resources would be allocated on the basis of improving the wellbeing of people in the north, or narrowing the productivity gap with the south.
[ more...]
Technology
Police are seizing control of drug dealers' phone numbers and texting users themselves in an attempt to combat county lines gangs.
Officers in Sussex have become the first in the country to test a pioneering new tool that allows them to get phone lines turned over to their control
Drug dealing telecommunications restriction orders (DDTROs) mean that officers can disrupt the flow of messages between dealers and users, and therefore the flow of drugs.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Thousands of children in care are increasingly being placed in homes that are illegal or unregulated, in what critics have labelled a national scandal, a Guardian investigation has found.
A lack of places to house vulnerable children in the UK is prompting a surge in placements that are less safe. These include those that are unregulated or not registered with Ofsted.
MPs, the police, charities and the children’s commissioner warn that children accommodated in these homes are at risk of exploitation from sexual predators and drug gangs.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police have spent millions of pounds on electric cars they admit are useless for chasing suspects or rushing to help victims.
Forces around the country have bought at least 448 environmentally-friendly vehicles to help them meet green energy targets.
But almost all of the cars and vans are being used in non-emergency situations or by chiefs to get to work.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Queen is to set out the Conservative government's agenda for the year ahead following last week's decisive election win.
Legislation to take the UK out of the EU on 31 January will be among more than 20 bills announced during Thursday's State Opening of Parliament.
Other measures include guarantees on extra health service funding and longer sentences for violent criminals.
[ more...]
Technology
After spending time on adult chat sites, a stranger sent "Ben" a file that contained indecent images of children. He looked at all the images but didn't call the police because he didn't want to "get into trouble".
A year later he was arrested and was later prosecuted. He served a seven month prison sentence.
It is illegal to go online and look for child sexual abuse material. It's also illegal if you view, download or share the material with someone else.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England has kept interest rates on hold at 0.75% but indicated it may cut the cost of borrowing if global economic growth fails to recover or Brexit uncertainties persist.
It said the UK economy was expected to pick up from its current weakness.
However, the Bank said it would monitor companies' and households' reactions to Brexit as well as global growth.
The Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted 7-2 in favour of keeping the official rate on hold.
[ more...]
Fire
The London Fire Brigade (LFB) has been "wasteful" and "slow to implement changes" needed after the Grenfell Tower fire, a watchdog has said.
HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found firefighters missed training and attended too many false alarms.
The LFB saw the report six weeks ago and commissioner Dany Cotton stood down earlier than had been planned.
[ more...]
Prisons
Clifford was held at HMP Littlehey in Cambridgeshire before his death in December 2017 and his family previously raised concerns over conditions.
An inspection in July found over two years the problems "had a negative impact on the living conditions". HMP Littlehey is refurbishing its heating and hot water system.
The report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons said the jail near Huntingdon, which houses more than 1,000 male sex offenders, was safe and respectful.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A review of record low rape conviction rates has found a justice system "close to breaking point" because of cuts.
The Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (CPSI) said a "damning" number of cases are lost during "under-resourced" police investigations.
But it rejected claims prosecutors unfairly select the cases they charge.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
There will be no forces participating in the College of Policing-backed direct entry scheme for superintendents next year due to low levels of interest.
The CoP confirmed that the scheme, which offers direct management entry to candidates with no previous policing experience, had been ‘paused’ while forces concentrate on the 20,000 new recruit uplift.
Last year only two forces participated in the direct entry superintendents scheme - Avon and Somerset and Dyfed Powys. The single direct entry post at Avon and Somerset was fulfilled via a deferral.
[ more...]
Fire
London Fire Brigade’s (LFB) incoming commissioner says “reaching out” and rebuilding the trust of the Grenfell community will be his first priority when he takes on the role next year.
Andy Roe, who will replace Dany Cotton as London Fire Commissioner on January 1, faced questions from London Assembly members following the publication of a “damning” report into the LFB.
The review said the brigade – the country’s largest fire service – had been “slow to implement changes” following the Grenfell Tower disaster in 2017, which left 72 people dead.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Delays in investigating rape cases are contributing to a fall in the number of suspects charged with the offence, the prosecutors’ watchdog has said.
HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate said that in one case police took so long to record a video interview with an alleged child victim of rape that the youngster had forgotten much of the incident by the time the interview took place. No charges were brought.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson will announce new laws to ban train strikes, toughen prison sentences and stop landlords evicting their tenants when he sets out his policy agenda this week.
The Prime Minister has drawn up an expanded Queen's Speech which will present more legislation than that announced in October. It will include a mix of policies designed to appeal to the right and laws which are meant to bolster Mr Johnson's One Nation credentials.
The Queen will deliver the speech on Thursday, just over two months since the last one. No 10 officials said it would repeat all of the previously announced legislation, with a raft of new measures promised in the Conservative manifesto.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson is carrying out a limited reshuffle of his government after urging newly elected Tory MPs to "change our country for the better".
Simon Hart has been named as Welsh secretary, replacing Alun Cairns, who quit at the start of the election.
And Nicky Morgan stays as culture secretary, despite standing down as an MP. She is taking a peerage and will sit as a cabinet minister in the Lords.
Opposition parties said she had been "rewarded for political sycophancy".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Former finance director of Serco Home Affairs Nicholas Woods and Simon Marshall, its former operations director of field services, have been charged with fraud by false representation and false accounting. Mr Woods has been additionally charged with false accounting in relation to the 2011 statutory accounts of the company’s subsidiary Serco Geografix Ltd (SGL).
In July this year, SGL was fined £19.2 million over its electronic monitoring contract with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) after an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). It followed claims that Serco had charged the Government for electronically monitoring offenders who were allegedly either dead, in jail or had left the country.
The SFO said Mr Woods and Mr Marshall had both been “charged with fraud by false representation and false accounting in relation to representations made to the MoJ between 2011 and 2013”.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Revised Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts show that Britain’s deficit is likely to be £20bn higher in each year to 2023-24 than was projected in March 2019.
Economists have said the figures will be a “sobering warning” for the new government and will mean tax rises are needed in order for it to meet its own fiscal rules.
The overall deficit, the OBR said, will be £33.3bn by 2023-24 – up from a previous estimate of £13.5bn in March 2019.
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Police and Crime General
Leicestershire Police and Leicestershire Police Federation are running a joint survey to find out how many officers in the county want to carry taser.
The survey was emailed to all Leicestershire officers today (16 December) and will act as a guidance on how many officers in the force need to be trained in the use of taser.
Officers are asked if they have been assaulted in the past two years and if they would feel safer on duty if they were carrying a taser. Currently around 400 Leicestershire Police officers carry one.
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Police and Crime General
The UK is bucking the European trend of reducing drink-driving deaths and the British public are one of the most likely to think they can get away with driving while over the legal limit, according to a report by the European Union Transport Safety Council.
The AA and the RAC both said there is likely to be a link between these findings and the reduction in the number of road traffic officers.
Jack Cousens, Head of Roads policy at the AA, said: “In the last decade we’ve seen the number specialist road traffic officers reduce by a third which meant that essentially those people drink driving think they can, and do, quite easily get away with it.”
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Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson has said the criminal justice system “isn’t delivering” as he promised tougher sentences for terrorists, sex offenders and violent criminals if the Conservatives are re-elected.
The Prime Minister’s pledge comes amid growing anger in government following a series of high profile failings in which criminals freed early went on to commit further offences.
Joseph McCann was this week jailed for life with a minimum of 30 years after he was mistakenly freed from prison to go on a rampage in which he raped or sexually assaulted 11 women and children.
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Police and Crime General
From the off, the Conservative party hardline approach on crime and justice under Johnson’s premiership became clear: 20,000 new police officers on the streets was one of his first pledges, followed by increased use of stop and search, prison expansion, more Tasers, and longer jail sentences – all of which have ended up in the manifesto.
So, clearly, tough on crime. But what about the causes of crime? Very little on offer. The manifesto briefly mentions a prison education service focused on work and a new approach to drug addiction treatment to reduce drug deaths.
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Police Demand
Figures from the Howard League for Penal Reform show that police officers have focused resources on more complex cases to reduce child arrests by more than 70% in eight years.
The charity said the change was due to determination by chief constables and their teams to rethink the response to young people offending.
Data from more than 40 police forces show that they made 70,078 arrests of boys and girls aged 17 and under in 2018, down from almost 250,000 in 2010. Over the same period, the number of children in prison was reduced by 63.
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Police Demand
The abuse of candidates on Twitter has escalated during the election campaign, research suggests, with Conservatives seeing the biggest rise.
Abuse spiked after TV debates, a study by the University of Sheffield found - with abuse of Tories rising and Labour and Lib Dem levels remaining stable.
Labour's Jeremy Corbyn received most, followed by Tory leader Boris Johnson. Others have reported being threatened with sledgehammers and targeted by abusive graffiti and vandalism.
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Police Demand
Prosecution of white-collar crime has fallen by almost 30 per cent since 2014, according to figures released today.
Analysts blame cuts to police numbers driven by austerity for the fall in the number of cases of fraud, money laundering, cybercrime and insider trading being prosecuted.
Ministry of Justice figures show that there were 9,415 prosecutions in 2014 compared with 6,670 last year. The number of cases fell by 14 per cent last year alone, from 7,790 in 2017. Over roughly the same period, reported fraud and cyber offences across the UK rose by more than 8.5 per cent to 693,418.
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Police and Crime General
The Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Bill Skelly has been denied a full judicial review of the College of Policing’s plan to impose the Police Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF) on all forces which means that new recruits will either have a degree or agree to study for one once they are appointed.
With the full support of Police and Crime Commissioner, Marc Jones, Mr Skelly had asked for a Judicial Review for a stay of implementation of PEQF until the summer of 2023.
“I wanted to give time for a legitimate evaluation of the new system being imposed across the country and for the results to be assessed and any adjustments made,” he said.
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Police and Crime General
AJeremy Corbyn Government would lead to 52 more murders a year and a violent crime epidemic, the Tories have claimed.
In an article for The Daily Telegraph, Priti Patel, Home Secretary, claims Labour’s opposition to police use of stop and search would lead to fewer criminals being caught and more weapons on the streets.
Citing an analysis by the Conservative research department, she said the increase in weapons could mean up to 4,000 extra violent assaults a year, nearly 150 more sex assaults and 52 more murders, equivalent to one a week.
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Technology
Specialist officers from the Metropolitan Police-based national Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) joined other specialists from nine countries at a Europol event aimed at bringing down websites that show extremists how to build IEDs and use chemical weapons.
The joint action was co-ordinated at Europol’s headquarters in the Hague and involved the EU’s own specialist unit the European Internet Referral Unit (EU IRU).
It mainly targeted manuals and tutorials explaining how to build improvised explosive devices (IED) and use chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) agents.
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Police and Crime General
From illegal hunting to importing banned species and egg collecting, wildlife crime is on the rise and the investigations that follow are not simple.
The House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee said: “Wildlife law has been amended so many times in response to new wildlife crime threats that it is too complex for non-specialist police and prosecutors to apply effectively and for the public to fully appreciate.”
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Police and Crime General
Humberside Police held its wellbeing conference last Friday, which included a visit from a ‘Wellbeing Wagon’, in an effort to improve officers’ mental and physical health.
The van, which is part of the National Police Wellbeing Service - also known as Oscar Kilo - has been parking in front of police stations and officers are encouraged to go for a check-up during their work hours. Visitors are able to have their blood pressure, cholesterol, weight and psychological wellbeing checked by professional welfare staff. They can also receive financial support as well as being signposted to external relevant health services.
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Police Demand
Police Scotland officers who attend domestic violence incidents have to upload the details manually onto 13 separate force systems.
This is despite the fact that Scotland is a national force and many officers are equipped with mobile electronic notebook technology to record details of the incidents at the scene.
Supt Stevie Dolan, of Police Scotland told a police technology event at Motorola today that although operating as a national force since 2013, Police Scotland still has eight separate crime systems as a legacy from its former eight-force structure.
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Police Finances
Brutal Tory cuts to youth services have fuelled knife crime in Liverpool according to campaigners.
In the last ten years, under Conservative leadership, the city has lost 84 council employed youth workers - cutting from 110 to just 26.
The youth service budget was also slashed by more than two thirds from £6,431,000 in 2009 to £2,023,000 in 2019.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Abuse directed at councillors has risen fivefold since 2016, provoking fears for the future of local democracy.
Scores of local politicians suffered physical, verbal or online abuse last year. Councillors reported 86 such incidents compared with 18 two years previously. In the first nine months of this year there were 67 reports, suggesting the trend continues to rise.
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Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson has said the "grim reality" is that "some people can't be rehabilitated" in prison.
The PM called for longer sentences and an end to automatic release after convicted terrorist Usman Khan killed two people on London Bridge on Friday.
The father of Jack Merritt, one of the victims, says he would not wish his son's death "to be used as the pretext for more draconian sentences".
Labour have accused Mr Johnson of using the attack for political ends.
[ more...]
Technology
The FBI said FaceApp and other mobile applications developed in Russia pose a "potential counterintelligence threat".
The comments were made in a letter to US Senator Chuck Schumer after he called for an investigation into the app.
The face-editing tool went viral earlier this year but prompted privacy concerns.
The FBI comments come amid rising US concern that products made by foreign tech firms could pose security risks.
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Police and Crime General
Police boss John Apter delivered a defiant election message saying: “We have been failed so many times in the past – if the safety and security of the public is a priority this must change.” The serving officer, the national chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, has demanded backing from the very top of government and more financial support for tens of thousands of rank-and-file officers.
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Police and Crime General
The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) has teamed up with a range of partners to provide advice and offers to improve police officer wellbeing in the run-up to Christmas.
The advent calendar launched online on Saturday 1 December and will run until Christmas Eve – the idea is that a new door is unlocked each day to reveal a message or offer. The first day contained an offer of a loan from No1 CopperPot to help officers cover the cost of Christmas. Subsequent offers will include money off family days out, foreign trips, meals and advice about staying mentally and physically healthy during what can be an especially stressful time of year.
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Prisons
Academics and former staff at a prison-based education project have voiced support for the initiative, saying its message should not be undermined, after staff were attacked during an event to celebrate its work.
“Learning Together insists on seeing the best in people. It is unflinching in saying that – no matter someone’s past – everyone has something to contribute.
“The classes reflect this: students from unis and prisons learning alongside one another in genuinely mutual exchange.”
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Police and Crime General
County lines drug dealers in Britain are increasingly using firearms when supplying heroin and crack cocaine, an EU report said yesterday.
The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction said there was a strong link between firearms and illegal drugs in a report revealing that Europeans were spending at least £30 billion a year on cannabis, cocaine and other substances. Its study highlighted intimidation and violence linked to county lines as gangs protect their markets.
The report said some British forces had highlighted concerns about “increasing firearms use related to county lines, the supply of primarily heroin and [crack] cocaine from the capital and big cities to provincial towns”.
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Economy & Public Finance
Neither the Conservatives nor Labour are offering "credible" spending plans ahead of the general election. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said it was "highly likely" the Tories would end up spending more than their manifesto pledges.
Labour, it warned, would be unable to deliver its spending increases as it has promised. Neither party was being "honest" with voters, IFS director Paul Johnson said. The Liberal Democrats' manifesto, he said, would involve lower levels of borrowing than under Labour or the Conservatives, but would still be seen as "radical" in "most periods".
However, he added that, given the uncertainty around Brexit, it was difficult to determine what the exact effects of the three parties' offers would be.
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Police Demand
There has been an 83% rise in domestic abuse-related crimes recorded in Wales over the past four years, official figures have shown.
North Wales Police has seen the biggest rise, with 11,327 crimes recorded last year, up from 4,798 in 2015-16.
The force said the rise was partly due to efficient crime recording and better promotion of victim support services.
Across all four Welsh forces, domestic abuse reports rose from 18,960 in 2015-16 to 41,532 in 2018-19.
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Police Demand
The National Chair of the Police Federation has called for a review of what he has called a ‘growing mental health crisis’ as new figures revealed police officers dealt with 28% more cases in the last four years.
An Institute for Government Performance Tracker 2019 survey found the number of mental health incidents involving police officers rose from 385,206 to 494,159 between 2014-18 and there was also an 13% increase in the number of individuals taken to a place of safety by officers under the Mental Health Act.
Chair John Apter said: “This country is in the grip of a growing mental health crisis and my colleagues are at the very forefront of trying to protect and support vulnerable people. These figures show we have reached beyond tipping point, and we would welcome a wider public investigation into these important issues.
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Police and Crime General
Labour would significantly increase staffing at 18 violence reduction units in an effort to clamp down on gang warfare and crime, the party has announced.
The shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, said that if Labour came to power there would be about 20 extra officers employed at each of the government-funded units, which bring together police, local government, probation, health and community leaders.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
A police force spent £23,000 on gender-neutral 'Burger King' caps to replace traditional helmets only to get rid of them 18 months later following a public outcry.
Northamptonshire Police introduced the US-style 'bump hats' in May 2017 to attract more transgender officers, claiming that 'gender-based headgear' was acting as 'a barrier to the non-binary transgender community'.
But they were largely scrapped in November last year after critics said they made officers 'look like Jimmy Krankie' and replaced with the traditional helmets that have been a symbol of British policing for more than 150 years.
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Police and Crime General
Police in North Yorkshire have urged people with a phone to download the What3Words app to help locate them in an emergency.
Emergency services across the country have praised the What3Words app for its ability to provide precise locations anywhere in the world.
North Yorkshire Police Road Policing Group highlighted an incident this evening when they used the app to reach a man whose car had turned onto its side.
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Police and Crime General
Labour committed to recruit 2,000 more frontline officers than have been planned for by the Conservatives if it wins the general election. The party also pledged in its manifesto to enforce the laws protecting police and other emergency workers from violent assault.
Labour committed to invest in a modern workforce that would tackle the rise in violent crime and cybercrime.
Funding is a critical issue and Labour’s solution will be to work with Police and Crime Commissioners to reform police funding to share new resources fairly.
The policy is squarely aimed at regions in the North of England that have argued they are disadvantaged against forces in the South East and will depend on how much extra funding police forces get.
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Economy & Public Finance
UK borrowing has risen to a five-year high as political leaders have laid out large spending plans, official figures have shown.
The Office for National Statistics has said that borrowing in October 2019 was £11.2bn - £2.3bn more than in October 2018.
Borrowing in the current financial year has reached £46.3bn, £4.3bn more than in the same period last year and already exceeds the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecast of £40.6bn for the whole of 2019-20.
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Economy & Public Finance
The Local Government Association is beginning work to devise possible alternative ways of funding local government to business rates amid fears for the long term future of the tax and concern about its role in the decline of the high street.
The decision to explore alternative sources of funding for local government was made at a meeting of the LGA’s executive committee on 31 October and follows growing discontent with the current system amongst businesses.
The LGA will explore a range of options for overall future funding of councils, rather than a single replacement for business rates, LGC has been told.
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Economy & Public Finance
Local government spending power would be returned to 2010 levels under a Labour government, the party’s manifesto has said.
The manifesto also outlines plans to return local services to in-house provision and review the case for a commercial land value tax to replace business rates.
A costing document published alongside the manifesto says the plans, which include a commitment to build 150,000 social homes a year and introduce a National Care Service, will cost £82.9bn a year.
The spending pledges will be balanced by income from a variety of sources, such as increased corporation tax and more expensive income taxes for those on over £80,000 and £125,000.
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Police and Crime General
Priti Patel is to double the maximum sentence for assaulting a police officer and other emergency service workers to two years to combat a surge in attacks on frontline staff.
It will be part of a major review of the way the criminal justice system deals with assaults on police and emergency workers following evidence by The Telegraph showing the average jail term for the offence is just two months.
The Government has already raised the maximum from six to 12 months but it has failed to stop the “tide” of attacks on police that earlier this year saw Thames Valley police constable Andrew Harper killed when he went to investigate a burglary.
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Police and Crime General
Drug dealers who were exposed when disgruntled residents put up fake street signs have been jailed.
The east London residents commissioned artists to create "drug dealers only" parking spaces and "crack pickup" points last September, sparking a police investigation.
A total of 23 men have now been prosecuted over the drugs trade.
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Police and Crime General
Plaid Cymru has pledged an extra 1,600 police officers, saying it could be delivered by handing criminal justice powers to politicians in Wales.
Liz Saville Roberts said the party would spend an extra £50m to provide an extra two officers for each community.
The party also promised to ban the use of "highly inaccurate" facial recognition technology.
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Police and Crime General
A police force has complained about its chief constable's comments being used in an election leaflet, claiming it compromises his impartiality.
Norfolk Police's Simon Bailey said he was "disappointed" to see his interview about cuts in a leaflet for Norwich South Labour candidate Clive Lewis.
The force complained to the Electoral Commission who said it was "not within our remit".
Labour has apologised to Mr Bailey for using his image without permission.
The chief constable's comments appeared under a banner claiming Norwich was being "wrecked" by the Conservative Party.
The leaflet quoted a headline from an October 2015 newspaper story in which he spoke about cuts to policing in Norfolk.
In response to the leaflet, Mr Bailey said: "As a police officer you must be impartial. Policing is strictly non-party political and we carry out our duties without fear or favour.
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Police and Crime General
Humberside Police has the most improved morale of any force in England and Wales according to the Police Federation Annual National Pay and Morale survey 2019, released today.
The survey was introduced in 2014 by the National Police Federation to give officers the opportunity to highlight how they were feeling and concerns they had working in the service.
The findings are significant for Humberside. Three years ago an internal staff survey showed that the majority of officers felt disconnected from the force and its leadership following changes in management and two highly critical HMIC reports.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Planned cuts to corporation tax next April are to be put on hold, Boris Johnson has told business leaders, with the money being spent on the NHS.
The rate paid by firms on their profits was due to fall from 19% to 17%.
But the PM told the CBI conference the move could cost the Treasury £6bn and the cash would be better spent on the "nation's priority".
[ more...]
Prisons
The number of people who took their own life while on supervision after leaving prison has increased sixfold since 2010 to a rate of one every two days, fresh analysis seen by the Guardian shows.
There were 153 self-inflicted deaths among those on post-custody supervision in 2018-19, compared with 24 in 2010-11, Ministry of Justice data analysed by the charity Inquest reveals, although this is partly down to improved recording.
The suicide rate among people leaving prison in 2018-19 was 212 per 100,000, while for people serving community orders and suspended sentence orders (who are under supervision but have not been jailed), the rate falls to 132 per 100,000, Inquest said. The rate for prisoners is about 83 per 100,000 and among the general population it is about 14 per 100,000.
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Police and Crime General
The number of suspects facing courts has fallen to its lowest level in 50 years despite a rise in recorded crime, official figures published yesterday disclose.
Ministry of Justice data also showed that the number of criminals given an immediate jail sentence on conviction fell to its lowest level in a decade. The average length of a jail sentence rose to 17.4 months, the highest in the past ten years, from 13.5 months in June 2009.
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Police Finances
Campaigners have accused the police of taking an “increasingly authoritarian” attitude towards peaceful protest as it emerged that the cost of policing an international arms fair in London more than doubled to £2.4m.
Data obtained under freedom of information laws also showed that the Metropolitan police deployed twice as many officers – 5,609 – over a 13-day period covering the DSEI fair in September as during the event’s previous staging, in 2017. More than 120 protesters were arrested in the run-up to and during this year’s convention.
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Police and Crime General
Exclusive: The senior officer in charge of policing the movement and transportation of drugs in the UK has told ITV News Tyne Tees County Lines on the transport network is 'under-reported' in the North East.
The National Police Chiefs' Council's (NPCC) Detective Inspector Stuart Liddell, of the National County Lines Coordination Centre, said he wants to encourage the public, transport companies and police officers to recognise the "risk indicators" associated with young people travelling on the network and to report anyone they believe could be involved in County Lines drugs gangs.
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Police Finances
Opposition parties have criticised Boris Johnson’s handling of flooding emergencies in South Yorkshire and the East Midlands.
This is despite the prime minister convening a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee for this afternoon, which had still not taken place by the time this story was published at 5.15pm.
More than 1,000 homes have been evacuated, about 500 flooded and the Environment Agency still has five ongoing severe warnings, five days after some areas had a month’s worth of rain in just 24 hours.
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Economy & Public Finance
UK inflation rose at its lowest pace in almost three years last month as the energy cap kept a lid on the price of electricity, gas and other fuels, according to official statistics.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said consumer prices rose 1.5% in October, against 1.7% in September.
Energy regulator Ofgem lowered price caps last month.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
UK wage growth slowed down in the three months to September, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Unemployment dropped by 23,000 to 1.31 million over the same period, while the number of people in work also fell.
Average earnings excluding bonuses increased by 3.6%, compared with 3.8% growth in the previous month.
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Police Finances
Analysis reveals 59 officers a day are beaten, punched or spat at, as lawlessness grips towns and cities. Nearly 20,000 incidents have occurred since the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act came in a year ago today. Frontline officers have suffered horrendous injuries. Some still need medical attention, have post-traumatic stress disorder or had to quit their job.
West Yorkshire Police recorded 1,514 assaults between November 13 last year and August 31 – a rate of five a day and an annual increase of almost 10 per cent.
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Technology
The party says it has "ongoing security processes in place" so users "may be experiencing some differences", which it is dealing with "quickly".
The Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack floods a computer server with traffic to try to take it offline. The BBC's Gordon Corera has been told Monday's attack was not linked to a state.
Earlier, a Labour source said that attacks came from computers in Russia and Brazil. Our security correspondent said he had been told the first attack was a low-level incident - not a large-scale and sophisticated attack.
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Police Finances
Gross domestic product (GDP) measures the value of goods and services produced in the UK. It estimates the size of and growth in the economy.
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Police and Crime General
Modern slavery offences nearly doubled last year as police increasingly accepted that county lines drug couriers were victims rather than criminals.
The Metropolitan Police recorded 1,284 crimes under the legislation, a rise of 82 per cent on 2017.
The figures mirrored the national picture. The National Crime Agency said in March that almost 7,000 potential victims of trafficking and modern slavery were reported to the authorities in 2018, a rise of 80 per cent over two years.
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Police Finances
More than 210,000 workers in Britain are to receive a pay rise after the charity behind the living wage increased the national minimum hourly rate by 30p to £9.30.
The Living Wage Foundation, which sets the voluntary measure, said London workers’ basic hourly rate will also rise, by 20p to £10.75, compared with the government’s “national living wage” of £8.21 for workers aged 25 years or older.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK has dodged a recession despite seeing the biggest year-on-year slowdown in nearly a decade.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the 0.3% growth for the third quarter signalled the economy "slowing".
That's because the 0.3% figure puts annual GDP at 1% - down from the 1.3% calculated at the end of the second quarter.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Cambridgeshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner has resigned today after a complaint was submitted against him.
An investigation into the allegation has been launched by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
Cambridgeshire PCC Jason Ablewhite, who was elected to the role in 2016, was the county’s second ever elected PCC.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Labour has promised an "irreversible shift" of power and investment to working people outside the south-east of England, if they win the election.
John McDonnell will pledge £150bn for schools, hospitals and housing on top of existing spending plans to be paid for through borrowing.
The shadow chancellor says he will move Treasury staff out of London to ensure the regions get a fair share of it.
Chancellor Sajid Javid said Labour's plans were "fantasy economics".
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government has confirmed that the timing of the 2020/21 local government finance settlement will be a matter for the incoming government following December’s general election.
Last year, the government agreed to publish the provisional settlement earlier than usual – around 5 December, following criticism of the normal timetable in a review published by HM Treasury director general Andrew Hudson.
However, these plans have been thrown off track by Parliament’s decision last month to hold a general election on 12 December.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police have expressed concerns about online paedophile hunters after prosecutions relying on evidence from vigilante groups soared to four a week.
Senior police officers have criticised groups who pretend to be children online in a bid to snare child sex abusers.
They have even suggested they can go beyond the law and could be guilty of crimes such as blackmail, extortion and varying forms of violence. Freedom of Information data has revealed the numbers of people convicted of child grooming offences have increased five-fold between 2013 and 2018 from just 68 to 359.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Nine Extinction Rebellion cases were suspended at court in the wake of the High Court challenge where judges deemed a London protest ban unlawful.
The cases were due to be heard at Westminster Magistrates’ Court this morning, but have now been sent back to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for “review of evidence”.
Today’s cases were all related to public order offences, which occurred before 14 October, when police banned Extinction Rebellion protests across London.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police staff members in England and Wales have voted to accept an improved pay offer, lifting wages by 2.5% for the year 2019-20.
Trade union Unison announced on 4 November 2019 that 93% of eligible members had voted in favour of the new pay deal, which will see a 2.5% increase on all pay points, backdated to 1 September 2019.
The agreement will see additional increases for staff in the lowest pay bracket, increasing yearly pay from £17,262 to £17,799, equivalent to a 3.1% rise
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson is set to hand police new stop and search powers to target serial knife offenders.
They would allow officers to stop thugs with convictions for knife offences and other violent crimes. The move is part of a major law and order crackdown likely to form a central plank of the Tory manifesto.
Mr Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel are determined to restore the party's reputation for being tough on crime.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Vulnerable children in care homes across the country are still being taken to court for damaging residential facilities or assaulting care staff, Guardian research shows – a sign the state has failed, according to one prominent MP.
Government guidelines say police should not be used for low-level behaviour management or matters a “reasonable parent” would not call the police about.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Jacob Rees-Mogg is facing calls to resign after he suggested it would have been "common sense" for Grenfell Tower residents to ignore "stay put" advice from firefighters and leave the burning building.
The leader of the House of Commons has said he was "profoundly" sorry for making the controversial remarks in a radio interview.
On Monday, he told LBC's Nick Ferrari: "It seems to me that that is the tragedy of it, that the more one's read of it over the weekend about the report and about the chances of people surviving, if you just ignore what you're told and leave, you are so much safer.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police could face hundreds of claims for false imprisonment if the High Court rules that its ban on protests by Extinction Rebellion was unlawful.
More than 400 activists were arrested after the Metropolitan Police imposed the ban during the second week of the “October Rebellion”, a mass demonstration across London that was organised as part of the group’s campaign for action on climate change.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The justice system may be unable to cope with the consequences of Boris Johnson’s pledge to hire 20,000 extra police officers, MPs have warned.
The Public Accounts Committee said civil servants could not predict the full impact of the uplift, which is expected to lead to more prosecutions and prison sentences.
“Given the operational and financial pressure that court, prison and probation services are already under, it is far from certain the Ministry of Justice will have the capacity and capability to cope with a significant rise in demand,” its report concluded.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Government spending is likely to head back towards 1970s levels over the next parliament whichever party wins the general election, research suggests.
Think tank the Resolution Foundation said both Labour and the Conservatives were planning big increases in the size of the state.
The 1970s are often described as a period of economic turmoil for the UK, with public spending soaring during the decade.
[ more...]
Technology
Police Scotland has unveiled a new aerial drone system to help in searches for missing and vulnerable people. The remotely-piloted aircraft system (RPAS) can see things we can't to try to work out where people are.
It uses advanced cameras and neural computer networks to spot someone it is looking for - from "a speck" up to 150 metres away. Its recognition software is compact enough to be run on a phone, with the technology learning as it goes.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The UK's terrorism threat level has been downgraded from "severe" to "substantial", the Home Office says. Home Secretary Priti Patel said the UK was still at "a high level of threat" and an attack could "occur without further warning".
The terrorism threat is now at its lowest since August 2014. Substantial is the third of five ratings at which the threat level can stand.
The separate terrorism threat level for Northern Ireland remains "severe". Ms Patel said in a statement on Monday that terrorism remained a "direct and immediate" risk to the UK's national security.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police forces will not receive one third of the money the government announced it would provide to fund the first wave of new officers, the Guardian has learned.
The Home Office will retain some £16.3m for “recruitment programme costs”, out of £45m announced to fund the first 2,000 officers by April 2020.
The decision was contained in official letters sent to forces last week, informing them how much money they would receive. The Home Office said the £16.3m would be used for advertising and key investments to support the biggest police recruitment drive in decades.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Children as young as seven are being taught self-defence classes at school to prepare them for knife attacks.
Copenhagen Primary School in Islington, North London, said youngsters were being equipped with survival techniques to tackle a "fear culture" which prevents parents from allowing them to leave their homes.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Politicians fighting the general election have been told to take unprecedented security precautions by their parties and police. Those seen as most at risk are being equipped with security alarms amid fears that a winter poll dominated by Brexit could turn violent.
Many have also been advised not to campaign after dark or alone, and not to enter people’s homes even if the weather is bad, as the country heads towards what is expected to be the most fiercely fought and unpredictable election in recent times.
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Police and Crime General
Police will be given power to arrest travellers and seize their caravans if they set up illegal campsites on private or public land.
Tough new laws will make it a criminal offence to occupy any land without permission with the intention of setting up home there. Under current law, trespass is a civil matter which means owners face long and costly legal battles to remove unwelcome visitors.
Home Secretary Priti Patel has drawn up proposals that would give police power to act instantly to remove the offenders and their property.
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Technology
A legal code of practice is needed before facial-recognition technology can be safely deployed by police forces, the data regulator has said.
The technology scans CCTV footage of the faces of passersby to try to identify wanted criminals. Police chiefs believe its use could cut crime rates and it has been trialled by the Metropolitan Police and South Wales police.
However, analysis by academics of six trials found that the technology mistakenly identified innocent people as “wanted” in 80 per cent of cases.
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Police and Crime General
Financial companies should be required by law to refund victims of bank transfer scams, and should consider reimbursing the many thousands defrauded since 2016, according to a report from MPs.
They also said retailers and other companies that suffer data breaches that lead to fraud should be forced to pick up the bill for the costs of reimbursing customers and issuing new bank cards.
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Police and Crime General
Lord Jonathan Evans, who was director-general of the Security Service from 2007 to 2013, said it was “absolutely vital” to remain ties with Europol and European Union (EU) countries.
“I find it very hard to see any security upside from Brexit. It seems to me that our task is to minimise the downside," he told a debate held by the Policy Exchange think-tank in London.
Lord Evans, who sits as a crossbench peer, said Britain’s “security interests remain international and globalised, because that’s where the threats come from”.
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Police and Crime General
A domestic abuse charity and leading campaigners have expressed their frustration that a December general election has halted the progression of a Domestic Abuse Bill.
SafeLives said the timing is 'hugely frustrating' after all the hard work that has been put into the bill over such a long period of time.
The bill has already faced parliamentary delays following the prorogation of the House a few months ago. Former president of the Family Division of the High Court of England and Wales, called for the Domestic Abuse Bill to be brought back before MPs when Parliament was prorogued.
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Police Demand
MPs on the Criminal Justice Committee have warned that safety, security and decency are all lacking in prisons across the country.
The committee condemned the lack of a clear plan for reform and long-term strategy to "reverse the fortunes" of prisons and called for more detailed plans to meet the pledges made.
The report said: "Too often, prisons are identified as needing extra support, but their performance continues to decline.
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Police Demand
The number of times police have detained someone under the Mental Health Act has risen by nearly a third in Wales over the last five years.
Better support is needed to avoid a "revolving door" where the same people are repeatedly detained and released, an assembly committee has said. They said work was needed to find out what was behind the increase.
The Welsh Government said it had provided extra investment to improve access to crisis and out-of-hours care.
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Police and Crime General
Voters are set to head to the polls on 12 December after MPs supported a pre-Christmas general election.
The House of Commons voted by an overwhelming majority of 438 to 20 in favour of an election in little more than six weeks' time.
It would be the first December election since 1923 and dominated by debate over the UK's delayed departure from the EU.
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Police and Crime General
A project backed by the English Football League and six police forces is trialling new methods to control match days based on the science of crowd behaviour.
The ENABLE project is based on research and methods trialled over the last four years. It is scaling up to provide evidence over the next two seasons. The team involved say it could deliver a less hostile experience for fans and lower the costs of policing games.
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Police Demand
The Metropolitan police’s advisers on disability have accused the force of “degrading and humiliating” treatment of disabled activists during the Extinction Rebellion (XR) protests in London this month.
A formal complaint by the Met’s disability independent advisory group says members are “disappointed and angered” the force failed to engage with them over the policing of the protests, and the Met may have caused “irreparable damage” to relations with disabled people.
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Police and Crime General
British intelligence agencies are engaged in heightened monitoring of subjects of interest after the death of the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to safeguard against the possibility of revenge attacks in the UK.
The response covers about 3,000 people in the UK and abroad who are believed by MI5 to have connections to Isis or who could be inspired by the group to launch terrorist attacks in Britain.
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Police and Crime General
Spanning around 1,000 pages, the first official report into the Grenfell Tower fire delivers conclusions more damning than many survivors and bereaved families would have dared expect.
Sir Martin Moore-Bick was dogged by controversy following his appointment to lead the investigations but his criticisms of the authorities and the construction of the building on Monday appeared to ease fears of a whitewash among those touched by the tragedy.
Dozens of survivors and grieving relatives were handed the report, which weighs around 4kg, on Monday morning to allow them to digest the findings ahead of the formal publication on Wednesday.
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Police Demand
Too many excluded pupils get only a couple of hours teaching each day, says the report. There is evidence this leaves them at risk of being drawn into knife crime, it adds. Ministers warned that "simple causal links between exclusions and knife crime cannot not be drawn".
However, research by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Knife Crime found only a third of councils were able to confirm they had space for newly excluded pupils in their pupil referral units (PRUs).
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Police Demand
Violence against MPs is a 'price worth paying' to get the Brexit result they want, say a majority of both Leavers and Remainers in a 'genuinely shocking' survey.
The study, based on polling by YouGov, found 71% of Leavers in England, 60% in Scotland and 70% in Wales believed violence towards MPs was a 'price worth paying' for Brexit.
Among Remainers, 58% in England, 53% in Scotland and 56% in Wales considered violence towards MPs was a 'price worth paying' for Britain to stay in the EU.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK budget deficit is £1-£1.5bn less than what had been previously reported after a statistical error, the Office for National Statistics has said (ONS).
Britain's official statistics agency reported earlier this week a year-to-date budget deficit of £40.3bn, excluding public-sector banks.
The ONS now says there was "an error in the measurement of local government social benefits".
A corrected version will be published early next week.
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Technology
The prevention and investigation of cyber-related crime is undermined by inconsistencies in local policing, a new report has warned.
Too much variation across the 43 forces operating across England precluded an effective response to the threat of cyber-dependent crime, according to an investigation carried out by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services.
It said a national policing response should be established to tackle these offences, which are estimated to cost the UK £1.1bn each year.
The inspectorate said there were effective working arrangements between law enforcement agencies, and a well-established national strategy for dealing with the threat from cyber-dependent crime.
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Technology
Thousands of reports of cybercrime were quarantined on a police database instead of being investigated because software designed to protect the computer system labelled them a security risk.
The backlog at one point stretched to about 9,000 reports of cybercrime and fraud, some of them dating back to October last year. The reports had been made to Action Fraud and handed to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), run by the City of London police.
They were added to a database called Know Fraud where they are supposed to be processed, assessed and distributed among investigators.
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Fire
Thousands of people are at risk of a Grenfell-style fire because of a “flawed” test that stated a type of cladding covering hundreds of tower blocks is safe, the government has been told.
Fire safety experts have called for all HPL cladding to be “urgently” removed as they raised major concerns with a parliamentary committee over the laboratory tests of the material.
HPL - or high pressure laminate - is thought to be covering 440 tower blocks that house 26,000 people.
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Police Finances
The number of stop and searches carried out by police officers in England and Wales has increased by 32% in a year, official figures have shown.
In the 12 months to March 2019 there were 370,454 stop and searches conducted by forces under section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (Pace), up from 279,728 in the previous 12 months.
The rise follows a downward trend in the use of the power between 2010 and 2018, although only 15%, or 58,251, of people who were stopped and searched were arrested.
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Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan Police’s London-wide ban on Extinction Rebellion (XR) protests was “an abuse of power”, High Court judges have heard.
Scotland Yard imposed a blanket ban across the capital last week, after XR’s ”autumn uprising” action shut down areas around Parliament and the Bank of England, and targeted London City Airport and government departments.
The ban made any assembly of more than two people linked to the action – which ended on Saturday – illegal.
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Police and Crime General
A public inquiry into cross border enforcement and people trafficking has been called for by Road Haulage Association chief executive Richard Burnett following the deaths of 39 people in Essex.
The bodies of 38 adults and a teenager were discovered dead inside a refrigerated container in Grays, Essex. The 29-year-old man who was driving the lorry has been arrested and is being questioned by Essex Police. The National Crime Agency is supporting the operation. Police Service Northern Ireland officers have searched two addresses in County Armagh linked to the case.
Deputy Chief Constable Pippa Mills of Essex Police said: "Please appreciate we are in the early stages of what is likely to be a lengthy investigation."
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Police and Crime General
The warning from the Prison Officers' Association (POA) has come as new figures revealed the oldest prisoner in England and Wales was 104 years old.
The data showed there were 13,617 inmates aged above 50 out of a prison population of 82,710 in June 2019. The Prison Service said it was working to meet the needs of elderly prisoners.
More and more inmates were frail, incontinent or had dementia, the POA said.
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Police Finances
The demand for more help from local authorities and the leaders of academy schools has followed a week-long police operation that resulted in 292 children being safeguarded after being pulled into drug gangs.
Schools and care services called for better co-ordination and funding to tackle the fast-moving gangs who use children to courier drugs across the country, often using the rail network.
It followed the national operation, led by the National Crime Agency and National Police Chiefs’ Council, which resulted in 652 men and 91 women arrested. The week of action also resulted in 389 vulnerable adults and 292 children being placed with local safeguarding teams.
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Police Finances
A new report has revealed it cost nearly 12 million pounds to police protests at the Lancashire fracking site, before shale gas extraction was halted due to earth tremors.
The National Audit Commission reveals there's been slow progress in establishing a UK Shale gas industry. Plans to have 20 wells fracked by 2020 are well behind schedule.
Opposition from protesters and public concern over environmental impacts have long thwarted the ambitions of energy companies.
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Police and Crime General
MPs on the health and social care committee have called for a radical change in policy approach after concluding that the UK drugs policy is failing.
Police leaders backed the call for better education, prevention and better partnerships but stopped short of supporting any move towards legalisation.
The committee ended its invesitgation into illegal drug use with the claim that the number of drug-related deaths has now risen to the scale of a public health emergency.
In England in 2018 there were 2,670 deaths directly attributed to drug misuse, an increase of 16% since 2017. The report concluded that if other causes of premature death amongst people who use drugs were included, the figure would approximately double.
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Economy & Public Finance
Public sector borrowing has risen by a fifth during the first half of the financial year, official figures show.
Borrowing for the six months to September has now hit £40.3bn, up £7.4bn from the same period in 2018.
In the month of September, borrowing was £9.4bn - slightly lower than expected but still up from £8.8bn last year.
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Police Finances
Protests by Extinction Rebellion have cost the Metropolitan police £37m so far this year but Britain’s most senior officer has said she is against a ban on the climate emergency group’s campaign of disruption.
Dame Cressida Dick said the fortnight-long autumn demonstrations, which ended last week, cost at least £21m, a figure expected to rise by several million. It comes on top of the £16m spent on policing the group’s protests in April.
Dick said the total so far was higher than the £15m spent every year on the Met’s violent crime taskforce, which tries to reduce the number of stabbings and other violent crime in London.
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Police Finances
Cloudflare helps websites deliver content faster but some of its clients are known to host illegal content.
The company insists it is powerless because it does not actually host the offending sites. Campaigners say Cloudflare's services make it easier for clients to avoid detection by "hiding" their locations.
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Economy & Public Finance
The population of the UK is projected to increase to just under 70 million within the next nine years, according to official figures released today.
Almost three-quarters of population growth is because of net migration, with the remainder due to more births than deaths.
Projections from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the population rising from 66.4 million in the middle of last year to 69.4 million in mid 2028.
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Economy & Public Finance
The world is sleepwalking towards a fresh economic and financial crisis that will have devastating consequences for the democratic market system, according to the former Bank of England governor Mervyn King.
Lord King, who was in charge at Threadneedle Street during the near-death of the global banking system and deep economic slump a decade ago, said the resistance to new thinking meant a repeat of the chaos of the 2008-09 period was looming.
Giving a lecture in Washington at the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund, King said there had been no fundamental questioning of the ideas that led to the crisis of a decade ago.
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Police and Crime General
Police have made a record number of arrests in a week-long push to tackle so-called county lines drug gangs. Officers arrested 743 people and seized drugs worth over £400,000, 12 guns and dozens of other weapons.
The operation, by forces across England and Wales, resulted in the "disruption" of 49 "deal lines", police said. Senior officers say better co-ordination between police forces means they know more than they've ever done about the gangs and their activities.
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Economy & Public Finance
We’ve got a great new deal that takes back control — now Parliament should get Brexit done on Saturday so we can move on to other priorities like the cost of living, the NHS, violent crime and our environment #GetBrexitDone #TakeBackControl
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Police Finances
Knife crime in England and Wales reached an unprecedented high in the year to June, increasing by 7% on the previous 12 months, according to figures.
Police-recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument rose to 44,076, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said, the highest figure recorded since 2010-11 when comparable data began.
Almost half the offences were stabbings, 43% were robberies and the figures also included rape and sexual assault.
In the 12 months to June there were 235 knife murders and 412 attempted murders, while the total number of homicides recorded by the police fell by 5%, from 719 to 681 offences.
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Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson is preparing to promise significantly more police officers than the 20,000 recruits already planned as part of the Conservative manifesto.
A secret cabinet committee of eight ministers, led by Mr Johnson, met for the first time on Monday to discuss preparations for the next election.
The ministers were told that polling showed that on law and order the Tories were “streets ahead” of Labour. Plans for an extra 20,000 officers by 2022 had been favourably accepted.
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Police and Crime General
Police watchdogs have endorsed the tactic of knocking moped thieves off their motorbikes as a "legitimate use of force" for officers with specialist training.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has issued guidance to "support" them in carrying out their duties - and ensure that "any dangerous situations created by police pursuits are brought to an end as swiftly as possible."
The new guidance covers use of alternative tactics, weighing up the severity of the suspected offence, and the likelihood of causing injury to the riders, others and themselves, the IOPC said. It also reinforces that the use of the tactic must be authorised.
The manoeuvre was launched by the Metropolitan Police in 2018 in a blaze of publicity amid efforts to tackle offenders riding motorcycles and mopeds.
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Police and Crime General
The horrific extent of the knife crime epidemic has been exposed by police figures showing there are five weapons-related incidents at schools every day.
In a worrying trend for parents and teachers, a child as young as four was found carrying a knife and dozens of incidents involved youngsters too young to be prosecuted.
Weapons seized by police include a terrifying - and potentially deadly arsenal - from zombie to kitchen knives, a sword and meat cleaver, knuckle dusters, a taser, and even a firearm.
Knives have been involved in 1,260 incidents since April 2017 - equivalent to five cases for every day of the English school year - according to data obtained by Freedom of Information requests
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Police and Crime General
A new law the home secretary claimed would crack down on foreign criminals and “make our country safer” currently applies to an average of 10 people a year, figures reveal.
Priti Patel said the government would increase the punishment for breaching deportation orders to “deter foreign criminals from returning to the UK”.
But official statistics analysed by The Independent show that only a handful of people have been convicted of the crime in recent years.
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Police and Crime General
There has been a 10% rise in hate crimes recorded by police in England and Wales. There were a record 103,379 offences in 2018-19, Home Office figures show. The Home Office said the increase was largely driven by better recording by police but charities said the figures were "the tip of the iceberg".
Hate crimes are offences motivated by hostility towards someone's race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or transgender identity.
Race hate crimes accounted for around three-quarters of offences (78,991) and rose by 11% on the previous year.
Transgender hate crime went up 37% to 2,333. For sexual orientation the rise was 25% to 14,491, for disability 14% to 8,256 and for religion 3% to 8,566.
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Police and Crime General
The number of collapsed criminal cases has almost doubled in four years, with murder and rape trials halted over failures to disclose evidence to defence lawyers.
Figures from the Crown Prosecution Service show that on average last year about two criminal cases a day were dropped because of delays in bringing them to court or an abuse of process.
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Police and Crime General
The domestic abuse bill announced by the government does not do enough to tackle cuts to “life-saving” services which are pushing increasing numbers of domestic abuse victims into homelessness, campaigners have warned.
Boris Johnson’s first Queen’s Speech since becoming prime minister included a commitment to reintroducing the legislation, which was dropped because of his unlawful suspension of parliament last month.
Andrea Simon, of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said: “The bill does not adequately provide for life-saving services for victims of domestic abuse. They need to give them much more money. In many cases, refuges are running on their reserves to keep open.
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Police and Crime General
In a statement issued on Monday evening, the Metropolitan Police said demonstrators protesting in the capital after 21:00 BST could be arrested.
Extinction Rebellion said it would "let Trafalgar Square go" but added that the "International Rebellion continues". The protests, which began last Monday, have seen more than 1,400 arrests.
A number of demonstrations have been staged across the capital by the group, which is calling on the government to do more to tackle climate change. The protests were due to last two weeks.
On Monday evening, police began clearing protesters from Trafalgar Square, some of whom had glued themselves to the ground as they refused to leave.
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Police Finances
Murderers who withhold information about where their victims are buried and paedophiles who refuse to disclose the identity of children pictured in indecent images in their possession will both face longer sentences as part of a new Bill.
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Police and Crime General
For the first time in a decade police forces in England and Wales are handling more complaints through local resolution rather than using lengthy and complex investigations, data released by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) today shows.
The most common type of allegation made in a complaint remains ‘other neglect or failure in duty’ category, such as how officers responded to or investigated incidents. These allegations accounted for 41% of all the allegations recorded in 2018/19; continuing a rise seen in the two previous reports. This year the number of allegations per 1,000 employees fell from 274 to 264.
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Economy & Public Finance
Violent and sexual criminals as well as foreign national offenders who return to the UK will face drastically heavier penalties under measures that will form the centrepiece of a Queen’s speech aimed at wresting the agenda away from the delicate Brexit negotiations.
With just days to go before the deadline for Boris Johnson to clinch a last-ditch Brexit deal in Brussels, the Queen will on Monday set out his government’s priorities for a new session of parliament, including 22 new bills.
But with MPs deadlocked over Brexit, few at Westminster believe a general election will be long in coming – and the Conservatives hope the policies will form the basis of their campaign.
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Police and Crime General
More than 800 people are expected to attend the funeral of a “hero” police officer who was killed in the line of duty.
His wife, who he married just weeks before his death, family and friends are to attend his funeral at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford on Monday.
Flags across Thames Valley Police’s area will be flying at half-mast and all officers will be paying their respects.
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Economy & Public Finance
Extinction Rebellion activists have blocked a major junction in London’s financial district, as the movement switched its focus towards companies funding and profiting from the climate emergency.
About 100 demonstrators walked into the roundabout outside the Bank of England in the City and sat down in the road at 7am on Monday.
In a statement, the group said: “Extinction Rebellion this morning are disrupting the system bankrolling the environmental crisis.
“The day of disruption, which will target financial institutions, seeks to highlight the far greater disruption faced by those living in the environments systematically being destroyed by UK-backed companies.
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Police and Crime General
Hundreds of mourners lined the streets of Oxford to pay their respects to PC Andrew Harper.
The city centre fell silent as the funeral procession , led by mounted police, travelled through on its way to Christ Church Cathedral.
Hundreds of Thames Valley Police officers also flanked the route and bowed their heads as cortege passed.
More than 800 people were expected to join PC Harper's family and friends to say their final goodbyes at the funeral service on Monday, October 14.
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Police and Crime General
Gloucestershire Constabulary has become the first police force in the UK to use new AI-driven data-analytics technology to identify potential victims of child abuse.
Developed by British defense company BAE Systems, the technology is claimed to be ten times faster than the existing process.
A pilot scheme in Gloucestershire had the machine learning technology sift through three years of historic data in four hours, highlighting leads and identifying ‘key indicators of potentially harmful situations’.
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Economy & Public Finance
The government has suspended Parliament to allow a Queen's Speech to take place.
For a government to lose the vote that follows the speech would be highly unusual. But it is possible and could have serious consequences.
So, what exactly is the Queen's Speech and what would happen if MPs rejected it?
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Police and Crime General
The government has today confirmed the police officer recruitment targets for every police force in England and Wales for 2020-21.
Strengthening police numbers is a priority for the government, which is providing £750 million to support forces to recruit up to 6,000 additional officers onto our streets by the end of 2020-21, the first stage in this new uplift. This is thanks to the additional funding announced by the Chancellor in the Spending Review.
The Home Secretary set out her vision for policing yesterday (8th October) when she chaired the second meeting of the National Policing Board, involving representatives of frontline officers and police leaders.
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Police Demand
Thousands of suspects - including some accused of serious violent crimes - are being released by police without any restrictions, potentially putting victims and the public in danger, according to new research.
The number of people being released under investigation (RUI) after being questioned by police has dramatically increased, leaving victims, witnesses and suspects "in limbo" and waiting months or even years for justice, a Law Society of England and Wales study found.
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Police and Crime General
UK Government confirms recruitment target across the four forces in Wales.
Find out more by following the link.
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Police and Crime General
The Extinction Rebellion protest could force the Queen to abandon carriage trip to open Parliament, police have suggested.
Officers have told those leading the demonstration that state opening cannot take place if they are camped on the streets as Scotland Yard admitted that they have “contingency plans”.
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Police and Crime General
Overstretched police in London admit they are spending less time with victims of real crime as it takes hours to arrest hundreds of attention-seeking eco protestors holding raves, breastfeeding in the street and waving around giant octopuses.
The Government today took the extraordinary step of calling in 500 officers from 43 other police forces in England and Wales as they try to round up the Extinction Rebellion mob bringing chaos to the centre of the capital.
Met Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said the scale of operation was having a big impact on policing in other areas of the capital.
He said: 'We haven't stopped policing, we never will, but it does mean that some activities beyond the normal responses are affected.
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Economy & Public Finance
A no-deal Brexit would see government borrowing rise to almost £100bn a year and overall debt reaching levels not seen since the 1960s, a leading economic think-tank has warned.
Analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) predicted a mini-boom in public spending, funded by the extra borrowing, to help soften the blow if the UK crashes out of Europe without a deal.
But the boom would likely be followed by bust as the government struggles to cope with the consequences of a smaller economy and higher debt on its funding of public services, the IFS said.
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Economy & Public Finance
Boris Johnson is planning to spend as much on public services as Jeremy Corbyn promised at the last election and cannot afford the tax cuts he pledged in the Tory leadership campaign, a think tank has warned.
The prime minister’s proposed spending spree would mean Sajid Javid, the chancellor, overshooting the government’s borrowing limit by £5 billion in 2020-21, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which said that the government was “adrift without any fiscal anchor”.
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Police Demand
The alliance was due to end on Tuesday but Warwickshire Police sought Home Office intervention, claiming it had not had enough time to split services.
MP Priti Patel said the two should remain united for a further six months. She added there would be a "severe" impact on Warwickshire if it ended without agreed terms. The forces have been sharing services, including IT and forensics, since 2012.
But West Mercia Police said it was subsidising Warwickshire - a claim the force refutes - and wants to pull out.
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Police and Crime General
Counter-terror police across the UK have been running a secret database containing details of thousands of individuals referred to the government’s controversial anti-radicalisation Prevent programme, the Guardian can reveal.
The National Police Prevent Case Management (PCM) database is managed centrally by national counter-terrorism policing headquarters. It is accessible to all police forces across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and the Home Office are able to request data from it, according to documents sent to the human rights group Liberty and seen by the Guardian.
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Police Demand
The rate of knife attacks in some regional towns and cities is higher than in many London boroughs, BBC analysis of police figures suggests.
Overall, London remains the most dangerous part of England and Wales - but data, obtained from 34 of the 43 police forces, shows the rate of serious knife crime offences rising sharply in some areas outside London, and outstripping some of the city's boroughs in places like the city of Manchester, Slough, Liverpool and Blackpool.
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Police and Crime General
Autistic children as young as 12 are being targeted by gangs and forced to sell class-A drugs, experts warn.
Violent groups take advantage of autistic children’s desire “to be liked and accepted” to convince them to act as mules, trafficking drugs between towns, cities and the countryside, a system known as county lines.
Paul Mckenzie, a youth worker who runs Groomsafe, a support network for families damaged by county lines, has worked with about 20 young people with autism and other special educational needs who have had to sell drugs in the past two years.
“A lot of them have been like square pegs in round holes all their lives because no one has taken an interest in them or made them feel they belong"
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Police Finances
The home secretary has announced a new team within the British Transport Police to tackle county lines gangs.
The criminal networks deliberately target children and vulnerable adults to courier drugs from cities to users across the country.
Priti Patel said the government would invest £20m into identifying and dismantling the gangs.
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Police and Crime General
Criminals who assault police officers face automatic jail sentences under plans being drawn up by the Government.
Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, is considering new legislation that would mean that anyone who attacks an officer and causes a set level of harm would be sent to jail.
She signalled the new crackdown at the Conservative party conference, declaring: “We will ensure that anyone who assaults a police officer receives a sentence that truly fits the crime, to make the thugs who would attack an officer, think twice.”
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Police and Crime General
The Prime Minister has promised us another 20,000 police with recruitment supposed to start this month. But what will this really mean? With today’s oral question in the House of Lords I hope to get some answers.
Police numbers have fallen every year since a Conservative-led Government took office in 2010.
Indeed, in the nine years up to March this year, forces in England and Wales lost 20,564 officers. With his usual desire for alliterative self-aggrandisement Johnson will no doubt want us to call them “Boris’s Bobbies”, but that will not alter the fact that the new officers will not even replace those that have been lost under his two Tory predecessors.
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Police Finances
The prime minister’s plans to cut revenue received from National Insurance contributions and higher income tax would cost billions a year, a think-tank has said.
Boris Johnson has said he wants to raise the threshold for the top income tax rate from £50,000 to £80,000, which would cost £8bn a year, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The prime minister has not specified how much he wishes to raise the NICs threshold to, but if it was raised to match the current income tax personal allowance of £12,500 it would cost would cost the economy £17bn a year, the IFS calculated.
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Police and Crime General
Eight of the 10 most deprived neighbourhoods in England are in Blackpool, according to new statistics. Seaside village Jaywick, in Essex, has been named the most deprived area overall for the third time in a row since 2010.
Blackpool took the next eight slots while Middlesbrough had the largest share of the most deprived areas. Government officials ranked 32,844 neighbourhoods. The MHCLG's Index of Multiple Deprivation looks at levels of income, employment, education, health and crime as well as housing services and living environment.
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Police Finances
Public bodies spent nearly £1 million of taxpayers’ money on senior lawyers at the inquest into the London Bridge terror attack deaths while the families of the victims were denied legal aid.
The Metropolitan Police, London Ambulance Service and other state agencies that were criticised for their handling of the atrocity racked up £781,784 in legal fees funded by the public purse.
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Police Demand
Spending on youth services in England has been decimated by 69 per cent in a decade and is set to reach its lowest point in a generation next year, new figures show.
Campaigners have issued fresh warnings that austerity is pushing more children and young people into street violence after an analysis of figures revealed average spend on youth services per local authority plummeted from £7.79m in 2010 to a planned expenditure of just £2.45m next year.
Nearly a third of local councils have planned cuts that would see their spending on youth services decline by 80 per cent since 2010-11, while the vast majority of local authorities (83 per cent) are set to cut their funding in half over a nine-year period, the data shows.
Knife crime has meanwhile surged, with 43,516 offences reported to police last year across England and Wales – excluding Greater Manchester Police, which records data differently – marking the highest since comparable records began in 2011.
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Police Finances
Police and local government leaders have called for a rethink of how policing is funded.
The current system of precepts and top-ups is not creating the secure, long-term revenues stream needed to fight crime and modernise forces, according to a police and crime commissioner, a government finance expert and a former government adviser.
The call came despite the announcement of an extra £750 million by the Government to fund the recruitment of an extra 20,000 police officers.
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Police Finances
A new report says the wide use of smartphones and cuts to police patrols are behind the rise.
It also found some 269,000 young people were involved in or at risk of violence last year. The Home Office said it was funding a police recruitment drive and helping officers to use their powers.
From 2010 to 2014, offences were on the decline almost everywhere. Since then, however, there have been small increases in five countries - and a 33% rise in England and Wales, which researchers said was "significant" because robbery acted as an "entry point" for violent crime.
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Police Finances
The Home Office is manipulating crime figures by telling the national anti-fraud service to dismiss tens of thousands of legitimate cases, two former police chiefs have told The Times.
Ken Farrow and Steve Wilmott said that Action Fraud, which was exposed by an undercover Times investigation last month for failing victims, is wrongly omitting to record cases of identity theft as crimes.
The decision to dismiss these cases, made by the Home Office, means that up to 50,000 reported frauds every year are not included in official statistics and the criminals are not pursued.
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Police and Crime General
There is "much cause for concern" in how the Treasury's approach affects public services, analysis by a leading think tank has found. Spending and accountability are “often not adequately lined up”, information is "not used properly" to inform decisions and the government does "too little" to understand the impact of spending on metropolitan or county areas, the Institute for Government said.
It added spending is "planned wastefully" and the government does not explain its intentions clearly, with the Treasury’s current ways of working contributing "strongly" to these problems.
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Technology
The government has pledged to spend more money on the child abuse image database, which since 2014 has allowed police and other law enforcement agencies to search seized computers and other devices for indecent images of children quickly, against a record of 14m images, to help identify victims.
Earlier this month, the chancellor, Sajid Javid, announced £30m would be set aside to tackle online child sexual exploitation, with the Home Office releasing more information on how this would be spent on Tuesday.
National Crime Agency statistics showed 2.88m accounts were registered around the world on child sexual abuse sites on the dark web last year, with at least 5% believed to be in the UK.
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Police and Crime General
The number of people killed as a result of domestic violence in the UK is at its highest level in five years.
Last year, 173 people were killed in domestic violence-related homicides, according to data obtained by the BBC from 43 police forces across the UK - an increase of 32 deaths on 2017. One criminologist described them as "invisible victims of knife crime". It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the government was "fully committed" to tackling domestic abuse.
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Police and Crime General
The home secretary told senior police officers yesterday that she is “ashamed” at the lack of support for officers in an attack on the Conservative government’s record since 2010.
In her first major speech to police since becoming home secretary, Priti Patel also admitted that it would take more than a “sticking plaster” to heal the years of damage in relations between the police and the government. Ms Patel said she recognised that the police had been “overworked and undervalued” by the previous Conservative administration and insisted that she wanted to reset the relationship.
Police officer numbers in England and Wales fell by more than 21,000 to 122,404 between 2010 and 2018. In the past year they rose to 123,171. The number of PCSOs has fallen from 16,918 in 2010 to 9,547 this year and special constables from 15,505 to 10,640.
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Police and Crime General
A comprehensive examination of policing aimed at improving the future of the service is ‘much welcomed and long overdue’ says the National Chair of the Police Federation.
The independent policing think tank The Police Foundation has launched its Strategic Review of Policing in England and Wales. Along with other key policing partners, the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) will be contributing to the review which is expected to have an impact similar to the 1962 Royal Commission which laid the basis for today’s police service.
Chaired by Sir Michael Barber, it will look at how crime and other threats to public safety are changing and assess the ability of policing to respond, setting out a long-term strategic direction for the service so it is better able to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
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Police and Crime General
Policing is in crisis and officers are no longer able to deliver the service the public expects, a senior officer said as he gave his backing for an independent strategic review.
Chief Superintendent Paul Griffiths, head of the Police Superintendents’ Association (PSA), told The Times that officers across the country were under unprecedented pressure.
He lent his support to a new root-and-branch review of the state of policing in the UK, which will be carried out by Sir Michael Barber, a former adviser to Tony Blair, with the support of police chiefs and public bodies including the Cabinet Office, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Mr Griffiths, who will announce the review at PSA’s annual conference today, welcomed the promised recruitment of 20,000 officers but said that the present landscape was the worst he had seen in a career spanning more than 25 years.
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Police and Crime General
Up to half a million people will have to apply to become police officers over the next three years in order to meet Boris Johnson’s 20,000 target, a senior officer has said.
Martin Hewitt, chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), warned that because of the number of officers who retire or leave every year, 50,000 new officers may have to be hired in total.
Speaking at the Police Superintendents’ Association conference, he said that only one in every 10 applicants currently becomes a police officer in England and Wales, meaning 500,000 hopefuls would be required at the current rate.
“It is a huge number but I think we will get that ratio down considerably over time by doing some things with how that process works,” Mr Hewitt told journalists. “We’re looking at every stage of how you recruit, train and develop people ... the important point is that we get the right people.”
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Police Finances
Funding cuts to police and public services that previously helped stop people, especially the young, from offending has helped fuel the surge in violent crime, a police chief has said.
Supt Darius Hemmatpour of Scotland Yard’s violent crime task force, said stabbings and other life-threatening attacks in London spiked after 2017, and suggested that austerity was a factor.
Speaking at the Police Superintendents’ Association annual conference he said: “Austerity has obviously impacted on individual families and households... Public sector services were cut. There comes a point that services previously available were no longer there... People on the edge of criminality may have previously had an intervention that may have diverted them away, but with the loss of those services, that intervention was not there.”
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Police and Crime General
The Prime Minister was condemned as having used the student officers as an "inappropriate" backdrop as part of a "political stunt" when he made a speech which ended up referencing a possible general election and criticising Jeremy Corbyn.
Around 35 officers had been standing behind his lectern, in front of an old-style police box, for at least 20 minutes before the speech at West Yorkshire Police's operations and training complex in Wakefield began.
Mr Johnson had finished his speech and had answered a number of questions from journalists seated behind the officers in the audience, when it became clear a policewoman standing behind his right shoulder was not feeling well.
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Police and Crime General
A national campaign is underway to recruit 20,000 extra police officers across the UK. It's part of a £750 million government project to reassure communities that crime-fighting IS a priority. John Ryall reports.
Contributions by Kit Malthouse MP, Policing Minister; Katy Bourne, Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner; Matt Webb, Sussex Police Federation; Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP, Brighton Kemptown, Lab; and Luke Williams, recruit.
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Police Finances
The chancellor will need to find an extra £5bn of spending next year to meet the government's recent pledges, the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned.
A new report, published by the IFS ahead of tomorrow's Spending Round, finds an extra £5bn is needed just to avoid cuts to other public services.
It estimates that pledges on schools, police, NHS, defence and overseas aid will require at least £9bn more next year compared to this year.
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Police and Crime General
The number of moped crimes in London have more than halved from 20,973 to 9,723 after Scotland Yard started ramming in to suspects, the force revealed.
Police began using their cars to stop suspected criminals in November 2018, after the number of thieves using scooters to target pedestrians rose dramatically.
Since then the spate of offenders using mopeds in the capital has dropped from 20,973, between June 2017 and July 2018, to just 9,723 in the year until June 2019.
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Police Demand
The number of mental health incidents dealt with by police has risen by more than a quarter in four years, figures obtained by BBC Radio 5 Live show.
While there were 385,206 incidents flagged as mental health-related in 2014, in 2018 that figure was 494,159, a rise of 28%.
Police chiefs have said the issue is affecting the amount of time officers can focus on fighting crime. The Home Office said it is working to "relieve the burden on officers".
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Police Demand
Supporting mental health patients can occupy police officers for "10 to 12 hours" before doctors can make an assessment, a chief constable has said.
Specialist support for mental health-related calls costs Welsh police £1.2m a year - but Mark Collins said a "true cost" is the loss of PCs on the beat. "All the time we are dealing with mental health matters we are taking officers off the street," he said.
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Police Finances
The government must change the law to ensure domestic and sexual abuse victims are not put at risk after reporting attacks, an MP and campaigners have said.
A letter seen exclusively by The Independent warned that changes made by the Conservatives had caused a steep drop in the use of police bail – and thousands of alleged sex attackers and violent criminals were released without any restrictions.
Labour MP Sarah Champion, who wrote the letter, said the changes had endangered survivors and could discourage them from reporting crimes to the police.
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Police Finances
Nick Ferrari has written to Priti Patel, asking her to provide ring-fenced budget so that all police officers can be armed with a taser.
Signatories of the letter include John Apter, the head of the Police Federation - the voice of the police - seven Police and Crime Commissioners, three Chief Constables and Lord Stevens, the former Met Police Commissioner.
Full letter avaliable on the LBC website.
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Police Finances
Chancellor Sajid Javid has promised increased spending on priority areas of schools, police and health.
Setting a 4 September date for the 12-month spending round - earlier than previously planned - he said there would be no "blank cheque" for departments.
Mr Javid said he would stick to the current borrowing rules, limiting the scope for extensive spending increases.
Labour called the move a "one-off pre-election panic-driven stunt budget".
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Police Finances
THE Novichok poisoning plot in Salisbury cost police a staggering £12million, new figures have revealed. It brings the total clean-up bill picked up by taxpayer after two declared major incidents to a whopping £30million.
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Police and Crime General
A four-year-old was among more than 1,000 children caught carrying knives in schools last year, police figures show.
A total of 1,144 knife possession offences in schools, where the suspect was a child, were recorded in England, Scotland and Wales over 12 months.
The figures, obtained from police forces through Freedom of Information requests by 5 News, also revealed weapons seized by officers included machetes, hunting knives and a samurai sword.
Dyfed-Powys Police were called to one school in Wales by teachers concerned that a four-year-old had a knife.
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Police and Crime General
Sixty years of improvements in police co-operation across Europe will “fall away” if the UK leaves the EU without a deal, the garda commissioner has said.
Drew Harris said that the UK would lose “access to a lot of the EU’s criminal justice treaties” and that police did not have the resources to control the border if checkpoints were reinstated after Brexit.
“The criminal justice treaties the UK is presently a member of will fall away for the United Kingdom and that is not going to simplify policing,” Mr Harris said yesterday at an event in Dublin to announce a new organisational structure for the garda force.
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Police Finances
The UK posted a smaller-than-expected budget surplus in July as government spending increased.
A growing wage bill and higher spending on goods and services was behind the lower surplus, which fell to £1.3bn.
Analysts had been expecting a £2.7bn surplus, which would have been less than the £3.6bn booked last year.
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Police and Crime General
EXCLUSIVE: Kent’s Chief Constable Alan Pughsley discusses his decision to issue Tasers to all police officers in the county – including, in a national first, to Special Constables, the first of whom are already undergoing training.
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Police and Crime General
The force said the move is designed to offer more protection to both the public and the police. All frontline officers who wish to carry one will be equipped with the upgraded X2 Tasers following intensive training in the safe use of the devices.
Over the next 12 months, the new model will be rolled out across the force, replacing the original X26 which has been used for the last 14 years.
On Tuesday (August 20), Northamptonshire Police said it would offer the devices to an additional 338 officers, equipping every officer in response, neighbourhood and proactive teams with Tasers.
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Police and Crime General
A YouTube star, famous for his reviews of chicken shops, has criticised the government's decision to feature knife crime warnings on takeaway boxes.
Elijah Quashie - better known as the Chicken Connoisseur - told BBC's Wake Up to Money that the approach was too simplistic to solve a complex problem.
"I can see the racist connotation. I'm not sure if I'd say racist, or stereotype but it's in that bracket."
The government said its chicken shop adverts were part of a wider campaign.
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Police Finances
A chief constable is fighting back against violence in lawless Britain by arming all his officers with Taser stun guns. Nick Adderley of Northampton Police, said “enough is enough” and pledged to tackle the scourge of violent assaults with the 50,000-volt weapons for frontline staff.
Mr Adderley’s force will become the first in Britain to issue Tasers as standard, in a move backed by his police and crime commissioner. Speaking exclusively to the Daily Express last night, he said: “I can’t sit here and preside over a situation where my officers are exposed to increasing levels of violence when at my disposal is equipment that could save an officer’s life. Enough is enough. Mine will be the first force to issue a Taser to every officer who wants one.”
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Police Finances
A chief admitted policing “hasn’t moved with the times” after ordering the issue of Tasers to every frontline officer in his force in response to a "sickening trend" of attacks on the emergency services.
Northamptonshire Police Chief Constable Nick Adderley, who served in the Royal Navy before joining the police, said the decision to issue the weapons was not taken lightly.
But he said he was "not prepared to wait" as police personnel were facing deadly threats from people with “no respect for the law”.
CC Adderley said the weapons would be issued to all officers who want one.
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Police and Crime General
A cyber-attack on the UK's biggest forensic services provider led to a backlog of 20,000 samples, the BBC has learned.
Eurofins Scientific was targeted by a "highly-sophisticated" ransomware virus in June, which led British police to suspend work with the company.
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) is now clearing the backlog, which includes blood and DNA specimens.
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Police Finances
Children as young as 12 could face curfews under Home Office plans to tackle knife crime.
Courts in England and Wales will get extra civil powers to tackle concerns about people suspected of carrying bladed weapons and serious violence.
The knife crime prevention orders (KCPOs) can be imposed by magistrate and youth courts on anyone who police believe is carrying a knife.
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Police and Crime General
Scottish police officers are searching social media for information on potentially disruptive protests over Brexit.
Police Scotland has retained 400 extra officers to deal with domestic unrest and stand ready for deployment in Northern Ireland, where the combination of a hard border and sectarian unrest would be particularly volatile.
In a report to be presented to the Scottish Police Authority on Wednesday, Will Kerr, deputy chief constable for local policing, said: “The Brexit contingency planning team are fully aware of the potential civil unrest. Police Scotland’s Brexit intelligence officers continue to monitor social media sites in order that Police Scotland can prepare and respond to any potential protests.”
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Police and Crime General
Police Scotland have spent more than £7m on planning for Brexit.
The figure has been released in a Brexit contingency planning report due to be discussed by the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) this week. It also states that civil unrest is one of the biggest potential issues facing policing post-Brexit.
It comes as leaked government documents appear to show that Britain faces shortages of fuel, food and medicine, in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
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Police Demand
Boris Johnson’s pledge to recruit 20,000 new police officers will fail to undo the damage caused by years of Conservative budget cuts, senior officers have warned.
Analysis by The Independent suggests that more than 46,000 will have to be hired to meet the target and replace officers leaving the service over the next three years.
Doubts have been raised over when such ambitious targets can be reached, with more than half of forces failing to meet current recruitment targets.
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Police Demand
Drink drivers are getting away with breaking the law because police are having to drive them up to an hour and 45 minutes to the nearest custody cells, it has been warned.
An investigation by the Daily Telegraph has found that officers across England and Wales routinely have to drive suspects for more than an hour before they can process their arrest after a third of all custody suites were closed down.
As well as fears that drink drivers are escaping prosecution as they have sobered up on the journey to the station, it has been warned that officers are opting to drive suspects home or simply giving them a ticking off to save time.
Those living furthest from stations say that they are “forgotten towns” where criminals can do as they please.
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Police and Crime General
PC Andrew Harper was killed while attending a burglary on Thursday - the third serious attack against an officer on the job in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, a Met police constable was stabbed in the head just days before a West Midlands Police officer was run over with his own vehicle.
But are police officers facing more violence? The BBC's Ella Wills spoke to one serving officer, who asked not to be named, about life on the frontline.
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Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson wants to restore his party’s ‘tough on crime’ reputation.
The new home secretary, Priti Patel, has said she wants criminals “to feel terror”, and recruitment will begin shortly for 20,000 more police officers.
In a less-publicised move, Boris Johnson is also considering whether to scrap plans to abolish short-prison sentences.
But if the ultimate aim of a tough stance is to cut crime – and thereby make the public safer – then this would be a foolish move.
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Police Finances
Staff working for the government-funded fraud reporting line mislead callers by saying their cases will be investigated when most are dismissed, an investigation by a national newspaper has suggested.
A journalist from The Times went undercover at Action Fraud, the body set up to deal with reports of fraud and cybercrime in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The newspaper said that most cases reported to the centre, funded by the Home Office, were dismissed, either by the call centre employees or by an algorithm.
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Police Finances
Potholes and cracked roads prompted a complaint every 45 seconds last year from frustrated motorists, cyclists and business owners.
Almost 700,000 potholes and other defects to local road surfaces were reported, costing £1 billion in repairs. Local authorities also paid out a total of £1.9 million to compensate motorists whose vehicles suffered damage attributed to potholes or defects in road surfaces and pavements.
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Police Finances
Almost all of the promised 20,000 police recruits must be used to tackle the “total collapse” of neighbourhood units in the last decade, a former Metropolitan Police chief has said.
Richard Walton called for between 16,000 and 18,000 of the officers to become “bobbies on the beat” and make community policing the priority.
In a report for the Policy Exchange think tank, the former head of Scotland Yard counterterrorism said that Boris Johnson’s pledge “represents a dramatic shift in policing policy after eight years of cuts to police budgets and police officer numbers”. He said the cuts had been accompanied by rising levels of serious and violent crime.
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Police and Crime General
Almost all of the promised 20,000 police recruits must be used to tackle the “total collapse” of neighbourhood units in the last decade, a former Metropolitan Police chief has said.
Richard Walton called for between 16,000 and 18,000 of the officers to become “bobbies on the beat” and make community policing the priority.
In a report for the Policy Exchange think tank, the former head of Scotland Yard counterterrorism said that Boris Johnson’s pledge “represents a dramatic shift in policing policy after eight years of cuts to police budgets and police officer numbers”. He said the cuts had been accompanied by rising levels of serious and violent crime.
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Police and Crime General
A new police chief has said she hopes to inspire more women from black and Asian communities to become officers.
Supt Bhupinder Rai said BAME women had an "understanding" and a "subconscious knowledge" which could help tackle honour-based abuse, forced marriage and female genital mutilation.
She said she would like to see officer numbers return "to pre-austerity" levels to reduce violent crime.
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Prisons
Prisons in England and Wales are to receive £100m to improve security and cut crime, the government has said.
Airport-style security - such as X-ray scanners and metal detectors - would be introduced in more prisons, it added.
PM Boris Johnson said stopping weapons, drugs and phones getting into jails would prevent them becoming "factories for making bad people worse".
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Police Demand
Police are being deterred from chasing or searching criminals because of fears complaints will tie them up in lengthy and unnecessary investigations by overzealous watchdogs, two of Britain’s top anti-terror officers have warned.
In a report on the future of policing by think tank Policy Exchange, they cite cases where officers have been under investigation for up to 10 years, sometimes on frivolous complaints, only to be cleared at the end but with their careers tarred by the allegations.
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Police Demand
Drug crime is increasing in many small towns and villages even as it falls significantly in city centres.
Police data shows drug crimes in England and Wales have fallen by more than 50,000 in the past five years.
But national averages hide a major shift in where drug crimes are being committed.
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Prisons
Boris Johnson ordered a review into the sentencing of violent and sexual offenders yesterday as he attempts to rebuild the Tories’ reputation as the party of law and order before a possible early general election.
In an attack on his predecessor’s policies to restrict prison numbers, the prime minister said the public wanted to see criminals serving the sentences they deserved and promised that the “punishment must truly fit the crime”.
His proposals were questioned by prison reform groups who accused him of “stoking up public anxiety” about sentencing.
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Police and Crime General
The Crown Prosecution Service will receive an extra £85m over the next two years, to help deal with a rise in violent crime in England and Wales.
It comes as Boris Johnson launches a review of sentencing of some dangerous and prolific offenders.
He said dangerous criminals must be taken off the streets and punishments "fit the crime" if the public was to have confidence in the justice system.
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Police and Crime General
Ministers will have draconian powers to bring in curfews, redirect food supplies and even change the law without consulting parliament in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
Senior civil servants in Whitehall have discussed plans to use the sweeping authority of a little-known law to deal with any unexpected consequences of a disorderly departure from the European Union.
The legislation grants ministers emergency powers to deal with any event that threatens to cause “serious damage” to the UK.
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Police and Crime General
Street gangs are recruiting children who are excluded from school by approaching them in fast-food restaurants with offers of a free meal.
Members of so-called “chicken shop gangs” keep watch on school-age children who meet in cheap food outlets during the daytime. Once they accept free food, children may be offered money to perform tasks such as keeping a lookout and, once they agree, can be intimidated if they refuse further requests.
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Police and Crime General
Since becoming prime minister just over a month ago, Boris Johnson has made a number of law-and-order announcements affecting England and Wales.
But what exactly is being proposed?..
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Prisons
Boris Johnson will this week seek to burnish the Conservatives’ credentials as the party of law and order with plans for 10,000 new prison places and a shake-up of police stop-and-search powers to combat knife crime.
The prime minister today unveiled plans for a renewed prison-building programme as part of a domestic policy blitz to position his party for an autumn general election.
After the announcement that an extra 20,000 police will be hired to crack down on violent crime, Mr Johnson hopes that his £2.5bn prison reforms will underline a determination that those who fall foul of the law are punished.
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Police and Crime General
The police minister, Kit Malthouse, has insisted that a new wave of stop-and-search operations should not increase community tensions as the government unveiled a series of anti-crime measures.
Both Boris Johnson, the prime minister, and Priti Patel, the home secretary, announced in separate comment articles in Sunday newspapers a lifting of restrictions on police carrying preventive stop-and-search operations under so-called section 60 powers – in another apparent sign of a looming general election.
Johnson, writing in the Mail on Sunday, said the time had arrived to “come down hard on crime”. In the Sun on Sunday, Patel said she would ensure police had “the resources and the powers they need” to protect people.
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Police and Crime General
Home Secretary Priti Patel has spoken to the BBC about government plans to expand stop and search powers.
A pilot scheme allowing police to stop and search someone when they believe a crime may – rather than will – be committed, will be extended to all 43 forces across England and Wales
She said: "Stop and search works. We hear again and again from police that [they] need to be empowered."
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Police and Crime General
The expansion of blanket stop and search powers that let police challenge people without reasonable suspicion could provoke unrest, the government has been warned.
More than 8,000 officers will now be able to impose “section 60” laws on areas where they think violence could break out after Boris Johnson lifted restrictions on their use.
The Home Office described the crackdown as a “pilot”, but admitted that it had not waited for results to come back from seven areas that initially tested the change to roll it out across all 43 forces in England and Wales.
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Prisons
Violent and sexual offenders could serve more of their sentences behind bars following an urgent review of sentencing policy ordered by Boris Johnson.
The Prime Minister said dangerous criminals must be taken off the streets and punishments 'truly fit the crime' if the public was to have confidence in the justice system.
The move follows a series of announcements over the weekend in which Mr Johnson promised to 'come down hard' on crime.
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Economy & Public Finance
The U.K. economy shrank for the first time in more than six years in the second quarter, delivering a blow to newly installed Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Gross domestic product fell 0.2% following a solid 0.5% advance in the previous three months, the Office for National Statistics said on Friday. Economists had expected output to be unchanged. In June alone, the economy stagnated. The pound fell after the report, sliding to $1.2117 as of 10:17 a.m. in London.
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Police Demand
Knife possession offences involving women in England have increased steeply since 2014 - rising by at least 10% every year, police figures show.
Some 1,509 offences were recorded in 2018 - an increase of 73% over the last five years - data obtained following freedom of information requests shows.
Youth workers say some women carry weapons for gangs as they are less likely to be stopped by police.
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Fire
Sprinklers were missing from every one of the 57 schools that called out London firefighters to tackle a blaze this year, fire service leaders said yesterday.
London Fire Brigade has reiterated calls for sprinklers to be made mandatory in all schools. At present they must be fitted only if a building inspector deems them necessary.
Charlie Pugsley, the brigade’s deputy assistant commissioner for fire safety, said: “It is shocking that we have been campaigning for a number of years to make sprinklers mandatory . . . and yet this year every school fire we have been called to has had no sprinklers.
“Sprinklers are the only fire safety system that detects a fire, suppresses a fire and can raise the alarm.”
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Police and Crime General
Youth workers are having to pass notes under locked cell doors to help jailed teenagers prepare for release because of the need to keep violent inmates apart, a watchdog says.
In other cases they can contact youngsters about their future only by talking through flaps in cell doors.
The length to which some members of youth offending teams have to go is disclosed in a report on resettlement, published today, which says that young offender institutions are largely failing to prepare teenage inmates to lead safe and law-abiding lives on their release.
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Police and Crime General
New cars can be stolen in as little as ten seconds because of security flaws in keyless entry systems.
A study published by What Car? today said that thieves could quickly open and start at least two models using a “relay” device. Home Office figures record that 111,999 vehicles were stolen in 2017-18, up 49 per cent in four years.
Many new cars are opened and started using a fob. Thieves can use two relay boxes — one near the car and another close to the house where the fob is usually kept — to extend the radio signal from the fob to make it appear to be within range of the vehicle. The thieves can then open the doors and start the engine.
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Police Finances
Sajid Javid said the Treasury will carry out an accelerated exercise to ensure departments and devolved administrations have the financial certainty they need to deliver their plans on public services next year.
The Spending Round, which is due to complete in September, will support the commitments made by the Prime Minister since he came to office including the recruitment of 20,000 extra police officers and his ambition for additional funding for schools, as well as delivering the government’s promises on the NHS.
This will ensure the Government continues to keep borrowing under control and debt falling by meeting the existing fiscal rules.
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Police and Crime General
The UK’s safety and security would suffer from a no-deal Brexit and no amount of planning and preparation can erase the risk, Britain’s head of counter-terrorism has said.
The Scotland Yard assistant commissioner, Neil Basu, said key crime-fighting tools would be lost and their replacements would not be as good.
Speaking in a wide-ranging interview in which he also warned that boosts to police and security service numbers were no longer enough to combat terrorism, he said: “We can make them [the damaging effects] less, but they would be slower systems. Those systems and tools were developed in the EU for very good reason. They were very good. We had just signed up to biometric sharing.
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Police and Crime General
Health campaigners are urging the government to introduce a new “calorie tax” to tackle childhood obesity, diabetes and cancer.
A levy on companies producing processed food with high levels of fat and sugar would encourage them to create more nutritional snacks, according to campaign groups Action on Sugar and Action on Salt.
Their call for further tariffs, which is backed by the Liberal Democrats, comes after Boris Johnson vowed during the Tory leadership campaign to freeze so-called “sin taxes”, which include levies on alcohol, tobacco and soft drinks.
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Police Demand
Boris Johnson’s pledge to recruit 20,000 extra police officers will be a waste because there are insufficient lawyers to bring suspects to trial, senior former prosecutors say.
One former government law officer said that without additional crown prosecutors, the government would be forced to build large holding pens for suspects as they were processed through the courts.
Criminal lawyers argue that trying to push significantly more defendants through the courts would result in many being freed as they could not be prosecuted within a reasonable time.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police officers about to retire could be offered pension incentives to retain them and help hit Boris Johnson’s target of 20,000 extra police in three years.
A working group of senior police chiefs will consider expanding a scheme pioneered by Scotland Yard to combat a shortfall of experienced officers taking on cases including murder, rape and other serious crime.
Rather than taking permanent retirement, officers are offered the chance to return to their post at the same rank and salary with the added bonus of first being able to draw a six-figure lump sum from their pension.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
New figures suggest you're unlikely to be caught, with only one in 15 crimes reported in Greater Manchester ending in a charge, and fewer still in a conviction or jail sentence.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Cardiff academic and former surgeon behind a globally recognised violence reduction scheme has said it should be mandatory in Wales.
Under the "Cardiff model", A&E units record anonymised data when someone is injured in an incident and then hand it on to police.
It became mandatory for A&E departments in England in 2017, but not in Wales.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police could be allowed to mount “emergency” stop and searches in knife crime hotspots for up to 48 hours as part of a proposed major expansion by Boris Johnson.
The changes, expected to be unveiled within the next fortnight, could wipe away all the restrictions placed on officers’ use of stop and search in 2014 by then Home Secretary Theresa May over concerns it disproportionately targeted ethnic minorities.
Ministers are expected to expand nationwide schemes being trialled in seven police forces which enable officers to search people without reasonable suspicion in places where they believe serious violence may occur.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Only a tiny number of people who distribute “revenge porn” are being brought to justice, the victims’ commissioner has warned, after an investigation by The Sunday Times revealed that up to 95% of cases do not end in a suspect being charged.
More than 3,056 cases were recorded by police last year, an increase from 1,355 in 2015-16, according to data obtained under freedom of information laws from 32 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales.
However, the proportion of cases resulting in a charge fell from about one in seven in 2015-16 to one in 13 in 2017-18 and one in 20 in the year to April.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The new home secretary, Priti Patel, has said she wants criminals to "literally feel terror" at the thought of breaking the law.
In her first interview in the role, Ms Patel told the Daily Mail she hoped more officers on the streets would make criminals fearful.
She also distanced herself from past comments supporting the death penalty.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Donald Trump's first state visit to the UK cost the Metropolitan Police nearly £3.5 million, official figures show.
The US president was met by tens of thousands of protesters in the capital before he attended a D-Day commemoration service in Portsmouth.
Figures show the force's total costs came in at £3,419,905, with more than 6,300 officers deployed across the three-day visit.
The Met spent just under £3 million policing the president's previous visit to the UK in 2018. The total cost of that four-day trip came in at more than £14.2 million to forces across the UK.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A cannabis farm containing about 100 plants has been found at a former police station in Bristol.
The discovery was made by a telephone engineer who was called out to the building on Clanage Road on Thursday.
He said: "It looked like a very good set-up with plastic sheeting all along the floor."
Avon and Somerset police confirmed it sent two officers to the building at about 09:30 BST.
[ more...]
Prisons
More than 18,000 prisoners are being “cooped up like battery hens” in overcrowded cells, according to figures released yesterday.
Three in five men’s prisons are holding more inmates than they are certified to look after despite the overall numbers in jails remaining broadly stable at about 82,700.
An analysis by the Howard League for Penal Reform said that thousands of prisoners were being housed in overcrowded conditions, fuelling violence and undermining attempts to turn them away from crime. Most prisoners in such conditions have to share cells designed for one person, while some sleep three to a cell meant for two.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Schools in areas with a higher risk of youth violence should be given dedicated police officers, say MPs.
The Home Affairs Committee criticised the government's current violence reduction strategy as "completely inadequate".
It called on the new prime minister, Boris Johnson, to take "personal responsibility" for tackling knife and gun crime among young people.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson has distanced himself from Robert Buckland, his new justice secretary, after he called for those suspected of serious crimes to be granted anonymity but only if they had a reputation to protect.
Downing Street made little effort to disguise its irritation at Mr Buckland’s intervention in The Times, which critics said would usher in a two-tier justice system that went against the principle of open justice.
Mr Buckland had backed a campaign by Sir Cliff Richard and Paul Gambaccini to ban the naming of those arrested on suspicion of rape and other sexual offences. He said that there was “merit” in extending this to all serious crimes.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson has pledged to hire up to new 6,000 police officers by this time next year as he attempts to meet his target of recruiting 20,000 in three years.
His vow came after he returned to London from Northern Ireland and opened the first meeting of the National Policing Board, set up to lead the recruitment drive.
The board, announced by the prime minister last week when he unveiled his police recruitment promise, will be chaired by Home Secretary Priti Patel and will meet four times a year.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Sport projects keeping young Londoners away from violent crime are to receive a £1.1 million boost to help children “turn their lives around”.
City Hall is giving the cash to local groups as it draws on the expertise of coaches and sports workers to propose solutions to capital’s violent crime epidemic.
The fund will be available to projects helping those at risk of exclusion or getting involved in violence and crime.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
As police forces prepare for the government’s ambitious recruitment drive, they have identified a formidable new challenge: hiring millennials.
The Home Office has been told that rookies have been “wrapped in cotton wool”, are routinely shocked that police are expected to work nights and weekends and “do not like confrontation”.
Police officers and staff told the Front Line Review that such expectations “may be a generational phenomenon related to people who have recently reached adulthood — a ‘millennial thing’ — and not unique to policing”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More than 17,500 boys aged 14 have carried or used a knife or other weapon, according to research for the Home Office.
A judge who jailed two boys after the death of another 17-year-old boy has condemned a “warped culture” in which possessing a knife is seen as “cool and aesthetically pleasing”.
A report looking at people born in 2000 and 2001 said that about a third of those who said they had carried a knife had also been attacked.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The recruitment of 20,000 new police officers in England and Wales will begin within weeks, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.
The College of Policing welcomed the pledge but warned of "logistical challenges", partly because of concerns of a lack of instructors for training.
It is "not just getting people through the doors", its chief executive said.
Forces in England and Wales lost more than 20,000 officers between September 2009 and September 2017.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
As a teenager in the 1980s, Sajid Javid, the UK's new chancellor, was an ardent admirer of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the country's first female premier. He even has a portrait of the "Iron Lady" in his office.
So as he packs his things at the Home Office ready for the move to Treasury, that may be one of the things he takes with him, along with the sense that, like her, he is breaking new ground.
He was the first home secretary from an ethnic minority when he took the post last year. Now he will be the UK's first chancellor from the immigrant community...
[ more...]
Police Finances
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced plans to recruit an extra 20,000 police officers in England and Wales.
That would almost reverse the reduction in police numbers since the Conservatives came to power.
Between March 2010 and March 2018, police forces in England and Wales lost 21,732 officers - a drop of 15%, according to Home Office figures.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Crime could rise unless the Government increases police numbers to combat violence, Sajid Javid admitted, as he disclosed it would take three years to deliver on a pledge for an extra 20,000 officers.
“If we don’t get police numbers right, that would mean more crime...in coming years,” the Home Secretary told the Commons home affairs committee, as he was pressed by its chair Yvette Cooper to accept that fewer officers had led to rising crime."
[ more...]
Police Finances
Aside from Brexit
On crime: he promises 20,000 more policemen
On the NHS: he promises hospital upgrades and more money
One social care: he promises the government "will fix" the problem with a clear plan.
On education: he promises to level up per pupil school funding, as previously trailed during his campaign. He goes on to say that all these promises are his "personal responsibility". "Nevermind the backstop, the buck stops here", he adds.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The government-backed Unlocked Graduates scheme trains university leavers to work as prison officers. But how much difference can they make in prisons where staffing levels are low, and it's a rush even to do the bare minimum?
In a packed lecture theatre at the University of Suffolk, a man in a smart suit is telling his life story.
Peter Yarwood says he first went to prison as a 15-year-old, addicted to heroin and alcohol. He used to rob to fund his habit and spent two decades in and out of custody - until he met somebody who helped him to turn his life around.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Chancellor Philip Hammond has handed public sector workers a pay rise that is above the UK's 2% inflation rate.
The move comes just days before Theresa May leaves office, which could lead Mr Hammond to resign as chancellor.
The deals will affect almost one million public sector workers from prison officers to dentists.
Teachers will get a 2.75% salary boost, the equivalent to £1,000 extra a year, for those on an average salary.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Two million public sector workers including police officers, soldiers and teachers are to be given above-inflation pay rises, the government will announce next week.
On Monday the Treasury will unveil the biggest public sector pay rise for six years, at an estimated cost of £2 billion, amid concerns that the private sector is pushing ahead on salaries.
Police officers will receive a 2.5 per cent pay rise across the board, soldiers 2.9 per cent and teachers and other school staff 2.75 per cent. Dentists and consultants will get 2.5 per cent and senior civil servants 2 per cent.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Home Office rejected over 70% of bids for cash to divert children away from knife crime and violence, as demands for resources to combat rising serious violence outstripped the available funds.
Ministers have denied funds to dozens of projects for vulnerable young people that bid for cash from the flagship ‘Early Intervention Fund’.
The Home Secretary announced the £22m fund last spring to make funding available for “critical support” to “steer young people away from serious violence”. But the department has rejected over 70% of the 111 bids received from Police and Crime Commissioners for the projects.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Two million public sector workers including police officers, soldiers and teachers are to be given above-inflation pay rises, the government will announce next week.
On Monday the Treasury will unveil the biggest public sector pay rise for six years, at an estimated cost of £2 billion, amid concerns that the private sector is pushing ahead on salaries.
Police officers will receive a 2.5 per cent pay rise across the board, soldiers 2.9 per cent and teachers and other school staff 2.75 per cent. Dentists and consultants will get 2.5 per cent and senior civil servants 2 per cent.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Theresa May’s leaving present to under-resourced policing could be the biggest pay rise in six years, it has emerged. One of the Prime Minister’s final acts in office is expected to be the announcement next week of a £2bn inflation-busting bonanza for public sector workers.
The Treasury will reportedly unveil a 2.5% rise for police officers before the former Home Secretary’s tenure in 10 Downing Street comes to an end on Tuesday. Two million workers will receive increases although the Treasury is expected to say that, barring some extra funding for schools, the money will have to come from existing budgets.
[ more...]
Technology
Policing is facing more pressure to halt controversial trials of facial recognition technology as MPs argue lack of legislation calls into question their legal status.
Days after forces won unequivocal Home Office backing for continued testing, the Commons Science and Technology Committee challenged the accuracy and bias of the testing.
At the launch on Monday of new computer tools aimed at helping police fight online child abuse, Home Secretary Sajid Javid said it was right for forces to "be on top of the latest technology”.
But yesterday the committee members urged the government to stop the trials until a framework for the “proper use, provision and regulation of biometrics and forensics” has been established.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
A no-deal Brexit would blow a £30 billion annual hole in the public purse as the economy shrinks and tax receipts collapse, driving the national debt above £2 trillion for the first time, the government’s budget watchdog has warned.
Using the International Monetary Fund’s least-worst scenario of the impact of a no-deal and no-transition Brexit on October 31, the Office for Budget Responsibility said that the government would have to borrow roughly an extra £30 billion for each of the next four years, loading an extra £272 billion to the national debt by 2024.
If a deal is struck there would be room to borrow more than has been planned. The government could borrow an extra £25 billion a year and still keep debt falling as a percentage of GDP, the OBR said.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Home Office rejected 63% of bids for cash to divert children away from knife crime and violence, as demands for resources to combat rising serious violence outstripped the available funds.
Ministers have denied funds to dozens of projects for vulnerable young people that bid for cash from the flagship ‘Early Intervention Fund’.
The Home Secretary announced the £22m fund last spring to make funding available for “critical support” to “steer young people away from serious violence”. But the department has rejected over 63% of the 111 bids received from Police and Crime Commissioners for the projects.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Home Secretary Sajid Javid will today announce his intention to establish a police covenant demonstrating his recognition of the bravery and commitment of police officers.
Speaking at the Police Federation’s Bravery Awards in London later today he will lay out plans to establish a covenant to recognise the sacrifice made by those who are working, or have previously worked, in policing.
The Home Secretary will also give his backing to plans for the Police Federation to extend their support to Special Constables, which will give the volunteers the option of the same protections as their colleagues.
[ more...]
Technology
Cost benefits of a new emergency services communication system are “rapidly evaporating”, MPs have said. A communication system for all 107 emergency services in England, Scotland and Wales has been beset by delays and is increasing in cost, according to a Public Accounts Committee report out today.
The ‘Emergency Services Network’, which will include 4G mobile data capabilities, was announced as replacement for the existing radio-based system in 2015 and with a completion date of December 2019. But the project was ‘reset’ in September 2018 meaning contracts with private contractors had to be renegotiated, growing the bill to £9.3bn – £3.1bn above the original business case. The new completion date is December 2022.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A survey launched by CIPFA is seeking views about the problems citizens face when looking at local authority accounts. The institute wants people to be able to hold authorities to account better by simplifying financial statements which show how their tax is spent.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Employees in all of the main public sector pension schemes will have their retirement savings boosted after a landmark ruling, the Government has confirmed.
Younger staff in the NHS, civil service, local government, teaching profession, police, Armed Forces, judiciary and fire service will benefit, Elizabeth Truss, chief secretary to the Treasury, said in a written statement.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that the Government had to accept an earlier judgment that it had discriminated against the workers when it changed public sector pensions in 2015. Only older staff were allowed to stay in the more generous versions of the schemes.
[ more...]
Police Finances
UK public sector pension fund administrators remain in the dark despite the government accepting defeat in a landmark pension ruling, PF has learned.
Workers from local government, the civil service, NHS and more will be impacted by a supreme court ruling that found pension changes from 2015 were discriminatory based on age, the government has confirmed.
The government had an appeal upheld by the court and could now pay out billions to remedy the situation, as valuations on public sector pensions were paused pending the legal process.
Despite the concession from the government, fund administrators still lack clarity due to the large variety of schemes in play, according to Neil Sellstrom CIPFA advisor for pensions and treasury management.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The question over whether the incoming government will conduct a spending review in time for the start of the next financial year is technically still live, yet it is fast becoming a truth universally acknowledged that it is unlikely to go ahead. Recent newspaper reports suggest our likely next PM Boris Johnson is preparing to set an emergency Budget in September.
However, before Mr Johnson unleashes his flurry of promised tax cuts he would do well to heed the warning from the Institute for Government this week that the UK’s “inefficient” tax system is fast becoming unsustainable.
Council tax and business rates currently account for 9% of national tax revenues, according to the IfG’s analysis, the same proportion as corporation taxes. By comparison income tax brings in just over a quarter of tax revenues and VAT a fifth.
The case for greater fiscal devolution and reform of council tax has been made repeatedly by those championing local government in recent years. But while a tourist tax might make a nice pay day for plenty of places around the country, local taxation should not be considered in isolation from the wider system.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
New figures from Mayor of London Sadiq Khan show what he says is a clear link between poverty in the capital and the rise in serious youth violence.
The data shows that the poorest areas of London are most likely to experience the highest levels of serious crime among youngsters.
The data comes amid fears that the end of the school year could see a rise in knife crime across major cities.
Mr Khan says he is funding 43 summer projects for vulnerable youngsters.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Killers, robbers and some sex offenders who have spent years in prison will no longer have to tell prospective employers as the Justice Secretary says he wants to "remove the stigma of criminal convictions.”
David Gauke is proposing to abolish the rule requiring offenders jailed for four years or more to disclose their sentences to prospective employers for the rest of their lives. It would mean that at least 6,000 of these offenders would have the slate wiped clean over the course of a decade.
The plans triggered a row on Sunday as victims’ groups claimed they were a “kick in the teeth,” further tilting the balance of justice in favour of offenders.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK’s recession-fighting tools are already almost exhausted leaving the economy ill-prepared to battle the next slump if and when it arrives, economists have warned.
Interest rates are too low to be cut significantly, while the Government is already heavily indebted from heavy borrowing in the financial crisis and the years since.
This means urgent work is needed to find tools which could be used to stimulate the economy in another crunch, said the Resolution Foundation.
[ more...]
Technology
Home Secretary Sajid Javid has given his backing to the police in their trials of facial recognition cameras.
The surveillance software, which is designed to help spot suspects in public spaces, has been trialled by several forces, including the Met.
Civil liberties campaigners have criticised the technology, which is the subject of a legal challenge.
But Mr Javid said it was important that police made use of the latest tools to help them solve crimes.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police leaders have written to the two Conservative leadership candidates to say whichever of them becomes prime minister should make providing more money to police and youth services their first priority.
The letter from 10 Labour police and crime commissioners overseeing the four biggest forces, and others across England and Wales, was sent to Boris Johnson, who has said he wants to hire an extra 20,000 police officers, and Jeremy Hunt, who has said policing cuts have gone too far.
Since 2010, police funding and officer numbers have fallen under the Conservatives, while provision of youth services has dramatically declined.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Local authorities are increasingly reluctant to allow care homes and retirement homes to be built in their areas because they can’t afford the social care costs associated with that demographic, Conservative MP and former deputy prime minister Damian Green has said.
The chair of the all-party parliamentary group on longevity, who has produced his own policy paper suggesting a solution to the social care funding crisis, said it was a “quiet secret” that local authorities – who have to fund social care costs – try to avoid applications for homes for older people.
He also warned that unless all parties agree to seek a cross-party consensus on social care funding, a political crisis triggered by an “enormous scandal” will force them to act.
[ more...]
Technology
A serving Metropolitan police officer who illegally accessed a police database to monitor a criminal investigation into his own conduct has pleaded guilty to crimes under the UK's Computer Misuse Act.
Sergeant Okechukwu Efobi, of Byron Road, Wealdstone, Harrow, was ordered to complete 150 hours of community service and pay a total of £540, comprising a £90 victim surcharge tax and £450 of prosecution costs.
Efobi, who remains employed by the Met and is currently on restricted duty, had been accessing a police database to view details of suspects in an ongoing criminal investigation.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Another model aimed at measuring the financial sustainability of councils has joined a crowded field, with the claim that more than a third of councils are at risk of failure in the next decade.
Accountancy firm Grant Thornton this week launched its Financial Foresight model, built on central government data, combined with population projections and sector insights.
It shows that in 66% of councils, spending on services is outstripping income and that the imbalance between expenditure growth and income growth will see local authorities reducing their reserves by 84% by 2028.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Recent economic data have shown further weakness in manufacturing sectors in most of the major economies, including Germany where growth is now negative. Amid this generally sluggish global backdrop, one big advanced economy looks in more danger of recession than most others. That country is the UK, where economic activity data have been plummeting as the next Brexit deadline approaches on October 31.
According to the latest Fulcrum nowcasts, UK activity growth has fallen to minus 0.8 per cent, compared with plus 1.0 per cent as recently as mid May (see box). Since then, economic data have revealed downward steps in the annualised growth rate on five successive occasions.
As in other countries, some of these drops have come from the industrial sector, with business surveys and official industrial production releases both contributing towards significant declines in estimated activity growth. However, two Brexit-related developments have hit UK industry particularly hard.
[ more...]
Technology
Speeding and dangerous drivers are to be targeted by Britain’s first traffic drone which was previously used on the battlefield and against terrorists.
The Metropolitan Police revealed yesterday that it will deploy the £80,000 drone to catch dangerous, careless or speeding motorists.
The Aeryon Skyranger drone which can carry night vision cameras as well as zoom lenses was developed for tactical surveillance by the military, has been deployed in war zones across the middle east and is now used by 20 armed forces around the world.
Motoring organisations said the deployment of military-grade technology against drivers would “raise eyebrows” but could be cost effective as a deterrent.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Most politicians studiously avoid talking about drug reform, particularly Conservatives, because it has always been a no-win scenario for us. This is because it always provokes quite a hostile reaction from the more Right-wing media, and because most Conservative members and voters (unlike Labour and Liberal Democrats) are pretty resistant to any notion of reform. The tough talk of cracking down and prohibition is held tightly, too, by social conservatives, despite the overwhelming evidence that it has failed to improve matters for individuals, families or their communities by almost any measure that would constitute success.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
British policing resources have been "drained to dangerously low levels", five ex-Met Police chiefs have warned.
The former commissioners, who ran London's police force from 1993 to 2017, said cuts had "contributed to the feeling of lawlessness" generated by knife crime and county lines drugs.
They called for a royal commission on policing and the possible ending of the "fragmented" system of 45 area forces.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The public have lost confidence in the police and fear that Britain has descended into lawlessness because of knife and drug crime, five former heads of Scotland Yard warn today.
The former commissioners have united to condemn the “emasculation of British policing” under Theresa May and urge her successor to make law and order a priority.
Their intervention added to the sense of urgency over the issue as Boris Johnson, the frontrunner in the Tory leadership race, faced pressure to explain how he would fund a pledge to recruit 20,000 police officers.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Boris Johnson has pledged to boost police numbers by as many as 20,000 within three years if he becomes prime minister.
The Tory leadership favourite said he would expand the service to more than 140,000 officers by mid-2022 if he wins the race for Number 10.
Former London mayor Mr Johnson said the £1.1 billion move would focus on rural areas that have seen the biggest funding reductions.
[ more...]
Technology
The domestic spy agency MI5 and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) intelligence gathering unit have been forced to admit in court that they are acting illegally in their use of bulk data, gathered by intruding into the lives of millions of innocent people. MI5 “has been unlawfully retaining innocent people’s data for years.”
Their admissions were the result of a court case brought by the civil rights organisation Liberty. The basis of Liberty’s case against the spy agencies is that government surveillance practices breach human rights law.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A secret EU report has painted a grim and worrying picture of life in Britain after Brexit – with violence on the street and ‘instability’ for decades.
The report by intelligence officials also claims that there will be independence referendums in Scotland and Northern Ireland within 18 months of Brexit.
The report, by senior intelligence officials, also warned there may be violence in the event of ‘no deal’ or a second referendum.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Bureaux de change and currency transfer businesses are to be raided by police in a week-long crackdown on suspected drugs money laundering.
They hope targeting the cash will reduce street violence linked to disputes between gangs by disrupting their activities.
Police say 12 businesses in London will be raided on Tuesday - the first day of the operation
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
New fears have emerged about the scale of abuse suffered by children and vulnerable adults after Scotland Yard revealed its officers were raising concerns with the safeguarding authorities on average 700 times a day.
Figures obtained by the Guardian show referrals relate to a range of alleged and suspected abuses, including sexual exploitation, forced marriage and bullying.
Data released under freedom of information (FoI) legislation shows that nearly 1.3m records were created in the capital over the past five years – an average of about 700 a day – informing local safeguarding authorities about officers’ concerns for children and vulnerable adults.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Jeremy Hunt criticised his own party’s cuts to the police last night in a ‘digital hustings’ with rival Boris Johnson.
The foreign secretary said the Conservatives had been faced with ‘difficult decisions’ in balancing the nation’s budget following the 2008 financial crisis but told the audience: ‘I think the reduction in police numbers went too far.’
He vowed he would increase officer numbers if he became prime minister but declined to be drawn on exact figures.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Too many crimes are being left unsolved, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner has said.
During a speech about the future of policing in England and Wales, Cressida Dick admitted that national detection rates for some offences were "woefully low".
"The courts are emptying, not filling," she said, adding "It's not good and I'm not proud of it."
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Sajid Javid today (Wednesday 26 June) announced that the remaining £3.3 million of the £22 million Early Intervention Youth Fund would be distributed to 10 areas to support projects for young people to prevent them getting drawn into crime and to help them make more positive life choices.
The Home Secretary also revealed there will be an additional £1.5 million of funding for the third year of the Anti-Knife Crime Community Fund, which will go towards small community projects to reduce knife crime. The fund has already supported 115 projects over the 2 years it has been running.
[ more...]
Fire
A “serious gap” in a fire service’s terror response due to an industrial dispute could put lives at risk, according to independent inspectors.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) said it has “particular concerns” about the Greater Manchester service’s ability to respond to terrorist attacks.
Inspector of fire and rescue Zoe Billingham said the service has not had the capability to respond to some terror-related incidents since before Christmas because of an industrial dispute.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Rapes, burglaries, child sex offences and assaults were among tens of thousands of offences that did not go to court but were dealt with by using “community resolutions”.
About 112,000 offenders a year avoid a criminal record for offences including possession of weapons, cruelty to children and theft, according to the BBC’s shared data unit. Community resolutions are restorative justice measures that involve paying damages or apologising. Although the offender does not get a criminal record, the resolution offence remains on the police national computer and can still be used if more offences are committed.
[ more...]
Police Finances
More than 400 people whose crimes would normally attract a jail term of up to a year have instead served their sentences outside prison.
The scheme, known as an enhanced combination order, has been running in three court districts since 2015.
The rehabilitation order has led to a 20% reduction in the number of short-term jail sentences in those areas.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Teenagers are being offered up to £1,000 by gang leaders in Liverpool to stab other youngsters, the BBC has learned. They told the BBC Beyond Today podcast bounties were being offered by "elders" who wanted to avoid carrying out the attacks themselves. The claims have been linked to at least one recent stabbing.
Merseyside Police said it was aware organised crime groups used violence to settle disputes. In a statement the force did not directly address the teenagers' claims.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has said he is "incredibly concerned" about a recent spate of murders in the capital - placing the blame for rising violence on "massive cuts" to police resources.
The Metropolitan Police has stepped up patrols after four people were killed in as many days - and Mr Khan said officers from the "overstretched" force worked 12-hour shifts over the weekend.
He said officers were working "incredibly hard" to tackle violent crime, but reiterated his call for more funding from the government.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
South Yorkshire police is to change its approach to policing football after an internal review following its operation at the Sheffield derby in March, which was heavily criticised by supporters as heavy-handed, violent and dangerous.
Some supporters at the match between Sheffield Wednesday and Sheffield United complained that they had been held in a crush outside the Leppings Lane turnstiles at Hillsborough, and that police officers had indiscriminately hit people caught in the crush with their batons.
The change of policy to “a more community style of policing, and engagement with fans” is due to be launched at a meeting of the force’s football policing officers on 5 July, according to an internal email seen by the Guardian. Sent by Paul McCurry, a superintendent in the force’s Sheffield local policing unit command team, the email invites officers to a full day “continuous professional development” session, and explains: “The purpose of this event will be to formally launch a new approach to policing football and other crowded events across South Yorkshire.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The police investigation into the Grenfell Tower tragedy has already cost more than £15 million as survivors and families of the 72 victims come together to remember their loved ones two years after the tower block inferno.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
West Midlands police have defended their decision to use volunteers for forensics work that would involve viewing indecent and distressing images after being warned that it was “a disaster waiting to happen”.
The force was criticised after advertising unpaid roles in its digital forensics team, with an advert that warned volunteers would “routinely come across distressing imagery including indecent images, fatal road traffic accidents, live CCTV footage recovery of incidents”.
The force said it was looking for people to commit at least 16 hours a month to the role and said that a criminal record was not a barrier to volunteering.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A council in the Midlands is planning to use its own money to put more police officers on the beat.
At a time of concern about the falling number of bobbies and cuts to police budgets, Walsall council plans to join a scheme under which it will pay for more officers across the borough.
The Patrol Plus scheme has been operating in London since 2008 and has been called “buy-one-get-one-free” policing since the force provides one officer for every one paid for by councils.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police have criticised a law allowing beggars and rough sleepers to be arrested, as figures reveal they are using their powers less.
Arrests under the Vagrancy Act have halved over two years, data obtained by the BBC suggests.
Forces have said they are "moving away" from the "archaic" law which charities say "criminalises" the homeless.
[ more...]
Technology
The number of drug takers in England obtaining drugs on the dark net has more than doubled in the past five years, according to The Global Drugs Survey.
According to its data, the number of drug users in England obtaining drugs on the dark net has gone up from 12.4% to nearly 28.6% in the past five years. This is not a nationally representative sample.
"The police are limited in what they can do and ill-equipped to deal with issues on the dark net."
[ more...]
Police Finances
Sajid Javid admitted yesterday that he had changed his mind on the link between police numbers and crime and pledged to put up to 20,000 more bobbies on the beat.
Last year, the Home Secretary and Tory leadership candidate claimed in a TV interview there was no connection between the rise in crime and a fall in police numbers.
But yesterday he said: ‘What I’ve realised is that you do need many more police resources.’
[ more...]
Police Finances
Donald Trump’s state visit will be by far the most expensive in British history – costing taxpayers an estimated £40million in security costs.
The operation to protect the President and his entourage of at least 1,000 people includes policing the 250,000 protesters set to take to the streets to show their fury at the red carpet being rolled out for him.
Up to 10,000 officers will be drafted into Central London, leaving places across Britain without the “service they deserve”.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police officers detained and interviewed vulnerable suspects without an appropriate adult present more than 100,000 times last year in England and Wales, according to a charity report.
The failure by officers to provide assistance, chiefly to those with mental illness, autism or learning disabilities, leaves them at risk of miscarriages of justice, the National Appropriate Adult Network (Naan) has warned.
The survey, which reveals marginal improvements on similar research four years ago, reinforces calls for the Home Office to create a statutory duty to provide help for vulnerable adults in police stations.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Guidance on how police and crime commissioners and their partners might engage with each other to improve the effectiveness of the criminal justice system has been published on the gov website.
[ more...]
Prisons
Some offenders have been released far too early from jails, potentially to save money, says a former Met Police Commissioner who has called for a review of automatic release of prisoners half way through sentences.
Lord Stevens, who led the Met Police from 2000 to 2005, said: “There have been instances where people have been released from prison very very early and far too quickly.
“There needs to be an argument about whether this is done because of trying to save money and the problems in prisons of violence rather than actually ensuring that people are serving sentences they should be.”
[ more...]
Police Finances
The move will make the number free of charge for all members of the public, including victims of crime, from April 2020.
The Home Office will invest £5 million a year to fund the service, which receives around 30 million calls annually.
Callers to the 101 number are connected to their local police force, or a force of their choice, and charged 15p a time.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The spending watchdog has called for “further progress” on the level of information given by departments for the Whole of Government Accounts.
Total government expenditure for 2017-18 reached £815bn for the year ending March 31 2018, according to the WGA released yesterday.
It also showed the UK government’s income in 2017-18 was £760.9bn – compared to £720.8bn in 2016-17. Its expenditure was £814.8 billion – expenditure in 2016-17 was £760.7 billion.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The UK’s taxes on the whole are progressive – with council tax being the only one that is regressive, an economic think-tank has said.
Direct taxes including income tax and National Insurance Contribution work alongside benefits to reduce inequality, the Institute for Fiscal Studies claimed in a briefing note today.
Council tax, however, is markedly regressive as it is not linked to income, with the poorest tenth of the population paying 8% of their income on council tax, while the next 50% pay 4-5% and the richest 40% paying 2-3%.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Nearly 600 suspected members of county lines drugs gangs have been arrested across the UK in the past week, the National Crime Agency has said.
Police forces led by the National County Lines Coordination Centre also seized cocaine worth £176,780; £312,649 in cash; and 46 weapons.
The NCA estimates there are about 2,000 city-based gangs exploiting young people to sell drugs in smaller towns.
[ more...]
Technology
The first major legal challenge to police use of automated facial recognition surveillance begins in Cardiff today.
Ed Bridges, whose image was taken while he was shopping, says weak regulation means AFR breaches human rights.
The civil rights group Liberty says current use of the tool is equivalent to the unregulated taking of DNA or fingerprints without consent.
[ more...]
Prisons
The supervision of all offenders on probation in England and Wales is being put back in the public sector after serious failings with the part-privatisation of the system.
It reverses changes made in 2014 by then Justice Secretary Chris Grayling.
The National Audit Office said problems with the part-privatisation had cost taxpayers nearly £500m.
All offenders will be monitored by the National Probation Service from December 2020.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Efforts to tackle soaring levels of knife crime and county lines activity are being “seriously hampered” because funding for doing so has not yet been announced by central government, council leaders have warned.
Local authorities are still waiting to hear how much money they will receive to tackle youth offending this year – more than two months after they had to set their budgets.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England and Wales, told The Independent this was making it “extremely difficult” for councils to plan the services that support young people and keep them out of the justice system.
[ more...]
Technology
A former UK top cop has urged ministers to guarantee that the extra funds needed for a "critical" overhaul of the Emergency Services Network used by forces will not be taken from police budgets.
Ex-Met Police Commissioner Lord Bernard Hogan-Howe ramped up the pressure on the government after it acknowledged a "multitude of problems" with a replacement for Airwave.
The National Audit Office, which has already warned the target date of 2022 may not be met, also fears the delayed project is set to go over budget by at least £3.1 billion – while the Home Office predicts the final cost will be £9.3bn.
[ more...]
Police Finances
An overhaul of the communications system used by the UK’s emergency services will be at least £3bn overbudget and three years late, a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed.
The Emergency Services Network was created to replace the current system Airwave, but the Home Office has already delayed its delivery by three years until 2020 when it decided to “reset” the programme in 2017.
Originally due in 2019, the Home Office forecasts the ESN will cost £9.3bn, 49% more than initially planned, with £1.4bn just being spent on extending the old Airwave system.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government needs to find an extra £2.7bn to tackle the growth in serious and organised crime that is causing “staggering” damage to the United Kingdom, according to the director general of the National Crime Agency.
Lynne Owens is due to make the direct challenge to ministers on Tuesday as she launches the agency’s annual national strategic assessment mapping out dangers from cyber crime, child sexual exploitation, drugs and other serious and organised crime.
The NCA, which was set up by the Conservative government in 2013, says there are at least 181,000 people linked to serious and organised crime in the UK – twice the size of the British army.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Boxing and martial arts should be harnessed to help fight knife crime and gang violence, a report has recommended.
The Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee said sporting and cultural activities were being overlooked by ministers in favour of arresting and imprisoning young people.
Taking part in activities could also be key to solving social problems in health, education and urban regeneration, it said.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Organised crime poses such a threat to the UK that an extra £3bn will be needed to fight it over the next three years, the National Crime Agency says.
Its head Lynne Owens says this includes more than doubling the NCA's annual budget from £424m to nearly £1.1bn.
In a speech, she warned the public will "feel the consequences" if the government does not find the cash.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The UK needs £2.7bn to tackle the “chronic and corrosive” blight of organised crime, the National Crime Agency has warned.
Launching its National Strategic Assessment yesterday, the agency said that there are 181,000 offenders linked to organised crime in the UK – a group twice the size of the British Army.
To tackle this threat there must be investment of £2.7bn over the next three years to crack down on those who profit from crimes such as child sexual exploitation and drug trafficking and fraud, according to NCA director general Lynne Owens.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are calling for changes in the law to prevent copycat tactics being employed in the wake of climate protests that put Britain under siege.
Scotland Yard is in discussions with the Home Office to review the current Public Order legislation with fears Extinction Rebellion will be replicated by other groups.
The Met also called for a stronger punishment of those who break the law, with summary only charges for offences, including breaching conditions imposed under the Public Order Act, obstruction of a highway and obstruction of police, leaving magistrates with limited sentencing powers.
[ more...]
Police Finances
An overhaul of the communications system used by the UK’s emergency services will be at least £3bn overbudget and three years late, a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed.
The Emergency Services Network was created to replace the current system Airwave, but the Home Office has already delayed its delivery by three years until 2020 when it decided to “reset” the programme in 2017.
Originally due in 2019, the Home Office forecasts the ESN will cost £9.3bn, 49% more than initially planned, with £1.4bn just being spent on extending the old Airwave system.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among police officers in the UK is far more common than was ever thought, a new survey suggests. One PC describes his battle with the medical condition.
Lee Jackson is the kind of police officer who runs towards danger, the sort who is not afraid to break down doors or break up fights.
A Taser-trained response officer at Durham Police with over 19 years' service, he's dealt with almost every crime imaginable and was once three minutes from death after becoming impaled on a broken car aerial while investigating a car crash.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Children at risk of being targeted by gangs or violent crime will be given extra support as part of a £2m government scheme.
Young people in England in danger of criminal or sexual exploitation will be given access to experts across education, health, social care, police and the voluntary sector.
The Tackling Child Exploitation Support Programme aims to support children who could fall victim to threats such as gangs, county lines drug dealing, online grooming, sexual exploitation, trafficking or modern slavery.
[ more...]
Technology
Facial recognition technology has misidentified members of the public as potential criminals in 96 per cent of scans so far in London, new figures reveal.
The Metropolitan Police said the controversial software could help it hunt down wanted offenders and reduce violence, but critics have accused it of wasting public money and violating human rights.
The trials have so far cost more than £222,000 in London and are subject to a legal challenge and a separate probe by the Information Commissioner.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Home Secretary has allocated police forces the final part of a dedicated £100 million fund to tackle serious violence.
Sajid Javid announced that £12.4 million will be distributed to 18 forces dealing with high levels of violent crime. It comes after £51 million was announced for the forces ahead of Easter for additional officer deployments, improved intelligence, and short-term operational actions such as targeting habitual knife carriers.
The announcement comes ahead of the first meeting of a new ministerial taskforce on serious youth violence, chaired by the Prime Minister, in Downing Street today.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Places in England that have seen the biggest council spending cuts to youth services are likely to see the biggest increases in knife crime, a study says.
Research by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Knife Crime showed the average council cut real-terms spending on youth services - such as youth clubs - by 40% between 2014/15 and 2017/18.
And the four worst-hit areas have seen some of the biggest knife crime rises.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Youth club closures are putting young people at greater risk of violence, according to a committee of MPs which has found that English councils have slashed funding on youth services by 40% on average in the last three years.
After a bank holiday weekend which began with news of the fatal stabbing of 15-year-old Tashaun Aird and continued with the killing of an 18-year-old in south London, the 28th knife fatality in the capital this year, the all-party parliamentary group on knife crime revealed new data from more than 100 councils showing cuts to youth services of up to 91%. It claimed areas that had suffered the largest cuts to spending on young people had seen bigger increases in knife crime.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Recorded rape offences have been rising in England and Wales, but the proportion of offences making it to court has fallen significantly over the past few years.
Police and prosecutors are asking complainants in rape cases to agree to hand their phones over or face the prospect of prosecutions being dropped - something victims' commissioner Baroness Helen Newlove has said is "unlikely to do anything to help reverse the fall in prosecutions for rape and sexual violence".
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decides whether cases investigated by the police go to trial. In September 2018, it said the proportion of reported rapes being prosecuted had reached their lowest level in a decade.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Victims of anti-social behaviour are being forced to pay to report offences to the police, Baroness Newlove warns today as she criticises the authorities for dismissing the offences as “low level”.
Lady Newlove, the Victims’ Commissioner, says police and councils have “a culture of viewing anti-social behaviour as not important” and fail to use powers introduced to prevent everyday crimes.
She says “depressingly, little has changed” since her husband, Garry, was kicked to death 12 years ago when he confronted teenagers vandalising her car, and questions why callers to the low-priority 101 phone line are charged, when 999 calls are free.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Victims of crimes, including those alleging rape, are to be asked to hand their phones over to police - or risk prosecutions not going ahead.
Consent forms asking for permission to access information including emails, messages and photographs have been rolled out in England and Wales.
It comes after a number of rape and serious sexual assault cases collapsed after crucial evidence emerged.
[ more...]
Fire
A council boss has been accused of organising a campaign to discredit a police and crime commissioner's move to take over the local fire service.
A leaked email from Gloucestershire County Council's Peter Bungard, seen by the BBC, includes plans to use taxpayers' money to fund a PR campaign to show the PCC "is out of touch".
[ more...]
Police Demand
The Conservative Party is in "denial" about the scale of violent crime, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has claimed.
Analysis of official crime statistics by his party suggested there has been a doubling of attempted murders since the Tories came to power in 2010.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) recorded 523 attempted murders in April 2010 to March 2011 in England and Wales, but in October 2017 to September 2018 there were 1,040 - a 99 per cent increase.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Over three quarters of Merseyside Police officers have said there aren't enough of them to properly do their job.
The situation is so bad that most officers now say they have felt stressed, suffered form low moods, anxiety and other difficulties in the last year.
The statistics were revealed in the Police Federation of England in Wales' annual Welfare Survey.
[ more...]
Police Demand
About 60% of crimes reported to one of the UK's largest police forces are not fully investigated because of a lack of resources, its chief constable said.
Greater Manchester Police's Ian Hopkins said budget cuts mean officers have to prioritise more ruthlessly than ever.
He said about 600 offences a day, such as thefts from vehicles, were being "screened out" and not pursued because "we don't have enough officers".
[ more...]
Police Demand
Earlier this month, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) published its new Prison Drugs Strategy.
There have, of course, always been drugs and drug misusers in prison but over the last six or seven years, with the advent of New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), the best-known of which are synthetic forms of cannabis such as “Spice”, the problem has become much worse.
The use of NPS has been seen as one of the two critical components of the prison safety crisis (the other being the unprecedented cuts in staffing levels). As the new strategy puts it:
[ more...]
Police Demand
John Apter, national chair of the Police Federation in England and Wales, which represents nearly 120,000 rank and file officers, accused the Prime Minister of “still failing to accept the harsh reality plastered over the front pages and filling the news bulletins”. There were 285 murders in England and Wales in 2017/18 where the method of killing was by a knife or sharp instrument - the highest number since records started in 1946. In the year to September, police recorded around 1.5 million "violence against the person" offences - a jump of nearly a fifth on the previous 12 months.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Chronic under-investment in youth services has been linked by the Conservative peer Lord Sebastian Coe to the surge in knife crime in major cities.
The former Olympic champion accused politicians of failing to realise that failure to spend on grassroots sports facilities would fuel “big problems in our inner cities”.
Knife crime has reached its highest level in England and Wales since records began, and 26 people have died from stab wounds so far this year in London alone.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Chancellor Philip Hammond been accused of breaking his promise to policing with only half of £100 million being made available to fight the knife crime scourge.
Rank and file officers called for a complete overhaul of the police funding formula, arguing what is being offered is “loose change”.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the government continues to “bury its head in the sand over the impact of austerity” and had “sat on their hands for more than a month”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A murder detective believes he has found a way of forecasting where deadly knife attacks are likely to take place.
Det Ch Insp John Massey trawled through records of knife crimes in London over a 12-month period and found a link with fatal stabbings the following year.
More than two-thirds of the killings in 2017-18 occurred in neighbourhoods where someone had been attacked with a knife the year before.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are backing a growing number of “test, not arrest” schemes in which young people can have their illegal drugs tested — but face no prosecution for possessing them.
The move was condemned this weekend as a sign of the police being “soft on drugs”. Critics warned that it would pander to a generation of young people “who thought it was OK to take drugs” and for whom drug-taking had in effect been legalised.
David Jamieson, the police commissioner for the West Midlands, said he was backing and part-funding pop-up tents and caravans outside clubs in Birmingham on Friday and Saturday nights where drugs could be tested for lethal contaminants.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police have been accused of abusing stop-and-search powers, days after the home secretary, Sajid Javid, made it easier for officers to use the controversial measures.
Campaigners claim that the Metropolitan police are frequently misusing section 60 orders, which allow officers to search anyone in an area for a limited period if serious violence is anticipated.
Two weeks ago Javid made it easier for police in England and Wales to search people without reasonable suspicion under section 60 in an attempt to tackle knife crime.
[ more...]
Technology
Technology companies must do more to help prevent crimes, the home secretary is to say.
Sajid Javid will demand the industry gets better at creating products which make illegal activity harder to commit.
He will point out how moped crimes have been almost halved across the UK after the introduction of new anti-theft devices – and call on design firms to follow suit in putting such prevention at the heart of new products and services.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Further uncertainty over Brexit will hinder growth in the UK economy, the head of IMF has told the BBC.
Speaking ahead of the agreement of an extension to Article 50, Christine Lagarde warned that businesses and investors will remain hesitant in the coming months.
She said any prolonged uncertainty would have a "negative impact".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A new type of supercop is on the streets of Devon after firefighters were given powers of arrest in a controversial scheme aimed at boosting police reach in rural areas. Seven firefighters have qualified as special constables and will be known as community responders with dual policing and firefighting responsibilities.
The pilot scheme was criticised by the Police Federation and Fire Brigades Union (FBU), which warned that the blurring of lines between the two roles risked creating conflict in duties. National plans to merge certain police and fire service resources have rarely come to fruition, although Cornwall uses “tri-service responders” who cover fire, policing and paramedic duties.
[ more...]
Prisons
Shares in G4S - which runs UK prisons and botched security arrangements at the London Olympics - have jumped as much 30% after a Canadian rival admitted it was considering a takeover.
Garda World, a privately-owned company, has until 8 May to table a formal offer.
There was no immediate comment from G4S, which last month reported a 63% fall in full-year profits.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Two MPs used their questions at PMQs to address funding for the police in their areas.
Conservative Theresa Villiers criticised London Mayor Sadiq Khan for closing down Barnet police station, while Labour's Wayne David accused the PM of failing to give accurate figures on police funding in Gwent.
[ more...]
Prisons
Criminals with a wide range of mental health conditions and learning difficulties could receive more lenient sentences under guidelines being issued to judges and magistrates.
Conditions ranging from schizophrenia to post traumatic stress disorder, and low IQ to dyslexia, ought to be taken into consideration when a court is deciding what punishment to hand out, according to proposals being introduced by the Sentencing Council.
As part of the guidelines, judges will be asked to assess what extent a person's condition or disability might have played in them committing their offence.
[ more...]
Technology
A student who made hundreds of thousands of pounds blackmailing porn website users with cyber attacks has been jailed for more than six years.
Zain Qaiser from Barking, London, used his programming skills to scam visitors to porn sites around the world.
Investigators have discovered around £700,000 of his profits - but his network may have made more than £4m.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The damage to the UK economy due to Brexit has cost £66 billion ($86 billion) so far, and left the United Kingdom teetering at the brink of a new recession, according to economic data published last week.
An analysis by S&P Global Ratings analyst Boris Glass found that the decline of the pound, increase in inflation, erosion of household spending power, decline in house prices, and weak exports led to a 3% reduction in GDP. "That translates into average forgone economic activity of £6.6 billion (in 2016 prices) in each of the 10 quarters since the referendum," Glass said in a research note.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Four police officers were savagely attacked in the line of duty by a knifeman who lured them with a bogus 999 call, a court has heard.
Alex Traykov, 20, allegedly used the alias Solomon to report of a fight in Islington, north London, on the evening of October 6 last year.
When the officers arrived at the address in Liverpool Road, Traykov opened the door wearing a black hoodie with a large kitchen knife behind his back, the Old Bailey heard.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The chief constable of Bedfordshire Police has said the issue of police funding "must be addressed", as he announced he is leaving the post.
Jon Boutcher has led the force since 2015 and said he was leaving it "with a heavy heart".
Mr Boutcher highlighted the issue of police funding and said the "consequences of previous budgetary decisions" were now being felt.
The Home Office said it increased fund for Bedfordshire by £8m this year.
[ more...]
Prisons
The House of Common Justice Select Committee has just published a hard-hitting report urging the government to overhaul its prisons and probation strategies.
Although the report, “Prison population 2022: planning for the future” is supposedly focused on ensuring that we have enough prison capacity over the next three years, its conclusions and recommendations go much further than this limited remit.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Politicians and campaigners should take care not to "inflame" tensions in the UK caused by Brexit, a senior police chief has warned.
Chairman of the National Police Chief Council (NPCC), Martin Hewitt, said people should think carefully to avoid inciting others to violence.
Police have 10,000 officers ready to deploy at 24 hours' notice as part of possible no-deal Brexit preparations.
However, police chiefs said the measures were only a precaution.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Step inside the offices of Bluescreen and you'll find some of the UK's most talented teenage hackers, dragged from a world of crime to fight for the other side.
These young computer experts have swapped the confines of their bedrooms for a fairly ordinary looking cyber security company in Plymouth.
Bluescreen employs hackers the authorities have deemed worthy of a second chance, who pit their wits against some of the anonymous online criminals they used to see as brothers in arms.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The horrific spate of UK knife crime has put greater focus on policing and its resources than for several years. Is the drop in police numbers to blame? How many officers do we need? How much will this cost? Is the £14bn in the 2019-20 funding settlement enough?
But when it comes to police budgets, I believe we are asking the wrong questions.
The mission of policing has become cloudy. For decades, the Peelian principles of preventing crime and disorder held firm. For home secretary Theresa May our mission was to cut crime – “nothing more, nothing less”. However, for all forces, the aim is to maintain security and keep communities safe, extending their duty way beyond crime.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Some police forces are actively seeking reasons to drop investigations into fraud, a watchdog's report has warned.
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services said an "inconsistent" approach to policing fraud in England and Wales left the public at high risk of scams.
One officer told its inquiry the crime was not considered a priority because it does not "bang, bleed or shout".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police says five "random stabbings" in north London could be linked as they investigate "just one individual perpetrator".
It follows the stabbing of a man by an attacker matching the description of a knifeman who injured four people in one night in the area. The culprit in all five stabbings is thought to be a tall, skinny black male wearing a hooded top.
The latest victim, aged in his 30s, was left with life-threatening injuries when he was stabbed in Aberdeen Road, Enfield, north London at about 5am on Tuesday.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Hospitals are treating up to 21 young victims a day wounded in knife or weapon attacks, according to data released under Freedom of Information laws.
Nearly 8,000 children and young people aged eleven to 25 years old last year attended hospitals with assaults from weapons, largely for knife wounds, according to the figures obtained by the all party parliamentary group on knife crime.
The group said it provided a glimpse into the true scale of the cost of the knife crime epidemic, dwarfing the 1,000 that the NHS has said are subsequently admitted to hospital after being stabbed with a knife or sharp instrument.
[ more...]
Police Demand
All front line officers on Britain's biggest force should carry Tasers to counter the risk of becoming "victims themselves" from the spiraling number of assaults, a new report urges.
The weapons offer greater protection with evidence showing they can play a "significant role" in keeping officers safe, the London Assembly has been told.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Teachers, NHS workers and police officers could be held accountable for failing to spot violent crime among young people under government plans announced on Monday.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid has launched a consultation to assess whether there is a "public health duty" to report concerns over children at risk.
He said he will use "all the tools" at his disposal to end violent crime.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Two million UK workers on minimum wages are now receiving a pay rise - but a string of household bills have also increased.
Workers aged 25 and over on the National Living Wage will receive £8.21 an hour from Monday, up from £7.83 - a 4.9% rise.
Pay rises also take effect for younger workers on minimum wages.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police in England and Wales are being given greater stop and search powers to tackle rising knife crime.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid is making it easier for officers to search people without reasonable suspicion in places where serious violence may occur.
It comes after fatal stabbings rose last year to the highest point since records began.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The average council tax bill in England is to rise by almost 5 per cent, the second-largest increase in ten years.
Figures released yesterday by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government showed the levy on a typical Band D property going up by £78 to £1,750 from next week — a rise of 4.7 per cent.
This is largely explained by councils struggling to cover social care because of austerity cuts, an ageing population and insufficient mental health provision.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Government cuts left police retreating from the streets, solving just one in 10 offences and “really struggling” to deal with routine crime, the leader of Britain’s police chiefs has said.
Sara Thornton steps down this weekend as chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, after a four-year tenure during which her and her colleagues battled to get the government to recognise cuts were leading to fewer officers and resources to fight crime.
In an interview to mark her departure as NPCC chair and after 33 years of policing, Thornton told the Guardian she wanted to see an end to the blame culture when policing goes wrong and for a recognition that officers were dealing with some of society’s worst problems and not “running libraries”.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Local government audit is “in need of improvement”, CIPFA’s chief executive has told MPs.
There is a “big gap” between local audit and central government intervention in struggling councils, Rob Whiteman chief executive of CIPFA has told the Public Accounts Committee today.
Whiteman said the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government should have an “oversight brief” in order to create more transparency about finances in the local government sector.
[ more...]
Technology
Three seemingly unconnected words have helped rescue a mother and daughter after a car crash in remote rural Somerset.
The "coordinates" - "weekend", "foggy" and "earphones" - allowed police to exactly pinpoint their location.
An algorithm developed by start-up what3words divides the world into 57 trillion nine-sq-m (97-sq-ft) areas and gives each a unique three-word address.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are currently "losing the battle" against knife crime, former prime minister Tony Blair has told the Victoria Derbyshire programme.
He urged current prime minister Theresa May to hold a Cobra emergency committee meeting and act with a determination "to do whatever it takes".
The number of crimes related to knives and other offensive weapons reached a nine-year high in 2018, figures show.
[ more...]
Prisons
Drugs, tobacco and mobile phones were smuggled into a prison stuffed inside dead rats.
The items were sewn inside the bodies of three rats found by officers in early March in the grounds of HMP Guys Marsh near Shaftesbury, Dorset.
It was the first recorded instance of rats being used in that way, the Prison Service said.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A second woman is being investigated by the police following allegations that she made transphobic comments on social media, the Telegraph can reveal.
Womans' rights campaigner, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, has been interviewed by two separate police forces after being accused of committing a hate crime by Susie Green, who runs a charity helping transgender children.
The news comes after it emerged that devout Catholic, Caroline Farrow, had been asked to attend an interview by the Surrey force, for allegedly using the wrong pronoun to refer to Ms Green's transgender daughter.
Ms Keen-Minshull, a mother of four, said investigating people because of their legally held views was a complete waste of police time.
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Police Demand
There’s a palpable frustration in Westminster, and across the country as a whole, that Brexit, or more specifically, the lack of progress and uncertainty around Brexit, is a deeply unhelpful distraction from what are a number of serious and growing domestic concerns.
At a time of such uncertainty, it would be all too easy for us to take our foot off the pedal of domestic politics. Let’s be clear though: marking time in such a way would do a great disservice to the people we represent.
The urgency of the tasks at hand require action now, and while those of us in Parliament may for some time yet be preoccupied with the B-word, that is all the more reason for us to put our trust in local leadership and experience, providing those who are better placed on the ground with the tools and resources they need to make headway. Tackling the scourge of knife crime should be the top of the to-do list.
Across the country, it’s an issue that has united families and communities in grief. While cold statistics can never convey the brutal reality of this problem, they can help contextualise it. Last year, 726 people were murdered in the UK, 285 with a knife or bladed weapon, the highest level since records began. In 2018 we witnessed more fatal stabbings than at any other time since the Second World War, and the number of youth stabbings has doubled in the last five years alone.
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Police Demand
Security has been stepped up at mosques across Birmingham after five were targeted during an "abhorrent" spate of vandalism. CCTV footage has been released after the mosques had their windows smashed in the early hours of Thursday. The motive for the attacks remains unknown, West Midlands Police said.
Mosques across the world are also on alert for the first Friday prayers since the New Zealand terror attack, in which 50 people were killed.
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Police Demand
The daughter of a man who died inside a betting shop has claimed the Met Police "being too stretched" affected the outcome of the murder investigation. Babatunde Awofeso, 53, died on 4 April after being punched at a Betfred branch in Upper Clapton Road, Hackney.
Colleen Awofeso, from Devizes in Wiltshire, says she is confused by a suggestion from City of London Police that CCTV inside the Betfred shop was "corrupt" and irretrievable. This appears to contradict comments in an email, seen by the BBC, sent by a Betfred employee who said the CCTV was working on the day Mr Awofeso died.
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Police and Crime General
With assaults against officers rocketing, a south east force is fighting aggression and violence “head on” by permitting all public-facing officers to train to carry Taser.
The news comes with knife crime in Kent increasing by 152 per cent between 2010 and 2019 – the largest increase in England and Wales during that time. There were also 1,112 assaults on police officers in 2017 and 2018 - more than 20 a week.
Currently, the force relies upon specially-trained Taser teams deployed to assist colleagues during times of need, but this radical move means all officers in a public-facing role can take on the training and accreditation programme to carry the weapon.
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Police and Crime General
The Police Federation has confirmed its computer systems suffered a malware attack. PFEW says the incident happened on March 9 and it was able to respond quickly to the alert from its cyber-security systems. Experts quickly reacted to isolate the malware to stop it spreading to PFEW branches, it says.
The incident was reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office and the National Crime Agency (NCA), which is now leading a criminal investigation into the matter.
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Police and Crime General
A deputy speaker of the House of Commons has advised MPs they should take a black cab or travel home together to avoid the risk of intimidation or abuse, as public tensions rise over the Brexit process.
Lindsay Hoyle, a long-serving Labour MP, emailed all colleagues on Wednesday to say the Metropolitan police had been “left in no doubt” it had to ensure that “members of parliament can vote in parliament without fear”.
“Personally, I have never felt this level of tension during my time in the house and I am aware that other colleagues feel the same,” Hoyle wrote. “Many colleagues have already been subject to widely publicised abuse and intimidation.”
He advised MPs to take “simple steps” such as travelling home by taxi or with colleagues, and he said most had already taken security measures at home such as installing panic buttons.
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Police and Crime General
Police have warned Brexiteers planning “go slow” protests on Britain’s motorways that they could face prosecution.
Pro-Brexit campaigners aim to cause gridlock using a convoy of slow-moving vehicles, targeting between 30 and 40 locations over the weekend.
One page in Somerset is targeting the A303 near Taunton, but just seven people have confirmed their attendance.
Other roads targeted are the M25, M6 and M1, which is partially policed by Derbyshire Police, which said it has "been made aware of the protest" and is "liaising with organisers.”
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Police Demand
County lines drug gangs are fuelling a rise in the number of British children being forced into modern slavery, with cases more than doubling in a year.
National Crime Agency (NCA) figures showed the number of modern slavery cases involving UK minors went from 676 in 2017 to 1,421 in 2018.
Nearly two-thirds of last year's cases were linked to labour exploitation, which includes by county lines and other criminal gangs.
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Fire
Homes built by one of the UK's largest developers were constructed without essential barriers to slow the spread of fire.
Regulations dictate the flame-resistant material must be installed in roof spaces and wall cavities.
Housebuilder Persimmon Homes found it was missing from some properties on estates in south-west England.
It has written to more than 1,000 people to say their homes need to be checked.
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Police Finances
The government's recent announcement of additional money to help fight knife crime is "nowhere near enough" and only a "short-term fix" according to the chairman of the Police Federation.
John Apter spoke to Sky News at the end of Operation Sceptre, the annual week-long national drive against knife criminals, which has seen many hundreds of weapons taken off the streets.
Last week, the chancellor announced an extra £100m emergency funding package to allow police to mount more operations against violent crime.
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Economy & Public Finance
The number of employed people in the UK has risen again, to a new record number of 32.7 million people between November and January, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.
That is the highest figure since records began in 1971.
Unemployment fell by 35,000 to 1.34 million in the period, putting the rate below 4% for the first time since 1975.
The figure is 112,000 lower than a year ago, giving a jobless rate of 3.9%, well below the EU average of 6.5%.
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Technology
Fabian is world renowned for destroying ransomware - the viruses sent out by criminal gangs to extort money.
Because of this, he lives a reclusive existence, always having to be one step ahead of the cyber criminals.
He has moved to an unknown location since this interview was carried out.
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Police and Crime General
Lord Winston has renewed calls for cyclists to require licences and insurance.
The government ruled out the proposal in 2018, saying the cost and complexity would outweigh the benefits.
The Labour peer's concerns were echoed by others in the House of Lords worried about "hoodlums in Lycra".
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Police and Crime General
Paedophiles caught in undercover stings by vigilantes are to face tougher charges under new rules being introduced by prosecutors.
Scores of potential sex abusers have been snared by so called paedophile hunters who pose as children online in order to catch them as they try to groom youngsters.
But there has been mounting concern that those who are prosecuted are being treated too leniently because there is no actual child victim involved.
However the Crown Prosecution Service has announced that offenders who are duped by the police or vigilantes are now to be charged as if there is an identifiable child victim.
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Fire
Fireman Sam is putting women off joining the fire service because “most of the job is nothing like it is portrayed”, a female chief has said.
Senior fire officer Alex Johnson believes the CGI firefighting idol and images of men rushing into burning buildings does little to encourage gender equality.
She is campaigning to attract more women into the 999 service with just 5.2 per cent of firefighters in England women. In 2017 there were 1,838 female firefighters compared to 33,782 male firefighters.
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Police and Crime General
"Round here we’ve got Third Set, in Shepherd’s Bush you have 12 Anti who are currently beefing Third Set. 12 World are beefing 12 Anti. Then you get in to Ladbroke Grove and you got Ten Eleven. Then you’ve got Mozart.”
This is just one corner of a bewildering jigsaw of gang rivalries in west London, described by Colin Brent, a youth worker at the Bollo Brook youth centre in south Acton. “You can have Acton beefing Acton, Bush beefing Bush. Bush beefing Acton. Young people don’t even know whose side they’re supposed to be on any more.”
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Police Demand
Referrals of potential victims of modern slavery made by councils have soared tenfold in five years, new figures have shown.
Latest National Crime Agency statistics showed the number of council referrals of suspected victims of modern slavery to the national referral mechanism (NRM) has risen from 131 in 2013 to 1,306 in 2018.
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Police Demand
The criminal justice system dealt with the highest number of knife and offensive weapon offences in nearly a decade last year, official figures have shown.
In 2018, 21,484 knife and offensive weapon offences were recorded, the most dealt with since 2009, when 25,103 offences were registered, according to the Ministry of Justice.
The figures come after the chancellor, Philip Hammond, handed an extra £100m to police forces in England and Wales after a spate of fatal stabbings led to a renewed focus on the response to knife crime and fresh debate over police resources.
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Police Finances
It is a major victory for Home Secretary Sajid Javid, who demanded the cash after the surge in knife killings this year.
Chancellor Philip Hammond had offered a new package of £50 million but Mr Javid held out for more.
Some £80 million of the funding will be new money from the Treasury.
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Police Finances
Schools and colleges say funding cuts are hampering their efforts to prevent knife crime, according to a report commissioned by Ofsted that calls for “local community safety partnerships” to tackle the problem.
The Ofsted report, based on a survey of secondary schools, further education and pupil referral units in London, found huge variations in how the schools dealt with the problem of knives carried by pupils, as well as a lack of information-sharing between schools, local authorities and the police.
The report also concluded that schools need to follow more carefully Department for Education guidelines on the use of exclusions, and called for authorities to “challenge schools and multi-academy trusts when exclusions do not appear to be in line with statutory guidance”.
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Economy & Public Finance
The chancellor has pledged to spend a £26.6bn Brexit war chest to boost the economy, if MPs vote to leave the European Union with a deal.
Philip Hammond vowed to free up more money to cut taxes and spend on public services in a "deal dividend".
However, he said these spending plans were based on a smooth Brexit.
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Police Finances
The relationship between ministers, accounting officers and civil servants is currently not working, the outgoing auditor general of UK’s spending watchdog has said in his last speech in the role.
Some ministers “see themselves more or less as chief executive officers but without the qualifications”, National Audit Office head Amyas Morse told an event on accountability at the Institute for Government think-tank’s offices this morning.
The comptroller said this meant ministers sometimes made decisions prioritising a project “close to their hearts” – when they should be held accountable but are not – which “has led to the abandonment of good practice”, he said.
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Police and Crime General
The surge in knife crime, described by senior police officers as a national emergency, has prompted calls for troops to be deployed and fuelled a political row about government cuts.
The Guardian article continues with several FAQs with regards to knife crime.
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Police and Crime General
Funding to help local authorities keep young people away from serious crime has been halved since 2010, an umbrella group has said.
Youth justice grants, which fund council youth offending teams, have tumbled from £145m in 2010-11 to £71.5m in 2018-19, according to the Local Government Association.
Councils have already set their budgets for 2019-20 but are still awaiting their allocations for youth justice grants, making it “extremely difficult” to plan services aimed at preventing gangs and violent crime, the LGA said.
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Police Demand
A week-long crackdown on knife crime begins across England and Wales today, as officers continue to battle a surge in violence.
There have been 39 fatal stabbings in Britain since the beginning of the year, and several victims have been teenagers.
For the next seven days, police will run Operation Sceptre, using surrender bins, stop-and-search and weapons sweeps in a concerted crackdown on knife crime.
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Police and Crime General
Handing axes, saws and fire-lighting equipment to children excluded from school may seem risky, but is proving effective at a farm in Essex.
Teenagers removed from school for unmanageable or violent behaviour are being given a second chance and gaining vocational qualifications through hard graft: mucking out pigs, chopping wood or fixing old vehicles. They also develop nurturing skills by looking after rabbits, chickens and miniature ponies and growing vegetables.
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Police Demand
Knife crime is rising at a much steeper rate in the home counties and rural provinces than in London, police figures show, amid signs that the growing use of blades is spreading from the cities to the shires.
Guardian analysis of official statistics shows a 45.7% average increase in knife-related offences in 34 English and Welsh counties since 2010, compared with an 11% rise in the capital.
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Police Finances
The chancellor has rejected calls to set up an emergency fund to tackle knife crime in England and Wales.
Senior officers and police and crime commissioners have called for more money to pay for additional officers following a spate of fatal stabbings.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said the government must listen to police leaders following talks on Wednesday.
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Police and Crime General
Home Secretary Sajid Javid is to meet police chiefs from seven forces most affected by violent crime.
It follows a spate of fatal teen stabbings which has prompted a debate about falling police numbers.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has said there is "obviously" a link between violent crime and falling police numbers.
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Police and Crime General
A woman who found out her partner was a policeman paid to spy on her group of activists has said she is the victim of a "conspiracy to rape".
Rosa and another woman have spoken of feeling betrayed after falling in love with men who turned out to be spies.
An ongoing public inquiry into undercover policing has seen several women get apologies and compensation.
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Police Finances
Senior police officers are backing plans to create a national network of drug consumption rooms, known as “shooting galleries”, where addicts are provided with drugs such as heroin, paid for by the state.
At least 10 chief constables are known to support the idea of shooting galleries being set up in their areas, which they hope will stop addicts committing crime to feed their habit.
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Prisons
Problems with the partial privatisation of the probation system in England and Wales have cost taxpayers almost £500m, the government spending watchdog says.
Under the changes, introduced when Chris Grayling was justice secretary, firms were given contracts to supervise low and medium-risk offenders.
The National Audit Office says reforms were "rushed" and warns more people are being returned to jail for reoffending.
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Technology
The number of children targeted for grooming and abuse on Instagram has more than tripled - with some of the victims as young as five years old.
Figures obtained by the NSPCC suggest there were 5,161 reports of sexual communications with a child recorded in just 18 months.
Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram were used in 70% of those incidents.
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Police and Crime General
Prostitution should be decriminalised in the UK to make it safer for vulnerable women, a sex worker organisation has said.
The English Collective of Prostitutes is calling for the removal of laws relating to consensual adult sexual behaviour, arguing that the legislation forces sex workers to operate alone, leaving them vulnerable to crime and reluctant to report violence to the police because they fear arrest.
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Police and Crime General
When Kerri McAuley feared for her life after being attacked by her abusive boyfriend, it was her hairdresser she confided in. She was killed in early 2017. Now, a new campaign to help hairdressers and beauticians spot the signs of domestic abuse has been launched.
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Prisons
Organised crime gangs intimidated staff to smuggle drugs into a prison where more than a dozen employees were suspended, a report reveals today.
The report blames staff corruption for some of the smuggling of mobile phones, drugs and other contraband into prisons in England and Wales.
It adds that the issue of corrupt staff aiding criminal behaviour is a problem that is “under-recognised” and not acknowledged openly.
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Police and Crime General
Lack of progress in black, Asian and minority ethnic representation since Macpherson has brought demands for policing and government to agree an action plan to reverse claims of “deeply worrying” damage being inflicted to the credibility of the service.
Britain’s biggest union and the National Black Police Association have issued a joint pledge calling for forces and the Home Office to improve race equality in the wake of damning evidence of a dramatic fall in proportions of BAME staff over more than a decade.
UNISON research reveals a drop of nearly a third in the proportion of BAME police community support officers in England and Wales – down from 14 per cent in 2005 to 9.5 per cent in 2018. BME representation among the general public is currently 14 per cent, ONS figures show.
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Police Finances
The funding available through the Troubled Families programme for takling youth crime has been doubled, housing and communities secretary James Brokenshire has announced.
A £5m fund for intervening early with families and children was launched in October last year.
Mr Brokenshire said yesterday the fund has been increased to £9.8m “due to the quality of the bids received”.
The funding has been allocated to 21 areas most affected by youth crime, including ten in London.
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Police Finances
Up to 4,000 crime victims who have been denied compensation for decades because they lived under the same roof as their attacker will be able to claim the awards after the Government scrapped a 55-year old ban.
Justice ministers will today (Thursday) announce they are abolishing the 55-year-old “same roof” rule, which has prevented victims of violent crimes that took place before 1979 from receiving compensation if the perpetrator was someone they lived with at the time of the incident.
The bar was introduced in 1964 to ensure offenders did not benefit from financial awards made to victims they shared a home with.
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Police Demand
Police chiefs have described the recent spate of knife crime in the country as a national emergency and are calling for action to stop the bloodshed.
There have been 17 homicides in London so far this year, six of which happened in nine days. Five people were stabbed on Tuesday, four of whom were attacked in less than eight hours and one who died.
In Birmingham three teenagers have died in knife attacks in the space of two weeks, and 269 knife crimes have been recorded so far this year. Hazrat Umar, 17, was killed in Bordesley Green on Monday; Abdullah Muhammad, 16, died in Small Heath last week; and seven days earlier Sidali Mohamed, 16, was stabbed outside a college in Highgate.
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Police Demand
Catapult attacks have soared across Kent, with people, animals and property targeted.
A total of 80 offences involving catapults were recorded in 2018, almost double the number just two years earlier.
Last week a man was left with severe facial injuries when a group targeted him while he was driving, and days before that another man was hit as he tried to stop someone stealing a scooter.
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Police Finances
BAME representation in policing is half what it should be and will not catch up until the year 2052, MPs have been warned.
Forces in England and Wales are "so slow" in their current rate of progress with a third still without a single black female officer and their ranks swelling by just 34 individuals in the last decade, a national debate in Westminster was told.
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Police Finances
City of London police received almost £29 million in funding from banking and insurance trade bodies over the past five years in an arrangement that has been attacked as a “serious conflict of interest”.
The force, Britain’s leading constabulary for investigating economic crime, received £17 million from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and a further £11.8 million from UK Finance, the banking industry group, between 2013 and 2018, The Times can reveal.
The funding was used to run units to fight insurance fraud and card and payment crime. The industry groups said that consumers ultimately benefited from the police having extra resources to tackle financial scams.
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Police and Crime General
A senior police officer has been announced as the government's new anti-slavery commissioner.
Sara Thornton, who currently chairs the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), will begin the role in May.
She will be responsible for giving independent advice on tackling modern slavery over the next three years.
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Police Finances
Community-backed projects in 21 areas across England will each receive a share of £9.5 million to help families who are vulnerable to the devastating effects of knife crime and gang culture, Communities Secretary Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP confirmed today (22 February 2019).
The Supporting Families Against Youth Crime fund will enable keyworkers, community groups, teachers and other professionals working with children and young people at risk, to intervene early and help stop them from becoming drawn into gang crime, serious violence and the youth justice system.
A further £300,000 will also be available for local authorities across England to train frontline staff on how to tackle childhood trauma. This follows evidence that many who are vulnerable to serious violence and youth crime have experienced childhood trauma that has affected their mental health and confidence.
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Police and Crime General
A global study of 100,000 young people has found no evidence that teenage cannabis use is higher in countries with more liberal drug laws or lower in countries that have tougher controls.
The research, which suggests that teenagers pay little regard to the law when choosing whether or not to take the drug, is likely to be seized on by campaigners who advocate the decriminalisation of cannabis in Britain.
The study, by Alex Stevens, professor of criminal justice at the University of Kent, used data from the World Health Organisation to examine cannabis use by teenagers in 38 countries, including the UK, America, Russia, France, Germany and Canada. Professor Stevens said: “The harms and costs of imposing criminal convictions on people who use cannabis do not seem to be justified by an effect in reducing cannabis use.”
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Police and Crime General
Twenty years ago, an inquiry into the death of teenager Stephen Lawrence called for an overhaul of police procedures and attitudes towards race. But how much has changed?
This article covers historical 'institutional racism' as well as incident reporting (police recorded crime and crime survey), stop and search, arrests, and police headcounts; by ethnicity.
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Police and Crime General
Society is still 20 years behind in a “laughable” scenario that expects to see men in charge, the woman at the head of UK policing claimed today.
Met Commissioner Cressida Dick claims “myths and stereotypes” are responsible for the service's inability to reach a 50-50 gender split.
Britain's highest-ranking officer said that even she has encountered sexism in the “not too distant past” when it comes to the public expecting to see male rather than female officers.
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Technology
Anyone who views terrorist propaganda once online can be jailed for up to 15 years under new laws that have sparked human rights concerns.
MPs had urged the government to scrap plans to criminalise viewing “information useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism”, which goes further than much-used laws that made physically collecting, downloading or disseminating the material illegal.
A United Nations inspector accused the government of straying towards “thought crime” with the proposal, which originally stated that people would have to access propaganda “on three or more different occasions” to commit a terror offence.
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Police Finances
Budget cuts are putting the police and public at risk as more and more officers are forced to work alone, according to the Police Federation.
A survey for the organisation, which represents rank and file officers in England and Wales, suggested almost 90% of respondents believed there were not enough of them to manage demand, while 76% of officers in front line roles were "often or always" working alone.
It also found that of the 18,000 who took part, almost every officer had been exposed to at least one "traumatic experience" in their career, with 62% saying they had experienced at least one in the last 12 months.
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Police Finances
With some violent crimes like those involving knives rising, attention has turned to whether there are enough police officers on the streets.
Between September 2009 and September 2017, police forces in England and Wales lost more than 20,000 officers - a drop of 15%. Numbers of officers consistently fell during that period.
Annual figures which use March as a snapshot have been published for decades and those suggest that 2017 saw the lowest number of police officers since 1981.
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Police Demand
The shocking level of lone working has emerged from the results of the latest Demand, Capacity and Welfare Survey from the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) in which 76.1 per cent of respondents from relevant frontline roles including neighbourhood, response, roads policing, operational support and investigations, indicated that they are often or always single-crewed.
PFEW’s National Vice-Chair Ché Donald, said: “When officers work alone they are undoubtedly exposed to increased risk – for them and the public, not to mention the detrimental effect on their overall health and wellbeing. It’s quite simple – policing is dangerous in every sense – single-crewing is not safe for anyone.
“Forces are having their hands forced as they struggle to meet the increased demands placed on them, but this false economy of single crewing merely creates the illusion of public safety. Quite simply this is not sustainable and officers are suffering.”
Statistics show that the police workload has increased significantly over the past five years. During 2013/14 there were, on average, 35 crimes for every constable but by 2017/18 that figure had risen to 51.
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Police Finances
Years of below-inflation pay awards have left more than a third of police officers struggling to make ends meet, with almost half worrying about their finances ‘almost every day’, the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) claims.
In a joint submission to the Police Remuneration Review Body (PRRB) with the Police Superintendents Assocation (PSA), the PFEW says constables’ incomes are currently over 18 per cent below where they should be as a result of an erosion in pay since 2010. And sergeants’ pay is up to 19.4 per cent lower.
The PFEW and PSA are proposing a five per cent uplift in pay for police officers this year, followed by five per cent rise in both 2020/21 and 2021/22. However, if the PRRB does not recommend a three-year deal, they propose a rise of 6.2 per cent for 2019.
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Police Finances
Police chiefs have recommended a three year pay deal to give officers a larger pay increase upfront. In its annual submission to the Police Remuneration Review Body, the National Police Chiefs’ Council puts forward two options and also suggests on-call allowances for federated ranks increase from £15 to £20 per day.
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Police Finances
Philip Hammond must find an extra £5bn in this year’s Whitehall spending review to reverse planned cuts and meet his claim of ending austerity, a leading thinktank has revealed.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies told the chancellor that funds pledged in last year’s budget to boost NHS spending, defence and international aid failed to safeguard local councils and some of the worst-hit government departments from further shortfalls.
The thinktank said a minimum of £2.2bn would be needed to freeze all budgets and protect them from inflation, but ministers would need to find an extra £5bn to allow departments to maintain services in line with the UK’s rising population.
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Police and Crime General
Fullfact have challenged the assertion that Violent crime is at record levels. They state that "Incorrect. Several reliable sources indicate that overall violent crime in England and Wales is far lower now than it was in the 1990s. Police figures show violent crimes at their highest recorded level, but these are unreliable."
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Police and Crime General
Victims of romance scams - the majority of whom are women - lost an average of £11,145 each last year, according to new figures.
The data, from police reporting centre Action Fraud, showed that £50m was lost in these scams in 2018 when fraudsters pretend to be romantically attached.
Fraudsters trick victims into sending money or gather enough personal information to steal their identities.
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Fire
Plans to train firefighters to respond as police officers have been branded “worrying” and “gimmicky” by a local police federation.
The hybrid role, which the Fed claims will cost £200,000, will see seven Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service firefighters trained to have the same powers as special constables.
The move, which intends to speed up response times in rural areas, will mean the crew, known as Community Responders, will be responsible for reacting to both fire and police incidents.
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Fire
Greater Manchester's fire service budget has a £1m "big black hole in it" because the government has not decided if 2018's moorland fires spending can be reclaimed, the mayor has said.
Soldiers and extra firefighters were used to fight the Saddleworth Moor and Winter Hill blazes in June and July.
Mayor Andy Burnham has asked to be allowed to recoup funds spent on the response under the Bellwin Scheme.
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Fire
A decision is due on budget cuts that could prevent Ramsgate reopening as a ferry port to ease pressure on other routes in the case of a no-deal Brexit.
The government handed Seaborne Freight a £13.8m contract to run a service to Ostend, in Belgium, under contingency plans to alleviate any delays at Dover.
But the local council is considering cuts to port spending that would make roll-on, roll-off services impossible.
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Police and Crime General
Police have warned paedophile hunters to stop confronting suspected child abusers after five people were arrested on suspicion of wrongly imprisoning members of the public.
Three men and two women were taken into custody in Leeds on Monday on suspicion of assault, public order offences and false imprisonment.
The suspects have been released on bail pending further investigation, and West Yorkshire Police have used the arrests to remind self-styled vigilantes to leave the job of confronting suspected abusers to them.
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Police and Crime General
The mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence has criticised a new scheme by the government to tackle knife crime.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid announced plans for Knife Crime Prevention Orders last week, targeting suspects aged 12 - even if they don't have a blade.
But Baroness Lawrence said there were better ways to deal with knife crime than "criminalising" children.
Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack in south-east London in 1993, aged 18.
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Police and Crime General
Police are to get tough new powers to crackdown on illegal traveller sites on private land including a potential new criminal offence of trespass.
Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, will today unveil a series of new legal measures to make it easier for police officers to intervene and remove travellers from private land.
He will also announce he is considering making it a criminal offence for travellers to trespass on private land when setting up an encampment.
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Technology
At least 14 UK police forces have made use of crime-prediction software or plan to do so, according to Liberty.
The human rights group said it had sent a total of 90 Freedom of Information requests out last year to discover which forces used the technology.
It believes the programs involved can lead to biased policing strategies that unfairly focus on ethnic minorities and lower-income communities.
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Technology
UK police have seized more than 60 computers and other gadgets suspected of being used to carry out web attacks.
The raids were part of an international operation targeting customers of Webstresser, which Europol calls the "world's biggest marketplace" for distributed denial of service attacks.
The site was shut down and its suspected operators arrested in April.
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Police Finances
Policing Donald Trump's four-day visit to the UK cost more than £14.2 million, according to figures obtained by the Press Association.
The US president flew in to swathes of protests as he met the Queen at Windsor Castle, was hosted by Theresa May and played golf in Scotland.
With thousands of officers drafted in from every force in Great Britain, policing July's trip cost in excess of £14,258,966, according to police figures released under Freedom of Information laws.
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Police Finances
The government has suspended plans to take any further action to rectify the public pension cost cap breach while it awaits a legal decision.
In December the Police Federation cautiously welcomed Court of Appeal judgements which declared changes to judges’ and firefighters’ pensions were discriminatory on the grounds of age.
The decision reversed alterations made to firefighters pensions which also affected police officers.
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Technology
Police forces in the UK are using algorithms and other types of predictive software based on “biased data,” human rights organisation Liberty has claimed.
A minimum of 14 police forces in the UK have previously used, are currently using or are planning to use the programs, which are used to assess a person’s likelihood of committing or falling victim to crime and where it could be committed, it reported.
The algorithms are developed using historical data gathered using biased policing practices, with the danger of artificially intelligent (AI)-driven programs ‘learning’ from the information and perpetuating bias in future autonomous predictions, according to a report from the organisation.
[ more...]
Technology
Twenty years after mobile phones made them redundant, phone boxes are back. And no one is more grateful than your local drug gang.
A new generation of phone and internet points being installed across Britain is being used for thousands of drug deals, according to police.
As the kiosks offer free phone calls to UK numbers, including mobiles, they enable people to call dealers’ phones, order “two brown and one white” — slang for heroin and crack cocaine respectively — and give a location.
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Fire
The majority of care homes inspected in a major fire safety audit failed basic checks, it has emerged, triggering concerns that the lives of elderly people are being put at risk.
Of the 177 homes inspected by the London Fire Brigade (LFB), 101 – 57% – were issued with a formal notification instructing them to address safety concerns.
The brigade said it believed the findings would be repeated if similar inspections were carried out across the country.
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Police Finances
The home secretary, Sajid Javid, has secretly reduced funding for a scheme to help children escape knife crime, despite a sharp rise in the number of murders and stabbings.
In July, Javid had said that he was doubling the £11m that was allocated to the early intervention youth fund to £22m. This was part of a “public health” approach to combating knife crime and other offences.
While on a recent visit to the West Midlands, however, the policing minister Nick Hurd quietly announced that the funding had been reduced to £17m. Louise Haigh, Labour’s shadow policing minister, described the move as “shameful”.
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Police and Crime General
Minor historical convictions and cautions given to children may no longer have to be disclosed during background checks when they seek work with children following a Supreme Court ruling.
Judges found yesterday that the way criminal records are disclosed is disproportionate and infringes human rights. The ruling was a defeat for the Home Office, which challenged a Court of Appeal ruling in favour of people who said their lives had been unfairly damaged by reprimands received children or minor offences committed years ago.
Supreme Court judges said it was disproportionate that all convictions had to be disclosed if a person had more than one. They said it was also disproportionate that those issued to juveniles had to be disclosed.
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Police and Crime General
The drink-driving limit should be reduced to stem road deaths and injuries, the head of the Police Federation said.
John Apter, who represents rank-and-file officers, said that the law was far too generous and added to strain on police. “We can’t even respond to 999 calls at the moment, let alone target drink-drivers,” he said. He voiced similar fears about the drug-driving limit.
West Midlands police, the country’s second largest force, was warned yesterday that offenders were escaping justice because the force has 302 breath-testing kits between more than 6,500 officers. Northamptonshire, with a quarter of the officers, has 400 kits.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Supreme Court has ruled in favour of three people who claimed their lives were blighted by past minor criminal convictions.
The judges found the way the criminal records are disclosed to employers infringed human rights.
The government will have to consider reform of the system, said BBC legal affairs correspondent Clive Coleman.
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Police and Crime General
The moment Dan (not his real name) realised he had a problem with cocaine, he had been off work for a week, sick with flu. His phone buzzed. It was his cocaine dealer, calling to check he was OK. When Dan, one of his favoured customers, hadn’t been in touch to buy the cocaine he usually took several times a week, the dealer knew something was wrong.
“I don’t like thinking about that,” Dan says, shaking his head as we sit in a London pub. Now 36, Dan estimates he has spent £25,000 on cocaine. Lines in the pub on a Friday night after work. Lines on a Wednesday evening at a friend’s house while earnestly discussing 90s hip-hop. Lines at house parties, weddings, birthday parties and for no reason at all, other than that cocaine – the white powder that makes no one a better version of themselves, but that many of us continue to do anyway – is everywhere and freely available.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Up to 10,000 children as young as 11 are being exploited by “county lines” drug networks, the National Crime Agency has warned.
Criminal gangs are targeting youngsters to run the schemes, worth nearly £1million a year, a shock report warned
County lines typically involves city gangsters branching out into smaller towns or rural areas to sell heroin and crack cocaine – often using youngsters as couriers because they are less likely to arouse suspicion.
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Technology
The Home Office has been accused of “spying” on asylum seekers after it emerged that it secretly monitors their debit card use to track their whereabouts.
Officials use purchases made outside a person’s “authorised” city — the place where they are given temporary housing — to argue they are fraudulently living elsewhere, so are not destitute enough to qualify for emergency aid or shelter.
The surveillance takes place through Aspen cards, a government-issued debit card rolled out two years ago to make it easier for asylum seekers to buy food and basic supplies. More than 27,000 of these cards are now in use.
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Police Demand
Armed police are tested to the limits each day but the numbers of officers has fallen over the decade.
Senior police leaders have said a rise in gun crime and a looming recruitment shortfall are leaving some specialist armed officers "stretched".
In 2015, the government set aside funds for 1,500 new armed officers by 2020 - but only 812 have so far been hired.
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Police Demand
Senior police leaders have said a rise in gun crime and a looming recruitment shortfall are leaving some specialist armed officers "stretched".
Figures have shown crimes of possessing firearms rose by 87% in England and Wales over the past five years.
In 2015, the government set aside funds for 1,500 new armed officers by 2020 - but only 812 have so far been hired.
A police union leader said he had "great concern" that the risk to the public could be increased.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Response to priority 999 calls has hit three hours, with one victim of a violent attack waiting nine days, in another case a burgled homeowner had a five-day wait.
Figures show police failed to respond to more than 3,000 calls a day within target times, typically 15 minutes for a 999 “emergency” and an hour for a “priority” call.
The stats, from 21 of 43 police forces in England and Wales, were obtained under freedom of information rules.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A record number of knife crimes pushed the murder rate to its highest level in a decade as the proportion of offences resulting in a charge fell to a new low.
Official figures released yesterday showed that knife crime rose in most police force areas, although London and other urban areas including Merseyside, West Yorkshire and the West Midlands were hit particularly hard.
The number of murders recorded in England and Wales rose by 14 per cent to 737 — the most since 2008 — driven partially by a 10 per cent rise in knife killings to 276.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Sadiq Khan has announced he will be using £85m of city hall funding to tackle violent crime.
Last year, the Metropolitan Police used £15m of additional city hall funding to create the new Violent Crime Taskforce. This led to nearly 2,500 arrests and the removal of more than 1,000 dangerous weapons from London’s streets.
This year the commissioner of the Met plans to use the additional funds to give local policing teams access to additional officers to help them crack down on violence and burglary.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Violent crime recorded by police in England and Wales has risen by 19%, latest figures show.
The number of homicides - including murder and manslaughter - has risen from 649 to 739, an increase of 14%, and the highest total since 2008.
Robbery went up by 17%, as did recorded sexual offences, according to the Home Office data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
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Police Finances
As of 24.01.2019, Mr Nick Hurd submitted the Police Grant Report for England and Wales 2019-20.
My rt hon Friend, the Home Secretary, has today laid before the House, the Police Grant Report (England and Wales) 2019/20 (HC 1896) for the approval of the House. The Report sets out, my rt hon Friend, the Home Secretary’s determination for 2019/20 of the aggregate amount of grant that he proposes to pay under section 46(2) of the Police Act 1996.
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Police and Crime General
The BBC has done a 'reality check' on the crime rates in England and Wales.
'Whether crime is rising or falling is hugely important. It can affect how much is spent on policing and other related services, even how people vote. But working out what is happening is not an exact science.'
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Police and Crime General
Knife crime has hit its highest level on record as a police chief warned that carrying a knife has “become the norm" in parts of the UK.
Homicides also rose by 14% to their highest for more than a decade, partly fuelled by an increase in fatal knife attacks, official figures reveal.
Nick Hurd, the policing minister tried to reassure the public by saying the statistics showed “the chances of being a victim of crime remained low,” suggesting it is largely gang-related crime.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A gang member who forced an orphan to leave London and deal heroin and crack cocaine in Swansea has been sentenced.
Convicted child rapist Jerome Tarek Wallis took the 15-year-old from his home before driving him 200 miles away to the Welsh city in July last year.
Swansea Crown Court heard the teenager was also threatened with violence and made to deliver drugs to addicts.
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Technology
More than 100,000 web pages of children being abused were removed from the internet last year - a third more than in 2017.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which says its vision is to "eliminate child sexual abuse imagery online", looks into reports made by members of the public who have stumbled across images they think might be illegal.
It also proactively searches for offending sites.
Of the material taken down last year as a result of the IWF's work, 1,300 pages showed abuse of infants or babies and more than 40,000 depicted abuse or sexual torture of children under 10.
[ more...]
Prisons
An inmate at a jail that was subject to urgent measures was witnessed catching and killing rats in his cell during an inspection, it has emerged.
The chief inspector of prisons, Peter Clarke, issued an urgent notification protocol – the most severe course of action at his disposal – over HMP Bedford last year.
In a damning report on the dire conditions at the prison published on Tuesday, Clarke said standards had continued to decline despite two years of prison service efforts to improve it.
[ more...]
Technology
WhatsApp is failing to stop paedophiles sharing child sex abuse images and grooming children and should face new laws unless it takes urgent action, says the UK’s top police officer for child protection.
Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs Council’s lead on child protection, singled out the Facebook-owned messaging app after evidence that paedophiles have set up groups on the site with titles such as ‘Only Child Pornography’, ‘CP’ and ‘Gay Kids Sex Only.’
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The pay gap in the Metropolitan police between white officers and their black and Asian counterparts has widened in the past year despite promises to close the divide, new figures have shown.
A Met study of average wages found that black and Asian police officers working in London were paid £1.80 an hour less than their white colleagues last year, compared with £1.52 in 2017. All 37 senior officers on salaries of £100,000-plus were white, it found, while ethnic minority officers received fewer and smaller bonuses than their colleagues.
The report, which looked at the pay of 37,257 Met employees, of whom 6,349 are Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME), found the gap was even worse when all staff – not just police officers – were taken into account. On average, it said, BAME staff receive £2.05 less per hour than the average white member of staff, a mean pay gap of 9.67%.
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Police Demand
Crime prevention budgets have been cut by more than a half since 2010, an analysis from Labour has revealed.
Between 2009/10 and 2017/18, spending on crime reduction by councils has been cut by almost 60%, falling from £363m to £154m.
Over the same period, the number of council employees working on crime reduction has fallen by more than a third, from 120,334 to just 77,720.
[ more...]
Prisons
Offenders living in Wales and England have more chance ending up behind bars than any other country in Western Europe, new research reveals.
And Wales tops an ‘unwanted’ list – ahead of its UK neighbour – for having the highest proportion of its population serving time in jail with an emerging justice system “quite different” from England.
Sentencing figures show there were 154 prisoners for every 100,000 people in Wales, a higher proportion than England – which has the second-highest imprisonment rate with 141 prisoners per 100,000.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Hundreds of dangerous foreign criminals are feared to be at large on the streets of Britain because Scotland Yard’s elite extradition unit has failed to locate and deport them.
The squad was able to arrest just one in three of the 958 foreign criminals who were suspected to be in the UK in 2017.
The problem was brought into sharp focus two years earlier when Alice Gross, 14, was murdered by Arnis Zalkalns, a Latvian builder who had been able to move to Britain in 2007 despite a string of convictions, including for firearms offences, sexual assault and killing his wife.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
“I swear when I get my hands on him I’ll kill him. I’ll poke him properly.”
This was the dramatic confession of Michael Keegan, 18, at Liverpool crown court this week. Keegan had originally pleaded not guilty to stabbing Thomas Smith, 14, but cracked in the dock and admitted knifing the teenager he was trying to recruit into a “county lines” drug-running operation.
The U-turn was a victory for 15 teenagers, who had spent the week acting as trainee detectives at Merseyside police in a groundbreaking initiative aimed at preventing vulnerable young people from falling into a life of crime.
[ more...]
Technology
Britain’s largest police force has spent more than £200,000 on controversial facial recognition trials that resulted in no arrests, figures reveal.
A freedom of information request by The Independent showed six deployments by the Metropolitan Police resulted in only two people being stopped, and then released.
Critics called the force’s use of facial recognition a “shambles” and accused authorities of wasting public money.
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Police Demand
As many as 19 forces could take on direct entry personnel later this year.
Recruitment windows for both superintendents and inspectors with no previous policing experience opened on Monday January 7 and will close at midnight on February 18.
However, just two forces are participating in direct entry at superintendent level in 2019. They are Avon and Somerset and Dyfed-Powys.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police force recruiting new officers has asked applicants to send photos of their tattoos with their applications.
South Yorkshire Police issued guidance to people interested in joining the force as a police constable.
The Sheffield Star reported that the force said tattoos would "not necessarily" prevent someone from being successful, but there were guidelines around what is and is not acceptable.
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Police and Crime General
Legislation to give police dogs and horses extra protection has become a step closer to becoming law
The Animal Welfare (Service Animals) Bill, named "Finn's Law" after a police dog from Hertfordshire brutally stabbed while protecting his handler, passed unopposed at second reading.
German Shepherd Finn was stabbed in the head and chest while responding to reports of a robbery in Stevenage back in 2017.
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Police Demand
West Midlands Police is "failing victims" and not recording more than 16,600 violent crimes each year, a watchdog has said.
The force was rated inadequate by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, who said victims felt let down and not believed.
Only 78.2% of violent crime and 89.2% of sexual offences reported were recorded, it found.
The force said it had made "substantial progress".
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Police Demand
Victims of crime are having to wait up to 30 minutes for police to attend 999 calls as response times have doubled in some forces, figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph reveal.
Police admit the delays reduce the chance of solving crimes such as burglaries and robberies and give criminals more chance to escape.
In some cases, have-a-go heroes have been told to let criminals go because of the delays while one force had to suspend 101 non-emergency calls last year to enable staff to cope with demand for 999 emergencies.
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Police Demand
The home secretary and chancellor are to launch a joint assault on fraud, bribery, corruption and money laundering.
Sajid Javid and Philip Hammond will chair a new taskforce that will work with senior figures in the financial sector to tackle economic crime. This is a broad category covering a range of illegal activity, with the Home Office estimating its scale to be at least £14.4bn a year.
Javid said: “We need to take action on all fronts to target the corrupt fraudsters who are lining their pockets with dirty money and living luxury lifestyles at the expense of law-abiding citizens.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The father of a newborn baby was "shocked" to be confronted by police after posting on social media that he accidentally fed his son chilli sauce.
Paul Dawson, from Stockton, was out with his partner and five-day-old Ben on 5 January when the mishap occurred.
Forgetting he had been eating spicy chicken wings, Mr Dawson put his knuckle in Ben's mouth to pacify him.
Cleveland Police said officers visited Mr Dawson after a member of the public complained about his Facebook post.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are to brand county lines gang leaders as “slave drivers” to disrupt their use of children to sell drugs.
Police chiefs believe the stigma of being taken to court as a slave master or trafficker of children is more likely to deter gang bosses than just being prosecuted under drugs laws.
Anti-slavery legislation also enables police to get court orders banning gang leaders from associating with any child under 18 and limiting them to one phone that police can regularly examine.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Rank-and-file have spoken out in defence of the agonising split-second decision no armed officer ever wants to make in the wake of an “out-of-control” man shot dead by police.
Officers who had gone to work “to do their job” ended the day having to use lethal force on a 24-year-old brandishing knives and threatening to kill colleagues during a stand-off.
Josh Pitt – fatally shot in the chest from close range after his fiancee said he had attacked her – was lawfully killed, an inquest jury has ruled.
[ more...]
Prisons
Prison sentences of less than six months should be abolished in England and Wales because they are less effective at cutting reoffending than community penalties, prison minister Rory Stewart has suggested.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, the politician said the move would ease pressure on prisons while criticising short jail terms for being “long enough to damage you and not long enough to heal you”.
According to official figures. the prison population has doubled in England and Wales since the early 1990s, growing from 40,000 to more than 80,000 in 2018.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Ten people have been charged in a county lines drugs crackdown launched after 14 drugs-related deaths in a Cumbrian town.
Police set up Operation Horizon in the wake of the deaths in Barrow-in-Furness.
A total of 22 people were arrested as Class A drugs and thousands of pounds in cash were recovered.
The raids took place this week in Barrow, Coventry and London to disrupt the supply chain from other parts of the UK.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Migrants attempting to seek asylum in Britain by crossing the Channel in boats face tougher rules that could bar them from the UK, Sajid Javid warned last night.
The Home Secretary said Britain had the right under international and domestic legislation to reject migrants who failed to claim asylum in the first safe country they reached including France.
He told MPs that he wanted to send a “clear message” as a deterrent to migrants that “if you have passed through a safe country - and that includes France - that we would seek to make your claim inadmissible and you should think twice about making that journey.”
[ more...]
Technology
Police and crime commissioners are focusing resources on offences such as speeding and theft rather than serious organised crime, the head of the National Crime Agency has warned.
Lynne Owens said that police were falling behind in the fight against online child abuse and modern slavery and that refocus was needed because there was a “real risk” that gangsters were escaping justice.
[ more...]
Technology
The groundbreaking software analyses the wording of a victim's statement in order to identify tell tale signs of fake reports.
Spanish police, who have been using the tool, found it was successful in more than 80 per cent of cases helping them to identify 64 false reports in just one week.
Developed by experts at Cardiff University, VeriPol, uses a combination of automatic text analysis and artificial intelligence to recognise when somebody has been lying or exaggerating to the police.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Less than 10% of police forces have met basic quality standards for fingerprint evidence, the government’s forensic science regulator has warned.
All UK forces were ordered three years ago to ensure their laboratories met international standards for analysing prints found at crime scenes. But only three forces have complied, with almost every force missing a deadline set by the regulator to gain accreditation by November.
Police forces that have failed to obtain accreditation, which include the Metropolitan police and Greater Manchester police, will have to declare this in court, prompting concerns that cases could collapse as a result of unreliable evidence.
[ more...]
Technology
Police plans to predict and prevent future crimes by deploying controversial Minority Report-style technology to harvest data on millions of people are “ethically unacceptable”, experts warn.
The National Analytics Solution (NAS) will use artificial intelligence to analyse police data and predict who will commit crimes such as stabbings. In future it could be widened to trawl social media posts, medical records and school and council records, according to a proposal by West Midlands police.
The system, which may ultimately be rolled out across the country, has been likened to that employed by “future crime” detectives in the dystopian Tom Cruise film Minority Report. In future, it may also cover “non-criminal matters”.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Universities across Britain are paying the police to protect their students from crime.
More than £2m has been paid out to 17 police forces over the last three years by 27 universities, and a further £1.2m allocated to current academic year. The figures were unearthed after freedom of information request.
Northampton University has earmarked £775,000 over the next three years for one sergeant and five constables.
[ more...]
Prisons
Police say there is growing evidence that members of organised criminal gangs are getting prison service jobs to smuggle banned items.
A senior officer has told the BBC he has "strong suspicions" this is happening, but links are hard to prove.
Ministers admit it "can happen" but say better search techniques will help.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Residents living near a crime-hit retail park are paying a private security firm to patrol their streets.
Around 60 people living near Princess Alice Retail Park in Sutton Coldfield have chipped in to pay private security guards £126 per week to police the area.
The community initiative started on December 17 and neighbours opted for a five-week trial period with security firm Innovative Security Solutions.
They provide regular patrols and ensure residents feel reassured in their own homes.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Residents living near a crime-hit retail park are paying a private security firm to patrol their streets.
Around 60 people living near Princess Alice Retail Park in Sutton Coldfield have chipped in to pay private security guards £126 per week to police the area.
The community initiative started on December 17 and neighbours opted for a five-week trial period with security firm Innovative Security Solutions.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Ministers are on course to miss their target of increasing the number of mental health staff by 21,000 by 2020, according to NHS workforce figures obtained by Labour.
A year after the government made the pledge, NHS mental health trusts in England had employed just 1,524 extra personnel, according to statistics collected by NHS Digital.
The very small rise is a setback for Theresa May’s plans to dramatically improve mental health care in order to reduce treatment delays, introduce new waiting times and reduce unmet need. Mental health chiefs and staff groups are worried that staffing problems will undermine those ambitions.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police tasked with protecting the travelling public appear to be bearing the brunt of acts of random violence targeted at officers.
New figures reveal that more than 12 British Transport Police officers a week are being assaulted, with many suffering serious injuries.
That compares to around ten assaults a week against officers serving with the other 43 police forces in England and Wales.
[ more...]
Technology
Social media platforms need to take more responsibility in tackling online anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.
The chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust said the abuse should be treated in the same way inappropriate sexual images were, with offending material immediately removed.
Calling for internet giants to intervene when needed, she described anti-Semitism on social media as “pretty relentless”.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Ministers are ‘ramping up’ planning for a no-deal Brexit as the prospect becomes more likely.
Downing Street said businesses and citizens should immediately prepare for leaving without a deal.
Brexit secretary Steve Barclay said: ‘The Government’s priority remains to secure a deal, but we need to recognise, with 14 weeks to go, that a responsible Government is preparing for the eventuality that we leave without a deal.’
The MJ revealed in October that local authorities were being warned to prepare for up to three months of disruption in the event of a no-deal Brexit, with resilience forums asked to prepare for ‘reasonable, worst case scenarios’ - which could include runs on banks, petrol and food.
One council chief executive said: ‘I am more worried about civil unrest than I was during the original referendum.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A new scheme, funded by the government's counter-terrorism Prevent programme, is teaching mothers the signs of radicalisation to help them safeguard their children.
Those attending volunteer to do so - they have not been referred and it is not in response to any particular threat.
Shabnam Mahmood has been to meet those taking part in Bradford, for the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
British Transport Police officers and staff could face criminal charges over allegations about “recruitment irregularities”.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct announced the conduct of a senior staff member had been referred to the watchdog regarding allegations of fraud and data protection offences linked to a recruitment process.
BTP also referred the conduct of four officers who were responsible for reviewing that recruitment process when it became clear there may be irregularities involving and a fifth officer for their actions during that review.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police use of Tasers has rocketed in the past year with officers resorting to the weapons more than 17,000 times in 12 months, new figures show.
Officers in England and Wales fired the electric charges on 2,000 occasions, an increase of around a 100 on the previous year.
Police drew the weapons to protect themselves on 12,000 occasions, with 7,500 incidents involving an armed assailant, new Home Office statistics show.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Home Office has published the provisional police funding settlement for 2019-20. This sets out the total amount of money going into policing next year, including how much each individual Police and Crime Commissioner in England and Wales will receive.
The Government is proposing a total settlement of up to £14 billion, which is an increase of up to £970 million compared to 2018/19.
This includes;
-Government grant funding for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs)
-Flexibility for PCCs to raise additional money locally from council tax-
-Government funding for additional pension costs
-Funding for counter-terrorism policing
-Funding for national priorities, such as tackling serious and organised crime
[ more...]
Police Finances
Following a delay due to the 'meaningful vote' debate, Nick Hurd, the Minister for Policing, today made a statement announcing the police funding settlement.
Speaking in the Chamber, the Minister announced an increase in funding had been agreed, allocating up to £14billion to the police for 2019/20. This represents an increase of up to £970million on this year's funding.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police forces in England and Wales are set to receive an extra £300m to help pay for pension expenses and other costs, ministers have announced.
Since 2010, central government funding to police forces has been cut by almost a third, in real terms, leading the number of officers to fall by 21,000.
Police and Crime Commissioners, who represent the public, say the stretched service is struggling to cope.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are using force disproportionately against black people in England and Wales, statistics released for the first time suggest.
Figures released by the Home Office showed that 12 per cent of incidents involving the use of force that were recorded by police were against black people, who make up only 3.3 per cent of the population.
Black people were involved in proportionally more incidents that involved armed police using guns, at 26 per cent, and 20 per cent of people involved in Taser incidents were black in 2017-18.
White people, who constitute 86 per cent of the population in England and Wales, experienced under three-quarters of use-of-force incidents.
[ more...]
Police Finances
London’s homicide rate has reached its highest level in a decade as police chiefs brace themselves for a government announcement about whether they will get the extra funding they believe is vital to tackle rising violent crime.
The Metropolitan police said they were called to the fatal stabbing of a teenager in south-east London on Tuesday night, taking the tally to 131 deaths, the highest level since 2008, with three weeks left of this calendar year.
London’s total this year includes at least 75 stabbings and 13 shootings.
[ more...]
Police Demand
London’s homicide rate has reached its highest level in a decade as police chiefs brace themselves for a government announcement about whether they will get the extra funding they believe is vital to tackle rising violent crime.
The Metropolitan police said they were called to the fatal stabbing of a teenager in south-east London on Tuesday night, taking the tally to 131 deaths, the highest level since 2008, with three weeks left of this calendar year.
London’s total this year includes at least 75 stabbings and 13 shootings.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police cells should no longer be used to detain the mentally ill, an official review has said.
Every year hundreds of disturbed and vulnerable people are locked in police stations because no bed can be found for them in a suitable hospital.
Now a review of the Mental Health Act – the law used to detain people with mental illness – has concluded that the practice should be abandoned by 2023/24.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
An "alarming" proportion of adults in Great Britain remain confused about what constitutes rape, campaigners say.
A third of people surveyed for the End Violence Against Women coalition said there had to be physical violence for sexual activity to count as rape.
A third of males and 21% of females said it would not usually be considered rape if a woman had flirted on a date.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Sajid Javid said yesterday that MPs faced the most important decision since the Second World War next week as he insisted that Theresa May’s Brexit deal was the best option available.
Opening the second day of debate on the withdrawal agreement, the home secretary claimed that the deal delivered a solid foundation for security co-operation with EU partners, in a clear indication that there is much yet to be agreed.
He later confirmed that the future partnership declaration “does not guarantee” the future of three European databases that track criminals, suspects and missing persons.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) looked at the two forces as part of a rolling programme of inspections across England and Wales.
Of particular importance was the recording of domestic abuse crimes as they often involve victims who are particularly vulnerable.
Based on crime reports from October 2017 to March 2018, HMICFRS estimated that Dyfed-Powys fails to record over 3,300 reported crimes each year as it records 87.8 per cent offences.
Gwent Police did slightly better, with an estimated recording rate of 90.5 per cent, but this meant that around 5,100 crimes were not being recorded per annum.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of violent offences fuelled by alcohol at Britain’s railway stations over the festive period has more than doubled in the past two years, new figures show.
There were 189 cases between November 24 2017 and January 2 compared with the same period two years earlier, according to British Transport Police (BTP) data.
Violence is often directed at other passengers or station staff and frequently results in injuries and arrests.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The public should “get involved and do something physical” if they see police officers being attacked, the Metropolitan Police commissioner has said.
Last month a video of an assault on two officers in London was shared thousands of times online. A suspect is seen launching a flying kick at a female officer, while her colleague is punched by another man. A passing driver posted the footage on Twitter with the caption “south London at night . . . lol”.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The number of police officers in London will plummet to the lowest level in more than 15 years if funding is not urgently increased, Sadiq Khan has warned.
Should further savings be demanded by the Home Office, Mr Khan claimed there could soon be as few as 26,800 officers working in the Metropolitan Police - the fewest since 2002.
The London mayor is due to meet Home Secretary Sajid Javid on Tuesday to discuss police funding for 2019-20, but as it stands the Met is required to make a further £335 million worth of savings by 2022, the mayor's office said.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police have told parents to "take responsibility for your children" after officers were surrounded by 100 teenagers, with some throwing bricks and letting off fireworks.
A Police Community Support Officer was punched in the face during the fracas in Stanley, County Durham.
Body camera footage shows uniformed officers being quickly surrounded after responding to a report of a "vulnerable female" at the bus station.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police forces across England and Wales could see a funding boost of more than £600m next year as part of the government's efforts to find more money for frontline policing.
Sky News understands that Home Secretary Sajid Javid has cut a deal with Chancellor Philip Hammond and James Brokenshire, the communities secretary, to double the amount that local authorities can add to council tax bills for policing.
It is thought that ministers have provisionally agreed to allow local authorities to increase the precept charge on council tax bills from £1 a month to £2 a month from April 2019 - or £12 to £24 annually.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Ministers have been accused of a financial sleight of hand over plans to allow a council tax increase to pay for extra police funding, in a move Labour said would hit the poorest hardest without providing enough extra funding.
Forces across England and Wales were set to benefit to the tune of £450m, it emerged on Friday, and there have been suggestions the government could hand over a further £170m when it decides on police funding for next year. Police have been dealing with years of shrinking budgets and a pension shortfall of about £420m.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Drugs runners are operating 2,000 "county lines" routes from big cities into smaller towns and the countryside, according to new figures obtained by Sky News.
We can also reveal that the business is worth over £3 million a day.
Sky News has obtained exclusive access to people involved in this ruthless trade, from wholesalers to drugs mules
[ more...]
Police Demand
Britain’s biggest police force is dismissing about a third of all crime reports after only one telephone call with the victim, it can be revealed.
Burglaries, low-level assaults, criminal damage, theft and affray are all on a list of crimes that can be dismissed without being investigated under a policy secretly introduced by the Metropolitan Police last year.
The Met, which used to send a police officer to every crime if requested by the victim, assesses 37 per cent of reports over the telephone, according to a report.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Government has pledged a further £3million to Wiltshire Police to cover the ongoing costs of the Novichok related incidents in Salisbury and Amesbury.
Latest projections show the operational costs for the force are expected to reach nearly £11million, with the Government having reimbursed £6.6million previously this further £3million brings the total costs reclaimed to £9.6million.
PCC Angus Macpherson has said that he fully expects all costs associated with the operation to be met centrally by the Government.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Knife crime in Wales increased by 25% in the space of a year according to the latest figures from police forces.
There were 1,228 knife crimes - which is any crime which involved the use of a blade - from July 2017 to June 2018 - up from 986.
Youth workers have said cuts in services for young people and the growth in "county lines" drugs networks are to blame.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Chancellor Philip Hammond is due to set out the government's analysis of the economic impact of Brexit.
The Bank of England (BoE) will also deliver its assessments on Wednesday as Theresa May heads to Scotland to press the case for her agreement with Brussels.
Downing Street has said the Treasury's papers will cover a "range of scenarios".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police force has removed an "insulting" child sexual exploitation campaign from social media after accusations of victim blaming.
North Yorkshire Police posted a series of "deliberately hard-hitting" images on social media as part of a new campaign to target child sexual exploitation.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers have slammed a judge’s decision to allow a teenager filmed trying to smash into a car with a zombie knife to walk free from court.
Scotland Yard superintendent Roy Smith was among those to hit out at the ruling, which sparked outrage across the country, saying: “it does not provide any form of deterrent”.
Local units across the capital joined him in condemning the decision, with Camden Police writing on Twitter: “If nothing else, it simply sends the wrong message.”
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Theresa May’s Brexit deal will leave the UK worse off than staying in the EU “but not by much”, the chancellor admitted today.
Philip Hammond said that the economic impact was only part of the consideration as he urged MPs to back the prime minister’s plan in two weeks’ time.
A new Treasury forecast published later is expected to say that GDP will be between 1 and 2 per cent lower in 15 years, making the UK £40 billion poorer if Mrs May’s deal is adopted, says The Daily Telegraph. Under a no deal it estimated that the UK would be £150 billion worse off.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Conservative MP, Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet), asked about the National Police Funding settlement and police resources.
The Prime Minister said that she recognises Villers's concern but that the government has protected police funding and that alongside council tax precept flexibilities there is an extra £460m to the police. The PM said that the government will "Continue to insure that the police have the resources they need to cut crime and keep our communities safe but of courser there is also a role for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners, as operational leaders and elected local representatives to decide how best to deploy resources to manage and respond to individual crimes and indeed to local crime priorities".
[ more...]
Police Demand
Five people racked up 8,655 calls to the Metropolitan Police in 2017 - costing £70,000 to answer.
What did the top five repeat callers have in common? Mental health problems.
A watchdog for police forces in England and Wales released the figure to show how police have become the "default" service to deal with mental health.
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Service claims the broader mental health system is "broken".
[ more...]
Police Finances
Government funding for tackling serious and organised crime is “by no means enough” compared with its cost to the UK, a criminologist has said.
Serious and organised crime affects more citizens and causes more deaths in the UK each year than all other national security threats combined, the Home Office’s ‘Serious and Organised Crime Strategy’, published last month, said.
The Home Office committed £48m for 2019-20 to tackle organised crime as part of the strategy.
[ more...]
Technology
Social media companies did not report any suspicious terrorist activity on their platforms to the police for four years, the UK’s former head of counterterrorism has disclosed.
Sir Mark Rowley, who headed Britain’s anti-terrorism police until January this year, said their failure to pass on information had been “wholly irresponsible” and put lives at risk.
He led the police investigations into attacks including the Manchester Arena bombing that claimed 22 lives, the Westminster Bridge attack in which PC Keith Palmer was stabbed to death, and the London Bridge attack in which eight people died. Sir Mark said: “In nearly four years leading police counter-terrorism efforts, I saw zero proactive reports of suspicious behaviour to us by any of these companies. This is irresponsible.
[ more...]
Technology
Computer software intended to predict where and when crimes would occur has been scrapped by a police force.
Kent Police was the first force in England and Wales to introduce the "predictive policing" system in 2013.
It said a new approach to policing which "places victims and witnesses at its centre" had led it to "evaluate alternative options".
Officers said the software had been "really useful" for "proactive" policing.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Bedfordshire police will receive a £4.6 million funding boost to fight organised crime and gang violence.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid has approved a special grant application from Bedfordshire police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Kathryn Holloway.
The additional funding will support the force to disrupt gang activity in and around towns in the force area.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The independent Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE) has today (Thursday 22 November) called on the public to share their views, experience and evidence on extremism and its impact for a first-of-a-kind study.
The Commission, announced by the Prime Minister after the terror attacks of 2017, has launched a 10-week Call for Evidence, inviting firsthand accounts of the harms extremists inflict on individuals, communities and our society.
The evidence, which will be treated sensitively and in the strictest of confidence, will feed into a wide-ranging study of extremism to be published in spring 2019.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A mother whose teenage son was killed a year ago has criticised campaigners who try to “tie the hands of the police” over stop-and-search tactics.
Sharon Kendall, 38, said that campaigners resisting an increase in use of the tactic should “look at all the murdered teenagers’ faces”. Jason Isaacs, her son, was 18 when he was stabbed in the street in Northolt, west London, last November. The apprentice carpenter died in hospital three days later.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A mother whose teenage son was killed a year ago has criticised campaigners who try to “tie the hands of the police” over stop-and-search tactics.
Sharon Kendall, 38, said that campaigners resisting an increase in use of the tactic should “look at all the murdered teenagers’ faces”. Jason Isaacs, her son, was 18 when he was stabbed in the street in Northolt, west London, last November. The apprentice carpenter died in hospital three days later.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A new police unit will be created to analyse evidence of dangerous driving caught on camera by other road users.
The Department for Transport (DfT) announced that the “back office unit” will be among 50 proposed new measures in a two-year plan to protect vulnerable road users and combat road rage.
It will allow police forces to handle video and photographic evidence captured on road users’ devices such as dash cams.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Record numbers of men are reporting domestic abuse by their partners to police - as the proportion of women victims turning to police has fallen, official figures have revealed.
The proportion of male victims who told police about their domestic abuse increased from 10.4% in 2014-15 to 14.7% this year as charities said more men were shaking off the stigma of talking about their suffering.
However, the figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed it coincided with a sharp drop in the proportion of women victims reporting their abuse to police, down from 25.8% to 18.4% over the same period.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Frontline officers face having more rest days and holidays cancelled to plug the gaps following failed attempts to fix a tri-force.
Avon and Somerset Police pulled out of the collaboration with Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Police after it was unable to reach an agreement on how future working arrangements could be improved.
Excessive hours, continually backfilling vacancies and a “haphazard” approach to HR functions were some of the issues which the respective federations said were “too large a task to solve”.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The process of extracting the UK from the European Union will stretch the system of government “beyond breaking point”, a leading academic has warned.
Jim Gallagher, visiting professor at the University of Glasgow and a research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, told the Scottish Affairs Committee that Brexit was “one of the least ordered pieces of public policy” he had witnessed.
“Brexit was always going to be an almost impossible challenge for any government and for any set of intergovernmental relations,” he said yesterday.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The sale of so-called legal highs has gone underground after a blanket ban came into force, a report says.
While the ban has led to a "considerable reduction" in use of the drugs, street dealers are now the main source of supply.
Now officially known as new psychoactive substances (NPS), they mimic the effects of other drugs like cocaine, cannabis and ecstasy.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Officers should be given a pay rise as they struggle to make ends meet, the NPCC lead for pay and conditions has acknowledged.
Thames Valley Chief Constable Francis Habgood, who is retiring in March, says the government cannot continue to reject the independent police remuneration review body’s recommendations.
In areas like Thames Valley, where the cost of living is high, CC Habgood says some officers are clearly feeling the strain.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers could start letting violent suspects go if they do not get the backing of the public, a federation leader has warned.
The chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, Ken Marsh, spoke out after video footage appearing to show two officers locked in a violent struggle as they tried to make an arrest was shared thousands of times on social media.
The footage, taken in south London on Saturday, appeared to show a male officer being dragged around in the road as he tries to stop a suspect in a white tracksuit running away.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A chief says forces are better at delivering stop and search now than ever before.
Bedfordshire Chief Constable Jon Boutcher told Police Oracle the tactic was a “core part of British policing” which he wants to see used more often within his force.
Last week MPs asked questions about stop and search after signals from government it wanted to remove bureaucracy from its use – after years of discouraging police from carrying out stops.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Thugs with "no respect for society" are attacking officers while people watch on, a police chief warned last night. Ken Marsh, the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said forces may even let criminals go if the public does not "stand up for what is right" and prevent yobs from viciously attacking them.
[ more...]
Police Demand
After eight years of spending cuts affecting public services, the government has said austerity is coming to an end.
But what has the effect of less money been on local communities?
The BBC has been following officers in one of England's poorest towns to investigate how budget cuts impact police on the front line.
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Police Demand
Ministers are failing to act with “a meaningful sense of purpose or urgency” in the face of a growing cyber threat to the UK’s critical national infrastructure (CNI), a parliamentary committee has warned.
The joint committee on national security strategy said at a time when states such as Russia were expanding their capability to mount disruptive cyber-attacks, the UK’s level of ministerial oversight was “wholly inadequate”.
It urged Theresa May to appoint a cybersecurity minister in cabinet to take charge of the efforts to build national resilience.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Austerity and rampant drug dealing have created a “lost generation” of children living in fear of violence across the UK, police and former gang members have said.
There are fears the recent spate of bloody street stabbings in London, where 20 teenagers have been killed so far this year, will not be the last if funding to police and public services is not urgently increased.
Knife crime stands at a record high, but Home Office-funded research has found that authorities in many areas do not understand how gangs operate or how social media is fuelling violence.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police chiefs have warned illegal raves are a "growing problem" after forces revealed they are tackling hundreds across Britain each year.
More than 680 reports of unlicensed music events were recorded last year - up 9% on the previous 12 months - amid a rise in nightclubs shutting down, a Sky News investigation has found.
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said illegal raves were "inherently unsafe" and officers had to consider the safety of residents when deciding whether to shut events down.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Motorists who are caught speeding would face bigger fines and higher fees for driver awareness courses under controversial proposals from a policing chief.
Alison Hernandez, who takes the lead on road safety for Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), is lobbying Ministers to hike the cost of both Penalty Charge Notices and National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS) sessions by as much as £30. If adopted, fines could soar from around £100 to as much as £130 and the cost of an average four-hour NDORS course rise from £90 to £120.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A pioneering Welsh scheme will be used to help unearth trouble "hotspots" and cut violent crime in the United States.
The Cardiff Model for Violence Prevention anonymously gathers details at A&Es about incidents, revealing problem areas unknown to police.
The US Department of Justice said more than half of violence is unreported which has made prevention difficult.
[ more...]
Fire
MPs have rallied against proposals to transfer governance of a fire service to the West Midlands mayor.
An early day motion has been tabled over fears that proposals could lead to lack of expertise when holding the authority to account.
The motion, tabled by Coventry South MP Jim Cunningham, criticised plans to transfer governance of the West Midlands Fire Service from the Fire Authority to the West Midlands Combined Authority.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More police officers are needed across the country to tackle knife crime, the home secretary admitted yesterday.
Sajid Javid said it was his personal mission to get knife offending under control and urged police to make full use of their powers to stop and search people on the street for weapons. However, ministers have no plans to loosen the restriction on when officers can use the power, as was suggested by one senior police officer.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government continues to insist that chief constables were told about imminent pension changes that the service worries could cost 10,000 officer post.
Chief Secretary to the Treasury Elizabeth Trust has repeated the claim that upcoming pension changes were announced by the government years ago.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police chiefs want to trigger an expansion of stop and search by lowering the level of suspicion an officer needs against a suspect to use the power, the Guardian has learned.
They want to scrap the requirement that “reasonable grounds” are needed before a person can be subjected to a search, amid mounting concern over knife attacks.
Senior officers have held talks with advisers to the home secretary, Sajid Javid, within the last fortnight to discuss the issue. It would fuel the debate about police discrimination against minority ethnic communities, civil liberties and the role stop and search has to play in tackling violent crime.
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Police and Crime General
Almost 80 per cent of people believe police force spending cuts have made them less safe on the streets of Britain, an exclusive survey has shown.
Some four-fifths of those questioned in a survey said swingeing cuts enforced during a near-decade of austerity driven by the Conservatives have damaged public safety.
In a worrying omen for Theresa May, an even larger proportion of Tory voters were of the view that spending reductions have had a negative impact – potentially undermining the Conservatives’ traditional claim to be the party of law and order.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Over 60 projects are set to receive a multi-million pound injection of cash in order to help survivors of domestic abuse, the Government has confirmed.
The £22m in funding, announced on Saturday, will go to 63 projects across England which will be delivered by councils working alongside other organisations.
The money will provide over 2,200 new beds in refuges and other safe accommodation, access to education, and tailored employment and life skills guidance to help abuse survivors.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The government has ruled out changing stop and search rules to allow police to use the power without reasonable grounds to suspect wrongdoing, while saying they want to “reduce bureaucracy” over such operations.
The statement from the junior Home Office minister Nick Hurd follows the revelation in the Guardian that police have been in talks with advisers to the home secretary, Sajid Javid, about loosening the rules because of worries about an increase in knife attacks.
[ more...]
Police Finances
29 projects endorsed by Police and Crime Commissioners across England and Wales will receive £17.7 million over 2 years to divert children and young people away from violent crime.
The projects will include work with children and young people at risk of criminal involvement, organisations safeguarding those at risk of gang exploitation and county lines, or who have already offended to help divert them into positive life choices.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A series of stabbings on the streets of London has led to a renewed focus on knife crime and how to reduce it.
One power available to the police is stop and search, and Home Secretary Sajid Javid has recently emphasised its importance in tackling violence:
"If stop and search means that lives can be saved from the communities most affected, then of course it's a very good thing," he told the annual Police Superintendents' Conference in September.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Stop and Search is to modern policing what bloodletting was to ancient medicine. An ineffective ‘cure’, which, in the absence of alternatives, gets tried again and again, despite its propensity to make the situation worse. Each failure causes its proponents to double down and call for more...
A thought provoking piece, calling for a different approach to knife crime.
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Police and Crime General
Fewer than one in 100 thefts in some police force areas are being solved, an analysis shows, prompting criticism of police priorities.
While the number of thefts from people have doubled to 100,000 fuelled by the boom in mobile phones, the proportion where the offender was caught and charged have halved since 2014/15.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The home secretary has told Sky News the police need more funding to help tackle knife crime as he hinted the chancellor would be stumping up the cash in the coming weeks.
Sajid Javid said he was "deeply worried" about the spiralling violence and said he was in discussions with the chancellor to make sure the police had the financial resources they needed.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are to get enhanced powers to stop and search suspects in an attempt to combat the surge in violent crime and knife attacks, Sajid Javid has revealed.
The Home Secretary said he wanted police to be more confident to use stop and search, sweep away bureaucracy and make it easier to deploy powers that senior officers say are vital in the fight against crime.
Some police chiefs say constables have become reluctant to use the power as they fear being accused of racism.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government has been ordered to repay £1m to human trafficking victims after the High Court ruled cuts to their support payments were unlawful.
It follows a successful challenge by two claimants, a 19-year-old asylum seeker and a victim of sex trafficking, against the cuts.
Their case was supported by charities for victims of trafficking.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A Home Office minister has voiced fears that removing guards from trains could boost county lines drug gangs.
Ben Wallace is concerned that driver-only trains will mean guards can no longer spot children carrying heroin and cocaine.
Mr Wallace has ordered officials to work with the Department for Transport to see if the move will worsen the county lines menace where city gangs groom boys and girls as young as 12 to carry cocaine and heroin to market towns and seaside resorts.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Reductions in police numbers and funding have “severely dented” public confidence in the service, MPs say.
Financial pressures have left police struggling to provide an effective service, risking serious consequences for public safety, according to a report by the Commons public accounts committee.
Officer numbers have fallen by 21,300 over the past decade; those remaining are taking longer to charge suspects and making fewer arrests. Forces are increasingly called on for non-criminal incidents amid cuts in other public services. Public confidence that the police will respond to calls is “breaking down”, the report says.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Nick Hurd, Minister for Policing and the Fire Service, has given no indication that the Government will meet the anticipated £160 million loss to budgets due to pension changes as further increases are modelled in council tax Precepts.
Mr Hurd would only commit to saying that he will be bringing his Review of Police Funding settlement for 2019/20 to parliament in early December, as he did last year.
He failed to offer any promise of help with the coming deficit while responding to an urgent question posed by Louise Haigh, Shadow Minister for Policing, on Tuesday (November 6) in the House of Commons.
Ms Haigh said the Government had chosen to “sneak out” the cuts due to pension rule changes in September this year, resulting in an estimated £165 million loss to budgets in 2019/20 and £420 million in 2020/21.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt has been appointed to lead the National Police Chiefs’ Council from April 2019.
Current Chair Sara Thornton will leave the post in March 2019 after serving a four year term.
Chief constables were invited to apply for the post of Chair of NPCC in October. Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt applied for the post and, in accordance with election rules, has been appointed.
AC Hewitt began his policing career with Kent Police in 1993 and transferred to the Metropolitan Police Service in 2005. He is currently responsible for frontline policing which includes local policing and specialist crime commands across London.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Almost a third of publicly funded drugs rehab centres have closed in the last five years, Sky News has learned, amid warnings that a lack of support for addicts will lead to increased levels of crime.
In April 2013 there were 195 publicly funded rehab centres in Britain, according to figures obtained by private drug rehab provider UK Addiction Treatment Centres.
Now there are just 139. During that time, there were £60m of cuts.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
It could take a generation to solve London's violent crime problem, the city's mayor has warned.
Two teenage boys and two men have been stabbed to death in the city in the last five days, including 15-year-old Jay Hughes.
Mayor Sadiq Khan told the BBC's Today programme to "really make significant progress can take up to 10 years".
[ more...]
Police Demand
Britain’s most senior police officer has said catching paedophiles who view indecent images of children online should be a lower priority than rising violent crime.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick said “stretched” forces are unable to respond to the rising number of demands put on them, amid a surge in stabbings and shootings.
Speaking as two teenagers were knifed to death in under 24 hours in London, she said her top priorities were violent crime and terrorism.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Policy advisors are urging police and crime commissioners to consider pooling budgets with local authorities, health and social services to help address spiralling demand from mental health, vulnerable persons and drug related incidents.
Although “major shifts” in demand have left police facing “unprecedented pressures”, the service should not turn its back on missing persons and mental health workload but instead needs to “improve [its] ability to tackle the causes of demand”, policy insight and research company Crest said.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police should focus on catching thieves and violent criminals and not incidents where no offence has been committed, a senior officer has said.
Chief Constable Sara Thornton said forces are too stretched to deal with "deserving" issues, such as logging gender-based hate incidents.
Claims against dead people was also taking resources from tackling "today's crime today", she told a conference.
She called for a "refocus on core policing".
[ more...]
Police Demand
Serious and organised crime in the UK is costing the economy £37bn a year, according to the National Crime Agency.
Its latest report said around 4,600 serious and organised crime groups existed in the UK and their activities affected more citizens than all other national security threats combined.
The crimes they commit include child abuse, trafficking and drug dealing.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Sajid Javid's statement on tackling serious and organised crime.
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Police Finances
Police chiefs in England and Wales will take legal action in the high court against the government unless it backs down on plans to deduct hundreds of millions of pounds from their budgets, the Guardian has learned.
The unprecedented decision was taken by the National Police Chiefs Council, which sent a formal letter to the Treasury saying it will seek a judicial review of the government’s proposals.
It marks a new low in relations between police chiefs and the government. The NPCC represents police chiefs of the 43 local forces in England and Wales, and it has already hired a barrister to seek a judicial order forcing the government to climb down.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Rank-and-file police officers called for a rethink on drug enforcement after they accepted for the first time yesterday that the present laws were not working.
The Police Federation’s board voted unanimously for a new policy on drugs, saying that 100 years of prohibition had failed. The intervention came as Sajid Javid, the home secretary, announced a review of the medicinal use of cannabis.
He ruled out relaxing the law against recreational use, however, after a call for decriminalisation by Lord Hague of Richmond, the former Tory leader.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Metropolitan Police is to start using its brand to sell merchandise and clothes.
Proceeds from the sale of items bearing its logo will raise money for frontline policing, following years of budget cuts.
The range is set to include clothing, toys and games, stationery, homeware and souvenirs.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Sajid Javid today promised to make it easier for police to use stop and search as he called for a sweeping overhaul of crime-fighting methods.
The Home Secretary said he would “be looking at ways to reduce bureaucracy and increase efficiency” in the deployment of the tactic as part of a raft of changes to improve the police’s ability to tackle a “worrying rise” in serious violent offending.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Philip Hammond heralded that “austerity is finally coming to an end” but the lack of any relief from impending budget cuts for forces caused anger and concern among police leaders.
With borrowing in the current year expected to be £11.6 billion less than previously reported, the Budget Statement included additional funding in the current year for defence, education and the rollout of Universal Credit, as well as almost half a billion pounds for local authorities to repair potholes.
The only announcement for policing was £160 million additional money in 2019/20 “to protect counter terrorism (CT) police numbers” and for future police CT funding to be “considered in the rounds” as part of a future spending review.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Chancellor Philip Hammond has used the Budget to ease the government spending squeeze as he declared that austerity was "finally coming to an end".
Against a backdrop of stronger tax receipts, Mr Hammond said borrowing this year would be £11.6bn lower than projected in March, at £25.5bn.
Borrowing is expected to fall over the next five years.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Income tax cuts for millions of workers announced in Philip Hammond’s budget will “overwhelmingly benefit richer households”, analysis has found, with almost half set to go to the top 10% of households.
The analysis by the Resolution Foundation thinktank found that welfare cuts would continue to affect the poorest households, despite Hammond’s announcement that austerity was coming to an end.
Three-quarters of the £12bn in welfare cuts announced after the 2015 election remain government policy.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Budget has been branded "a bit of a gamble" by a respected economic research group.
The chancellor was able to promise more spending in his budget after forecasts for tax collection were raised, the Institute for Fiscal Studies said.
But those forecasts could easily change for the worse, leaving the chancellor in a tight spot, the IFS said.
The think tank also warned that many public services will continue to feel squeezed for some time to come.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Philip Hammond is preparing to present the last Budget before Brexit.
The chancellor is expected to announce a rise in spending on mental health in England and has also hinted at cash for universal credit welfare reforms.
He has admitted a change of approach, including an entirely new economic plan, will be needed if the UK and the EU cannot agree a deal by 29 March.
Labour is calling for more investment in public services to put an end to years of "failed austerity".
[ more...]
Police Finances
The BBC's live coverage of the budget
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Police Demand
The public now overwhelmingly backs the full legalisation of cannabis, according to a poll that suggests there has been a seismic shift in opinion since the government sanctioned medical use of the drug.
Almost two in three people say that they support legalisation, the Populus poll found. This is a radical turnaround from the last poll in May, when support and opposition were almost even, at 43 per cent and 41 per cent respectively.
In the intervening period the government has approved the medicinal use of cannabis after a public outcry over the case of Billy Caldwell. The 12-year-old boy was admitted to hospital in a life-threatening condition after the Home Office seized the cannabis oil that was helping to control his severe epilepsy. From Thursday nearly 80,000 specialist doctors will be allowed to prescribe cannabis medicines on the NHS.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Mental health services will get a cash injection of £2bn a year, as Philip Hammond promises more dedicated support in Monday's budget.
Special ambulances to treat people with conditions like depression, anxiety and PTSD are part of the new measures to ensure mental illnesses are treated as seriously as physical ones.
The vehicles look like normal cars and are designed to reduce stigma.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A policeman has revealed that victims of petty crimes are being forced to carry out their own investigations due to a lack of officers.
Sergeant Simon Kempton said that officers can no longer look into reports of minor crime like bike theft.
He confessed that victims are now being urged to trawl websites like Gumtree, eBay and Facebook in a bid to track down their stolen possessions themselves.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Philip Hammond has delivered his third Budget as chancellor. Here are the key points of his 72-minute speech.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Local councils in England are to get an extra £420m to tackle a growing number of potholes.
Chancellor Philip Hammond will make the announcement in Monday's budget, alongside a £28.8bn fund to upgrade England's motorways.
But the Asphalt Industry Alliance has said more than £8bn would be needed for a one-time fix of potholes in England.
Labour criticised the move to invest heavily on major roads, arguing money should be spent on public transport.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Thieves stealing from petrol pumps are being let off by almost one in five police forces.
At least eight forces in England and Wales have stopped pursuing fuel thefts and retailers accuse them of ‘routinely ignoring the crime’.
Driving off without paying, or ‘bilking’, is increasingly downgraded to a low-level offence that officers cannot afford to respond to.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Labour is calling for concrete action by the chancellor in Monday's Budget to end austerity not just "financial conjuring tricks" and "vague promises".
Philip Hammond must "stump up the cash" for schools, councils and social care, shadow chancellor John McDonnell said.
Theresa May has pledged that almost a decade of budget cuts, pay restraint and benefit freezes are nearing an end.
Labour has calculated that £30bn in extra spending would be required by 2023 to make this a reality.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A woman subjected to a "degrading" strip search by police in London is challenging a decision not to punish the officer who authorised it.
Koshka Duff was arrested after offering a legal advice card to a black teenager during his stop-and-search.
What happened left her with multiple injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the academic says.
[ more...]
Fire
A fire service is warning it may no longer be able to rescue cats and other animals as part of cuts to spending.
Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service spent more than £345,000 on animal rescues between 2014 and 2016.
It has now been tasked with saving at least £7m in the next four years alongside similar cuts imposed on fire services across the country.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Local authorities are being given the opportunity to bid for funding to tackle youth and gang crime in high-risk areas.
The Supporting Families Against Youth Crime fund will support frontline professionals working with children and young people to intervene earlier to help keep them away from gangs.
It will also support more in-depth work with parents and carers to help them fully understand the risk factors and dangers of their children becoming drawn into gang crime.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Former Metropolitan Police chief Bernard Hogan-Howe has called for an urgent review of the evidence supporting cannabis legalisation.
It marks a significant shift in the attitude of the ex-police commissioner, who backed tough laws against cannabis during his time leading Scotland Yard.
The veteran police officer of nearly 40 years was made a life peer last year.
Lord Hogan-Howe said the Home Office must now reconsider its position following the recent legalisation of cannabis in Canada and some US states.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Potential victims of grooming gangs are no safer now than when the issue became a national scandal almost a decade ago, according to the Crown Prosecution Service’s former lead on child sexual abuse and violence against women and girls.
Speaking after 20 men were found guilty on Friday of belonging to a gang that raped and abused girls as young as 11 in the west Yorkshire town of Huddersfield, Nazir Afzal said the government’s austerity programme had seriously undermined attempts to protect victims.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Philip Hammond has dismissed calls for more money for the police, leading to warnings in government that the chancellor risks undermining the fight against terrorism.
Well-placed sources said a budget showdown last week between Hammond and Sajid Javid, the home secretary, “did not go well”.
Javid has demanded several hundred million pounds in three parts: money for general policing, a new pot of cash to fund counter-terrorism and greater leeway for local authorities facing a crime crisis to raise a local tax called the “precept”.
Figures released last week show that crime is rising around the country.
[ more...]
Technology
More than half of girls have been exposed to unwanted violent or graphic images, Girl Guides say.
Those as young as seven said they were worried about seeing "rude" pictures online, with older girls describing pressure to send naked pictures.
Submissions to an inquiry on the impact of social media on young people's health warn that girls are being coerced into sex acts because boys are copying what they see in pornography.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Statistics highlight short-sighted approach of government cuts, says PCC.
Police recorded crime has increased by almost a tenth, fuelled by rises in homicides, knife-related offences and theft, new figures show. Official figures show that forces in England and Wales registered a total of 5.6 million offences...
[ more...]
Police Finances
Bedfordshire Police ask for extra cash to deal with gang crime and violence.
A police and crime commissioner has submitted an application for an emergency government grant in spite of an HMI's concern it could threaten the future of the bursary. Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Kathryn Holloway has confirmed.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A police chief has blamed real terms funding cuts from central government for having to make “unprecedented” cuts in his force’s officer and staff numbers.
Winton Keenen, chief constable of Northumbria Police, said that falls in funding had caused 1,000 job losses in his local force since 2010.
The force now has the lowest level of reserves it has ever had – and the lowest of any other force in the UK, Keenen said in an open letter.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Three senior officials at a Police Federation branch are under criminal investigation over their handling of funds, including receiving interest-free loans worth tens of thousands of pounds, the Guardian has learned.
An investigation has begun into the former secretary of the West Mercia branch Jamie Harrision, who has been suspended from his role with the federation.
The two others under investigation are the former chair Sgt Russ Yeomans and another official, Sgt Nigel Mortimer, who led on conduct for the branch.
[ more...]
Prisons
Nearly half of prisoners failed drugs tests at a prison that holds large numbers of gang members, a report said.
HMP Chelmsford has one of the worst rates of drug use in the UK, according to HM Inspectorate of Prisons, with organised gangs responsible for supplying illicit items.
There are "significant concerns about safety" and levels of violence are far too high, inspectors said.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Up to 10,000 more police officers’ jobs could be cut because forces face a funding shortfall of nearly £600 million over two years caused by proposed pension changes, it emerged today.
Police chiefs have been told to find another £165 million in 2019-20 and up to £417 million in 2020-21 as a result of an overhaul of public service pension schemes announced recently by the Treasury.
[ more...]
Technology
Officers are unlikely to receive new Emergency Service Network handsets before the current aeging system is switched off, a chief constable believes.
Forces will soon be able to give a test product a trial run whilst a "pick and mix" approach on the ground means they can choose which one they want to purchase even before the Airwave replacement is up and running.
[ more...]
Police Finances
“Significant strain” on police budgets is causing the service given to the public to worsen, a Home Office official has admitted after senior officers condemned the impact of austerity.
Scott McPherson, director general of the crime police and fire group, said the department “absolutely recognises” the struggle to cope with budget cuts and plummeting numbers of police officers.
“The police are under significant strain and, with the resources they have, some of the performance measures we would like to be improving are getting worse,” he told the Public Accounts Committee.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
UK GDP growth was stronger than expected in the three months to August thanks to the summer heatwave, official data on Wednesday showed.
The economy expanded by 0.7 per cent over the three months, according to the latest estimate from the Office for National Statistics.
That was higher than the 0.6 per cent consensus among City analysts.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Britain’s public finances are among the weakest in the world following the 2008 financial crash, according to a fresh assessment of government assets and liabilities by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Washington-based lender said a health check on the wealth of 31 nations found almost £1tn had been wiped off the wealth of the UK’s public sector – equivalent to 50% of GDP – putting it in the second weakest position, with only Portugal in a worse state.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Royal College of Psychiatrists is to review its opposition to the legalisation of cannabis.
The organisation has been wary of moves to decriminalise the drug because of concerns of possible negative effects on users' health.
There is also an association between psychotic illnesses and high-strength varieties of the drug.
But it is now reconsidering its stance due to arguments that legalising cannabis would give the government the power to both regulate its strength and generate tax from its sale.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Home Office is 'not listening to me as a chief constable, nor are they listening to me as a crime operations lead for policing', says Durham boss.
An over-budget and late delivered database has spiralled in cost and could diminish police capability, a chief constable has warned.
Home Office plans for National Law Enforcement Data Programme would initially have seen the police national computer, police national database for intelligence, and automatic number plate recognition joined together.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Chief Constable Dave Thompson has warned that forces are having to make difficult choices that pursue “efficiency to the point of ineffectiveness” and they are failing to meet the expectations of the public.
In a strongly-worded blog, posted on Wednesday (October 10), Mr Thompson points out that “Policing is at the tipping point – and we’ve got to move on from here”.
Mr Thompson wrote: “Budget cuts and a hands-off government approach to aspects of policing have meant hard choices for chief constables with consequences for the public and our people. The public’s experience is policing that is less visible, less responsive and less proactive.”
[ more...]
Police Finances
Just six of Britain's cash-strapped police forces have officers on their front desks despite soaring violent crime, the Daily Express can reveal. Two years ago nine forces in England and Wales had manned counters.
But almost 700 fewer police staff and officers are now either dealing with the public at front desks or handling calls compared with 2016.
Last night critics of police cuts branded it a "scandal".
Since 2010, 600 police stations have shut their doors with victims of crime increasingly being urged to report crimes online because 999 and 101 lines are overwhelmed.
Only 2,411 officers – 1.9 percent of Britain's total police workforce of 122,407 – now deal with the public either face to face at stations or over the phone, with forces now increasingly reliant on backroom staff to deal with victims and witnesses.
[ more...]
Prisons
Prison officers in England and Wales are to be issued with canisters of a synthetic pepper spray to help deal with violence and disorder.
The chemical incapacitant known as PAVA has been trialed in four jails and will be carried by officers in all publicly-run prisons for men from 2019.
Prison officers welcomed the move.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Criminal investigations in England and Wales are being hindered by "outdated" police IT systems, a survey of officers has found.
Only half of the officers asked believed they can rely on information held on their forces' computer systems, and just 65% could access a computer at work when they need to.
According to the Police Federation, which sponsored the survey of working officers, the answers "paint a damning picture of growing frustration on frontline policing".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Metropolitan police’s use of force has risen sharply in the last year, with black people far more likely to be subjected to such tactics than anyone else, the Guardian can reveal.
The UK’s largest police force deployed methods ranging from handcuffing to use of stun guns, CS spray, batons and guns 41,329 times in April to August of this year – 270 times a day on average – according to Guardian analysis of official figures. That compares with 23,118 in the corresponding period last year – a 79% rise – and 62,153 in the whole of 2017-18.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The home secretary, Sajid Javid, is taking the UK down a “very dangerous road” with plans to expand powers to strip dual citizens of their British citizenship, a leading human rights group has warned.
Suspected terrorists have previously had their UK citizenship taken away – most often while they are abroad – and the move does not require prior approval from a judge or parliament.
In his speech at the Conservative party conference, Javid proposed extending the reach of the power to cover serious criminals, citing child grooming gangmasters as an example.
[ more...]
Technology
The world’s most powerful spy chiefs will be drafted in to hunt down paedophile gangs, under plans drawn up by Sajid Javid. The home secretary will chair a meeting of the Five Eyes intelligence partnership next year and has made tackling child sexual exploitation the top item on the agenda, ahead of fighting terrorism and Isis.
The Five Eyes combines British spies with their counterparts from America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and is regarded as the cream of the West’s intelligence agencies.
Javid is also acting as a link between GCHQ, the government’s listening agency in Cheltenham, and the big internet companies — such as Google, Facebook and WhatsApp — as he turns the screws on them to crack down on child sex abuse.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police turned a blind eye to almost a million crimes last year, figures show.
On average one in four crime reports were shelved by police across the UK with little or no investigation, according to a report.
Offences such as sexual assault, violent attacks, burglaries and car thefts were dropped hours after being reported, often because they were deemed unsolvable.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The mystery of apprenticeship levy money which vanished over two years ago has been solved.
Former Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) Welsh lead Sam Roberts urged to Home Secretary to help her work out where two years of apprenticeship payments, which could total more than £5 million, had gone.
Documents for Gwent Police and Crime Panel (GPCP) reveal the capital was sent straight to the Welsh Government.
[ more...]
Prisons
The president of the Prison Governors Association is to accuse the Government of failing to respond quickly enough to the jail safety crisis.
Andrea Albutt will claim “dis-investment” has contributed to the decline in standards that has hit much of the estate in England and Wales.
In a scathing critique, she will say: “A constant irritation of mine is that the Government do not have the humility to admit that they got their policy completely wrong this decade in our prisons.”
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) is to begin legal action over the government's failure to implement a recommended pay rise for officers.
The body that represents 120,000 rank-and-file police has asked lawyers to start judicial review proceedings against Home Secretary Sajid Javid.
It follows the decision by the government to award a two percent pay rise from 1 September 2018, instead of the three percent suggested by the independent Police Remuneration Review Body.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Theresa May has declared the age of austerity over with a message to voters that "there are better days ahead".
In her crucial keynote speech to the Conservative conference in Birmingham, Mrs May said next year's post-Brexit Spending Review will set out a programme of increased investment for public services, as a mark that the decade of cuts following the financial crash is coming to an end.
Despite her speech, the Prime Minister, did not make any founding announcements with regards to police.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
PCSOs will be given the power to stop and seize cars, require drivers to show licenses and authorise the use of traffic offence reports.
Lincolnshire Police has announced it is using the Antisocial behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014 to give the uniformed police staff more powers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Middle-class drug users will be targeted as part of a crackdown on the causes of violent crime, Home Secretary Sajid Javid will announce.
He will use his Tory conference speech to launch a review of drug buyers and sellers - and how shifts in the market are linked to outbreaks of bloodshed.
Justice Secretary David Gauke will also announce a new financial crime unit to seize the assets of drugs "kingpins".
Labour says the proposals will not make up for cuts to public services.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Middle-class drug users will be targeted as part of a crackdown on the causes of violent crime, Home Secretary Sajid Javid will announce.
He will use his Tory conference speech to launch a review of drug buyers and sellers - and how shifts in the market are linked to outbreaks of bloodshed.
Justice Secretary David Gauke will also announce a new financial crime unit to seize the assets of drugs "kingpins".
Labour says the proposals will not make up for cuts to public services.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Sheffield City Council has urged people to stop taking photos of "spice zombies", saying the drug can be "distressing".
It comes after images of people collapsed on street corners or slumped on benches after taking the synthetic cannabis substitute have spread online.
[ more...]
Prisons
The new Financial Crime unit, staffed by members of the police and prison service, will make sure that drug dealing in prisons is “no longer be profitable because we will find your assets and we will seize them,” David Gauke said.
The bank accounts are tracked via paper notes found in prison cells, which contain account details, or on phones seized from prisoners with instructions to make transfers.
Once discovered, the unit will then be able to freeze bank accounts and initiate criminal proceedings against those involved, as those transactions amount to money laundering, according to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The first English merger of police forces for decades could be cancelled as one of the police and crime commissioners involved no longer supports making a business case for it.
Devon & Cornwall PCC Alison Hernandez says she has been told by the Home Office that the forces will not be able to create 40 extra officer posts as a result of the move.
The department will not let her area put up its council tax to Dorset levels and invest that cash in the front line, she said.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
This year's Budget is to be earlier than usual to avoid clashing with the final stage of Brexit negotiations in November.
The date of the Budget, 29 October, also fits in with ministers' availability and official data releases, a Treasury spokesman said.
The Budget will also be a week after a high profile Brussels Brexit summit.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A Labour government would pass new measures to guarantee that the so-called “spy cops” scandal, which saw undercover officers deceive women activists into long-term sexual relationships, can never happen again.
The plans, which will be announced by shadow home secretary Diane Abbott in her speech to the Labour party conference on Tuesday, include requiring all undercover police operations to obtain a warrant from a judge. Undercover officers would also face a time-limit on their investigations if Labour comes to power.
Abbott is expected to say today: “We know that in this country you generally need a warrant to enter someone’s home or intercept their telephone calls. So we will insist on time-limited, judicial warrants for any undercover policing.”
[ more...]
Prisons
The three-mile perimeter of a prison where drugs are readily available is "virtually impossible" to constantly police, a custodial manager has warned.
Packages containing the drug Spice and mini mobile phones are regularly thrown over the fence at HMP Lindholme, which is surrounded by public rights of way.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police have admitted for the first time that an undercover officer had a sexual relationship with an environmental activist with the knowledge of bosses.
Legal documents seen by the BBC reveal they knew about Mark Kennedy's relationship with Kate Wilson and allowed it to continue.
She was among several women he had relationships with while undercover.
[ more...]
Technology
Britain’s military and security services tested a new arsenal of offensive cyberweapons against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, The Times can reveal.
GCHQ, the government’s listening post, and British armed forces personnel pioneered the use of fresh cyber-capabilities to spread malware to block jihadists’ access to data, according to interviews with present and former intelligence officers.
The operation also involved the dissemination of fake news to sow confusion among Islamic State’s supporters and techniques to disrupt the terrorists’ cash transactions. Measures that interfered with the group’s funding and logistics made it harder for it to pay its militants and buy weapons, ammunition, food and supplies.
[ more...]
Prisons
Adult offenders under 25 should be treated more leniently by sentencing courts because they are still maturing, according to a report published today.
More than 140,000 adults aged 18 to 24 were sentenced in criminal courts last year and they should be treated as a distinct category of offender, the Howard League for Penal Reform says.
It calls for formal sentencing guidelines to help judges and magistrates understand young adults better and take account of the relationship between immaturity and blameworthiness, capacity to change and histories of being in care, the report says.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Nottinghamshire Police has become the fifth UK force to adopt a next-generation command, control and communication system, found in some of the most hi-tech control rooms around the globe, to help to transform the way it operates.
It combines all of the functions required of a modern control room into a single unified software application, including multi-channel communications, contact management, command and control, radio dispatch, mapping and resource management. It can be hosted locally or in the cloud and can be deployed on fixed, web and mobile platforms.
[ more...]
Technology
Superfast 5G mobile networks, which are supposed to transform UK communications from 2020, could provide a boon to criminals by covering their tracks, experts say.
In its annual internet crime report, Europol said 5G posed challenges for police because of the ability of devices to download data simultaneously from multiple sources, such as wifi, network towers and satellites. “With current 4G technology, law enforcement is able to use the unique identifier assigned to a device ... but 5G replaces this with a temporary identifier.”
The European police agency said the difficulties were compounded because requirements of the new general data protection regulation (GDPR) prevented officers from using tools that previously enabled easier tracking.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police chiefs have discussed embargoes on officer holiday next March but agreed they do not have enough information about potential threats to public safety.
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) lead for operations Charlie Hall sad despite rumors officers will be banned from taking vacations in Spring 2019, there are no proposals to do so.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The police tactic of stop and search is increasing the likelihood of crime rather than preventing it, finds a report that paints a bleak picture of young men and boys snapping under the pressure of relentless checks sometimes multiple times a day.
Based on in-depth interviews with young Londoners named on the Metropolitan police’s controversial list of gang suspects – the gangs matrix – the report (pdf) also raises concerns about how the police’s “gang nominal” assessment has an impact on the lives of those listed.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Badger culling has cost forces more than £4million in the last year, figure from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs reveal.
In 2016 the operation, which aims to tackle bovine TB, cost police £3,029,998, but soared to £4,046,56 last year - a 33.5 per cent increase.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Kent police has begun the “biggest recruitment drive in a generation” as it steps up its preparations for Brexit.
Kent’s police and crime commissioner, Matthew Scott, told The Sunday Times that by March 2019 the force will have 270 more officers than when he was elected in May 2016.
Later this week, it will be decided how many more officers Kent police will need in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Kent is likely to be at the sharp end of preparations because the county is home to ports including Dover, as well as the Ebbsfleet international rail terminal.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The chairman of the Police Federation says Theresa May is
carrying out a ‘personal attack’ on policing.
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Mirror, John Apter accused the PM of treating officers with contempt.
He said that because of low pay they were turning to payday loans and charities to make ends meet.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Public Sector Audit Appointments has named Tony Crawley as its new chief executive.
Crawley has a background in district audit and is currently a director at KPMG, focusing on local public audit. He will join PSAA in mid-October.
As chief executive, Crawley will lead PSAA’s work as the “appointing person” responsible for auditor appointments for nearly 500 local authorities and police bodies.
“I am very much looking forward to working with PSAA's Board, staff and partners to help promote the importance of local audit as we move into a new phase for the company,” he said.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Ministers have rejected several recommendations of an independent pay review for police and crime commissioners.
After six years without a pay increase of any sort for the elected representatives, the Home Office had asked the review group to assess if they should get one - but the government has now overruled most of what it recommended.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Addressing the Police Superintendents’ Association conference today, Louise Haigh MP confirmed Labour’s commitment to a real-terms budget increase for police and 10,000 additional neighbourhood officers, whilst criticising the current administration.
She said: “The police service cannot keep limping on as it is and if you do not receive a significant funding settlement at the Comprehensive Spending Review this Autumn, the time will finally have come for us all to have an honest conversation with the public about what you can and can’t do.”
The former police officer said that the force was “unrecognisable” from when she served six years ago due to budget cuts, new types of crime and the added pressures from cuts in other public services.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Ministers do not know the impact that funding cuts have had on police forces, the UK's public spending watchdog says.
According to the National Audit Office, the Home Office does not know whether the police system in England and Wales is "financially sustainable".
It calls the approach to police funding "ineffective" and "detached" from the changing demands faced by officers.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government's refusal to increase police pay by 3% in England and Wales is a "punch on the nose", the head of the Metropolitan Police has said.
Cressida Dick said she was "extremely disappointed" by the decision to give police a 2% rise, against the recommendation of an independent board.
She said it had impacted both morale and staffing.
[ more...]
Police Finances
[For the corresponding PACCTS Briefing please refer to the Police Finances page]
Police forces in England and Wales are struggling to maintain an effective service as the government fails to ensure they are financially sustainable, according to the public spending watchdog.
Central government funding to police commissioners – at £7.7bn this financial year - has fallen by 30% in real terms since 2010-11, according to a National Audit Office report out today.
Police and crime commissioners in England and Wales have suffered a 19% real-terms reduction in total funding between 2010-11 and 2018-19, the analysis showed. Police also receive funding through a council tax precept.
[ more...]
Prisons
A rapist and paedophile who was transferred to a women’s prison after claiming to be female and assaulted four inmates there made no more effort to be a woman than wearing wigs and dresses, former neighbours say.
Karen White, 52, a former drag artist from Manchester previously known as Stephen Wood, then David Thompson, claimed to be transgender to the authorities. Despite knowing that White had undergone no physical changes and was a paedophile on remand for multiple rapes with a long record of sexual and violent offences against women, the authorities permitted a transfer to HMP New Hall, a prison near Wakefield with a mother-and-baby unit. White committed the assaults within days of the move and was transferred back to a men’s prison.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Many areas of the police service in England and Wales are "on the verge of crisis", the president of the Police Superintendents' Association will warn.
Chief Superintendent Gavin Thomas will give a speech to the group's conference on Tuesday saying forces are "utterly reliant" on fewer staff working longer.
It comes a year after he warned policing faced a "perfect storm" due to budget cuts and rising crime.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police chiefs are drawing up contingency plans to deal with widespread civil disorder at the country’s borders and ports in the event of a no-deal Brexit, according to a leaked report.
The bombshell document, prepared by the National Police Co- ordination Centre, warns that the “necessity to call on military assistance is a real possibility” in the weeks around Britain’s departure from the EU.
The report, which is due to be discussed at a meeting of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) next week, claims that “widespread leave embargoes” will be required. Some forces, such as Kent, are expected unilaterally to cancel rest days and leave immediately after March 29.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The Metropolitan police are increasingly dropping investigations into serious crimes such as sexual offences, violent attacks and arson within hours of them being reported, the Guardian can reveal.
The UK’s largest force “screened out” 34,164 crimes without further investigation on the day they were reported in 2017, compared to 13,019 the year before. In the first five months of 2018, 18,093 crimes were closed in 24 hours, putting the number for the year on track to exceed last year’s total.
The figures, obtained under freedom of information rules, included a growing number of sexual offence cases that were closed in a day, rising from 20 in 2016 to 49 in 2017 and 32 in the first five months of 2018.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Martock is a 4,700-population village on the edge of the Somerset Levels. Superficially, it does not look like somewhere positioned on the cutting edge of social policy, with faint echoes of the future as imagined by JG Ballard and Philip K Dick. But viewed from a certain angle, a scheme that has been running since April might suggest something close...
[ more...]
Fire
For two months, the county’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Lorne Green has been seeking views about his ‘A Case for Change’ proposals.
Norfolk Fire & Rescue Service (NFRS) is currently governed by Norfolk County Council’s Communities Committee which also oversees a number of departments including libraries, museums, archives and arts.
Under the PCC’s proposals, Lorne would become Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC), taking on the governance of the fire service alongside that of fellow emergency service Norfolk Constabulary.
Believing this to be a much better way of working for a safer Norfolk, the PCC launched an eight-week public consultation on 11 July. That consultation officially closed at 5pm on Wednesday (5 September).
[ more...]
Fire
A deal has been agreed between a south east county council and the police and crime commissioner (PCC) after he dropped his business case to take over the running of the fire service.
In an announcement yesterday, an agreement was made to set up the Hertfordshire Emergency Services Collaboration Board, which will ensure the collaboration agreements can be delivered by all partners.
PCC David Lloyd had previously submitted his business case to the Home Office over the summer to potentially close fire stations in Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, and move them into a joint station at the police offices in Welwyn Garden City.
[ more...]
Technology
Scotland Yard's Flying Squad are going undercover to fight cybercrime, as police use "older ways" because they can't crack technology, the Head of the Met Police’s Organised Crime Command has said.
Criminals have “diversified” from risky armed robberies into online crime and trading commodities using cryptocurrency and police have become “heavily reliant” on technology to catch them, said Detective Chief Superintendent Mick Gallagher.
But the latest encryption software makes it difficult for the police to track users online, and the Met’s Flying Squad detectives have turned to tactics like going undercover and using informants.
[ more...]
Fire
An agreement on the future collaboration arrangements between emergency services in Hertfordshire has been reached by the Police and Crime Commissioner and the County Council.
The formal arrangement means a number of principles which will strengthen joint working can now be pursued under the existing governance structure.
The next stage of the agreement will be to set up the Hertfordshire Emergency Services Collaboration Board, which will ensure the collaboration agreements can be delivered by all partners.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of murders in London for the year currently stands at 100, ten of which were results of gunshot wounds.
This means that the number of non-terror related homicides between January and August has increased by 12 per cent in 2018 than the previous year.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A Home Office minister compared drugs gangs who groom children to paedophiles in response to MPs who demanded the government step up its approach to Count Lines violence.
Labour's Stephen Doughty, MP for Cardiff South and Penarth, told Home Office minister Ben Wallace this week during a Westminster debate: "We warned you this was going to happen because of the cuts that were happening to police, because of the cuts to community services."
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Almost two-thirds of girls and young women have been sexually harassed in public, according to a charity's poll.
More than 1,000 girls and women aged 14 to 21 were asked about their experiences in public settings, including on transport, walking on the street, at school or in the workplace.
According to the poll, 66% said they had experienced unwanted sexual attention or sexual or physical contact in a public place.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Britain’s most senior police officer yesterday threw her weight behind plans to extend stop-and-search powers.
Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, said that she supported the plans of Sajid Javid, the home secretary, to allow officers to stop anyone suspected of carrying acid without a good reason. At present police can do so only when they have evidence that a person is about to cause an injury.
Ms Dick told LBC radio: “I think an extension of the power to do this would be very helpful for us and I would be all in favour of it.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Stop and search powers could be extended significantly under new plans from Home Secretary Sajid Javid.
He is reportedly planning to let police stop anyone suspected of carrying acid without good reason.
Laser pointers and drones would also be targeted as part of a crackdown on new types of crime.
[ more...]
Technology
Artificial intelligence is being hailed as a powerful new tool for investigators in the most complex crimes. The Serious Fraud Office has given BBC News exclusive access to see the system it has been using.
In the boardroom at the Serious Fraud Office, an investigator is pointing to a giant computer screen that shows a pattern of green and blue dots.
As the investigator moves his mouse, the dots bounce around as if on elastic.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Sajid Javid is planning a significant extension of stop-and-search powers in his latest challenge to Theresa May and her legacy as home secretary.
Mr Javid wants officers to be able to stop anyone suspected of carrying acid without a good reason. At present police can do so only when they have evidence that a person is about to cause an injury.
The home secretary is also pushing for police to be able to stop and search people carrying laser pointers or drones. The changes expand powers that Mrs May sought to curb before she became prime minister.
[ more...]
Police Finances
An initiative which will save officers hours of their time by allowing them to give evidence to courts remotely is up and running.
The video enabled justice scheme, which is being spearheaded by Sussex's Police and Crime Commissioner, has also been successfully launched in Kent with aims to eventually roll it out nationwide.
[ more...]
Technology
Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick believes detectives should have access to material from social media companies "within minutes".
The call comes after a suspect in the murder of Lucy McHugh, 13, was jailed for withholding his Facebook password from police.
The teenager was found stabbed to death in woodland in Southampton last month.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Scotland Yard will investigate a leaked dossier of antisemitism allegations against Labour members after a former senior policeman said many constituted hate crimes.
The document with details of 45 Labour members accused of antisemitism was leaked to LBC.
It includes allegations that a Labour councillor inflicted “ten years of hell” on a child by calling him a “Jew boy”, while another member posted Facebook comments including: “We shall rid the Jews who are a cancer on us all” and “as for the Jews, red see [sic] ideal destination no need for gas chambers anyway as gas is so expensive and we need it in England”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police force has begun using a computerised system to help it to decide whether officers should investigate burglaries in an attempt to save time and money.
Norfolk police are testing an algorithm designed to assess the “solvability” of a case from factors such as whether there is good-quality CCTV footage of the culprit or whether fingerprints were left at the scene.
The pilot scheme is the latest in a series of measures introduced by forces desperate to cut caseloads as a rise in violent crime adds to the pressure on their resources when the number of officers is falling. Burglary rose by 6.2 per cent nationwide in the year to July and less than 5 per cent of burglary cases resulted in charges. In Norfolk burglaries rose by an estimated 10 per cent in the year to March.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Pressures from the lifting of the long-running public sector pay cap will leave forces battling to meet major demands on the service as policing gets to grips with a new 'self-assessment' strategy.
The constant drive to deliver millions of pounds of spending reductions through efficiencies are set to leave annual police budgets with a "continuing" permanent shortfall, a chief as warned.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Drivers who fail to read a number plate from 20m (65ft) away when stopped by police will have their licences revoked immediately in a new crackdown.
Three forces in England are planning to test every motorist they stop in a bid to clamp down on drivers with defective eyesight.
Police say data from the tests will be used to improve understanding of the extent of poor driver vision.
[ more...]
Technology
The governments of Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand have made the strongest statement yet that they intend to force technology providers to provide lawful access to users' encrypted communications.
At the Five Country Ministerial meeting on the Gold Coast last week, security and immigration ministers put forward a range of proposals to combat terrorism and crime, with a particular emphasis on the internet.
As part of that, the countries that share intelligence with each other under the Five-Eyes umbrella agreement, intend to "encourage information and communications technology service providers to voluntarily establish lawful access solutions to their products and services."
[ more...]
Police Finances
Speaking at the headquarters of the NSPCC on Monday (September 3), Sajid Javid also pledged an additional £21.5 million investment in the fight against child abuse, including £2.6 million to child protection charity the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.
His speech comes as the National Crime Agency (NCA) revealed a 700 per cent increase in industry referrals for child sex abuse images from 2012 to 2017.
Mr Javid said he was impressed by the progress Google, Facebook and Twitter have made in preventing terrorism content being posted on their platforms but wants to see the same level of commitment made for CSE material.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Britain's largest police force has “run out of things to sell”, the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation has announced, as it emerged the force has sold more than £1bn worth of property over the past six years.
The Metropolitan Police said funding cuts have led them to "breaking point" with officers often forced to perform several roles at once.
"We've sold the Crown Jewels, so to speak. We've run out of things to sell. This is really, really, worrying for society," said Ken Marsh, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation.
[ more...]
Prisons
An average of two prison officers need to go to A&E every day after being attacked by inmates, new figures show, amid soaring levels of violence in jails and mounting pressures on staff.
Official data from operations reports, released by the Prison Officers’ Association (POA), shows 15 members of staff across jails in England and Wales went to A&E or were rushed straight to hospital last week following prisoner assaults. A further 18 were victims of unprovoked assaults which didn’t lead to serious injuries.
[ more...]
Prisons
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High-risk prisoners were able to contact their victims without being detected because of failings at a jail, a watchdog report revealed.
In one case an offender who should have had his letters monitored had been able to regularly contact a vulnerable person.
The inspection at High Down in Banstead, Surrey, found that assessments of the monitoring of phone calls and mail were not routinely completed for new arrivals “enabling them to contact victims or potential victims without fear of being detected”.
[ more...]
Prisons
Hundreds of prison officers have been sacked for smuggling drugs and other illegal items into jails across England and Wales, new figures have revealed.
The number of staff caught bringing various drugs, mobile phones and weapons into prison for inmates has risen 57 percent since 2012.
Over the past six years, 341 prison officers have been dismissed, disciplined or forced to face judicial proceedings, according to Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A 17-year-old boy is in hospital after going into cardiac arrest when he was Tasered by police.
He was part of a group involved in a disturbance in Prior Deram Walk, Canley, Coventry, just after 21:30 BST on Saturday, West Midlands Police said.
Police Tasered the teenager in a bid to detain him, but he went into cardiac arrest and needed CPR. He remains in a serious but stable condition.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
MPs will vote this week on whether to make misogyny a hate crime for the first time, as the campaign to compel police forces across the UK to recognise street harassment of women as a hate crime gathers momentum.
The Labour MP Stella Creasy has put forward an amendment to the upskirting bill – due to be debated in the Commons this Wednesday – that would add misogyny as an aggravating factor in England and Wales. This would enable courts to consider it when sentencing an offender and require police forces to record it.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Online child predators have become “as sophisticated as terrorists at hiding their tracks”, the home secretary Sajid Javid will warn this week.
In a speech tomorrow, he will describe how they switch from mainstream platforms to the dark web, saying: “[They] are using encryption and anonymisation tools to make their detection harder than ever before.
“They’re jumping from platform to platform, using the dark web and commercial sites, swapping aliases and endlessly creating and then deleting online accounts to try to avoid getting caught.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Towns across Britain have had their police station axed due to harsh Tory cuts, leaving residents feeling unprotected from crimes such as burglaries and assaults.
Over 600 have shut across the country since 2010, and of those that remain, some have closed their front counters where crime victims can walk in and speak to officers in person.
Some squeezed forces have had to shut more than half their local stations in the eight years since the Tories came to power with their cruel austerity.
[ more...]
Prisons
Hundreds of prison staff have been caught smuggling drugs, weapons and mobile phones into jails, according to the Observer.
A Freedom of Information request by the paper found that 341 staff in England and Wales had been dismissed, excluded, convicted or cautioned by police in the past six years as a result.
Last year, there were 71 cases of staff smuggling - up from 50 in 2015.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A police chief has been criticised for his "weak" response to latest figures revealing one in three bobbies on the beat have been axed in England and Wales.
National Police Chiefs' Council lead for Local Policing, Chief Constable Simon Cole, was interviewed on Good Morning Britain by Jeremy Kyle and Kate Gerraway to discuss cuts and challenges faced by forces.
CC Cole explained in 2010 he had 2,300 officers but the numbers have since been "significantly reduced" and he is now aiming to push the figures back up.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government has pledged a further 2.5 million to help cover the costs of Novichok related incidents in Salisbury and Amesbury.
Operation costs for Wiltshire Police are projected to exceed 10 million with the government so far handing the force £4.1 million.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A group of police and crime commissioners (PCC) have called on the government to reclassify the drug spice as a Class A substance.
In an open letter to the Home Office, more than 20 Conservative commissioners from across the UK warned the synthetic substance poses the “most severe” threat to public health in decades.
Spice is currently a Class B drug, and is illegal to produce, supply or import in Britain.
[ more...]
Police Demand
High-risk sex offenders are not checked on enough by Merseyside Police and their locations are often unknown by officers, the police watchdog says.
HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) said the force's sex offender unit, which is also responsible for child protection, was "seriously overstretched".
The inspection of its child protection highlighted "particular concern" with 98 overdue visits to sex offenders.
The force says it is addressing issues.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Doncaster council has admitted to ‘failing’ the family of a disabled boy after they waited three years for the council to provide them with the special adaptations their home required.
The family was first assessed by the council in 2014 as needing help with housing and were placed on its accessible housing register.
The boy, who is incontinent and cannot walk by himself, sleeps in a bedroom which is too small to store the special equipment he needs to move about. The parents have to carry him from room to room which puts them at risk of injury.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Sniffer dogs must be used at a planned Cardiff super-club, police have said.
Live Nation (Music) UK wants to open a new music venue, Titan Warehouse, in Splott, big enough to hold 10,000 revellers.
But police are so concerned at the potential use of drugs, they are insisting drug-detecting dogs search clubbers as they enter.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Many of the 3,000 calls a year from the most heavily-used payphone in a county are thought to involve drug deals.
BT suggested the payphone in The Meadows area in Nottingham could be being used a lot by tourists but people nearby said it was known as "the drug phone".
Just one call per day is made from the average BT payphone nationally.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Some police forces have dramatically increased their use of stop and search amid rising violence, analysis by The Times reveals.
Use of the controversial tactic leapt by 50 per cent in the Merseyside force area in the past 12 months while a third of all forces in England and Wales, including the Metropolitan Police, recorded an increase.
The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), a think-tank co-founded by Iain Duncan Smith, had called for a zero-tolerance approach to curb the “toxic cycle of serious violence”. It said that stop and search, which has been declining for years, should be ramped up and gang members forced to leave London.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A new £2m "county lines" unit will aim to stop children being exploited by gangs, the Government has announced.
The hub set up by the Department for Education will provide funding and resources to local authorities struggling to tackle drug smuggling and child sexual exploitation.
Figures released last year by the National Crime Agency showed that over a third of police forces reported evidence of child sexual exploitation in relation to county lines, the phenomenon where children and young people are exploited by criminals and used to traffic drugs in rural areas.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A dramatic increase in the use of police stop-and-search powers to combat rising gang violence has been called for by Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader.
A 148-page report by the MP’s think tank calls for a US-style “zero-tolerance” crackdown on criminals.
It accuses senior officers of all but abandoning “active policing” for fear of being accused of institutional racism and says “racial disparity” is a myth, despite moves to slash the use of stop-and-search powers over fears they were being used disproportionately against black people and other minorities.
[ more...]
Police Demand
One in three bobbies on the beat in England and Wales have been axed in just three years as violent crime has surged.
A Sunday Times investigation found more than 7,000 traditional neighbourhood police officers, who protect communities and gather intelligence, have been reassigned to other duties or left jobs altogether since March 2015.
The number of police community support officers (PCSOs) has also fallen by 18% over the same time period to just over 10,000. Officers assigned to back-office and administrative roles have multiplied by a quarter in three years, despite ministers’ pledges to protect “frontline” policing.
[ more...]
Prisons
Hundreds of senior staff and management have left the Prison Service in the past five years without being replaced, new figures reveal, which has led to “dangerous” flaws in the system, according to campaigners.
The exodus of crucial experienced staff has coincided with record levels of assaults, suicides and self-harm in jails in England and Wales and forced the government to take action to increase prison officer numbers after almost a decade of cuts.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Tens of thousands of callers to the police non-emergency line have hung-up in frustration at long waiting times.
A total of 135,389 calls to Welsh police via 101 were abandoned or redirected last year - almost 14% of all calls.
Wendy Lewis, from Swansea, waited for 22 minutes while trying to get help for a young mother who was being harassed.
"In the end I gave up," she said. Police bosses said improvements had been made.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Home Secretary and the UK’s most senior police officer have clashed over the use of spit hoods on suspects by front line police officers.
Commissioner Cressida Dick said the equipment that prevents people from spitting and biting officers should only be used in custody suites and not during arrests, despite support for them from Sajid Javid.
The decision comes after the Home Secretary said it was ‘ridiculous’ that the mesh hoods had not yet been adopted by all British forces in a speech at the Police Federation conference in May.
Over 30 of the 43 forces in England and Wales use spit hoods, with many including the British Transport Police, issuing them to frontline officers.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police forces in Wales are set to get Home Office funding for training following a row over the UK government's apprenticeship levy.
It comes as a Welsh Assembly committee warned that the forces were paying £2m a year but got no cash back.
AMs said the money was "falling through the devolution crack" because training is devolved but policing is not.
The Welsh Government said the Home Office had promised funding for Welsh police apprenticeships from 2019.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police chiefs are in talks over proposals to ensure every officer who works away from home receives an allowance, the federation says.
Police Federation for England and Wales lead for mutual aid Simon Kempton says thousands of officers have come forward to complain they are not getting hardship or away from home allowances and some federation members end up out of pocket working on mutual aid.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Eleven local authorities across England are to share £13m to help create more positive adult role models for the most vulnerable children.
The money will be spent on schemes which aim to intervene early if a child is at risk of falling into abuse or crime.
The programmes will see more youth and charity workers, police officers and nurses made available to children in order to form a trusting relationship so they can report abuse.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Suspected rapists, domestic abusers and other violent attackers are routinely being released without constraints after a sharp fall in the use of police bail, The Times has learnt.
High-risk suspects are instead being “released under investigation” without conditions, such as not approaching their victims, prompting warnings that the public could be in danger.
Senior police figures and lawyers attributed the 90 per cent fall in use of police bail year on year to poorly planned government reforms that had been rushed through. One senior police officer said that the new rules on the granting of bail were “a disaster”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The government is facing calls to investigate what the opposition has described as a deeply worrying trend in the number of deaths from cocaine use, which has risen for the sixth year running.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics released earlier this month showed there were 432 deaths related to cocaine in England and Wales in 2017 compared with 112 in 2011, when numbers began to climb from 1.9 deaths per million of the population to 7.5 last year.
[ more...]
Prisons
Birmingham Prison is being taken over by the government from the private firm G4S, after inspectors said it had fallen into a "state of crisis".
Chief Inspector of Prisons Peter Clarke described it as the worst prison he had ever been to.
Inspectors found blood, vomit and rat droppings on the floor, sleeping staff, cockroaches and an overpowering smell of drugs.
[ more...]
Prisons
Since the 1990s, prisons across Britain have been turned over into the hands of private firms, which run them at a profit.
Rather than "governors", privately-run prisons have "directors" in charge. But the prisons must still face unannounced inspections by HM Prisons Inspectorate and receive recommendations based on the observations made.
The situation at the privately-run Birmingham Prison became so bad in August that the government was forced to take it back from G4S, to run it themselves for at least six months.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Durham Constabulary’s officers and staff will receive help with their financial worries as part of a new campaign to increase workplace happiness.
Support including advice on mortgages and reducing household bills will be made available to all Durham Constabulary personnel after a staff survey highlighted financial pressure as an area of significant concern.
Assistant chief officer Gary Ridley believes that this advice can help officers generate a one per cent rise in their take-home pay if they change insurance providers and energy suppliers.
[ more...]
Prisons
Prisons minister Rory Stewart says he will resign in a year if he hasn't managed to reduce drugs and violence levels in 10 target jails in England.
He made the promise as the government announced £10m to improve security and conditions at the jails.
New body scanners and sniffer dogs are to be introduced in the prisons, which are described as "challenging", in a clampdown on drugs and mobile phones.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The mobile device – named INK Biometrics (Identity not known) – scans suspects’ fingerprints and will confirm their identity within 60 seconds if they are known to police databases.
The MPS is the first British force to develop its own portable scanner. Officers took the “innovative step” of developing their own product and software to increase the number of devices – fewer than 100 in recent years – at a much lower cost.
Similar technology has been used by the MPS and other forces since 2012, but the new scanner is much cheaper, meaning 600 devices will be issued to frontline officers across the capital over the coming months.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The new head of the Police Federation has warned that forces across the country are in crisis and the public are suffering as a result of falling headcounts and increasing crime.
John Apter said “policing in some places is broken” and the public would suffer as stretched resources force police to abandon investigations into some crimes they previously would have dealt with.
Apter took over as national chairman of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, at the start of August, as rates of violent crime began to spike and forces employed the fewest police officers in more than two decades – 122,404 at the end of March, according to the latest figures.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Scotland is not an Islamist target because of its success in integrating Muslims into the community, the country’s top counterterrorism officer has claimed.
Detective Chief Superintendent Gerry McLean, who heads Police Scotland’s organised crime and counterterrorism unit, said that Muslims tended to feel more part of society in Scotland than they did elsewhere in the UK.
The last terrorist attack in Scotland was at Glasgow airport in 2007. Five members of the public were injured but nobody died. In the past year England has had a suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena, which killed 23 people including Eilidh MacLeod, 14, from Barra, and attacks at Westminster and London Bridge; these left 13 people dead and 100 injured.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Almost 10,000 police officers have taken on second jobs in the past year, according to a pay and morale survey, amid warnings officers’ pay fell 18% in real terms.
The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW), which conducted the survey of 27,000 police officers, said the results made for “grim reading”.
The survey showed that about 7.8% of officers had taken second jobs this year, equivalent to about 9,500 officers, compared with 6.3% last year, or about 7,700. There were 122,404 officers as at 31 March, according to the Home Office.
[ more...]
Prisons
Prisoners have pocketed over £1million in compensation for lost or damaged property in the last five years.
More than 13,000 taxpayer-funded payouts have been made for clothing, trainers, DVD players and hair clippers.
In total, £1,075,594.80 has been paid out since 2013.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Senior figures at Police Scotland are desperate to ensure that their ability to fight crime is not harmed by Brexit. Detective Chief Superintendent Gerry McLean said the present levels of co-operation and communication with European forces were vital.
Mr McLean, who heads Scotland’s organised crime unit, said that as gangs increasingly operated across borders, police forces needed to as well. He added that attention had been focused on European arrest warrants and whether Britain would be able to use them after Brexit but the issue was much wider.
“We want to continue to enjoy the type of relationships we have and the opportunity to work alongside European law enforcement partners,” he said.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Recently the Police Chief Constable for the West Midlands said that the police force offers ‘poor service’ to victims.
This admission came after a year which saw a rise in the number of opportunistic crimes such as car thefts being committed in the borough.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The government is being urged to introduce zero-tolerance laws as the number of drink-drive casualties reached a four-year high.
New figures released by the Department for Transport (DfT) revealed an estimated 9,040 people were killed or injured in Britain in drink-drive accidents in 2016.
This is the highest number since 2012 and represents a 7% rise from the year before.
[ more...]
Prisons
The problem of drugs and mobile phones being smuggled into prisons is a well-documented one, but governors at an institution in Cheshire are having to contend with a different kind of contraband – fine food.
Some of the inmates at Thorn Cross open prison near Warrington have been receiving parcels of smuggled fresh meat and fish; including some delicacies, according to a watchdog.
A report [pdf] by the prison’s Independent Monitoring Board said: “The increasing amount of contraband entering the establishment is of concern … there have been incidences of mobile phones, sim cards, phone chargers, new psychoactive substances (NPS) and other substances and even fresh meat and fish.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police have been accused of giving tacit support to 'cannabis clubs' where paying members can meet and take the drug without fear of prosecution.
At least two Police and Crime Commissioners have visited or endorsed the clubs, of which there are 160 across the UK.
Despite the fact possession of cannabis remains illegal and can result in a maximum five year prison sentence, many forces no longer treat the offence as a priority, with some police leaders even calling for the law to be relaxed.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police and Crime Commissioners have written to the Home Secretary warning that a no-deal Brexit could pose a substantial risk to public safety.
Their letter warns that officers could face a “significant loss of operational capacity” if Britain crashes out of the EU next March without a deal. It also urged the Home Office to spell out its contingency plans.
We spoke to two signatories of the letter: Lord Bach, the Leicestershire Police and Crime Commissioner, and Matthew Scott, the Commissioner for Kent.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A no-deal Brexit poses a risk to the public because the UK would lose access to EU-wide security powers and databases, police leaders have warned.
Police and crime commissioners say law enforcement agencies "face a significant loss of operational capacity" if the arrangements stop.
They have asked the home secretary to confirm his contingency plans.
The Home Office says it will continue to make the case for the retention of the capabilities.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Privacy International has today filed an appeal challenging police forces' refusal to disclose information on their purchase and use of IMSI catchers.
IMSI catchers are surveillance tools which mimic mobile phone towers, tricking phones into connecting with them and revealing personal information. Some IMSI catchers can also intercept data, including the content of calls, text messages and internet traffic, and even edit your communications or block your service.
An IMSI catcher is able to gather data about everyone’s phone in its vicinity.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
UK interest rate rises to 0.75% - the highest level since March 2009
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Home Office has approved up to £70 million to finance initiatives aiming to join-up IT services and improve the sharing of specialist resources.
Another £42.7 million will go towards 15 projects led by individual forces.
The funding marks the latest round of successful bids to the Police Transformation Fund (PTF), which was launched in 2016 to encourage innovation in policing.
The Home Office said the money will help to “prepare police forces to adapt to the challenges of the future”.
[ more...]
Fire
Norfolk CC has said a bid by the county’s police and crime commissioner (PCC) to take control of the local fire and rescue service would put the public at risk and is based on a “misleading” business case.
Responding to a consultation on the proposal launched in June by PCC Lorne Green (Con), Norfolk described a claim of £10m savings as “speculative and misleading”, adding the plan would put the service at “significant financial risk”.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Government funding for a scheme to steer young people away from violence is to be doubled after a rise in crime.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid is to now earmark £22m for the Early Intervention Youth Fund in England and Wales.
Police and crime commissioners can apply for money for projects run by youth and community groups.
Recorded crime went up by 11% in the 12 months to March - the highest level in more than a decade - amid rises in killings, knife offences and robberies.
[ more...]
Police Finances
On 9 April 2018, the government published its serious violence strategy setting out an ambitious programme of work to respond to increases in knife crime, gun crime and homicide.
The strategy set out our commitment to provide £11 million over 2 years for a new early intervention youth fund. We have now doubled the size of the fund and £22 million is now available. The fund is open to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) in England and Wales as lead bidders. PCCs must work with community safety partnerships (or local equivalent partnership) to bid for funding to support targeted early interventions and prevention activity.
[ more...]
Prisons
A very serious and disturbing piece, following a prisoner with an addiction to drugs. The point about short staff is driven home in the 5th section of the article.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The home secretary has ordered research into why men convicted of grooming-gang sex crimes are disproportionately of Pakistani origin.
Sajid Javid, whose own family roots are in Pakistan, said that establishing the “particular characteristics” of the perpetrators was “critical to our understanding” of offending in places including Rotherham, Telford and Newcastle.
He made the commitment in a letter to Sarah Champion, the Labour MP who was strongly criticised for stating that the country “has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
An MP who received death threats after condemning the sexual abuse of girls by groups of British Pakistani men has been given increased security amid fears that hard-left and Muslim opponents are trying to force her from office.
Sarah Champion was accused by activists in her Rotherham constituency of “industrial-scale racism” for highlighting the “common ethnic heritage” of most of those implicated in the town’s sex-grooming scandal.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The government is set to announce wage increases for about one million workers in the public sector, the BBC understands.
Last year the PM announced plans to lift the 1% cap - in place since 2013 - but deals were only confirmed for some NHS workers, prison staff and police.
Other professions - including the armed forces, teachers and doctors - are now expected to see an increase.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Government have updated their code of practice for financial governance arrangements for police forces. This was originally released on 24 October 2013.
According to the document ‘This Financial Management Code of Practice (FMCP) provides clarity around the financial governance arrangements within the police in England and Wales, and reflects the fact that the police have a key statutory duty to secure value for money in the use of public funds. It provides high level guidance to help ensure effective and constructive relationships in all financial matters. The FMCP sets the tone while promoting flexibility and avoiding overt prescription so that the detail of arrangements can be worked out locally.’
[ more...]
Fire
Addressing the Local Government Association’s Fire Commission yesterday, the Minister for Policing and the Fire Service, Nick Hurd, announced a new approach to improve professional standards for fire and rescue services across England.
While some professional standards currently exist for fire and rescue services, they are inconsistently applied and the government believes they can be expanded. A Fire Standards Board will be created to ensure standards are nationally coordinated to a high level across the sector.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A YORKSHIRE police chief has called for a “re-think” about who bears the costs of policing football matches, as new figures reveal the strain on the public purse.
Deputy Chief Constable Mark Roberts, of South Yorkshire Police, said his force “can’t continue to subsidise clubs” by meeting so much of the cost of match-day policing. The cost of policing football matches across Yorkshire was £2.35m for the first half of the 2017/18 season, figures obtained by the BBC Shared Data Unit reveal.
Read more at: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/police-forces-can-t-continue-to-subsidise-multi-billion-pound-football-industry-police-chief-says-1-9266056
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police officers will be awarded a pay rise of 2% in 2018 to 2019. This will mean that average pay for a police constable will now be more than £38,600 per year.
The increase will consist of:
a 2% pay increase for all police officer ranks
a 2% increase to the London weighting payment
a 2% increase to the dog handlers’ allowance
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A grammar school headmaster has been warned by police that one of his pupils will be stabbed to death within 12 months because of the spread of drugs gangs.
Andrew Fowler is the first grammar school head to say that violent gangs are recruiting children from some of England’s best schools.
The students, who it is believed are less likely to attract the attention of police because of their smart uniforms, are groomed into becoming drugs couriers with threats of violence.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Less than a third of countryside dwellers believe their local police force is doing a good job, a crime survey has found.
Only 27% of people in rural areas are satisfied with policing in their communities, according to this year’s National Rural Crime Survey.
A growing number of communities are feeling “frustrated at the way crime, deprivation and vulnerability is hidden by a picture postcard view of the countryside”, according to the Living On The Edge report.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Home Office has announced a new £8 million fund over the next 2 financial years to organisations in England and Wales to support children who are exposed to domestic abuse. – please note that this includes PCCs. The closing date for bids is 19 September 2018.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The College of Policing says it will "offer support" to forces who want to keep the current system for training police officers when its degree entry programme comes into place.
From the end of 2019, when the police education qualification framework is applied across policing, the organisation plans for the initial police learning development programme (IPLDP) to end.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government has been warned it is “sleepwalking into a nightmare” as new figures show murder, robbery and stabbings increasing sharply in England and Wales.
The number of police officers has hit a record low, amid claims funding cuts have driven up violent crime and “encouraged” offenders.
Almost half of all criminal investigations have been closed with no suspect identified, and the proportion ending with someone being charged or summonsed to court fell to just 9 per cent in the year to March.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of killings and murders in England and Wales has increased for the fourth year running, figures show.
Excluding terror attacks, there were 701 homicides in the 12 months to the end of March, 74 more than the previous year - a rise of 12%.
Homicide covers cases of murder, manslaughter, corporate manslaughter and infanticide. The data also showed knife crime was up 16%.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The police watchdog has warned of a “real possibility” that Britain’s exit from the European Union next year will trigger a spike in hate crimes, as a victims’ group warned of a return to a climate of hostility such as that seen in the 1990s.
The report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services found large-scale failings in the way hate crimes were dealt with, despite the issue supposedly being a priority.
Reforms promised after past concerns were raised have not been started, nor delivered upon, and a national policy to visit victims has been effectively ignored, HMICFRS found, although it also uncovered outstanding examples of police tackling the issue.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Only 9% of crimes end with suspects being charged or summonsed in England and Wales, Home Office figures suggest.
In the 12 months to March, 443,000 crimes resulted in a charge or summons out of 4.6 million offences - the lowest detection rate since 2015.
Data also shows police closed nearly half (48%) of all cases because no suspect could be identified.
[ more...]
Fire
The number of calls to fire crews to help lift obese people from their homes has more than doubled in five years, figures revealed yesterday. Last year firefighters were called out 909 times to help move morbidly obese patients, compared to 426 times in 2012.
Between 2012 and 2017, the latest figures available show there were 3,873 callouts made to help the immobile and overweight in Britain.
One patient who had to be moved weighed 60 stones, according to West Midlands fire chiefs.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Norfolk County Council has become the first local authority to trial mobile phone detection technology in order to improve road safety.
The new system, which was developed by the Norfolk company Westcotec, will be used to identify mobile phone use from within a vehicle before activating a sign urging the driver to hang up.
‘Using a mobile phone whilst driving is an enormous distraction and apart from being illegal puts the lives of the driver, passengers and pedestrians at risk,’ said Margaret Dewsbury, chairman of the council’s communities committee.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The majority of Britons say the police have lost control of the streets, according to a shocking poll.
According to the exclusive survey, 57 per cent of people say officers have surrendered control of our neighbourhoods and criminals have no fear of being caught.
Amid skyrocketing levels of crime, the poll also reveals that a quarter of the population don’t feel safe at night in their local area.
And it suggests that one of the biggest factors behind the recent surge in lawlessness is a lack of ‘bobbies on the beat’. An incredible 60 per cent of the public say they haven’t seen a police officer in their street in the past year. The poll will increase pressure on ministers to get a grip on the violent crime wave engulfing the UK.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police officers drafted in to handle Donald Trump's visit to the UK have hit out at the 'disaster zone' accommodation in which they've been put up.
Up to 10,000 police officers have been drafted in to protect the US President from mass protests and the threat of a terror attack when he visits Britain today.
But pictures posted by police online show some have been given camp beds in a gym hall in Essex while others have groundsheets placed on the floor of a squash court.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Day-to-day spending on public services will fall by 0.6% in real terms between 2020-21 and 2022-23, delegates at CIPFA’s annual conference heard this morning.
The Institute for Government’s Gemma Tetlow told her audience economists for and against Brexit were “fairly well aligned” on the view that the Brexit vote had caused a slow down in growth in the UK.
“The figures that were laid out in March by the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast spending that was consistent with borrowing falling for the next four years and that implied that day-to-day spending on public services would be set to fall by 0.6% in real terms between 2020-21 and 2022-23,” the IFG’s chief economist told the conference.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
CIPFA has a great opportunity to “flip the negative narrative” and rebuild trust in public services, the institute’s new president said this morning.
In her opening address to the CIPFA conference in Bournemouth, Sarah Howard highlighted that “pervasive” negativity had taken hold.
“I see what appears to be a universal breakdown in trust – whether we look at central government, local government, NHS or the private sector – the examples are well known,” she said, singling out Brexit, funding problems at Northamptonshire County Council and the collapse of the outsourcing and construction giant Carillion.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Overlaying multiple data sets can ‘de-anonymise’ people leaving them vulnerable to abuse, an award-winning journalist has told the CIPFA conference.
Guardian and Observer journalist Carole Cadwalladr advised delegates the public sector should learn from the Cambridge Analytica scandal - the story she broke earlier this year.
She won the coveted Orwell journalism last month for her investigation.
“We must learn the lesson that Cambridge Analytica is teaching us,” she told the conference in Bournemouth today, in a session called Public expectations in the age of social media.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A West Midlands police officer has been given a final written warning after he was filmed telling a black man: “You’d be the first one I’d shoot if I had a gun.”
The video, which was recorded on a mobile phone while police searched a property in Coventry on 24 August in 2017, also showed the officer asking a man if he was “going to go Black Lives Matter” on the patrol team. The video was later posted on Facebook.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Minister of State for Housing and Planning Dominic Raab has been appointed Brexit Secretary after David Davis resigns from UK government.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Theresa May has launched a reshuffle of her top team after a string of resignations over her Brexit strategy plunged her government into crisis.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has been named as the new foreign secretary after Boris Johnson quit, accusing Mrs May of pursuing a "semi-Brexit".
His departure followed that of Brexit Secretary David Davis and several junior figures.
Culture Secretary Matt Hancock replaces Mr Hunt as health secretary.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police call handlers will be offered specialist training on how to give hate crime victims the vital support they need when reporting an incident.
The programme will help call handlers to effectively identify if a hate crime has been committed and provide a professional and empathetic response for people who may have suffered personal abuse.
Money provided by the Home Office will allow for the distribution of training resources to police forces, which will be delivered by the National Police Chiefs’ Council in partnership with Facing All The Facts, which tackles hate crime and hate speech across Europe.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Officers providing mutual aid for the presidential visit will be paid the overnight allowance chiefs have agreed following accusations of delaying the decision.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Fire commanders trying to rescue residents at Grenfell Tower ran out of firefighters in breathing apparatus and basic equipment, including hose nozzles and door-breaking gear, the inquiry into the disaster has heard.
Watch manager Brian O’Keefe said it was the most harrowing incident he had ever been involved in, describing how firefighters risked their lives to save people by going up the burning building without proper equipment and how radio communications had failed. He revealed the anguish of colleagues who told eight people to stay in a 14th-floor flat for their safety, four of whom died.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A man and woman found unconscious in Wiltshire were exposed to Novichok - the same nerve agent that poisoned ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal, police say.
The couple, believed to be Charlie Rowley, 45, and Dawn Sturgess, 44, fell ill at a house in Amesbury on Saturday and remain in a critical condition.
Police say no-one else has presented with the same symptoms.
[ more...]
Police Finances
ACC Geoff Wessell has been appointed to oversee the delivery of 'shared' policing services for Warwickshire and West Mercia police.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than two million children in England are growing up in families where there are serious risks, the Children's Commissioner has said.
Anne Longfield's report states the dangers include domestic violence and living with parents who are alcoholics or have substance abuse problems.
The study into childhood vulnerability estimates that 2.1 million of England's 11.8 million children, nearly one in six, are living in families with risks so serious that they need some level of help.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The wildfire on Saddleworth Moor which crews have been fighting for more than a week is now being treated as arson.
Police say witnesses reported that people were lighting a bonfire on the moorland above Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, on the early evening of Sunday June 24 - around 50 minutes before the first 999 call.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Researchers found a 'consensus' among officers that body worn video not only helps to 'tip the balance' for domestic abuse victims but also helps to protect police from allegations of misconduct and violent attacks from suspects.
The University of Leeds carried out a 12-month study with West Yorkshire and Cumbria police, where use of BWV is mandatory at domestic abuse incidents.
[ more...]
Prisons
The number of prison officers resigning from their jobs has more than doubled in the last two years amid soaring levels of violence and self-harm in UK jails.
Ministers have been accused of driving a crisis in prisons after an analysis of official figures revealed the number of officers leaving the role surged from 596 in 2015/16 to 1,244 in the 12 months to March 2018 – an increase of 109 per cent. One in 16 officers resigned last year, compared with one in 33 officers two years before and just one in 100 in 2009/10.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The number of officers in the special constabulary has nearly halved in the space of five years. In March 2012 there were 20,343 special constables and that number has fallen dramatically to 12,601, according to Home Office figures from September 2017.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A public consultation on evidence-based guidelines for chief officers on how they should deliver, support and develop neighbourhood policing has opened.
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) 2016 police effectiveness report that found neighbourhood policing was being eroded.
The report made a recommendation for the development of guidance setting out the essential elements which all forces should provide.
The resulting guidelines published have defined the features of neighbourhood policing as:
• being accessible to, responsible for and accountable to communities;
• engaging with communities to build trust and develop understanding of needs;
• collaborative problem solving with communities;
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A charity has called for a review into whether the police gypsy and traveller liaison officer role may be breaching the Equality act.
The Traveller Movement’s (TM) report released last month, based on surveys and freedom of information requests to the 43 territorial forces, raised concerns travellers are being marginalised by an attitude among police officers that they are more likely to commit crime.
Of the 20 forces who told TM they have a dedicated GRT officer, 12 mentioned enforcement against unauthorised encampments and/or place GRT communities alongside thematic issues such as anti-social behaviour, gangs, youth violence etc.
The remaining eight focused on building positive relationships with gypsies and travellers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A new website, to be launched tomorrow, will allow motorists and cyclists who film drivers flouting the law to upload their footage for police to assess.
An estimated 2.6m vehicles in Britain have dashboard cameras capable of filming the road ahead and capturing incidences of risky driving. With the number of traffic officers falling by nearly a third in 10 years, police forces are turning to evidence collected by the public to secure prosecutions.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A possible one-day visit by US President Donald Trump to Scotland in July could cost Police Scotland £5m.
Mr Trump is scheduled to have talks with Prime Minister Theresa May at Downing Street on 13 July.
It has been suggested the president may then visit at least one of his golf courses in Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
London was hit harder than any other part of the country by years of Conservative cuts to its police force, Sadiq Khan has claimed.
Citing new figures, the London mayor said that in 2010, when the Conservatives came to power nationally and started cutting government spending, the capital had 4.1 officers per 1,000 Londoners – but by 2016/17 that had dropped to 3.3 officers per 1,000 Londoners.
[ more...]
Police Finances
More than 30,000 children aged between 10 and 15 now say that they are in gangs, according to research that will fuel concerns about the country’s violent crime epidemic.
Criminals are preying on young people by “taking the place of society”, Anne Longfield, the children’s commissioner, said as analysis by her office showed that a total of 70,000 youths aged up to 25 were feared to be part of a gang network.
Senior police and experts have said that violence is out of control and children as young as ten are being groomed by drug runners. It is vital that middle-class drug users take responsibility for their contribution to the surge in violent crime, they say.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A chief constable has called for the ban on cannabis to be scrapped, arguing that it damages public safety, puts users in more danger, and gives millions of pounds to organised criminals.
Mike Barton, who leads the Durham police force, said people growing a couple of plants for personal use would not be subject to raids in his jurisdiction. Durham police are rated as outstanding in their effectiveness by the official police inspectorate.
His comments came after the former Conservative party leader William Hague last week said the war on cannabis had failed and the class-B drug should be legalised.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Dave Smith was one of hundreds of workers in the construction industry put on a 'blacklist' due to their trade union activities.
He says it destroyed his career by preventing him from getting and maintaining work.
The police has admitted it supplied information to the blacklist, from officers spying on workers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
There were more than 3,000 areas of England and Wales where no burglaries were solved last year, according to figures that intensify fears police are losing the battle against burglars.
Residents warn that many areas are becoming “easy pickings” for criminals because of a lack of police officers on the streets and inadequate investigations. The Police Federation warned that burglars were getting used to “never being stopped by police, never mind arrested”.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police are failing to solve 63 per cent of knife crimes committed against under-25s as stabbing incidents soar.
So far this year in London alone there have been 21 youth murders – while knife crime against young victims across England and Wales has surged by 69 per cent in the last four years.
Politicians and youth workers accused the government of failing to act on the rise in stabbings, and warned of the “disastrous” effect cuts to police and youth services were having on young people.
[ more...]
Prisons
The system for supervising criminals in England and Wales is in a "mess" after reforms failed to meet their aims, MPs have said.
The Commons justice committee said it was "unconvinced" reforms could ever deliver an effective probation service.
In 2014 the system was partially privatised and monitoring extended to those who had served short jail terms.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The chief officer talent pool may be evaporating because the job offers less professional freedom than it used to, the HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary has said.
Sir Tom Windsor also told the Home Affairs Committee the detective shortage crisis can be blame at least partially on the fact his proposals to pay officers with specialist’s skills an allowance seven years ago were ignored.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers investigating child abuse are routinely being placed at risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) because of the harrowing nature of the work, according to a study.
More than a third of police officers evaluated in the study were suffering secondary traumatic stress and other psychological consequences from child abuse cases.
Researchers from the University of Surrey and the University of Essex warned that the rate of serious stress was significantly above average and that the officers were experiencing the type of trauma that leads to PTSD.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Defence, schools and police budgets are set to miss out on big spending increases because of Theresa May’s decision to pump £20billion into the National Health Service.
In recent weeks both Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary, and Sajid Javid, the Home secretary, have signalled they want to see increases in their spending at the next spending review.
However Government figures have told The Telegraph that the Prime Minister's commitment to increase NHS spending by an average of 3.4 per cent from next March means that other key departments will have to settle for less.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Less than one in 20 street robberies and burglaries are being solved in the UK, shocking new figures have revealed.
Official police data shows that just four per cent of robberies and three per cent of burglaries were solved in England and Wales in 2017.
The figures will fuel concerns that there is a crisis in the nation's policing, with one MP describing London as 'the Wild West'.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Apple will update its iPhone settings later this year to thwart spying technology that is used by police and intelligence agencies.
The update cuts off communication through the charging port when the phone has not been unlocked for an hour. It is expected to stop plug-in tools used by more than half of UK police forces to extract data from locked handsets. Civil liberties groups have criticised police for using tools from companies such as Cellebrite and Grayshift without a warrant to get data from witnesses, victims and suspects.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of terrorism-related arrests in Britain hit a record high after a series of attacks around the country last year, official figures show.
In the year ending 31 March, 441 people were held on suspicion of terrorism-related activity, the highest number of arrests in a year since data collection started in 2001, and an increase of 17% on the 378 in the previous year.
The Home Office said the rise was partly due to a number of arrests made following attacks in London and Manchester last year. The number of terror-related arrests in Britain since the 9/11 attacks in 2001 has passed the 4,000 mark, standing at 4,182 at the end of March.
[ more...]
Police Demand
One of Britain’s most senior police chiefs has intervened in the debate about rising crime, saying social inequality is a cause that needs tackling and that those arrested and jailed tend to be people with less money and opportunity.
The Metropolitan police assistant commissioner Patricia Gallan told the Guardian that “children are not born bad” and called for a wider effort to deal with inequalities that leave people feeling like “they do not have a stake in society”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
MPs have criticised the UK’s cannabis laws and called for urgent reform after a boy had his first epileptic seizure in 300 days because the government had ordered his doctor to stop prescribing him potentially life-saving cannabis oil.
Charlotte Caldwell, whose son Billy, 12, has scores of seizures every day without cannabis oil, by customs agents at Heathrow on Monday.
Caldwell was not cautioned for trying to “openly smuggle” the substance into the UK from Canada, but was instead invited to the Home Office to meet the minister of state, Nick Hurd, who told her it would not be returned.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Chief constables in England and Wales have been warned there are "no excuses" for "routinely" identified failings.
Sir Tom Winsor, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, also criticised police investigations involving children, saying they were allocated to staff without the right skills or experience.
But Jane Kennedy, Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner and a former Labour MP, called the comments "mean-minded".
She added they showed a "total failure" to understand the resourcing pressures.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The cost of training and assessing each police apprentice will be up to £24,000.
The government has set the level of training and assessment that can be spent on the individuals at that amount.
The College of Policing originally wanted forces to be able to spend £27,000 on the new officers.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Northamptonshire County Council is more than £4 million behind budget, just two months into the 2018/19 financial year.
A report to the authority’s cabinet yesterday revealed that a Period 1 finance report was showing an ‘adverse variance’ of £4.34m, prior even to the replenishment of the council’s General
Fund and reserve balances that were raided last year to set a balanced budget.
The cabinet papers say that such a variance normally ‘would not be a cause for alarm at this stage’, but that the county council’s financial situation was ‘not in normal circumstances’.
[ more...]
Fire
Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for North Yorkshire Julia Mulligan’s proposal to take on responsibility for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service has today been approved by the Home Secretary.
The PCC is set to join Roger Hirst of Essex, who became the country’s first police, fire and crime commissioner in October 2017, alongside other PCCs who have had their proposals to take on responsibility for their local fire and rescue services approved. These include Stephen Mold, PCC for Northamptonshire, John Campion, PCC for West Mercia, Matthew Ellis, PCC for Staffordshire, and Jason Ablewhite, PCC for Cambridgeshire.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
This is Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary’s report to the Secretary of State under section 54(4A) of the Police Act 1996. It contains his assessment of the efficiency and effectiveness of policing in England and Wales for the inspection year 2017.
This reporting period has seen the third complete cycle of PEEL (police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy) inspections. They consider the effectiveness and efficiency of police forces, and assess their legitimacy (that is, how they behave and treat people). These inspections give a comprehensive analysis of how each police force in England and Wales has performed.
This report also gives an overview of the findings from our child protection inspections and our specialist inspections, including our inspections of non-Home Office forces.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A teenage boy has been critically wounded and two others injured in three unrelated stabbings across London.
The 17-year-old was found stabbed in Coles Crescent, Harrow, after police were alerted at 20:11 BST.
Two other men, both aged in their 20s, were injured in separate stabbings in Northolt, west London, and Brixton, south London.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Social media and online gaming firms should have a statutory “duty of care” to protect children from mental ill health, abuse and addictive behaviour, a coalition of the country’s leading experts demands today.
Data amassed by charities, academics and doctors links children’s use of social media and gaming to a range of serious and lasting harms, many of which build gradually over time and go undetected by parents or teachers.
They accuse businesses such as Facebook and Snapchat of cynically targeting children as young as eight, using addictive “hooks” from the worlds of behavioural psychology and gambling to capture “new skins” to keep them logged on for as long as possible.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Graduates will be trained to become detectives in just 12 weeks under a new plan to increase the number of investigators.
The move is part of a £350,000 fast-track training programme which could see detective numbers rise by up to 1,000 in the next five years.
It comes following a warning that England and Wales have a shortfall of 5,000 police investigators, something the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services described last year as a "national crisis".
Police Now, an independent charity operating in 25 forces areas in England and Wales, will get the £350,000 for the programme in addition to £2.8m already promised by the Home Office for 2018/19.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are to get new hi-tec breathalysers to give instant roadside drink-drive readings that can be used in court.
The aim of the new kits will be for a breath or blood test taken at the roadside to be good enough to secure a conviction.
A Department for Transport source said: “It means those marginally over the drink-drive limit will not have extra time to sober up and pass a later test at the station.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The BBC have done a fact finding piece trying to establish where there has been a surge in serious crime in England and Wales.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Hardly a day seems to go by without news of a terrifying and violent attack on the streets.
Figures for the year to December 2017 show a seven per cent fall in crime measured by the survey to 10.6 million offences, while recorded crime showed a 13 per cent rise to 5.5 million crimes.
Statisticans suggest that while, over the long term, crime has fallen from peaks in the 1990s, the fall has slowed in recent years and, in the short term, levels are more stable.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Nearly £3m of Welsh police forces' cash - used to train new recruits - has "disappeared" and neither the Welsh nor UK government can explain where it is.
The Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said the funds had been lost in a dispute between the two administrations.
It fears recruits could be lost to England, where forces have received their share of the apprenticeship levy.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Two former wives of undercover police officers who deceived other women into intimate relationships have defended the campaign by cosmetics retailer Lush to highlight the misconduct of the police spies.
While married with children, their husbands had sexual relationships with campaigners when they infiltrated political groups. The husbands kept these relationships secret from their wives, who say they now feel betrayed.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Striking fear into his victims, this machete-wielding masked raider personifies Britain’s violent crimewave.
The swaggering criminal forced staff at a shop in Bury to hand over the takings before fleeing with an accomplice.
The shocking image emerged last night as official figures revealed that violent crime is up in 42 of 43 police force areas – in some by more than 50 per cent.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Anti-terrorism proposals have been unveiled by the UK government that would make it an offence for people to publicly support a banned group even if they did not encourage others to do so.
The move has prompted the human rights group Liberty to accuse the government of trying to “make thoughtcrime a reality”.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Britain is reeling from a spate of savage crimes. It has left the public asking: “Are police losing control of the streets?” In recent days, the country has seen a wave of horrific attacks stretching frontline officers to the limit.
Cuts in police budgets of hundreds of millions of pounds mean there are now 121,929 officers in England and Wales – nearly 22,000 fewer than eight years ago, say rank-and-file leaders.
The Police Federation says ministers have ignored pleas to end budget reductions and bolster the number of frontline officers. Federation chairman Calum Macleod said: “Our previous warnings are coming to light as we see an increase in violent crime and victims of crime not getting the service they deserve and expect.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More than 95 per cent of deradicalisation programmes are ineffective, according to a study commissioned by the Home Office that raises questions about the government’s Prevent programme.
The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), the so-called nudge unit formerly part of the Cabinet Office, examined 33 deradicalisation programmes across the country designed to safeguard vulnerable people from far-right and religious extremist threats. The Times understands that most were funded by or fell under the label of Prevent.
The study found that only two programmes were effective and that some projects were counterproductive. Some participants said that they restricted their freedom of speech. Until the BIT study, the 33 projects claimed a success rate of more than 90 per cent because they evaluated themselves.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The structure of policing is partly to blame for the "exponential" growth of drugs networks, the head of the National Crime Agency has told MPs.
Lynne Owens said each of England and Wales's 43 forces was focused on running their local services rather than co-ordinating across borders.
She said progress on serious organised crime was moving at "glacial speed".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, has said that there were 100 fewer murders annually in London than over a decade ago as she called for “some context” around the recent surge in violence.
She told MPs yesterday that she regretted every killing but pointed out that the murder rate was lower than when she was a commander, dealing with youth violence.
Ms Dick told the parliamentary home affairs select committee that there were about 250 murders in London 12 years ago, compared with about 150 last year and 100 in 2016. According to official statistics the murder rate in 2006 was 172.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Committee resumes its inquiry into policing for the future and takes evidence from Chief Constables from a diverse set of forces to explore the current and future challenges of modern policing.
This is the first of a series of oral evidence sessions to be held in this resumed inquiry.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Ministers are to introduce a “three strikes” law for people caught streaming terrorist content in a new counter terror bill to be published within days.
The move will close a loophole that allows some people to watch gruesome or inflammatory propaganda without fear of prosecution.
Under the plans, the offence of possessing information deemed useful to a terrorist will be widened to include material that is viewed online three or more times or streamed online.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Shoplifting has risen by 14 per cent in the past year with more than than 4,000 incidents being reported to Wiltshire Police.
Retailers large and small in Swindon and the surrounding area are losing millions of pounds to these crimes.
According to the figures from data.police.uk, 4,210 incidents were reported between April 2017 and March 2018.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
People arriving at the Dorset festival will be able to test their drugs safely to reveal its strength in a bid to reduce deaths.
In May this year two people died at Mutiny festival in Portsmouth after taking drugs. Their deaths were blamed on a "dangerous high-strength or bad-batch substance" by festival organisers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
MI5 and police will be alerted to suspicious purchases more quickly under the Government’s new blueprint for tackling terror.
On Monday, Home Secretary Sajid Javid will outline plans to work more closely with businesses to eradicate the “safe spaces” that are exploited by violent extremists.
He is expected say: “That includes faster alerts for suspicious purchases, improving security at crowded places across the UK, and reducing the vulnerability of our critical infrastructure.”
Ministers want firms to raise the alarm as quickly as possible if they have evidence of unusual transactions – such as someone stockpiling large amounts of chemicals or acting suspiciously when hiring a vehicle.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A man whose father abandoned him as a child while working as an undercover police officer is suing the Metropolitan police for compensation.
The man, who has been granted anonymity, alleges in the lawsuit that he has suffered psychiatric damage after discovering at the age of 26 that his father was a police spy, and not the radical protester he had been led to believe.
On Monday in the high court, Mr Justice Nicol ruled against an attempt by the Met to have the lawsuit dismissed.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Home secretary Sajid Javid today set up a battle with chancellor Philip Hammond in next year’s Budget as he called for increased spending on policing.
Javid will tomorrow announce funding for an extra 2,000 security services officers as the government tries to address a perceived increase in the threat from terrorism.
MI5, the domestic intelligence agency, will also be pushed to give neighbourhood police and even local government more information on potential terrorist threats.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Home Office has released a response to 'the evolving threat of terrorism'.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A nerve agent attack in Salisbury three months ago cost the police force £7.5m, according to the region's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).
PCC Angus Macpherson described the police operation as a "massive effort" which involved 40 other UK forces.
He said Wiltshire Police "came to the fore" with more than 140 officers on duty at the height of the operation.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Cosmetics company Lush has said it has taken its controversial campaign down from some shops due to "intimidation" of its staff by ex-police officers.
The company sparked outrage over its latest ad campaign that claimed police have been "paid to lie".
Lush said it would continue with the SpyCops campaign even despite not feeling "able" to have it in the windows of some of their shops.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Only 11.6% of all crimes were solved between 2016 and 2017 as our police forces buckle under the strain of brutal Tory cuts.
The shocking figure is a drop of 26% and statistics also revealed a postcode lottery on the number of cases officers are closing across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said the figures show austerity policies are impacting safety and justice in our communities.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Met Police officers racked up 189,000 cancelled rest days last year amid "unprecedented" demands on the force, the BBC has found.
Two terror attacks and the Grenfell Tower fire saw extra officers brought in to aid with the force's response.
Chair of the Met Police Federation, Ken Marsh MBE, said the situation had put a "massive strain" on staff.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
All UK festivals should provide drug-testing facilities, experts and campaigners have urged, following the deaths of two young people believed to have taken high-strength ecstasy at a festival over the bank holiday weekend.
Five people have been arrested for drug-related offences after Georgia Jones, 18, and Tommy Cowan, 20, died at Mutiny Festival in Hampshire. Thirteen other people were taken to hospital, with one remaining critically ill.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Home Office is considering abandoning a £1.2 billion project to modernise emergency services communications amid alarm over costs and delays.
Another option is to extend drastically the timetable for replacing the UK-wide radio Airwave system used by police, fire and ambulance services.
Both options would be a humiliation for the department which was warned two years ago by the National Audit Office of the “high risk” nature of the ambitious plan to upgrade emergency services communications.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
France is blocking Britain’s attempt to remain part of a European Union security system that helps to identify foreign criminals and is designed to keep the public safe.
The government wants a guarantee that it can continue to access and share vital DNA, fingerprint and vehicle information with other European countries after Brexit.
Ministers have said that Britain’s participation in the so-called Prüm Convention is “clearly in the national interest”. The system allowed French and Belgian authorities to identify the terrorists responsible for the Paris attacks in November 2015.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The minister responsible for councils’ pension investments has said he is not considering further rationalisation of the local government pension scheme.
In an LGC interview, Rishi Sunak said progress has been “good” on the pooling of the 89 individual local government funds into eight pools, which is intended to cut administrative costs and create a larger scale to boost investment into infrastructure projects.
He urged funds to invest at least a tenth of their assets into infrastructure investment.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The national lead for local policing has admitted the future of community police work may be a “tough love” question for chiefs.
Simon Kempton, operational lead for Police Federation of England and Wales warned some areas have already seen their neighbourhood teams “decimated” with poor prospects of reforging relationships with their communities.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Gang members are to be treated like terrorism suspects to stop murderous feuds encouraged by YouTube videos, The Times can reveal.
Detectives will be given powers to pursue gangsters who glorify knife and gun violence and stoke tensions through videos posted on social media, targeting them in the same way as terrorists who call for attacks online.
The move comes after a rise in violence across the country, with murder rates as well as knife and gun crime increasing every year for the past three years.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A police commissioner has said he plans to apply for "special funding" to cover the cost of policing the royal wedding.
Anthony Stansfeld said they could claim for cash from the Home Office if the bill comes to over 1% of the Thames Valley force's £405m annual budget.
He admitted it would take "a long time" to finalise the exact cost of Duke and Duchess of Sussex's big day, but suggested it was "between £2m and £4m".
[ more...]
Police Finances
Councils have “shouldered a disproportionate share of the burden” on deficit reduction. We all know this is true, but it is significant that local government minister Rishi Sunak this week makes this admission in an LGC interview.
Mr Sunak pledges to be a “champion” for the sector in the forthcoming spending review negotiations with the Treasury, fighting for sufficient funds to enable councils to withstand “everything coming in their way over the next few years”. He also admits he will not “win every battle”, a caution justified by past experience of this government’s treatment of councils.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Councils have been handed administrative control of the controversial Prevent counter-terror strategy, as ministers seek to make it more amenable to communities.
But Home Office officials have already slowed the pace of the reforms amid concerns that recent Project Dovetail pilots failed to resolve challenges around police data sharing, managing referrals in smaller towns, and oversight of programmes in areas where police and local authority boundaries overlap.
A letter sent to local authorities by the Home Office’s head of Prevent, Matt Collins, confirmed councils will be given administrative and budgetary control of a key tenet of the strategy – the multi-agency Channel panels created to spot signs of radicalisation and provide intensive support for those vulnerable to being drawn into terrorism.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
YouTube says it has deleted more than half of the "violent" music videos that the country's most senior police officer asked it to take down.
More than 30 clips have been removed so far.
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has blamed some videos for fuelling a surge in murders and violent crime in London - and singled out drill music.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Welsh government has allegedly said even if it has received funding, it will not pass the money on.
All four Welsh police chiefs and PCCs have no idea where two years’ worth of apprenticeship levy money has gone, the Wales Police Federation lead has confirmed.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Sajid Javid hopes to draw a line under the Home Office's fractious relationship with the Police Federation in his first speech to the body.
Mr Javid, whose brother is a chief superintendent in West Midlands Police, will pledge to provide the tools and back-up needed for frontline officers.
In the speech taking place in Birmingham, he will say: "I've seen the impact the job has had on family life."
[ more...]
Police Demand
Sajid Javid will today tell police he understands the pressures they face, saying: ‘I get it.’
The new home secretary will seek to mend fences in his first speech to the Police Federation, which booed Theresa May when she held his job.
He will tell officers he knows they feel ‘stretched, overburdened and not sufficiently rewarded’. And he will refer to his brother Bas, a chief superintendent with West Midlands Police, being assaulted while on duty.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Policing Minister wants to see increase investment in British policing and will argue for it in government, he says.
Nick Hurd told the Police Federation Conference that he has listened and would like to see more funds, not just protection.
He said he will and has made the case for extra investment within government.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The UK "is fast becoming the biggest consumer of cocaine in Europe", the security minister has said.
Ben Wallace said the "high-margin, high-supply drug" was "fuelling" an increase in violence on the streets.
Technology had enabled young dealers to evade detection and order drugs direct from "serious" gangs, he told MPs.
The minister said he was "not deaf" to Labour claims that police cuts had increased the pressure on officers trying to deal with the problem.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police drivers will have more legal protection if they are involved in a crash, in a bid to tackle criminals on mopeds, as part of Home Office plans.
New proposals aim to smash the "myth" that officers cannot pursue riders who are not wearing helmets.
"Criminals must not think they can get away with a crime by riding or driving in a certain way," policing minister Nick Hurd said.
The Police Federation, which has called for the changes, welcomed the reforms.
[ more...]
Police Finances
"Sharenting" - where parents share personal information about their children on social media - is the "weakest link" in risking online fraud and identity theft, warns Barclays.
The bank says parents are compromising their children's future financial security with so much online sharing.
Barclays forecasts by 2030 it could cost almost £670m in online fraud.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A Scottish government adviser has said people caught with small amounts of illegal substances should no longer be prosecuted.
Dr Roy Robertson wants the country's forthcoming substance misuse strategy to "support rather than penalise".
He warned of a drug death "epidemic" and called for radical changes to how the country tackles drug abuse.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A £1m funding boost to prevent knife crime will be available to charities in England and Wales, the Home Office has announced.
Community groups will be able to bid to receive up to £30,000 to support work in educating young people about the danger of carrying weapons.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The number of criminal charges being brought in England and Wales has been falling - despite more crimes being recorded in the same period.
BBC analysis of Home Office data for Panorama shows 527,000 charges were brought in 2016-17 - a fall of 65,000 on 2014-15. Meanwhile, the number of crimes recorded rose by nearly 750,000.
Police say a squeeze on resources is making crime harder to investigate. The Home Office says it is working with police to find a solution.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A decision on whether specials can be issued with tasers is to be taken by chief constables. The NPCC has confirmed the issue is to be considered at its July meeting.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of criminal charges being brought in England and Wales has been falling - despite more crimes being recorded in the same period.
BBC analysis of Home Office data for Panorama shows 527,000 charges were brought in 2016-17 - a fall of 65,000 on 2014-15. Meanwhile, the number of crimes recorded rose by nearly 750,000.
Police say a squeeze on resources is making crime harder to investigate.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Boris Johnson has said his successor as London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, must take responsibility for knife crime in the capital.
Mr Johnson, who was mayor until 2016, said it was a "scandal" that the murder rate in London was higher than in New York in February.
In a newspaper article, he accused Mr Khan of blaming "everyone but himself".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Criminals who illegally profit from some of the UK’s most exclusive properties through the illegal use of overseas shell companies face up to 5 years in jail for concealing the true identity of their owners, under new draft laws laid in Parliament today (Monday 23 July).
For the first time, foreign companies owning UK properties will be required to reveal their ultimate owners on the world’s first public register of overseas entities’ beneficial ownership.
The register forms part of a wider crackdown on criminals laundering their dirty money in the UK and the new information it reveals will make it easier for law enforcement agencies to seize criminal funds.
[ more...]
Prisons
Banning smoking in prisons has led to tobacco being smuggled in and becoming part of the illicit economy.
The smoking ban was fully implemented in jails this year after being introduced across the prison estate over the previous two years.
In a letter to Bob Neill, chairman of the justice select committee, Rory Stewart, the prisons minister, said: “With regards to the impact on the illicit economy; tobacco has become an additional currency to the current currencies relating to drug use and mobile phones within the illicit economy.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police must address concerns over the use of facial recognition systems or may face legal action, the UK's privacy watchdog says.
An investigation by campaign group Big Brother Watch suggested the technology flagged up a "staggering" number of innocent people as suspects. Police have defended the technology and say safeguards are in place.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Encryption is making it more difficult for law enforcement agencies to detect dangerous offenders, according the the National Crime Agency's (NCA) yearly assessment of serious organised crime in Britain.
"Since 2010, communication service providers have migrated to encrypted services 'by default', a process that accelerated following the Snowden disclosures," said the National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised Crime 2018.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers have threatened to arrest people and ban them from their Facebook page after they made fun of their tiny cannabis bust online.
West Yorkshire Police shared a post about a 'small quantity of cannabis' which was seized from a 'young man who was parked up alone'.
Comments then flooded in making light of the bust, comparing the drug bust to notorious Colombian cartel runner Pablo Escobar.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Spiralling numbers of drug deaths across England are being blamed on swingeing budget cuts to addiction services – as new figures suggest spending on treatment has been slashed by £117m in just five years.
Councils have reduced drug and alcohol schemes as their own health budgets have been squeezed by government cuts, according to the Office for National Statistics.
It estimates that just £631m will be spent on such services in 2018-19 compared with £749m in 2013-14. In a similar period, drug-related deaths increased from 2,734 in 2013 to 3,450 in 2016.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Home Office has today published the third ‘basket of goods’ data set allowing the public to compare what each police force spends on common items to ensure best value for money.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The UK would save £900 million from the legalization of cannabis as it would cut NHS and prison costs, a study reveals. It comes as the UK’s drug minister stopped discussing cannabis as her husband runs a huge marijuana field.
Currently 1,363 people are in prisons in England and Wales because of cannabis-related offenses, the study also claims legalizing the drugs would save £557 million a year on prison services.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The head of London’s murder squad says policing alone will not solve with violent crime wave gripping the capital.
Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Wood pledged his officers would be “lawfully audacious” in stopping the bloodshed, but they need communities to “step up and say enough’s enough”
[ more...]
Police Finances
Four police stations in Shropshire are to close with officers and staff set to share premises with other organisations.
West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner John Champion says he has taken the decision in a bid to get more money into frontline policing.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Sharing social media posts which threaten violent hate crime could become punishable by six months in prison under proposals issued yesterday.
Tougher sentences are being considered for spreading racial, religious or homophobic hatred, with jail terms of up to six years for those who abuse a large online following or other position of influence. People who knowingly incite serious violence or persistently spread hateful messages would also fall into the stricter bracket.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A growing movement in the UK is shifting the power of catching speeding motorists from the police, to the people.
Current deterrents for motorists are flawed. Speed cameras create resentment and only work in specific locations. Police with speed guns are effective, but this approach can be a drain on their time.
So passing the baton of the speed gun to John and fellow volunteers could be a solution. Umbrella group Speedwatch has developed a computerised, super-database that it wants other groups to join.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Extra police officers supported by armed units were ordered on to the streets yesterday after an unprecedented Bank Holiday weekend of violence. Five people were killed and at least six injured as a spate of shootings and stabbings swept the country.
Ex-MP and anti-knife campaigner Nick de Bois, who sits on the Government’s new antiviolent crime task force, called for more officers with weapons in the UK’s high crime areas.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A growing movement in the UK is shifting the power of catching speeding motorists from the police, to the people.
"My daughter was going to school and one of her friends was killed by a vehicle," says John Ryan.
"The school assembly that morning when the children were told was terrible. The school didn't recover for about a year. It had a very big impact on the children and particularly my daughter."
Now, 20 years later, the retired bus driver has joined a network of volunteers trying to make the roads safer.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A British police agency is defending (this link is inoperable for the moment) its use of facial recognition technology at the June 2017 Champions League soccer final in Cardiff, Wales—among several other instances—saying that despite the system having a 92-percent false positive rate, "no one" has ever been arrested due to such an error.
New data about the South Wales Police's use of the technology obtained by Wired UK and The Guardian through a public records request shows that of the 2,470 alerts from the facial recognition system, 2,297 were false positives. In other words, nine out of 10 times, the system erroneously flagged someone as being suspicious or worthy of arrest.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A judge has criticised the legal aid system after a woman was forced to appear in the same court as a former partner she had accused of raping her because she could not afford a lawyer.
The family court in Middlesbrough was deciding what contact the woman's young daughter should have with her father.
The woman walked out as questions reached allegations of sexual abuse.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
People with serious mental illness are suffering neglect and discrimination when they have been detained for treatment, according to a report ordered by Theresa May.
Too many of those sectioned under the Mental Health Act receive a lack of dignity and respect from staff, according to the review of legislation, which has identified a series of problems with it.
“People with the most severe forms of mental illness have the greatest needs and continue to be the most neglected and discriminated against”, said Prof Sir Simon Wessely, who chaired the review.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The number of sexual offence cases dropped because of a failure by police or prosecutors to disclose evidence has risen sixfold in four years.
Official figures show a steady year-on-year increase in sex crime prosecutions being abandoned over issues around the disclosure of information. The Crown Prosecution Service figures follow the high-profile collapse of several rape cases after failures to share evidence with defence solicitors.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The College of Policing wrote to the Home Office to raise concerns about moves to introduce more rules on the use of stop and search.
Chief constables asked the organisation to point out a number of issues with government strategy – including a lack of analysis of its effectiveness.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Politically neat, generally welcomed by colleagues - in the recent canon of Tory events the relatively smooth landing of this appointment is an achievement in itself.
But moving Sajid Javid in, after Amber Rudd took herself out, does not end the prime minister's problems. She and Mr Javid need to move fast to cauterise the political wounds from Windrush.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Girls as young as 12 have reported street harassment after a force started recording misogyny as a hate crime.
Two years ago, Nottinghamshire Police began treating prejudice against women as an aggravating factor for crimes including sexual violence and harassment.
Giving evidence to a government inquiry, hate crime manager David Alton revealed the force has received reports from victims aged 12 to 60, with most victims in the 35-59 age range.
Many of these have been linked to other forms of hatred – and every incident so far has involved men harassing females.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Sajid Javid has been named as the new home secretary after Amber Rudd's resignation.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Home Secretary Amber Rudd has resigned, Downing Street has said, after claims she misled Parliament over targets for removing illegal migrants.
Ms Rudd, who was due to make a Commons statement on Monday, was under pressure to resign over the Windrush scandal.
She faced criticism over the existence of Home Office removals targets and her knowledge of them.
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott, who had repeatedly urged Ms Rudd to go, said she had "done the right thing".
[ more...]
Police Finances
The recent case in Nottingham where a number of council employees successfully challenged the city council's freeze on their annual incremental pay rises was an undoubted victory for those concerned.
The right to an automatic pay rise every year, long-enshrined in local government and other parts of the public sector, has some obvious benefits from the employee's - and the employer's - points of view.
Being sure of an annual increase, albeit perhaps a relatively small one, rewards experience and promotes loyalty, thus potentially improving cohesiveness and morale and reducing the expense of dealing with staff turnover.
But the annual increment has been disappearing in the local government world. For a number of reasons, it is beginning to look like an endangered species.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Forces pooling their resources was once seen as the answer to stretched budgets with announcements being made on a near-weekly basis that units were merging between forces. Recent months have seen the opposite trend with a raft of announcements, confirming that forces will take back their own specialist units, having already been made.
[ more...]
Fire
Real-life fires could burn 100C hotter than those simulated in cladding safety tests, investigators have found.
Current testing methods for building materials are not reproducing actual conditions and are in need of “urgent review”, the Fire Protection Association has warned.
Experiments comparing test conditions with more realistic ones found that building fires could burn at least 100C hotter, spread faster and last longer than those in safety checks.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Home Office did set targets for the voluntary removal of illegal immigrants, it has emerged.
A 2015 report shows the department set a target of 12,000 voluntary departures in 2015/16, up from 7,200 in 2014/15.
The disclosure of the regional targets, split between 19 Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) teams across the UK, contradicts evidence given by Home Secretary Amber Rudd to Parliament on Wednesday.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Security ministers from the Group of Seven countries have agreed to coordinate efforts to tackle human trafficking online and eliminate forced labour from supply chains, as part of a series of measures to combat modern slavery across the globe.
At the G7 security meeting, Building a More Peaceful and Secure World, which concluded in Toronto, Canada on Tuesday, Ministers made nine commitments on behalf of the G7 which will be vital to protecting those vulnerable to trafficking.
These included coordinating and sharing information and intelligence on the emerging threat of online trafficking, working with businesses to end forced labour in our economies, and clamping down on the financial interests of those who profit from trafficking.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
In response to the Office for National Statistics’ publication of the Statistical Bulletin on Crime in England and Wales for the year ending December 2017, the Lead of the APCC Performance Portfolio Group, Matthew Scott PCC said:
“Whilst the latest recorded crime figures show concerning statistical rises in theft and in low-volume but high-harm offences like burglary, knife and gun crime, the more reliable Crime Survey for England and Wales found most types of crime to be at similar levels to 2016.
“As the ONS explicitly state, most people do not experience crime – 8 in 10 adults were not a victim of any of the crimes asked about in their survey. However, whichever data people choose to focus on, there will be no complacency from Police and Crime Commissioners who will continue to hold Chief Constables to account and work to reduce crime at all levels in their communities.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Government has achieved its first current budget surplus since 2002, according to latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.
Public borrowing was £1.35bn in March, £800m lower than March 2017.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Parents could stop their children buying banned prescription drugs by giving them less pocket money, the former headmaster of Harrow has said.
Barnaby Lenon, now chairman of the Independent Schools Council, said that children buy “things that are bad for them” when given too much cash.
There is rising concern over the use of the tranquilliser Xanax by British teenagers. A survey last month suggested that thousands were using it routinely, often buying it online.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A row has erupted over police pay, with the Treasury refusing to fund wage rises unless forces embrace reform. Philip Hammond, the chancellor, reignited feuding over public sector pay by telling the Home Office to link salaries to police productivity, rather than length of service, according to sources close to the talks.
Last year Hammond signalled an end to the 1% cap on public sector pay rises but said he would wait for the advice of independent review bodies.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police officers are quitting their jobs at one of the highest rates since records began.
Resignations have soared by almost 50 per cent since Labour left office in 2010, Home Office data reveals. One in eight are so demoralised they want to leave within two years.
Analysis by the House of Commons Library shows 2,156 officers quit last year. In the seven years since 2010, more than 11,670 have chosen to go.
[ more...]
Police Demand
New data shows that the vast majority of recorded drug offences in England and Wales are for drug possession, with cannabis possession offences making up the bulk.
On 17 April, the House of Commons Library published data on the 136,352 recorded drug offences that took place between April 2016 and March 2017 in England and Wales. According to these findings, around 83 per cent of all drug offences recorded by the police were for drug possession offences. Over 75 per cent of all recorded drug offences were for cannabis possession.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The leader of an Oxfordshire council looks set to take up a full-time position as deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for the Thames Valley.
Matthew Barber, who has been the leader of Vale of White Horse District Council since 2011, was appointed as deputy PCC in December 2016.
Mr Barber was initially appointed as a part-time member of staff but the PCC, Anthony Stansfeld, has recommended his post becomes full-time to deal with an increasing workload.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Successful police work to divert children away from the criminal justice system is a missed "missed opportunity" for publicity, according to an HMIC report.
A joint HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services report published Wednesday praised strong relationships between the two services and an impressive commitment to reroute low-level youth offenders.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A pioneering fingerprint technique used to convict a drugs gang from a WhatsApp message "is the future" of how police approach evidence to catch criminals.
An image of a man holding ecstasy tablets in his palm was found on the mobile of someone arrested in Bridgend.
It was sent to South Wales Police's scientific support unit and helped to secure 11 convictions.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Government has selected a new leader to oversee the implementation of its long-delayed Emergency Services Network (ESN).
Bryan Clark, a former digital director in the prison service, has been appointed programme director for the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme.
Mr Clark will help implement the ESN – the replacement for the Airwave radio system – which was recently revealed to be up to 15 months behind schedule.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Just as most people are turning in for the night and double-locking their doors, in some parts of the UK, small teams of concerned residents are pulling on combat gear and berets, and hitting the streets in an effort to keep their own communities safe. And before you ask, they insist that they’re not vigilantes.
The 15-strong Night Angel Patrol Group, mostly former servicemen — maroon beret, red fleece — cover Pitsea, a small town east of Basildon, Essex. Three miles to the north, the similarly clad Wick Patrol Group — motto: walk, observe, report — cover Wickford. They say they are preventing break-ins, deterring vandals and breaking up fights, stepping into the gap left by the loss of nearly 400 police officers in Essex over the past six years.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Matt Kilcoyne is Head Of Communications at the Adam Smith Institute.
The papers might have been full over recent days of Amber Rudd’s inability to read a report from her own department about the impact of police cuts – but they missed the bigger picture. The Home Secretary is right to highlight the impact of drug gangs on our cities and young people, and on the rise of violent crime in the past twelve months – but she’s missed the obvious solution.
Time and time again I come across policy stories like this. Whether it’s on housing, where people complain of a housing crisis and the Tories say they’ll build more but ignore that it’s the Government’s constriction of supply that leads to higher rents and less disposable income. Or on encouraging more women to remain in employment after childbirth without looking at the costs of childcare or how government can best reduce it. All too often the debate doesn’t look beyond the obvious and the answers are unimaginative. We end up failing to solve the underlying problems.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Home secretary Amber Rudd is to announce a crackdown on criminals who exploit the dark web in pursuit of drug deals, child pornography, guns, credit scams and other illegal activities. About £9m has been set aside by the Home Office in a push to try to clean up the dark web, a largely hidden part of the internet whose users can operate with relative anonymity.
Rudd is to make the announcement on Wednesday afternoon at a conference in Manchester organised by the National Cyber Security Centre, the front window for the government surveillance agency GCHQ.
In other measures, more than £5m is to be spent on establishing police units at regional and local level dedicated to help fight cyber crime. Until recently, cyber-crime has not been a priority for police forces, with most under-resourced.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Evidence from so-called paedophile hunter groups was used to charge suspects at least 150 times last year, a BBC investigation has found. A Freedom of Information request, sent to every police force in England and Wales, showed a seven-fold increase in the use of such evidence from 2015.
Twenty-nine of the forty-three forces approached (67%) provided data.
Despite this, the National Police Chiefs Council say the groups' tactics present "significant risks".
[ more...]
Police Demand
Home Secretary Amber Rudd has rejected claims that young people are drawn into violent crime because they don't have anywhere to go.
In an interview with Newsbeat, she said the government was committed to investing money into youth services to divert people away from knives.
"We are actually putting in more money and more targeted money to the areas where it's really needed," she added.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A government strategy to combat gangland murders and other violent crime relies on at least two tactics that are hampered by cuts in police numbers, according to a leaked report.
So-called hotspot policing, where regular patrols focus on areas of high crime, and initiatives against gang crime, both have to compete for shrinking police resources, the Home Office document concluded.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
There have been more than 50 murders in the capital so far this year - and MP David Lammy says the drugs trade is driving a rise in violence.
"We are the drugs market of Europe," Mr Lammy told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
The Tottenham MP added that the UK's drugs market was worth £11bn, and London was at its centre.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Jeremy Corbyn will attack the Conservatives over police cuts amid rising violent crime, as he launches Labour's London election campaign.
"You simply cannot maintain community cohesion when you slash funding to the police service," he will say.
More than 50 people have been killed in violent attacks in London since the start of the year. Ministers say falling police numbers are not to blame for rising violence.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The policing minister has told a police force strolling with funding pressures to apply for a special grant to cover its child sexual exploitation costs.
In October Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner Kathryn Holloway said her force’s future was “unsustainable” if it was not given a £10 million funding boost and demanded Mr Hurd treat Bedfordshire Police as a “special case”
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Government "must do whatever it takes" to make Britain's streets safe, as she launches a new crackdown on violent crime, the Home Secretary says.
Amber Rudd will set out priorities for the £40m Serious Violence Strategy, including tackling violent drugs gangs and introducing prevention incentives.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Tory Home Secretary Amber Rudd claims she has never seen a document prepared by her own department about the rise in violent crime, on the day she launches the Government's violent crime strategy.
The paper prepared by officials as part of preparations for the new strategy acknowledged police cuts had "likely contributed" to the rise in serious violence.
But speaking to the BBC, the Home Secretary said she had never seen it.
She said there are "a lot of documents that go round the Home Office", when pressed on the papers leaked to the Guardian.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Durham Police has paid global data broker Experian for UK postcode stereotypes built on 850 million pieces of information to feed into an artificial intelligence (AI) tool used in custody decisions, a Big Brother Watch investigation has revealed.
Durham Police is feeding Experian’s ‘Mosaic’ data, which profiles all 50 million adults in the UK[1] to classify UK postcodes, households and even individuals[2] into stereotypes, into its AI ‘Harm Assessment Risk Tool’ (HART). The 66 ‘Mosaic’ categories include ‘Disconnected Youth’, ‘Asian Heritage’ and ‘Dependent Greys’.[3]
Durham Police’s AI tool processes Experian’s ‘Mosaic’ data and other personal information to predict whether a suspect might be at low, medium or high risk of reoffending.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The home secretary has announced a crackdown on drugs networks in England and Wales, citing a "strong link" between drugs and rising violent crime.
Amber Rudd said the illegal drugs market was changing and appeared to be the "biggest driver" of the increase.
She contradicted a leaked Home Office document, seen by the BBC, which cited falling police numbers for the rise.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Amber Rudd dismissed claims on Sunday that police cuts were to blame for the rise in violent crime as she prepared to publish a new strategy to tackle the problem.
The home secretary insisted that police forces across the country had the resources and the manpower to tackle the increasing violence on Britain’s streets.
“While I understand that police are facing emerging threats and new pressures, leading us to increase total investment in policing, the evidence does not bear out claims that resources are to blame for rising violence,” she said.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Officers will be driving a scheme to de-carbonise British roads as part of a government project to fuel hydrogen vehicle infrastructure.
Taxis and police cars will be among nearly 200 new hydrogen-powered vehicles switching to zero emission miles as part of an £8.8 million Department for Transport project.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A PCC is promoting a scheme for councils and businesses to pay for their own dedicated PCSOs as a new way to beat budget cuts.
Daventry Town Council in Northamptonshire has become the first to buy its own support officer as part of the initiative which sees personnel dedicated to the area which covers its costs.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Internet companies must do more to rid their platforms of content that fuels youth violence, the Government has said.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd will press social media firms to step up their response following a spate of murders in London.
The Home Office said gangs often post videos online that “seek to incite violence or glamorise criminality to influence young people”.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Britain’s most senior police officer has blamed social media for the soaring rate of knife crime in the UK, particularly among children.
After 13 Londoners were killed in two weeks this month, Met police commissioner Cressida Dick said websites and mobile phone applications such as YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram were partially to blame for the bloodshed.
Speaking to the Times, Dick said trivial disputes could escalate into violence “within minutes” when rivals set out to goad each other on the internet.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Guilty until proven innocent. The tenure of Alison Saunders at the Crown Prosecution Service will be remembered for a monstrous inversion of that fundamental principle of British justice. I began to campaign for Saunders to be sacked after receiving emails from two Telegraph readers, shellshocked mothers whose sons were both wrongly accused of rape and left dangling in that Purgatory of the disbelieved.
“Google my boy’s name, Allison,” urged one, “and you will still see his sweet face next to the word rapist.”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders has dismissed suggestions that she is leaving the post because the government refused to renew her contract. In addition, she rejected criticisms of her five-year stint at the head of the Crown Prosecution Service, describing claims that standards had slipped as “hugely insulting” to prosecutors.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The number of people seeking help to stop viewing child abuse images has risen by 40 per cent, figures suggest.
The Stop it Now campaign run by the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a child protection charity, said 36,443 people contacted the scheme last year, up from 26,089 in 2016.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government has supported a police and crime commissioner's
proposal to tackle drugs.
Responding to a question in Parliament Policing Minister
Nick Hurd said he welcomed the West Midlands PCC David Jamieson's focus on the
issue.
Plans include prescribing heroin to people suffering from
addiction who have no responded to other s of treatment.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The government has supported a police and crime commissioner's
proposal to tackle drugs.
Responding to a question in Parliament Policing Minister
Nick Hurd said he welcomed the West Midlands PCC David Jamieson's focus on the
issue.
Plans include prescribing heroin to people suffering from
addiction who have no responded to other s of treatment.
[ more...]
Police Demand
London’s murder rate has surpassed New York’s for the first time in modern history as knife crime in the British capital hits crisis levels. It comes amid huge police cuts and falling officer numbers.
A total of 37 murders have been committed in London during the last two months, according to a report in the Sunday Times. In February, 15 murders were recorded by the Metropolitan Police compared to 14 in New York, while initial figures for March count 22 killings in London compared to 21 in the US city.
London and New York City have comparable populations of 8.7 million and 8.6 million respectively. NYC’'s murder rate has decreased by around 87 percent since the 1990s, while the number of London murders, excluding victims of terrorism, has risen by almost 40 percent since 2014.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The head of Britain’s largest police force said investigators must stay “impartial” and added that, despite #MeToo, “clumsy behavior between somebody who fancies somebody else is not a matter for the police.”
Cressida Dick, the Commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police, said she “rethought” the policy of automatically believing allegations of sexual abuse, instituted in 2011 after the extent of previously ignored allegations against pedophile presenter Jimmy Savile became clear.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A scathing inspection in July highlighted how the chance of a fair trial was being undermined by failures to disclose evidence.
HM Inspectors have admitted they will not be checking whether the police service has met short term deadlines to address "systemic" evidence disclosure failings for at least a year.
Last July Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary's Wendy Williams and HM Crown Prosecution Inspectorate's Kevin McGinty called for a cultural change in both services.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police officers should be prevented from accessing people's personal mobile phone data without a search warrant, a privacy campaign group has said.
At least 26 police forces in England and Wales have begun using new technology to extract data from phones.
And Privacy International said there had been no public debate about the rapid rollout of this practice.
But one former chief constable said obtaining a warrant in each instance would be "just not practical".
[ more...]
Police Finances
Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann 11 years ago are to be given more funding to continue the search.
The Home Office has confirmed that the application from the Metropolitan police for more money to fund Operation Grange will be granted.
Government funding for the search is agreed every six months with £154,000 being given in October last year to cover the operation until the end of this month. Police applied for more money last month to allow the search to continue.
[ more...]
Fire
I am pleased to announce that I have approved proposals from the Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC) for Cambridgeshire (Jason Ablewhite), Staffordshire (Matthew Ellis) and West Mercia (John Campion) to take on governance of their local fire and rescue service(s).
I have carefully considered each proposal, taking into account representations made by the public, police and fire personnel, and relevant local authorities in response to each PCC’s local consultation. In each case I obtained an Independent Assessment of the PCCs’ proposal, carried out by the Chartered Institute for Public Finance and Accounting (CIPFA), which I have had regard to and today publish in the interests of transparency. A copy of each of the Independent Assessments will be placed in the House Library and published on Gov.UK shortly.
[ more...]
Police Finances
EU leaders have approved guidelines for the negotiation of future relations with the UK after Brexit.
The text on trade, security and other issues was agreed in "less than half a minute", clearing the way for the next phase of Brexit talks to get under way.
The UK is due to leave in March 2019 and negotiators have said they want a deal in place by the end of the year.
Prime Minister Theresa May said she believed there was a new "spirit of co-operation and opportunity".
EU leaders have approved guidelines for the negotiation of future relations with the UK after Brexit.[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A new agreement to reduce reoffending and provide a more integrated approach to victims of crime in London has been announced by the Justice Secretary and the Mayor of London. They will work alongside local councils towards justice devolution and explore how to better join up local criminal justice services in the capital.
Together they will initiate a programme to tackle major challenges facing London’s criminal justice service, and ultimately devolve powers, and more authority and accountability for criminal justice from the Government to the capital.
[ more...]
Police Finances
An organisation is pushing forward to improve the lives of
police officers and their families amid an increasingly challenging work
environment.
Police Mutual has harnessed its resources to help improve
members' lives and invest in their wellbeing throughout their careers, into second
careers and retirement.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The officers, who also help tackle serious and organised crime, saw a drop in numbers of nearly ten per cent to 20,118.
Community support officers assigned to local policing were also slashed by ten per cent to 10,474 in 2017, the National Police Chiefs’ Council says.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A campaign is aiming to encourage young people to put down their knives, after a week in which eight people were stabbed to death in London.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Yesterday Theresa May was rebuked by the statistics watchdog for a 'misleading' claim her government had boosted police funding by hundreds of millions of pounds.
On Tuesday, Chairman of the UK statistics Authority Sir David Norgrove rebuked the Prime Minister for comments she made during PM's Questions last month and for a tweet sent by the Home Office account.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Under-pressure police forces are taking days to respond to 999 calls that should be dealt with in an hour, the policing watchdog has said, as they come under “significant stress” from slashed budgets and increased demand.
Almost a quarter of forces in England and Wales are struggling to deal with emergency calls in a timely way, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has said in a report on police effectiveness.
West Midlands, Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire were singled out as having the worst record on delays in dealing with 999 calls.
[ more...]
Police Finances
PMQs (21 March 2018): Prime Minister's Questions opened with
a question from Labour MP George Howarth regarding additional support for police.
The Knowsley MP asked "Will the Prime Minister arrange for the Home Secretary to meet local MPs to discuss what additional support can be given to deal with that serious problem?"
The Prime Minister responded stating "Not only will we
protect police budgets but we will see, with precept, £450 million extra
available to police forces across the country".
[Question begins at the 1:40 mark]
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Cocaine is now so prevalent in society that one in 10 people who have never used the drug have traces on their hands, a new study has shown.
Researchers at the University Surrey tested the fingerprints of 50 drug free volunteers and 15 drug users who had taken cocaine or heroin in the past 24 hours.
Around 13 per cent of fingerprints of those who had never used the drugs were found to contain cocaine, while one per cent contained a metabolite of heroin.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Critical cooperation between law enforcement agencies post-Brexit is being threatened by Government complacency, the Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) has warned.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of thefts from convenience stores almost doubled last year, with meat and cheese the top items stolen, according to a study.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Theresa May has been officially rebuked for misleading MPs and the public over false claims that the government is providing an extra £450m in funding to local police forces in 2018/19.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Council tax is ‘outdated and regressive,’ and the Government should consider scrapping it in favour of a fairer system, according to a think-tank.
As its relationship to property values gets weaker and weaker, council tax looks increasingly like the unpopular poll tax it was introduced to replace, the Resolution Foundation has claimed.
The think-tank claims council tax is regressive due to the ‘wide bands,’ the small difference in the rates of the bands, the out-of-date property values it is based on and the regional variation.
Principal researcher at the Resolution Foundation, Laura Gardiner, said: ‘Despite replacing the unpopular poll tax, council tax has come to look increasingly like it.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Drug testing stations where substances could be tested without penalty should be opened in city and town centres to help stem a startling rise in club drug-related deaths, a report has concluded.
It found that deaths linked to ecstasy and cocaine are at their highest level since records began, and that hospital admissions for these drugs and the tranquiliser ketamine have also risen dramatically.
There were 98 ecstasy-related deaths in the UK in 2016, up from 12 in 2010, and 494 attributable to cocaine, up from 148 over the same period.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Thousands of people accused of non-violent offences should no longer be remanded in custody while awaiting trial, according to a justice charity. It accuses courts of being “risk averse” towards giving bail to suspects, many of whom are then cleared of the crimes of which they are accused or given a non-custodial sentence. Defence lawyers say that the reasons frequently given for remanding a suspect into custody, such as that they will not turn up to court or may commit further offences, are based on evidence that is “paper thin”, the report says.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A police force says its objectiveness will not be compromised by the launch of a range of sponsorship packages aimed at saving its mounted section.
At least five further forces of the remaining 13 in the UK with mounted units have accepted or are planning to also accept sponsors.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Government inspectors say the financial problems at
Northamptonshire County Council have no impact on whether it should be governed
by a PCC.
A damning report yesterday said the authority, which is
effectively bankrupt, had been badly managed and should be broken up.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A photograph of three fingers holding a bag of Ecstasy was enough for police to identify the mastermind of a thriving drugs gang.
The image was found on a mobile telephone during an investigation into drug dealing in south Wales. Forensic scientists used pioneering techniques to enhance the picture, which allowed fingerprint experts to identify Elliott Morris, who ran a drug operation in the West Midlands.
Morris, 28, and his parents were among nine people jailed this week at Cardiff crown court for conspiracy to supply cannabis.
[ more...]
Police Finances
As part of a new step-change to tackle the threat of violent behaviour, the Community Fund – which supports community projects to work with young people about the dangers of carrying knives – will have its funding increased to up to £1 million.
Over 40 charities, including the Ben Kinsella Trust, have already benefited by receiving grants of up to £20,000 through the first round of the Community Fund which was launched in October 2017.
In addition, further funding has been secured for Young People’s Advocates until at least the end of March 2019, to provide support for vulnerable women and girls at risk of exploitation by gangs.
[ more...]
Police Finances
National Crime Agency pay reform sees some personnel moved
onto a 40-hour week against independent advice.
The government has been accused of ignoring many
recommendations of its independent pay review for the National Crime
Agency.
Last week the NCA Remuneration Review released its
first report in two years, recommending an average of three per cent pay rise
backdated to August last year. However, key elements of the report appear to
have been disregarded.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Office of the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner has been successful in winning a silver award at the Public Sector Transformation Awards for the implementation of a Victims’ Centre based in Sheffield.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Katie Ghose, the chief executive of Women’s Aid, knows she has a fight on her hands to ensure the domestic violence bill announced last week by Theresa May is worth the paper it’s written on. With refuges under dire threat from changes to funding, Ghose says the proposals must go beyond criminal justice if they are going to make a difference.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Philip Hammond will need to impose tax rises worth at least £30bn to reach his target of balancing the public finances by 2025, undermining hopes that the chancellor will go into his autumn budget with plenty of spare cash to ease austerity, according to a leading economic thinktank.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the government could be forced to find up to £41bn in extra taxes by the middle of the next decade once the costs of Britain’s ageing population are taken into account.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A senior policeman has claimed making cannabis illegal is “illogical” – adding he would like to see it being sold in retailers like off-licences.
Arfon Jones, the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner, said the drug was “far less harmful” than alcohol and it doesn’t make sense for one to be legal and not the other. He also suggested hard drugs such as cocaine should be made available on prescription.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
People accused of domestic abuse could be banned from drinking and put on a tag under government plans aimed at reducing the scale of the crime.
A new civil order would enable courts to impose a range of restrictions, including banning them from contacting victims, while police investigate.
Suspects could be required to attend alcohol and drug treatment programmes, parenting classes and anger management courses under the new Domestic Abuse Protection Order.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Philip Hammond could reveal an improvement in the public finances worth as much as £11bn when he delivers next week’s spring statement, according to analysis of official figures.
[ more...]
Police Finances
WhatsApp fraudsters are targeting 'naive' young people and turning them into money mules.
New data, compiled from the National Fraud Database by not-for-profit fraud prevention body, Cifas, suggests in the past year there has there has been a "sharp rise" the number of 18 to 24 year olds being tricked into using their bank accounts to transfer the proceeds of crime.
According to the figures, there were 8,652 cases of ‘misuse of facility’ between January and the end of September this year, a 75 per cent rise.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Investigators simply cannot investigate all reported digital
crimes due to a lack of legislative power.
Speaking today at the Forensics Europe Expo, Andy Beet, Data
Communications Lead for the National Police Chiefs' Council and er MPS
officer for 50 years, expressed various concerns over the changing nature of
investigations.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Government funding cuts have served to undermine years of work by local authorities in tackling youth crime, council chiefs warn.
In 2010/11 Whitehall funding for youth offending teams (YOTs) stood at £145m. By 2017/18 it had been slashed to £72m.
These cuts have been made despite evidence YOTs have been effective at preventing young people from getting involved in crime.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Punishments for motoring offenders caught using hand-held mobile phones are still “not enough” despite the UK being just off the summit of a European fines’ league table, safety experts warn.
British drivers face some of the biggest fines across the continent for mobile phone use, a new survey has discovered.
Many countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia and Iceland hand out fines of less than 100 euros (£88) to motorists caught offending at the wheel.
However, UK drivers can be hit with a £200 fine – the equivalent of some 225 euros – plus six penalty points, only beaten by Holland, which has penalties of 230 euros (£202).
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police and crime commissioners should be given joint oversight of probation and offender rehabilitation services with the Ministry of Justice, the head of the commissioners’ association has said.
David Lloyd, chairman and criminal justice lead for the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), said on Tuesday the current system “stifles innovation” and does not work in its current form.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than 1,000 criminal lawyers in England and Wales have experienced disclosure of evidence failings in the last year, according to a BBC survey.
Of the 1,282 who responded, almost a third said they believed such failings had led to possible wrongful convictions or miscarriages of justice.
A number of recent rape trials have collapsed after it emerged evidence had not been shared with defence lawyers.
[ more...]
Police Finances
More police and crime commissioners are to take over the governance of fire services.
Hereford & Worcester and Shropshire fire and rescue services will be governed by West Mercia PCC John Campion, while the Staffordshire service will come under Matthew Ellis.
The decision was announced by the Home Office, following an independent assessment of proposals of how it could work and handover will begin within weeks.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) will bring together its counter-terrorism and specialist crime operations following the purchase of the Empress State Building.
Initially owned by Capital & Counties Properties PLC (Capco), the force bought the building for £250 million, and will spend £162 million on upgrades to create a new counter-terrorism and organised crime hub.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said moving to the single site in Hammersmith, south-west London, and disposing of other buildings will save on rent and free up money to support frontline policing.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The UK’s biggest investigation into child sexual exploitation needs 100 more officers to tackle the unprecedented scale of abuse in Rotherham, the head of the operation has told the Guardian.
The National Crime Agency (NCA), which is investigating past grooming offences in the town, has identified more than 1,500 potential victims and 110 suspects, and officers expect those figures to rise.
[ more...]
Prisons
Thousands more prisoners are to be released early under a government drive to relieve pressure on overcrowded and drug-ridden jails, The Times has learnt.
The Ministry of Justice has acted to significantly increase the number of inmates in an early release scheme after discovering that tens of thousands of eligible offenders — including those serving sentences for violence, robbery, burglary and public order crimes — were missing out.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Prison inspectors need more funding to hold the government and prison bosses to account when jails have "urgent and serious failings", MPs have said.
A Justice Committee report comes after the BBC revealed the appalling conditions at Liverpool Prison.
The MPs pointed out that inspectors had made recommendations in 2015 but it "did not result in improvements".
[ more...]
Prisons
Prison inspectors need more funding to hold the government and prison bosses to account when jails have "urgent and serious failings", MPs have said.
A Justice Committee report comes after the BBC revealed the appalling conditions at Liverpool Prison.The MPs pointed out that inspectors had made recommendations in 2015 but it "did not result in improvements".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Officer’s lack understanding about consent meant two rape cases were not investigated.
Two police forces have been ranked inadequate by HMIs over their failure to record and properly investigate crimes such as child sexual offences and rape.
In a report released today by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services, north North Yorkshire and Thames Valley Police were criticised.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Tens of thousands of crimes including rape and violence are not being recorded by police, an inspection has found.
Victims of domestic abuse are being put in danger by the failures according to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS), which demanded urgent action.
An inspection of three out of 43 police forces in England and Wales found both Thames Valley and North Yorkshire Police “inadequate”.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Local councils are seeking to gain new powers to impose fines on drivers for minor offences on the roads.
Councils want the power to be able to issue fines for drivers violating rules such as stopping in box junctions and cycle boxes at traffic lights and illegal U-turns.
It has been suggested by these councils that they would be better equipped to tackle these offences than the police.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Firefighters with barely any first aid training are being dispatched to thousands of medical emergencies, it has emerged.
Crews responded to 44,000 ambulance call-outs last year that would normally have been dealt with by paramedics, four times as many as in 2010, Home Office figures show.
They are increasingly being called upon due to a surge in demand caused by the ageing population and difficulties in making GP appointments.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police and prosecutors' failures to disclose evidence, which have led
to the lapse of rape trials, are not limited to serious crime,
lawyers said after a harassment case was dropped.
Prosecutors
discontinued the case against Paul Baden, 56, from Rugby, who was
accused of harassing Julie Berriman, his er partner, with calls and
texts.
Police relied on photos they had taken of "unpleasant"
messages Miss Berriman had shown them on her phone. They did not examine
Mr Baden's mobile, which his lawyers say held evidence that would put
the messages into context, and repeatedly failed to answer the defence's
requests for the device.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Sadiq Khan has announced another £60m is to go into London policing from 2019.
1,000 extra officers will be funded from business rates in a bid to reduce the impact of government cuts.
It follows a similar announcement in December that saw Khan proposing a 5.1% tax increase to go straight back into financing the Metropolitan Police and London Fire Brigade.
The announcement comes after Home Office figures showed the number of police officers in England and Wales had fallen by over 1,000 in six months.
The mayor of London accused the government of failing in its duty to protect the public and said he would not “stand by” while the safety of Londoners was being put at risk.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The UK government has unveiled a tool it says can accurately detect jihadist content and block it from being viewed.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd told the BBC she would not rule out forcing technology companies to use it by law.
Ms Rudd is visiting the US to meet tech companies to discuss the idea, as well as other efforts to tackle extremism.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
[ more...]
Police Finances
Westminster council is proposing to freeze council tax and replace it with a voluntary contribution scheme after a consultation found ‘strong support’ for the idea.
The City Council will ask residents in the most expensive properties if they will consider voluntarily paying double the amount they would normally contribute in Westminster’s share of the council tax.
For 2018/19 this is £833 for Band H properties, which excludes the GLA element. However, any voluntary amount would be up to the contributor.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Public faith in the fairness of trials is being eroded and the justice system is approaching “breaking point” due to failures to disclose key digital evidence, the head of the criminal bar has said.
The comments from Angela Rafferty QC come as a leading forensic scientist, Dr Jan Collie, exposes the difficulties defence experts have in obtaining downloaded material from police and prosecutors, including dealing with “games” officers play in pursuit of convictions.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police and Crime Commissioners already earn up to £100,000 a year, but Home Secretary Amber Rudd has quietly ordered an official review that could see them paid even more.
They are likely to receive a pay boost as their salaries have been fixed since they were first controversially elected in 2012.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The APCC lead for mental health is calling for the NHS to be fined if a trust experiences regular delays picking up mental health patients.
Kent PCC Matthew Scott said that he wants a change in law to allow the police to penalise trusts which frequently keep officers waiting with patients.
In December new regulations were introduced to significantly restrict the use of police cells as places of safety.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The APCC lead for mental health is calling for the NHS to be fined if a trust experiences regular delays picking up mental health patients.
Kent PCC Matthew Scott said that he wants a change in law to allow the police to penalise trusts which frequently keep officers waiting with patients.
In December new regulations were introduced to significantly restrict the use of police cells as places of safety.
[ more...]
Prisons
Private companies are failing to enforce the sentences handed down by courts, leaving convicts to commit more crime or simply disappear, a damning report has found.
HM Inspectorate of Probation said firms commissioned in a 2014 overhaul of the service are “stretched beyond their capacity”.
Inspectors found that staff in community rehabilitation companies (CRCs) are not seeing the offenders they are supposed to supervise during community orders and suspended sentences often enough.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The police can be sued if suspects whom they are chasing injure members of the public, after a ruling by the Supreme Court.
It said a pensioner who was hurt and traumatised when she was crushed beneath officers struggling to arrest a suspect can sue for negligence. Elizabeth Robinson was 76 at the time.
The ruling, hailed by one legal expert as “the most important police law case for a generation”, prompted fears that it would result in “defensive policing”. Ian Skelt, a barrister at Serjeants’ Inn who represented police in the case said: “This potentially exposes the police to a wide liability.”
[ more...]
Police Demand
Ministers are under pressure to cut the drink-drive limit after figures showed that the number of people killed or injured in alcohol-related accidents has risen by its largest margin in 15 years.
There were 9,050 casualties in 2016, up by 7 per cent in 12 months, provisional figures from the Department for Transport showed. They included 240 deaths and 1,260 serious injuries.
Motoring groups said that drink-driving accidents were on a disturbing upward trend after decades of decline.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Knife killings in England and Wales are at the highest level since the start of the decade.
There were 215 homicides (murder, manslaughter or infanticide) using a knife or other sharp instrument in the year to March 2017.
The figure was similar to 2015-16, when there were 212, but it was the highest number of such killings since 2010-11, when there were 236, according to the Office for National Statistics.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Policing, health and social care organisations have signed a national agreement to work more closely in the interests of protecting the UK’s most vulnerable.
The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), College of Policing and NHS England are among the 12 agencies to back the consensus, committing them to collaborate on identifying and supporting at-risk people.
The document also includes a joint focus on conducting earlier interventions before individuals reach a crisis point – potentially saving time and resources for all involved.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England has indicated that the pace of interest rate increases could accelerate if the economy remains on its current track.
Bank policymakers voted unanimously to keep interest rates on hold at 0.5% at their latest meeting.
However, they said rates would need to rise "earlier" and by a "somewhat greater extent" than they thought at their last review in November.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police should look at using artificial intelligence to help cope with the scale of information involved in investigations and avoid the kinds of mistakes that have led to a string of collapsed rape trials, a senior police chief said on Wednesday.
Sara Thornton, the chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said the volume of data held by individuals had massively increased the number of potential lines of enquiry that officers must pursue to understand a case.
[ more...]
Prisons
The UK, Australia, Scotland and New Zealand all now have a higher proportion of prisoners kept in private prison when compared to the US.
Australia, England and Wales have the highest numbers, with one of every five prisoners in private jails, whereas one of every 12 prisoners in the US were in privately run facilities.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The Prime Minister is backing a new law making it illegal to “intimidate” election candidates and campaigners – despite police saying new offences are not needed.
Lawyers warned the move could have a “chilling” effect on free speech and said current legislation adequately covers threats and harassment.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Staff associations have called for a 3.44% rise for officers and say the rank and file must not suffer because of delays in the NPCC plans for a pay restructure.
The Police Federation of England and Wales and Police Superintendents’ Association submission to the police remuneration review body calls for a rise in line with Bank of England’s inflation forecast.
[ more...]
Police Demand
[ more...]
Police Finances
Belt-tightening, selling off assets and budget cuts have put the Cambridgeshire force under massive pressure - but its bosses have managed to keep the thin blue line shored up.
While other constabularies across have seen reductions in the percentage of neighbourhood police officers slashed, the Cambridgeshire force has seen a reduction of just 3.6 per cent - from 528 in 2013 to 509 last year (2017), a loss of 19.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
investigating hundreds of crimes that regular officers are too busy to look at.
A firm led by former Scotland Yard senior officers has successfully prosecuted more than 400 criminals and is now carrying out murder inquiries.
TM Eye, which has a 100 per cent conviction rate, is thought to bring more private prosecutions than any organisation besides the RSPCA.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The vast majority of companies set up to tackle reoffending as part of a controversial drive to privatise the probation service have failed to meet their targets, in a substantial embarrassment for the government.
Dramatic official figures have revealed that only two of the 21 regional companies set up to oversee low and medium-risk offenders have managed to reduce the number of new offences committed by reoffenders.
The revelation comes amid claims that the probation system is in crisis. Senior figures in the service warn that the companies involved lack the resources to do the job, while staff shortages have already meant that some ex-offenders are supervised by telephone calls.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Bobbies on the beat accounted for one in seven axed police posts over the past five years, analysis suggests.
At the same time, one in three police community support officer (PCSO) posts - originally intended to be the "eyes and ears" of the community - have gone.
Critics say a visible police presence in communities deters criminals and helps gather intelligence.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Reports of sexual offences against men and boys have more than tripled in the past decade, figures show.
There were 12,130 offences reported in England and Wales in 2016-17, compared with 3,819 in 2006-07, said the Office for National Statistics.
Andy Connolly, from Survivors UK, said victims were beginning to feel they would be believed but there was still a "massive wall of silence".
[ more...]
Police Finances
A major drugs trial is danger of collapse after police refused to hand over key evidence – saying they could not afford a £14 memory stick on which to put it.
In the latest in a string of disclosure blunders by police and prosecutors, Woolwich Crown Court heard how the trial of two men, implicated in a multi-million pound drug plot, could be at risk of collapse over the penny-pinching.
Yesterday, Judge Philip Shorrock blasted the authorities for failing to stump up ‘the pootling sum’ for a USB memory stick, on which could be stored the images and video clips urgently needed by the defence.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A teenager suspected of rape spent three months in custody because police did not disclose text messages that proved his innocence, he has claimed.
BT engineer Connor Fitzgerald, 19, was arrested last year after a complaint was made against him.
But charges were dropped only last week when it emerged that the complainant, who is entitled to lifelong anonymity, had sent texts threatening to destroy him.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Motorists should be penalised for going just 1mph over the speed limit, Britain’s road policing chief has said as he called for the 10 per cent buffer zone to be scrapped.
Chief Constable Anthony Bangham also said speed awareness courses were being overused, and believes offenders should get fines and points on their licence instead.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Millions of prescription-only drugs are being siphoned off from chemists and wholesalers to be sold illegally at a huge mark-up.
Criminals have sold the treatments for up to £200million on the online black market, say regulators.
Drugs such as painkillers and Valium, costing around £1 wholesale, are being sold for £30 to £40 by criminals.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Motorists could be able to report road accidents online under Government plans to ease the burden on drivers and police.
Transport minister Jesse Norman said the current system, requiring motorists to report an accident in person at a police station within 24 hours, is out of date and in need of modernisation.
Launching a 12-week consultation, he will tell the National Roads Policing Conference on Tuesday that online reporting will be quicker and easier.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Appeal court judges have ruled the government’s mass digital surveillance regime unlawful in a case brought by the Labour deputy leader, Tom Watson.
Liberty, the human rights campaign group which represented Watson in the case, said the ruling meant significant parts of theInvestigatory Powers Act 2016 – known as the snooper’s charter – are effectively unlawful and must be urgently changed.
The government defended its use of communications data to fight serious and organised crime and said that the judgment related to out of date legislation. Minister Ben Wallace said that it would not affect the way law enforcement would tackle crime.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of prosecutions in England and Wales that collapsed because of a failure by police or prosecutors to disclose evidence increased by 70% in the last two years. Last year, 916 people had charges dropped over a failure to disclose evidence - up from 537 in 2014-15.
It comes after recent collapsed rape cases highlighted a failure to share evidence with defence solicitors.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Shoplifting and muggings have increased across the UK, analysis of figures shows, amid claims police are ignoring low level crime because of funding cuts.
One area saw an increase of over 30 per cent in shoplifting offences and another over 70 per cent in mugging as forces across England and Wales prepare to publish their latest figures later this week.
Only five forces saw a fall in shoplifting crime in the year between 2016 - 2017, while many saw a rise hitting double figures.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has been urged to consider a gun crime strategy for the capital, following a steep rise in the number of offences and fears that victims and perpetrators are getting younger.
The Metropolitan police recorded 2,542 gun crime offences in 2017, the highest number in five years and 44% more than the 1,755 recorded in 2014, according to a report by the London assembly’s police and crime committee.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police are dealing with domestic abuse cases by simply making the abuser say sorry to their partner on the doorstep, a Fawcett Society report has found.
Research by the charity found a "worrying number" of domestic violence incidents are resolved using the most basic level of restorative justice, which "can often be little more than an apology".
In one force 54 per cent of cases were dealt with using the method, which can also involve financial agreements, according to evidence from a study carried out by Durham University.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police officers feel poorly equipped to investigate internet sex crimes against children, a report written for the public inquiry into child abuse says.
The study found that officers of all ranks in all parts of the country believed that they were not well trained in how to investigate sex offences such as online grooming of children.
The report was written by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) for the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and has been published before evidence sessions examining online abuse.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Data from two thirds of police forces obtained through freedom of information legislation shows that across England and Wales the number of reports under the act rose from 469 in the financial year to 31 March 2016 to 1,214 in the same period a year later and 1,042 in the eight months to November 2017.
But during this period the total number of charges declined, from 94 to 43, with 4.13% of cases leading to formal action in 2017 – down from 7.58% the year before.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Millions of prescription-only drugs are being siphoned off from chemists and wholesalers to be sold illegally at a huge mark-up.
Criminals have sold the treatments for up to £200million on the online black market, say regulators.
Drugs such as painkillers and Valium, costing around £1 wholesale, are being sold for £30 to £40 by criminals.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Police ICT Company should be at the heart of all developments and create an environment in which poor quality IT is no longer acceptable, according to its new chief executive.
Ian Bell, currently the director of National Enabling Programmes (NEP) and former chief information officer of the Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire tri-force ICT collaboration, has been appointed to lead the company from next month.
[ more...]
Police Finances
As all of the organisations concerned with local delivery of vital public services – it is time for a concerted, collective campaign on future funding for local services.
It is not enough to rely on repatriation of business rates – itself an outdated property tax which fails to reflect the modern dot.com. gig economy era. council tax too, if it is to survive, must be made fit for purpose.
That we are employing people to translate property values back to 1991 – over a quarter of a century ago – is beyond belief.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A police and crime commissioner is looking at ending his force’s PFI contact 17 years early.
The private finance initiative deal sees Gwent Police pay an annual sum to pay off the cost Ytrad Mynach Police Station.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A minister for loneliness, a project first started by the late MP Jo Cox, has been announced by Downing Street.
Tracey Crouch MP said she was proud to take on the "generational challenge" to tackle an issue affecting about nine million UK people, young and old.
She said she would work across political parties and with communities.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The rise of 20mph zones across the UK means speed awareness courses now net the police £57m every year, new figures show.
Attendance at the courses, which are offered to drivers caught speeding in 20mph zones, doubled last year to more than than 34,000, up from 17,000 in 2016, according to an analysis of data from the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS).
The number of people choosing to attend the 20mph course rather than receive three points and a £100 fine has doubled year-on-year since 2014, when figures were first recorded.
[ more...]
Fire
Labour have accused the Tory Home Secretary of trying to "hoodwink the public" after she claimed Fire Services have an "enormous" pile of cash reserves.
Amber Rudd made the boast to claim cash-strapped authorities "have the resources they need" after the number of firefighters fell 16% in five years. Ms Rudd told MPs this week that fire authorities are sitting on a £615million pile of cash reserves, up 88% since 2011.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Only a handful of local authorities have not been opted up to professional client status by the sector’s two main treasury advisers under the MIFID II regime, which came into force this week.
The new European Union rules, introduced in response to the financial crisis of 2007, regulates the provision of financial instruments to clients of financial service companies.
Local government appears to have come through the process of opting-up from their default retail status relatively smoothly, according to many in the sector.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Only a handful of local authorities have not been opted up to professional client status by the sector’s two main treasury advisers under the MIFID II regime, which came into force this week.
The new European Union rules, introduced in response to the financial crisis of 2007, regulates the provision of financial instruments to clients of financial service companies.
Local government appears to have come through the process of opting-up from their default retail status relatively smoothly, according to many in the sector.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Councils should be allowed to spend the money returned from the Apprenticeship Levy beyond the two-year deadline, according to the Local Government Association (LGA).
The call comes as new research shows that more than half of employers currently paying the levy want it replaced with a training levy.
A survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found 53% of employers would prefer a training levy, compared with just 17% supporting the apprenticeship levy in its current form.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Northgate Public Services has been acquired by NEC Corporation for £475 million. The deal, announced today (Tuesday, January 9), delivers “significant technological advantages” for Northgate with NEC’s cutting-edge biometric scanning and facial recognition products being integrated into some of the company’s core software platforms.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A major overhaul of the system of police complaints in England and Wales comes into effect on Monday.
The old Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is being replaced by a new body, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
Ministers say the change, part of a shake-up announced by Theresa May when home secretary, will speed up decision-making and create more accountability
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Murder rates in America’s largest cities fell to historic lows last year as the police used technology to monitor gun violence and predict crime hotspots.
In New York 290 murders were recorded last year, the lowest since comparable records began in 1951 and a near 90 per cent decrease from 1990, when a record 2,262 people were killed. In Los Angeles there were 281 murders last year, compared with 1,094 in 1992.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Justice Secretary David Lidington has ordered a review of how the Parole Board presents its decisions, following the controversial approval of John Worboys‘ release from prison.
The article continues to heavily quote Mr Lidington (Justice Secretary) about the governments course of action.
[ more...]
Police Finances
London’s deputy mayor for policing has said the government’s funding settlement is “smoke and mirrors” and warned the number of officers in the capital could dip below 30,000 because of cuts.
In December, home secretary Amber Rudd announced a total of £270m in England and Wales would be able to be raised by police and crime commissioners through increases in council tax.
But deputy mayor Sophie Linden said cuts would still need to be made because of an expected increase in police pay above 1%, speaking at the Greater London Assembly budget committee last week.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Around 200 Met Police officers are continuing work on the criminal probe into the fire, which killed 71 last June.
The force has made a request to the Home Office to fully fund the £27 million cost of the inquiry in the coming financial year and a further £11.1 million is also being sought to cover extra hours put in by investigators so far.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The war on powerful crime syndicates has been hampered by cuts to neighbourhood policing even though the threat outstrips that from terrorism, a senior officer has said.
Bobbies on the beat deliver crucial intelligence and help to combat a culture of silence in communities blighted by gang violence, extortion and drug addiction, Chief Constable Andy Cooke, who co-ordinates the fight against serious organised crime, said.
He added that the rising tide of violence, including knife and gun crime, as well as the associated rise in drug deaths, made organised crime the greatest threat facing Britain.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Failures to provide adequate sanitary protection to woman and girls in police custody breaches their human rights, the home secretary has been warned by an independent watchdog.
The Independent Custody Visiting Association (ICVA) has written to Amber Rudd and Justine Greening, the women and equalities minister, calling on them to improve conditions for female suspects held in police cells.
Successive inspections of police stations by visitors, the letter alleges, has found that the needs of menstruating women in police detention are routinely ignored.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police and crime commissioners (PCCs) have criticised a funding announcement that asks them to find another £270 million through changes to their take of the council tax.
Last month the Government announced another £450 million will be invested in policing in its provisional grant settlement for 2018/19.
More than half of this will be raised through increasing the limit on changes to precepts to £12 a year, while central grant allocations remain unchanged.
[ more...]
Fire
Failures to provide adequate sanitary protection to woman and girls in police custody breaches their human rights, the home secretary has been warned by an independent watchdog.
The Independent Custody Visiting Association (ICVA) has written to Amber Rudd and Justine Greening, the women and equalities minister, calling on them to improve conditions for female suspects held in police cells.
Successive inspections of police stations by visitors, the letter alleges, has found that the needs of menstruating women in police detention are routinely ignored.
[ more...]
Fire
Firefighters with barely any first aid training are being dispatched to thousands of medical emergencies, it has emerged.
Crews responded to 44,000 ambulance call-outs last year that would normally have been dealt with by paramedics, four times as many as in 2010, Home Office figures show.
They are increasingly being called upon due to a surge in demand caused by the ageing population and difficulties in making GP appointments.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Drug dealers are increasingly using the post to send large consignments of cannabis around the UK in efforts to evade checks at ports, police have warned.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and Border Force officials have recently intercepted several packages, including a parcel containing herbal cannabis worth £60,000 destined for an address in Belfast.
[ more...]
Fire
The Government are consulting on a revised Fire and Rescue National Framework for England. The consultation was published on 27 December.
The National Framework was last published in 2012 and changes are required to embed the fire reform programme and provisions in the Policing and Crime Act 2017.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Internet companies should face a tax punishment for failing to deal with the threat of terrorism in the UK, security minister Ben Wallace has said.
Mr Wallace said firms such as Facebook, Google and YouTube were too slow to remove radical content online, forcing the government to act instead. While tech firms were "ruthless profiteers", governments were spending millions policing the web, he added.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Firefighters with barely any first aid training are being dispatched to thousands of medical emergencies, it has emerged.
Crews responded to 44,000 ambulance call-outs last year that would normally have been dealt with by paramedics, four times as many as in 2010, Home Office figures show.
They are increasingly being called upon due to a surge in demand caused by the ageing population and difficulties in making GP appointments.
[ more...]
Prisons
Elderly inmates could be let out early to relieve pressure on overcrowded prisons under plans being considered by ministers.
Moving the oldest prisoners to secure care homes is being looked at in an attempt to deal with the rising cost of looking after them.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Almost three-quarters of the population think the police are effective at responding to emergencies.
Research commissioned by HMICFRS has found that public confidence in the police is high. Respondents who said they are confident in law enforcement’s ability to protect them from terrorism has risen to 55 percent compared to 46 percent the year before.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The justice secretary has pledged to implement a "key principle" of "change or explain" when racial discrimination is found in the justice system.
It follows a report from MP David Lammy, who found the system discriminates against people from ethnic minority backgrounds.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Low-level drug dealers taken into custody will be given the opportunity to avoid prosecution.
Durham’s Chief Constable Mike Barton told Police Oracle vulnerable people forced into a situation where they sell drugs will be better off undergoing a programme rather than being dealt with by the Crown Prosecution Service.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A £3.5 million inquiry into one of Britain’s most notorious crime gangs collapsed after multiple claims of police corruption, an investigation by The Times has revealed.
Officers from Greater Manchester police were accused of taking bribes from associates of Paul Massey, the underworld “Mr Big” who was murdered in Salford two years ago. The allegations emerged during Operation Holly, a five-year inquiry into money laundering, fraud and tax offences, which centred on a security company for which Massey, 55, was a consultant. Detectives believed that he was a “shadow director” for 21st Security Ltd and that it was used to launder funds and disguise the gang’s gains.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A potential £450m in extra funding for police in England and Wales in the next financial year has been announced by the Home Office.
Police and crime commissioners are to be given the power to raise the portion of council tax which goes towards policing by £12 per household annually. That would raise £270m, while £130m for national priorities, such as firearms, would come from central government.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of reported cases of child sexual abuse in the UK rose by almost a third last year, according to NSPCC figures that the charity described as “deeply worrying” but said showed a greater public willingness to report the problem.
The charity said it referred an average of 90 calls a week to police and social services over concerns that a young person had been sexually assaulted. This was an increase of 31% on the year before.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Today it was announced that the counter terrorism policing budget will be increased by £50million of entirely new money.
This will bolster this year’s budget of £707million to at least £757million next year.
This follows the £24million of new funding provided to CT policing this year, going to forces across the country.
[ more...]
Prisons
Online retailers should ban the sale of miniature mobile phones designed to be smuggled into prisons, the justice secretary has said.
David Lidington said the devices were advertised as being able to go undetected by the body orifice security scanners used in England and Wales.
[ more...]
Prisons
The justice secretary has said more inmates should be allowed to "commute" to work from jail.
In an effort to reduce the prison population, Mr Lidington (Justice Secretary) also suggested that more prisoners could be released early, after a risk assessment, and finish their sentences wearing electronic tags.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A judge has called for an inquiry after the trial of a student accused of rape collapsed because police had failed to reveal evidence proving his innocence.
Liam Allan, 22, spent almost two years on bail and three days in the dock at Croydon crown court before his trial was halted yesterday.
The judge demanded a review of disclosure of evidence by the Metropolitan Police, Britain’s biggest force, and called for an inquiry at the “very highest level” of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). He warned of the risks of “serious miscarriages of justice” after hearing that, to save costs, material was not always handed to defence lawyers.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A PCC says he will gladly re-examine the case for merging control rooms with a neighbouring police force.
Norfolk PCC Lorne Green raised the issue during a “collaboration-focused chat” with Suffolk’s counterpart Tim Passsmore.
[ more...]
Prisons
Thousands of offenders given community sentences are being supervised via a phone call every six weeks, the chief probation inspector has said.
In a report, Dame Glenys Stacey said widespread use of the practice in England and Wales was "not acceptable".
The findings also revealed some junior probation officers had 200 cases at once. Dame Glenys said poor supervision was "a risk to the public".
[ more...]
Police Demand
White suspects stopped and searched for drugs are more likely to be carrying them than black people, the police watchdog said yesterday.
A third of white suspects searched for drugs were found to be carrying them, whereas a quarter of black people stopped by officers were found to be in possession of them.
The “troubling” disparity, which for years has been raised as a concern in black communities, was highlighted in a report on stop and search released yesterday by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
All forces must be able to demonstrate their use of stop and search powers is reasonable and fair by the middle of next year.
HMICFRS says the over-representation of black people as subjects of the tactic must be explained.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Thousands of people with mental health issues may be being held in custody for longer than the law allows.
A lack of hospital beds meant forces “felt obliged” to detain people for more than 24 hours at least 264 times between October and December last year, figures from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) show.
The true rate may be even higher as less than half of forces responded to the request – and the NPCC estimates there could be more than 2,000 cases each year.
[ more...]
Prisons
Hundreds of sex offenders are being released from jail despite posing a risk to the public due to “shocking” failings by a major prison, a damning report has revealed.
An inspection of HMP Dartmoor, which holds high-risk offenders, found that it was failing to protect the public because of “unplanned, rushed and poor” release planning, with many sex offenders subsequently leaving without having sufficiently addressed their behaviour.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Inflation rose to 3.1% in November, the highest in nearly six years, as the squeeze on households continued. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that airfares and computer games contributed to the increase.
The most recent data shows that average weekly wages are growing at just 2.2%.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police officers have been urged by officials not to search people for drugs just because they can smell cannabis.
A report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMICFRS) found the practice did not increase the likelihood of a conviction, and should not be grounds to stop a suspect in and of itself.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Billions of pounds have been laundered through the City of London, despite Britain remaining one of the safest and cleanest places in the world to do business, the home secretary has said.
Amber Rudd issued the warning as she announced plans for a new national economic crime centre, with the power to task the Serious Fraud Office to investigate the worst cases of fraud, money laundering and corruption.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of domestic violence incidents going unattended by police is soaring, with the worst performing forces now missing a quarter of call-outs, damning statistics obtained by The Independent reveal.
The proportion of incidents where officers failed to show up more than doubled between 2012 and 2016 – from 5 per cent of cases to 11 per cent – responses to Freedom of Information requests from police forces across England showed.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Hackney Council has launched a campaign against police cuts, asking its residents to complain to the Home Secretary.
Posters put up around the borough ask residents to "add your voice" to the councils "Foot the Bill" campaign.
The council says Hackney has lost one in four police officers since 2010 and that offending in the borough is now increasing.
[ more...]
Police Demand
New leads in unsolved murders and sex crimes may be going unnoticed due to growing backlogs in cases submitted for analytical support.
Nearly 8,000 cases submitted to the Serious Crime Analysis Section (SCAS) are still awaiting input – up from 6,000 in 2011 – and more than half have not been analysed, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found.
Hundreds more cases identified as severe enough over the last two years have not been submitted to SCAS as police forces struggle to manage them within a 20-day deadline.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Three police forces are considering plans to give guns to some uniformed bobbies on the beat in order to respond more quickly to a crisis situation, such as a terrorist attack.
The forces concerned are predominantly rural, and senior officers believe that their geography could mean that the current system of specialist firearms officers could lead to delays in getting them to the scene.
[ more...]
Police Finances
It is currently being assessed as to whether police and crime commissioners should be given a pay rise because of the extra powers they have been allowed to have on.
The Home Secretary has written to the senior salary review body to ask them to gauge whether the £70,000 a year level set for the posts is high enough.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A comprehensive survey of police and crime commissioners (PCCs) shows widely disproportionate benefits of increasing the council tax precept and reveals hundreds of millions of pounds are being taken from reserves to support frontline policing.
Responding to a request by the Home Office for greater transparency on reserves as part of discussions on future police funding, PCCs have provided a detailed analysis that shows they are maintaining the minimum required in general reserves while the amount they hold for medium term budgets, change programmes and capital projects is reducing dramatically as it is used to support day to day activities.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
There have been more than 125,000 applications to join the police service at constable rank in less than three years.
Data was compiled by the Police Oracle showing that there have been more than 8.5 applicants for every available post.
[ more...]
Fire
Plans that could see fire and rescue authorities outline reasons for refusing police crime commissioners’ request to join as voting member are under consultation.
As part of a government strategy of a government strategy to encourage emergency services to work more closely together, Policing Minister Nick Hurd wants all PCCs to have the option of being appointed to their fire authority, consultation papers revealed this week.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The government has proposed changes to the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA) after accepting that some parts of it are "inconsistent with EU law".
The IPA governs the collection and use of communications data by law enforcement agencies.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The police helicopter service in England and Wales fails to get air support to thousands of incidents before they have ended and needs "urgent reform", a report says.
The HM Inspector of Constabulary said helicopter flying hours had nearly halved since 2009, and 24,873 missions were cancelled mid-flight in 2016. The report also said the cost of flight hours had more than doubled since 2009.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Britain will no longer be a member of the European police agency Europol after it leaves the European Union, the European Commission’s chief negotiator has said.
Speaking at a security conference in Berlin Michel Barnier accused the UK abandoning the defence of Europe at a time when it should be standing “shoulder to shoulder” with its neighbours in the EU.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Ministers are preparing to strip senior police officers of controversial surveillance powers after they were ruled illegal by the European Court of Justice.
A Government consultation to be launched on Thursday will suggest independent oversight of police requests to look at surveillance data in serious and organised crime cases.
[ more...]
Fire
The Home Office has launched a consultation to enable PCCs to sit and vote on Combined Fire and Rescue Authorities (see attached list of affected areas.)
Please follow the link to learn more.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The West Midlands police and crime commissioner (PCC) role is set to be scrapped in 2020 and taken on by the regional mayor, it has been confirmed.
The decision was included in the detailed breakdown of the second devolution deal for the region, confirmed on Wednesday (November 22) when Chancellor Philip Hammond delivered his Budget.
This deal will provide the mayor and the West Midlands Combined Authority with extra funding towards housing, homelessness, skills and high-technology investment in the region.
[ more...]
Police Finances
POLICE and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan has defended spending £141,000 on her bid to take over running North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.
The North Yorkshire Police and Crime Panel said Mrs Mulligan spent £141,437.50 on consultants for her business case for the bid, exceeding her planned budget by more than £12,000 in the process.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Further deep cuts in spending on some public services are already planned to go ahead, whatever the chancellor announces in the autumn budget, leaving departments such as justice and work and pensions facing a real-terms cut of as much as 40% over the decade to 2020.
An analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, confirmed by recent parliamentary answers, shows that for welfare spending, the NHS and the prison system, the budget on Wednesday will not represent an end to the age of austerity experienced since the Conservatives entered government in 2010.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK’s rate of inflation has stuck at 3% in October, remaining at a five-year high, according to official figures.
The ONS today published last month’s inflation stats, which showed the CPI remained unchanged from September.
Inflation has been rising in recent months, with the last increase taking place in September when it rose 0.1% from the 2.9% figure in August.
[ more...]
Police Finances
More forces are poised to give up investigating minor offences such as car crime and retail thefts without a significant funding increase in the budget next week, PCCs have warned.
The home affairs select committee was told on Tuesday that forces across England and Wales will lose a further 6,000 officers by 2020 without an urgent cash injection.
Kathryn Holloway, the Conservative PCC for Bedfordshire, told MPs her county risked becoming the “retail theft capital of the UK” because the local force could no longer afford to attend retail thefts of less than £100. Bedfordshire police will also not attend vehicle crime such as thefts from cars, she said.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police will have £700m less a year to fight crime in the coming years, and fewer officers too, despite forces already being under “significant stress”, the emergency services watchdog said on Wednesday.
According to the police inspectorate, all forces will spend £12.3bnin 2017/18, but that is projected to fall by 6% to £11.6bn by 2020/21
[ more...]
Police Demand
A force plans to scrap its neighbourhood policing operation, replacing it with, what it calls, prevention teams.
Sussex Police says this will offer a more flexible and scientific approach to the way it detects and tackles crime. It says the newly formed teams, made up of PCSO’s, officers and staff will more efficiently by opting for a more intelligence based approach.
[ more...]
Police investigations into children sharing sexual images of themselves and others have more than doubled in two years, figures have shown. Forces in England and Wales recorded 6,238 underage "sexting" offences in 2016-17, a rate of 17 a day.
The number of cases where under-18s were sharing indecent or prohibited images was up by a third on the 4,681 offences recorded the previous year, and represented a 131% rise on 2014-15, with 2,700 incidents.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Local transformation projects need to be scaled up to make them truly effective, the chair of the Police Reform and Transformation Board has said.
Nottinghamshire police and crime commissioner (PCC) Paddy Tipping believes a “bottom-up” approach to using the Police Transformation Fund has led to smaller programmes being financed and limited their national effectiveness.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The Police service is ‘headed towards crisis’ and in denial, according to the shadow home secretary today during her address to police chiefs and commissioners.
Diane Abbot, accused the government of turning a blind eye to the impact of funding cuts upon victims and police officers.
[ more...]
Police Demand
One of the UK’s most senior police officers has warned that a two-decade decline in crime appears to be ending amid rising violence and an unprecedented terror threat.
Chief Constable Sara Thornton, chair of the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC), accused the Government of under-funding forces struggling with new challenges.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The home secretary issued a rebuke to police chiefs yesterday over their public appeals for more funding after years of austerity.
Amber Rudd said that chief constables and elected police and crime commissioners needed to concentrate on cutting crime and that the public did not want to hear about disagreements over funding.
She told an audience of PCCs and chief constables that ministers would listen to their concerns but also “critically evaluate” them.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A major plank of the plan to turn policing into a degree-related progression has been delayed.
The proposal to link promotion in a rank to the earning of higher qualifications is not yet feasible, police chiefs have decided.
The College of Policing had suggested the measure as one of a number linked to requiring all new officers to be apprentices or graduates.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The Bank of England will deliver one of the most closely watched interest rate decisions since the financial crisis later on Thursday.
Economists and investors are expecting the first increase in a decade.
In September, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) laid the groundwork for an increase "over the coming months" if economic growth remained stable.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Hundreds of teenagers have been stabbed in Britain’s capital – 74 people killed in 2017 – but just days after the death of the latest young victim, it has emerged police are planning to have just one station that opens for 24 hours in every borough of the city.
In order to reach targeted savings of £400 million by 2021, police stations are set to be shut, leaving just one per borough which is permanently open.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A speech by Amber Rudd to the APCC and the NPCC partnership summit.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Scotland Yard will be unable to provide some services at all in future if budget constraints force the number of officers in the capital to fall as low as is feared, a senior officer has warned.
On Monday, the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said the Metropolitan police could end up with fewer then 27,500 officers by 2021 – the smallest number in nearly two decades – as a result of the financial pressures it is facing.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police forces in England and Wales will need nearly £1.3bn extra between 2018 and 2020 to tackle crime, police and crime commissioners have said.
They attributed the need for more funding to the increasing quantity and complexity of crimes being committed, as well as the threat posed by terrorism. The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APPC) said an extra £440m would be required in 2018-19 and £845m more in the following financial year.
The extra money would pay for 5,000 more officers to deal with new types of crime, as well as an additional 1,100 armed police force members.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Rules on disclosing crimes committed in childhood in England and Wales should be "radically revised", say MPs.
The Commons Justice Committee said the system was "wholly inappropriate", denied children a "second chance" and may breach human rights laws.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Suffolk’s crime chief has sworn to protect support officers despite being forced into a ‘tight corner’ over government funding.
Tim Passmore’s pledge came as Norfolk Constabulary proposes axing all 150 PCSOs to save £1.6m. However, the police and crime commissioner admitted facing ‘unpalatable decisions’ if the government fails to answer his call for more money.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK's key inflation rate climbed to 3% in September from 2.9% in August, its highest for more than five years.
The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) was last at 3% in April 2012, but has been driven higher by increases in transport and food prices.
The increase in inflation raises the likelihood of an increase in interest rates next month.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A sustained four-month spike in hate crime after this year’s terrorist attacks peaked at a higher level than that following last year’s EU referendum, according to Home Office figures.
Hate crime offences recorded by the police rose by a record 29% to 80,393 incidents in the 12 months to March 2017, according to Home Office figures published on Tuesday.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Government has published applications for special grant funding made by police and crime commissioners to the Home Office.
Applications for special grant funding made by police and crime commissioners to the Home Office.
[ more...]
Prisons
Andrea Albutt, president of the Prison Governors’ Association has said that prisons in England and Wales are “full to bursting”, underfunded, understaffed and recent reforms have “failed miserably” to address problems with the service.
Official figures show the prison population is 86,250 - just 1,211 short of the useable operational capacity.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A petition calling for a register of serial stalkers has been given to the Prime Minister.
More than 130,000 people signed the document organised by stalking advocacy service Paladin, which wants offenders and domestic violence perpetrators to be included on ViSOR (the Violent and Sexual Offenders register).
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The APCC has responded to the Race Disparity Audit released by Government.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of direct entry candidates set to join policing this year is below the level originally intended for the fourth year running
Police Oracle revealed that 21 inspectors and just six superintendents have been offered places as forces this year so far, with only the Met yet to finish recruiting.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Prisoners are deliberately getting themselves recalled to jail to smuggle drugs and other contraband to inmates, a watchdog report has warned.
Inmates about to be freed are “manipulated” by gangs on jail wings into committing minor breaches of the terms of their release to be returned to prison for short periods.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
YouTube and other social media sites must do more to take down rap videos that are stoking violence as gun crime rises, says Scotland Yard’s gangs specialist.
Temporary Commander Jim Stokley said that about half of the gun violence in London was gang-related and 70 per cent of illegal firearms recovered were found alongside class A drugs.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Home Secretary Amber Rudd has announced a new national hub to tackle the emerging threat of online hate crime. It will ensure better support for victims and help drive up the number of prosecutions.
The hub, run by police officers for the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), will work to ensure online cases are managed effectively and efficiently.
It will clearly set out the force responsible for further action in each case, removing any uncertainty which could arise when, for example, a victim is located in one area, with the alleged perpetrator in another.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A new national police hub is to be set up to crack down on those who commit online hate crime.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced a series of measures, which will include improved support for victims and a drive to increase the prosecution of those who abuse other internet users based on their race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or gender.
Social media giants including Facebook and Twitter have come under fire for not doing more to crack down on offenders amid fears the cost of policing the internet could prove a drain on scarce resources following sweeping cuts in police forces across the UK since 2010.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police forces are not doing enough to stop their officers carrying out sexual abuse, the official watchdog has said.
The finding by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) comes despite previous interventions from the watchdog and high-profile cases of police officers committing sexual abuse.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Rights groups have called for a boycott of the Government's school census over concerns it is being used for immigration enforcement.
The census, which collects information about all children in UK state schools, is being conducted on Thursday.
It became the subject of controversy when it emerged the information collected was being handed to the Home Office for the purposes of immigration enforcement.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The BBC have fact checked the claim that the number of black people being stopped and searched has fallen by over two-thirds, suggested by Theresa May.
According to the BBC The number of black people being stopped and searched by police has fallen by two-thirds since 2010-11 but not since the 2014 conference.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
An opinion piece from the guardian suggesting that merely raising the pay cap won't raise morale.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police are to work with the Conservatives to review their conference security after a well-known comedian was able to hand the Prime Minister a mock P45 unemployment notice.
Interrupting Theresa May's keynote speech to Tory members in Manchester, Lee Nelson - real name Simon Brodkin - approached the podium to hand the Prime Minister the fake document before being led away.
Conservative MPs voiced their concerns over the prank, as party chairman Sir Patrick McLoughlin and Home Secretary Amber Rudd promised a full inquiry.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government needs to come up with the cash to fund a decent pay rise for police staff this yeart or jobs and services will be cut, the BMG, UNISON and Unite and warned.
Forces say without extra money from the Home Office, they are not in a position to make, or even discuss, a pay offer this year for PCSOs, 999 call handlers, investigators or the many other police staff in England and Wales.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More than 1,000 incidents were reported to the National Cyber Security Centre in its first year of operation.
The centre - part of the intelligence agency GCHQ - says more than half the incidents posed a significant threat. None of the incidents were category one level involving interference with the democratic system or crippling critical infrastructure such as power.
But NCSC head Ciaran Martin warned there could be more significant and damaging attacks in the near future.
[ more...]
Police Demand
People who repeatedly view terrorist content online will face up to 15 years in prison, the home secretary is to tell the Conservative Party conference.
Amber Rudd will set out her intention to change the law to increase the maximum penalty from 10 years.
The offence of possessing information likely to be useful to a terrorist will also apply to material viewed repeatedly or streamed online.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The UK Statistics Authority has confirmed government statements about police force funding are open to misinterpretation.
On July 14 Labour Police and Crime Commissioners wrote to the authority to express their concern about government inaccuracies in relation to the over real terms protection for police funding.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
More than 900 people in Scotland have been told over the past two years that their partner has an abusive past, as a result of “Clare’s Law”.
On the second anniversary of the Disclosure Scheme for Domestic Abuse Scotland (DSDAS), Police Scotland said that 2,144 requests had been made under the scheme.These led to 927 people being told that their partner had a history of abusive behaviour.
[ more...]
Fire
Roger Hirst, was elected to become Police and Crime Commissioner for Essex in May 2016. He then took on his new role as the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex on the 1st of October.
He is the first PCC in the country to take on the governance of the fire and rescue service as well as the police. It mean's he'll be responsible for setting the strategy and budget of the fire service in Essex.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Northumbria's Police and Crime Commissioner has written to the Home Secretary to press for more Government funding to address the force’s “perilous financial position.”
Dame Vera Baird has demanded extra funding for Northumbria Police to pay for the two per cent pay rise announced for police officers. The Government recently announced it would lift the public sector pay cap for police and prison officers. But the commissioner said the force had only budgeted for a one per cent pay award across the board, and to increase that by an extra one per cent would cost £1.55m.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A second police force is facing investigation after a man died in an armed police shooting near Bristol. Officers opened fire on a car near junction 19 of the M5 at 09:30 BST on Wednesday, according to an eyewitness.
West Mercia Police said it received a call at 08:30 about a driver pointing a gun on the M5 in Worcestershire. The force has reported itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which said it was "assessing the referral".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Eleven people have been arrested across England and Wales as part of an investigation into neo-Nazi terrorist group National Action, Greater Manchester Police say.
It comes after three alleged members of National Action, including serving British soldiers, appeared in court charged with terrorism offences.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police chiefs have warned witnesses to flee the scene of a terrorist attack rather than getting their smartphones out to take photos or record video.
Officers highlighted the recent episode at Parsons Green, where images of a partially exploded bomb on a tube train were posted online within minutes.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The UK's counter-terrorism effort is putting an unsustainable strain on policing, the head of the National Police Chiefs' Council has said.
Chief Constable Sara Thornton said resources were being diverted from mainstream policing in England and Wales, leading to backlogs in control rooms and slower response times.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Grant funding of £600,000 has been awarded to four charities to help victims of child sexual abuse.
The funding, awarded to the National Association of People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC), Barnardo’s, Rape Crisis England & Wales, and Safeline Warwick, will help them provide vital services including developing services for boys impacted by child sexual abuse, boosting rape support centres, and expanding an online counselling service for victims of child sexual abuse.
[ more...]
Police Demand
One of Britain's biggest police forces is warning it has reached tipping point due to financial pressures and an ever-increasing workload.
The Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Police admitted that crimes such as burglaries may no longer be treated as a priority because of increasing demands from mental health patients, missing people and the threat of online extremism.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
England's second biggest police force has revealed that more than one in five of its computers were still running Windows XP as of July.
Greater Manchester Police told the BBC that 1,518 of its PCs ran the ageing operating system, representing 20.3% of all the office computers it used.
Microsoft ended nearly all support for the operating system in 2014. Experts say its use could pose a hacking risk.
[ more...]
Forces need to stop wasting their budgets on outdated computer systems and invest in new technology.
A new report by think tank The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) says many police hours are wasted carrying out basic data management tasks, due to severe deficiencies in the forces’ digital infrastructure.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
MPs have urged the justice secretary, David Lidington, to rewrite “extremely damaging” official guidance that means children as young as 12 could be held responsible for their own sexual abuse.
New rules the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) have drawn up mean some child victims of sexual assault could be refused compensation on the grounds that they “consented” even if their abuser has been jailed.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The government has revealed details of its proposed new security treaty between the UK and the EU after Brexit.
Ministers want the treaty to provide a legal basis for continued security, law enforcement and criminal justice co-operation after the UK's departure.
Whitehall officials are understood to be optimistic the plans will be agreed, and that security agencies will find other ways to keep people safe if not.
[ more...]
Police Finances
An extra £24 million is to be pumped into counter-terrorism policing in the wake of this year’s terror attacks, Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced today.
The move comes as the investigation into Friday’s incident in Parsons Green continues.
The entirely new funding, which is in addition to £707 million already announced to support counter terrorism policing in 2017/18, will be used to bolster protective security measures in crowded places. This will include helping to protect the public from the specific threat of vehicles being used as weapons.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Britain will continue to pay to remain a part of Europol as part of new security treaty with the EU after Brexit, David Davis has announced.
The Brexit Secretary said security links should be secured with a new legal pact to make sure the fight against terror continues unhindered after March 2019.
It comes after Theresa May was accused of using Britain’s world leading police and intelligence services as leverage in the negotiations.
[ more...]
Fire
The number of UK fire and rescue staff taking long-term sick leave due to mental illness has risen by nearly a third over the last six years, figures show.
In London, the figure has doubled since 2011-12.
Some 103 London fire staff have taken mental health leave this year, some after working at Grenfell Tower.
[ more...]
Fire
Firefighters have rejected a 2% pay rise because it came with too many strings attached, the Fire Brigades Union said
It didn’t adequately address ‘the pain of falling wages,’ they said.
And the offer also came with the condition that they would continue trials to offer emergency medical response as well as fighting fires.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Theresa May ducked a question from Jeremy Corbyn on whether police or prison officers numbers could be cut in order to fund the pay rises announced for both groups of public sector workers this week.
At prime minister’s questions, Corbyn asked: “Can the prime minister guarantee no more police or prison officers will be lost as a result of decisions she has made this week?”
May did not answer the question, and instead argued that factors such as incremental progression pay and tax cuts had actually left many public sector staff better off than before.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has been urged to pass on the cost of policing the world’s biggest arms fair to its organisers, with more than 100 protesters arrested so far.
More than £1.1m was spent deploying police officers to counter protests at the last Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) fair in 2015, according to figures released to Siân Berry, the Green party’s London assembly member.
[ more...]
Seven out of 14 police forces have been dubbed "inadequate" for failing to record hundreds of thousands of crimes reported to them.
Just three forces were rated "good" by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS).
Inspectors said the failure rate was a "serious concern" and would result in crimes not being investigated properly.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK's inflation rate climbed to its joint highest level in more than five years in August as the price of petrol and clothing rose.
UK inflation measured by the Consumer Prices Index rose to 2.9% in August, up from 2.6% in July, figures show.
The fall in the value of sterling since the EU referendum continued to be the main impetus for rising prices, the Office for National Statistics said.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government has announced pay rises for police and prison officers which breach the 1% public sector pay cap.
Prison officers will get a 1.7% rise while police will get a 1% pay rise plus a 1% bonus for the year, paid for from existing departmental budgets.
No 10 also signalled the end of the 1% pay cap, saying they recognised the need for more flexibility in future.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Government have confirmed that Police officers will receive a 2% pay award from 1 September 2017. This will be split between the 1% that was expected in addition to a 1% non-consolidated pay award for 2017/18. This will be funded from ‘existing departmental budgets.’ . The federation asked for a 2.8% increase, 0.1% under the most recent inflation figures.
[ more...]
Fire
Just eight police and crime commissioners (PCCs) – all Conservatives – have proposed a change of governance in their fire and rescue service, while the majority decide to take a seat on the fire authority or make no changes at all.
Earlier this year, the Policing and Crime Act 2017 received Royal Assent, allowing PCCs to take responsibility of the fire and rescue service in their area, and giving them a similar oversight to the police service.
However, no Labour or Independent PCCs will be proposing a takeover any time soon, and the eight Conservatives make up less than half of the party’s representatives.
[ more...]
Police Finances
One of the worst funded forces in the UK is combating cuts by equipping officers with a piece of kit which h as seen officers save up to 90 minutes in each shift.
Lincolnshire Police is “making every penny work harder” by getting on board with an investment in partnership with Motorola to expand its Mobile Data Technology.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Union leaders are demanding a 5% pay increase for all public sector workers and threatening co-ordinated strike action against the government’s pay cap.
Amid growing expectation that the cap will be lifted soon for police and prison officers, representatives of 13 unions agreed at the TUC conference that money needed to be found to retain and reward millions of nurses, teachers, council staff and civil servants.
[ more...]
Police Finances
On Tuesday or Wednesday (ministers making up minds) a strong signal will be sent that the 1% public sector pay cap is dead.
Because the government will announce that the pay of police and prison officers will increase more than the, below-inflation,1%.
But we are not talking about a large increase for police and prison officers: both will receive less than 2%.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government is to lift the 1% public sector pay cap for the first time for both police and prison officers, the BBC understands.
Ministers are expected to accept recommendations for higher pay rises this week and also to pave the way for similar increases in other sectors.
BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said it was the "first concrete example of the pay cap being dismantled".
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The weaker pound is failing to boost U.K. growth, according to the British Chambers of Commerce.
The business group downgraded its medium-term outlook for the economy in a report on Friday, citing a weaker-than-expected contribution from trade and subdued consumer spending. Inflation will outpace wage growth until 2019, the BCC forecast, continuing the squeeze on shoppers’ pockets that weighed on performance in the first half of 2017.
[ more...]
Police Finances
If the body decides police pay recommends exactly what the government wants again, it will lose the trust of police offers, a staff association leader believes.
Chief Superintendent Gavin Thomas this week highlighted the 18 percent real terms pay cut that personnel have taken in recent years.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The number of warnings for ambulance crews about people who could be violent or pose a risk has increased nearly ninefold in 18 months.
Welsh Ambulance Service had 434 people or addresses listed as potentially violent or a risk to crew safety in July, up from 50 in January 2016.
It may mean a request for police support if a 999 call is made for an ambulance crew at a specific address.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Young offenders from ethnic minorities will become "the next generation" of criminals unless the justice system is reformed, says MP David Lammy.
A review led by him found the system in England and Wales is biased and discriminates in treatment of people from ethnic minority backgrounds.
The Labour MP has made 35 recommendations, including delaying or dropping some prosecutions.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police admit they may have to work with "paedophile hunters" after figures obtained by the BBC revealed a rise in their evidence being used in court.
Figures show 11% of court cases in 2014 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland for the crime of meeting a child after sexual grooming used vigilante evidence, rising to 44% in 2016.
The vigilantes pose online as children then film the people they meet.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
One of Britain's largest police forces is failing to record thousands of alleged offences including reports of rape, a highly critical report has found.
Inspectors warned victims could be at more risk of harm because of shortcomings at West Midlands Police.
An assessment by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found 83.8% of reported offences were recorded by the force.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The BBC have made a tool to find out if you are likely to be a victim of crime.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Civil servants have threatened strike action as pressure from public sector workers to lift the 1% pay cap grows.
The PCS union said it would ballot its members on industrial action to end the "misery" of what it said were real-terms pay cuts of £3,500 since 2010.
Meanwhile, nurses demonstrated outside Parliament over what they said amounted to a 14% cut in the last seven years.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
This piece is about the recent undercover investigation in an immigration removal centre next to Gatwick airport.
The article gives a real sense of what it is like to be inside one of these detention centres, currently run by a private company, G4S.
Some of the inmates are criminals and have just been released from prison, others are asylum seekers waiting to see if their applications are approved.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police Scotland are using an Israeli based technology firm to crack the security protections on a growing number of mobile phones each year.
Freedom of information requests show that in the last three years Police Scotland have successfully obtained data from at least 35,973 phones, with each one taking around eight days to analyse. In the same period the police tackled 16,587 computers.
But as mobile devices hold the key to an increasing amount of data about people’s lives, civil liberties groups and academics have called into question whether the laws that regulate police access to mobile phone data are fit for purpose.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Public sector pay is set to rise above inflation for the first time in eight years, Downing Street has signalled.
Theresa May and Philip Hammond are understood to be drawing up plans to raise the pay cap, which has limited pay rises to 1% a year since 2010.
Scrapping it for all public sector workers would cost £4bn but ministers may support a staggered approach, prioritising areas such as nursing where there are staffing shortages.
[ more...]
Police Finances
If there is as support for a reduction in the number of police forces, the Policing Minister says he would “irresponsible” to ignore it.
Chief Supt Gavin Thomas, President of the Police Superintends’ Association of England and Wales b believes that the current force arrangement are “sub-optimal” with collaboration often being used to cover this.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Policing in England and Wales is facing a "perfect storm" due to staff shortages and rising crime, a senior police chief is expected to say.
Policing services are routinely based on fewer people working more hours and days, Ch Supt Gavin Thomas will warn.
The president of the Police Superintendents' Association of England and Wales will say such a model is "fundamentally flawed".
[ more...]
Police Demand
Inmates have rioted at HMP Birmingham tonight, with unconfirmed reports that one wing has been 'lost'.
National Tornado anti-riots teams are said to have been dispatched to the Winson Green jail - the scene of violent rioting in December 2016.
Sources claim the trouble began at 3.30pm.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Many economists do not expect UK interest rates to rise until 2019 despite inflation remaining above target, according to a BBC snapshot.
They believe that the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will be reluctant to raise rates during Brexit negotiations.
Inflation stood at 2.6% in July - well above the Bank's official target of 2%.
Half the economists contacted by the BBC think wages growth will outpace inflation in the first half of 2019.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Theresa May is considering lifting the cap on public sector pay rises, reports suggested last night.
The cap of 1 per cent could be gradually eased as the prime minister attempts to revive her appeal after June’s poor general election result.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Government will undertake first of its kind force-by-force research to ensure next year’s funding settlement is rooted in evidence from the front line.
Policing Minister Nick Hurd plans to ask every force its opinion on issues such as officer morale and the possibility of making future savings to inform this autumn’s funding announcement.
The measure, set up in response to officers’ concerns over demand, is intended to give the Home Office “a very clear understanding” of the current state of the challenges facing policing.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
Under the plans, ministers will give the green-light to pay rises in line with inflation, which currently stands at 2.6%.
That will be a boost for the millions of public sector workers who have seen their pay rises held down to just 1% since 2010, with rising inflation meaning they have faced a real-terms fall in wages.
[ more...]
Police are facing a “perfect storm” of staff cuts, new threats and a rise in crime, with many now feeling overworked and showing symptoms of mental ill health, according to a senior officer.
Ch Supt Gavin Thomas, the president of the Police Superintendents Association of England and Wales, said a confluence of pressures was leaving forces reliant on fewer officers working longer hours.
Half of senior officers have symptoms of anxiety, and 27% show signs of depression, a survey for the association found. Four-fifths say the depth and breadth of their responsibilities leads to them working excessive hours.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Morale is low among three in every five police officers, a survey by the body representing rank-and-file officers in England and Wales suggests.
The Police Federation poll showed the treatment of the service as a whole, pay and work-life balance were having the biggest impact on morale.
The proportion of officers planning to leave the service within two years was up from 11.8% last year to 12.3%.
[ more...]
An environmental campaigner who was deceived into forming a long-term intimate relationship with a police spy is refusing to pay Scotland Yard a £7,000 legal bill incurred during her quest for the truth.
Helen Steel fought a four-year legal battle against police chiefs who were eventually compelled to apologise unreservedly for the abuse and emotional trauma she suffered from the deception.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The loss of several female chief constables has raised sexism concerns and allegations of operational interference by the elected police and crime commissioners who oversee them, The Times has learnt.
The number of women in the top police jobs in England and Wales has halved since 2014, causing alarm in the senior ranks about the “worrying message” their departures send.
[ more...]
Fire
Another police and crime commissioner has applied to the Home Office to give him oversight of his local fire service.
Northamptonshire's Stephen Mold hopes to expand his role, saying it will save more for both blue light organisations.
The move comes days after Thames Valley PCC Anthony Stansfeld announced he thinks more collaboration can happen without abolishing the three fire authorities in his area.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Identity theft is reaching "epidemic levels", according to a fraud prevention group, with people in their 30s the most targeted group.
ID fraudsters obtain personal information before pretending to be that individual and apply for loans or store cards in their name.
A total of 89,000 cases were recorded in the first six months of the year by UK anti-fraud organisation Cifas.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Scotland Yard increased the amount it spent on weapons and ammunition last year to almost six times the sum the previous year, it has been disclosed.
The Metropolitan Police spent £9.4 million on guns, bullets, Tasers and smoke and stun grenades in the year to March compared with about £1.6 million over the previous 12 months, according to data acquired through a freedom of information request.
The figures for firearms spending rose to £5.7 million, nearly five times the total spent over the preceding six years.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The government is facing a multibillion-pound shortage of funding for new schools, hospitals and social housing after a decision by the world’s biggest public lender to freeze its UK operations because of Brexit.
The decision was taken after the government triggered Article 50 in March. Since then only three UK projects have had funding signed off and no projects have been financed since June.
[ more...]
At least 26 people have been arrested across London as police launch a preemptive crackdown on drug, knife and gang crime prior to this weekend’s Notting Hill Carnival.
Eight properties were raided in Lewisham, southeast London, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, where officers seized what they believed to be Class A and B drugs. Eight people were arrested.
A further 18 people were arrested after raids on 21 homes in Kensington and Chelsea - where the Notting Hill Carnival is due to take place - Hammersmith and Fulham, Westminster and Wandsworth.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Undercover armed soldiers will mingle in crowds at some of August bank holiday's biggest events amid fears of another terror attack.
Plain-clothed troops carrying hidden guns will pose as ordinary members of the public at Notting Hill Carnival as well as the Leeds and Reading music festivals as the UK threat level remains at “severe”.
It comes after ISIS claimed responsibility for two more terror attacks which happened in Spain's Barcelona and Cambrils last Thursday evening.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
The chairman of the Civil Nuclear Police Federation has urged the government to provide clarity on the proposed creation of a national infrastructure police.
Mark Nelson says the federation and sister federations were told the idea was being looked at a year before a series of meetings were held at which they were informed it was not going to happen and the forces would continue to collaborate.
However, after the idea emerged again in the Conservative manifesto before the 2017 General Election and the ensuing result hobbled the Tories, the chairman is seeking clarification on whether the merger is “on the table or off the table”
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Britain’s Home Office is ready to invest more in facial recognition technology for police forces despite claims it infringes civil liberties.
The technology, which matches images of people’s faces with a police database, could be in breach of the right to privacy.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police forces have spent nearly £23 million on body cameras even though trials have raised questions about their effectiveness and suggested that they do little to reduce crime, according to a report published today.
Big Brother Watch, the civil liberties and privacy organisation, found that 32 of the 45 police forces in the UK had adopted body cameras but that forces were unable to say how often the footage had been used in the courts. Nearly 48,000 cameras have been purchased for use by officers, the group said.
[ more...]
Police Demand
A number of forces in England and Wales have seen resignations more than double since 2011, raising further concerns about a brain drain and their ability to deal with a growing workload.
Resignations at the Metropolitan Police, the country’s biggest force, jumped from 337 in 2011-12 to 626 in 2015-16, according to figures obtained through a freedom of information (FoI) request.
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Police Demand
Rural crime has been estimated to cost the UK £39m, with many farmers feeling "under siege" from thieves.
Lincolnshire was the worst-hit English county with a cost of £2.5m, according to a report by NFU Mutual.
Transport links also mean thieves can steal machinery and move it into mainland Europe in "a matter of hours", said Rural Crime Now.
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Police Demand
The number of ambulance call-outs from people suffering a mental health crisis has soared by nearly a quarter over the past two years.
Ambulances received 30,000 more of these types of calls in 2016-17 compared with 2014-15, according to data obtained under freedom of information laws by the Labour MP Luciana Berger.
Paramedics also spent an additional 55,000 hours helping people struggling with their mental health last year compared with 2014-15, a rise of 32%.
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Economy & Public Finance
Pressure on incomes looks set to continue, with pay rises forecast at 1% over the next year, a survey predicts.
Despite falling unemployment, wage growth is weak because the supply of labour has also gone up, says the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
The CIPD said for every low-skilled job, there were 24 applicants.
There were also 19 candidates for every medium-skilled job and eight for every high-skilled vacancy.
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Fire
Firefighters are set to be used in roles traditionally reserved for police officers such as the search for missing people as police commissioners take over the brigades.
The services will be expected to work closer together in a move likely to see them sharing premises, call centres and in some cases community roles.
It comes as councils, who in many areas control the fire service, are accused of siphoning off cash destined for the front line to "prop up" other services including the burgeoning adult social care bill.
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Police and Crime General
Thefts from farms and livestock rustling must not distract forces from how other forms of offending can differ in rural areas, according to the chair of the National Rural Crime Network (NRCN).
Some forces risk a “narrow view” by treating ‘rural crime’ as something that only affects farmers, claims North Yorkshire police and crime commissioner Julia Mulligan.
Mrs Mulligan believes other offences like domestic abuse can manifest in different ways outside metropolitan areas, partly because of difficulties in reporting.
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Police Demand
The UK may continue to face the threat of Islamist terrorism for another "20 to 30 years", the former head of MI5 has said.
Lord Evans told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the issue was a "generational problem" and that the UK needed to "persevere" with efforts to defeat it.
He also said devices connected to the internet needed to be made more secure in the face of emerging cyber threats.
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Economy & Public Finance
All of a sudden Britain has become the slowest growing of the major western economies, and there are increasing concerns about its medium-term outlook. Iain Begg (LSE European Institute) writes that with both government and opposition fixated on what kind of Brexit to favour, there is a growing risk that fundamental and necessary measures to underpin the economy will be neglected.
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Police and Crime General
A police chief has said paying a child rapist £10,000 as part of an investigation into a grooming gang was the "right thing".
Northumbria Police's Steve Ashman said the information provided by the man led to the conviction of 17 men and a woman for abusing girls in Newcastle.
Charities have criticised the force for paying the criminal.
Mr Ashman told BBC News he was as "certain as I can be" that it was "morally" right.
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Police Demand
Modern slavery and human trafficking in the UK is "far more prevalent than previously thought," the National Crime Agency has said.
The agency said there were more than 300 live policing operations currently, with cases affecting "every large town and city in the country".
The NCA said previous estimates that there were 10,000-13,000 victims in the UK were the "tip of the iceberg".
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Economy & Public Finance
Regulators must remain "very very" vigilant about the risks to the economy, former chancellor Lord Darling has told the BBC - 10 years on from the start of the financial crisis.
He said a rising level of consumer debt in the economy was a growing concern.
Lord Darling was speaking on the 10th anniversary of the 2007 crash, which led to the government spending billions of pounds rescuing major banks.
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Police and Crime General
Police should use stop and search to "confront" an increase in acid attacks, the home secretary has said.
Writing in the Times, Amber Rudd said officers using the powers "appropriately" had her "full support".
Theresa May curbed the use of the controversial tactic when she was home secretary amid concerns black people were being unfairly targeted.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott warned against "a return to the bad old days of discriminatory stops".
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Police Demand
The number of tip-offs made by the public to the government's anti-terrorism scheme Prevent has doubled in the last four months.
Police received some 200 referrals between April and July, compared to about 100 in the four months before.
The referrals were made in the period where the Manchester, London Bridge and Finsbury Park attacks occurred.
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Police and Crime General
One of Scotland Yard's most senior police officers says criticism of the government's Prevent programme is based on "ignorance".
It was set up to stop people being drawn into terrorist activities, but has been labelled "toxic" by critics.
"They don't understand properly how Prevent works," Commander Dean Haydon told the BBC's Asian Network.
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Police Demand
Illegal drugs remain widely available despite the billions of pounds spent trying to enforce laws prohibiting them, according to an official evaluation of a government anti-drug strategy.
An estimated £1.6 billion was spent on enforcement in 2014-15 but the study said that actions by the police and other arms of the state had little impact on availability. “It appears that drugs are still widely available to those who want them,” the cross-government audit of the effects in England of the five-year 2010 drug strategy concluded.
[ more...]
Police Finances
On Friday [04-07-17], the Home Secretary announced the first tranche of bids that will be awarded funding under the 2017/18 Police Transformation Fund.
More than £20 million has been awarded over three years from the fund, to help combat the online grooming of children for sexual exploitation. The funding will enable a successful pilot led by Norfolk Police – which saw officers going undercover in online forums and chatrooms to identify and disrupt offenders – to be rolled out across the country.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police forces are paying more than £135 million a year for debt taken out for buildings bought before austerity hit.
An analysis by PoliceOracle.com found that across 20 forces in England and Wales, some 31 individual private finance initiative projects are costing forces an average of £6.6 million each.
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Police Finances
The Ministry of Justice three times breached Treasury guidelines in errors over prison officers’ pay.
Treasury officials have refused retrospective permission for the MoJ’s action.
The breaches were admitted in the annual report of the National Offender Management Service, since renamed HM Prison and Probation Service.
It said recruitment and retention problems had led to increases of £5 per hour for overtime and incident response payments from September 2016 to March 2017.
[ more...]
The computer systems of dozens of public bodies from hospitals and councils to museums and watchdogs have been breached more than 400 times in the last three years by cyber criminals seeking to extort money, cause disruption or extract data
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Fire
London Fire Brigade is seeking more than £900,000 from Whitehall to pay lawyers’ bills for the Grenfell Tower public inquiry and expected legal action arising from the blaze.
The formal request says the brigade faces huge legal costs for the inquiry and in “managing subsequent litigation”. It adds: “Resourcing this to a high standard is essential to protect the brigade, the [fire] authority and their reputations.”
[ more...]
Police Demand
Violent crime has risen by 18% across England and Wales in the last year, according to new figures.
The Office for National Statistics said the total number of crimes reported to and recorded by the police had risen 10% between April 2016 and March 2017.
It is the largest annual rise in crime for a decade and includes increases of 16% in robbery and 14% in sex offences.
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Police Finances
Crime in England and Wales has surged as police officer numbers hit the lowest level in more than 30 years, new figures show.
Police forces recorded nearly five million crimes in the year to March - a 10% annual rise and the biggest year-on-year increase in a decade.
It comes as a Home Office report reveals there were 123,142 officers across all ranks in England and Wales at the end of March this year - the lowest amount since 1985.
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Police Demand
The system used to decide how much money police forces receive is to be overhauled, the government has announced.
Ministers say they want to replace the “out-of-date” funding model with a simplified version. They will consult on proposals to tie the sums given to forces in England and Wales to factors such as the size of an area’s population.
The new system will also take into account “underlying characteristics” of the local population and “environmental” factors – such as whether there is a busy town centre.
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Economy & Public Finance
Scrapping the 1% pay increase cap for public sector workers could cost the Treasury £6bn a year by 2019/20, according to Institute for Fiscal Studies research.
The think-tank has today published analysis which shows that raising public sector pay in line with inflation or private sector pay would cost around £3bn a year in 2018/19, rising to around £6bn a year the following year.
This would be extra expenditure on the £181bn the government spends annually on employing 5.1 million public sector workers
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Police and Crime General
There has been a “staggering” decline in standards and safety at youth jails in England and Wales, the chief inspector of prisons has said.
Peter Clarke, the former Metropolitan police head of counter-terrorism, said no young offender institution or privately run secure training centre officially inspected in early 2017 was safe to hold children and young people.
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Police and Crime General
A radical opinon piece of 'open democracy' makes for an interesting read.
'Political policing will not be permanently changed or eliminated, by legislation, inquiries, further regulations, or even improving oversight. History has proven that as long as economic and thus political power is not evenly distributed within society, even hard-won reforms will ultimately be reversed, undermined or diluted into meaninglessness'.
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Police Finances
A former Metropolitan police commissioner has waded into the political row about the impact of austerity by warning that potential terrorist tip-offs are being missed because of cuts in police numbers.
Paul Condon, who headed the Met from 1993 to 2000, said the reduction in the number of frontline officers had left the police close to breaking point.
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Police and Crime General
An MP has urged people to use cannabis at the Houses of Parliament in order to send a message about drugs policy to the Government.
Labour's Paul Flynn said using the Class B substance at the Palace of Westminster was the "only way we can get through the common mind of the Government".
Mr Flynn, speaking during a Commons debate about drugs policy, said this would "challenge the Government" and authorities to "arrest them and take them in".
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Police and Crime General
Cannabis should be legalised and many other drugs decriminalised, a Manchester MP told Parliament.
Jeff Smith, Labour MP for Withington, told the House of Commons he believes the legalisation of cannabis is ‘inevitable’, if only the government would ‘grasp the nettle’.
He also described the war on drugs as a ‘dangerous fantasy’ which ‘diverts attention and resources from the real challenge of making drugs safer and taking back control of the drugs trade from the criminals who want to exploit vulnerable users’.
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Police Demand
A competition has been launched to find new technology that can identify possible terrorists and protect people from bomb or gun attacks.
The Government hopes the scheme will improve the surveillance and detection of potential threats in crowded spaces.
Up to £2m will be made available to fund further research into the technology.
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Police and Crime General
Criminals are going free because “lazy” and “deskilled” police do not understand the law, a former senior prosecutor has claimed.
Nazir Afzal, who brought key prosecutions against the child-grooming gang in the Rochdale case, has said that even basic inquiries are beset with problems because police are “not investigating properly” and are “charging cases prematurely”.
Senior officers are prone to political pressure and police are “more detached” from their communities than ever before, he believes.
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Police Finances
If poliocing is devolved to local level, budgets should be decided by police and crime comissioners, not government.
That's the logic behind the new bill introduced by Plaid Cymru, who say the move will help make sure police fofrces get the resources they need.
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Economy & Public Finance
Britain’s public finances are in worse shape to withstand a recession than they were on the eve of the 2007 financial crash a decade ago and face the twin threat of a fresh downturn and Brexit, the Treasury’s independent forecaster has warned.
The Office for Budget Responsibility – the UK’s fiscal watchdog – said another recession was inevitable at some point and that Theresa May’s failure to win a parliamentary majority in last month’s election left the public finances more vulnerable to being blown off course than they were in 2007.
Britain’s public finances are in worse shape to withstand a recession than they were on the eve of the 2007 financial crash a decade ago and face the twin threat of a fresh downturn and Brexit, the Treasury’s independent forecaster has warned.
The Office for Budget Responsibility – the UK’s fiscal watchdog – said another recession was inevitable at some point and that Theresa May’s failure to win a parliamentary majority in last month’s election left the public finances more vulnerable to being blown off course than they were in 2007.
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Economy & Public Finance
The teaching profession has seen average pay fall by £3 an hour in real terms and police officers by £2 an hour, while the wages of nurses have stagnated during a decade of public sector salary freezes, a new report for the government’s pay advisers has found.
The academic analysis was quietly published on Monday before a crucial cabinet meeting where Theresa May and the chancellor, Philip Hammond, are likely to face pressure from colleagues to agree a timetable for easing seven years of public sector pay restraint.
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Police and Crime General
Moving overall control of Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service would cost the same as training up 28 new firefighters for the county.
That's what was claimed this week as councillors unanimously opposed any move to transfer the service from Gloucestershire County Council's hands.
Martin Surl, Gloucestershire's Police and Crime Commissioner, has taken £100,000 of taxpayers' cash to recruit independent consultants to see whether he instead should oversee the fire service.
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Economy & Public Finance
Labour is to table an amendment to the Queen's Speech calling for the 1% public sector pay cap and cuts to the police and emergency services to end.
Jeremy Corbyn says the amendment, which will be voted on on Wednesday, will be a "test case" of MPs' willingness to oppose further austerity measures.
He will say firefighters who fought the Grenfell Tower blaze "deserve" a rise after seven years of near stagnation.
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Economy & Public Finance
Labour will try to [change the direction] of the Queen’s Speech today by tabling an amendment to tempt Tory MPs to vote against the Government and end austerity
The party is demanding that the Government recruit more police officers and firefighters, scrap the public sector pay cap and praise the emergency services for the response to recent terror attacks and the Grenfell Tower fire.
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Economy & Public Finance
Government hints at a possible end to the cap on pay rises for public sector workers have descended into utter confusion after Downing Street rapidly changed tack, insisting that the policy of limiting annual rises to 1% would remain in place.
Hours after a senior Conservative source indicated that ministers would review the cap at the next budget, saying people were “weary” after years of belt-tightening, Theresa May’s spokesman said this was not the case. “The government policy has not changed,” he told a No 10 briefing, repeating the phrase or variants of it 16 times as he was pressed on how this could tally with the earlier comments.
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Police Finances
Four of the most senior police officers have spelt out the financial damage austerity measures are set to make on the fight against terrorism, MPs have been told.
They have written to the Home Office accusing Theresa May's government of planning a 7.2 per cent cut in the amount of cash to tackle the rising tide of extremist attacks on UK shores.
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Police and Crime General
An agreement has been reached which will see the Democratic Unionist Party back Theresa May's minority government.
The deal, which comes two weeks after the election resulted in a hung Parliament, will see the 10 DUP MPs back the Tories in key Commons votes.
There will be £1bn extra for Northern Ireland over the next two years.
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Terror attacks in Manchester and London have left policing budgets that are "not credible" in maintaining the increased levels of resource needed as a police and crime commissioner (PCC) demands council tax rises.
Staffordshire PCC Matthew Ellis has written to Theresa May and Home Secretary Amber Rudd urging them to widen local tax-raising powers.
Mr Ellis has asked the Government to consider raising the cap on the level of council tax determined by PCCs – or remove it altogether.
After years of budget cuts, he wants PCCs to be given freedom to increase the annual bills on households to ensure that forces have enough officers to keep the public safe.
He said raising the precept locally by five per cent – £10 a year per household – would generate an extra £5 million annually that he could use to protect officer numbers.
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Police and Crime General
Barry Loveday, reader in criminal justice administration at the University of Portsmouth, considers the role that the new metro mayors will have on policing and local service delivery.
How significant the arrival of the new directly-elected mayors for the metro areas will prove to be remains an open question. However, what the elections represent and symbolise is the Conservative government’s continued commitment to devolving responsibilities from the centre, and for policing a recommitment to a local service delivery model.
Irrespective of political party control, the elections will only further cement local policing which was embedded by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011. They may also finally bury any remaining professional aspirations for regionalised policing by way of major amalgamations of local police forces.
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Police Demand
Terror attacks in the UK over the past three months have left police resources pulled "very tight", the home secretary has said.
Amber Rudd said an emergency counter-terrorism plan could not continue "indefinitely" but added that she would not rush to release extra money.
She said she would liaise with senior officers to make sure the government comes up with the "right response".
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Police Demand
The UK’s leading anti-terror police officer has warned that a diversion of resources to counterterrorism is leaving other areas of policing vulnerable as claims surfaced that forces are under such strain that some officers have been working as many as 18 days in a row.
In a letter to the home secretary, Mark Rowley has written to ministers to ask that money is not diverted away from mainstream policing as a result of a shift in focus to counterterrorism. “It will inevitably push risk to other areas of policing, potentially with significant impact,” he said in the letter, seen by the BBC.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The time is not right for an interest rate rise, Bank of England governor Mark Carney has said.
Wage growth is falling, and the impact of Brexit on the economy is unclear, Mr Carney said in a speech at Mansion House in London.
The pound fell sharply after Mr Carney's comments.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The government has decided to scrap planned reforms to the formula for allocating money to the police, in order to protect the budgets of bigger police forces, especially London's Metropolitan Police, ITV's Robert Peston has learnt.
Following massive criticism during the general election of police cuts since 2010 and also because the threat of terrorism has increased so significantly, Home Secretary Amber Rudd will abandon funding-formula changes that would force the Met to make big cuts.
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Economy & Public Finance
Parliament will sit for two years instead of the usual one to give MPs enough time to fully consider the laws required to make Britain ready for Brexit. This includes the Great Repeal Bill, which by converting existing EU law into UK statute will enable the smoothest possible transition at the point of leaving.
The government will deliver this while also addressing deep-rooted inequalities in our society in order to give everyone the opportunities they deserve. Taken together, the EU exit process and the government’s domestic agenda mean the new Parliament faces a substantial legislative programme.
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Police Finances
The State Opening of Parliament and Queen's Speech will take place next Wednesday, Commons leader Andrea Leadsom has announced.
It had been due to take place on Monday, but was delayed by Theresa May's efforts to strike a deal with the DUP to back her minority government.
The Queen will "dress down" to read the speech in a break with tradition.
It is expected to be a slimmed down programme after the PM lost her majority in the general election.
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Economy & Public Finance
Rising inflation threatens the returns on local authority treasury assets, according to experts in the wake of news that the UK’s consumer price index (CPI) had reached its highest level in four years.
The Bank of England said on Tuesday that inflation had reached 2.9%, more than the 2.7% economists were expecting.
David Green, strategic director with Arlingclose, said the rate was still within the Bank of England’s target bracket of one to three percent. But he also warned that local authorities with large sums still on deposit in banks would feel the effects of inflation.
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Police Demand
More than 40,000 reported crimes including violent offences were not recorded by three forces, figures show.
As a result Kent and Cheshire have been rated inadequate and Cambridgeshire requires improvement, HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) said.
Cheshire and Cambridgeshire improved but had more to do, while Kent's performance "slipped significantly".
Cambridgeshire and Cheshire said they were making progress. Kent said it accepted the findings.
The three are the latest to be inspected as part of a programme across forces in England and Wales.
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Economy & Public Finance
Theresa May is poised to bring to a close seven years of austerity after Tory MPs warned that they would refuse to vote for further cuts, the Times reports. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister will today meet Northern Ireland’s First Minister Arlene Foster to thrash out the terms of the DUP’s backing for her minority government. The Queen’s Speech, due to take place on Monday, will be postponed unless a deal is struck by this evening, it is reported. A BBC Online feature says that even if the Queen’s Speech goes ahead, there is “little chance” specific pledges on social care will be mentioned.
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Police Finances
The head of Greater Manchester police has said his force is under “real strain” as a result of major cuts.
Ian Hopkins, the chief constable of GMP, made the remarks three weeks after the Manchester Arena bombing in which 22 were killed and more than 200 injured.
He was backed up by Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, who said he was writing to the prime minister to say that the force was operating at its limits “and probably beyond them”
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Police and Crime General
A police commissioner's decision to suspend the chief constable of South Yorkshire and then ask him to resign was unlawful, the High Court has ruled.
David Crompton was suspended following the Hillsborough inquests in April 2016 with Dr Alan Billings citing an erosion of public trust in the force.
Dr Billings said he would be "seeking permission to appeal against the outcome".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Diane Abbott is being replaced as Labour's shadow home secretary during a "period of her ill health", the party has confirmed.
Ms Abbott has suffered from a series of gaffes and difficult interviews in recent weeks, with the Conservatives increasingly focusing their political fire on her performance.
She will be replaced by Lyn Brown, who currently serves as the party's the shadow policing minister.
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Police Demand
Labour mayor of London Sadiq Khan has warned that future cuts to the Met Police are "unsustainable" and could make it harder to foil terror attacks.
He said if the Tories win the election the Met faced having to make savings of £400m, on top of £600m since 2010, and up to 12,800 officers could be at risk.
"Fewer police officers mean we are in more danger," he told the BBC.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Ministers are planning multimillion-pound cuts this year to a counterterrorism budget described by Theresa May as being at “the heart of the UK’s response to the threat we face”.
As the prime minister faced accusations yesterday of presiding over “appalling” cuts to police numbers, Home Office documents reveal reductions in funding to the Office for Security and Counterterrorism (OSCT).
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Prime Minister Theresa May has been warned that her promise to tighten regulation on tech firms after the London attacks will not work.
Mrs May said areas of the internet must be closed because tech giants provided a "safe space" for terrorist ideology.
Twitter, Facebook and Google said they were investing heavily in the area.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
EU judges may be asked to decide whether the intelligence services’ bulk collection of email data in order to prevent terrorist attacks is legal.
In a fresh challenge that could impact the Investigatory Powers Act, the campaign group Privacy International has argued in court on Monday that interception of social media that is not targeted and subject to sufficient safeguards is forbidden by a previous European judgment.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Theresa May’s pledge to regulate the internet to clamp down on the “safe space” for radical jihadis risks turning the web into a tool for surveillance and censorship, the Liberal Democrats’ leader has said.
Tim Farron, likening May’s plan to North Korea’s and China’s state monitoring, said the prime minister’s speech, in the wake of the London Bridge attack, had been highly political despite the ostensible cancellation of campaigning for a day, ahead of the general election on Thursday.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Home Secretary Amber Rudd has insisted the UK wants to maintain a "deep and special partnership" with the EU after Brexit.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday that Europe now had to "fight for its own destiny".
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, she said: "As we begin the negotiations about leaving the EU, we will be able to reassure Germany and other European countries that we are going to be a strong partner to them in defence and security, and, we hope, in trade.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Cuts have consequences. In the wake of the terrible events in Manchester and the dreadful loss of life last week, there is a temptation to point the finger at the security services and say: if this potential terrorist was known to the security and intelligence agencies, why wasn’t he monitored and prevented from carrying out this murderous assault?
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK's economy grew more slowly than first estimated in the first three months of the year, according to official figures.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) now says the economy expanded by 0.2% in the quarter - slower than its original estimate of 0.3%.
It said the change was due to downward revisions for growth in the UK's dominant services sector.
In the last quarter of 2016, the UK economy had expanded by 0.7%.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The deployment of thousands of soldiers onto Britain’s streets is only needed because police now lack the resources to defend against a terrorist attack themselves, the chair of the Police Federation has warned.
Steve White, who leads the statutory staff association, said police “simply do not have the resources” to manage a heightened national level of alertness by themselves.
Around 20,000 police officers have been cut since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, with budgets being reduced by 4 per cent every year while Theresa May served as Home Secretary.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The chair of the Police Federation has called on the Government to “learn the lessons” from recent terror attacks and properly resource the police.
He said the decision “deeply worrying” when the announcement was made last night and added this morning that the Government should instead give the Police the resources to do their job.
His comments come after research published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies this month revealed the police forces in England and Wales have lost 20,000 officers between 2009 and 2016 as a result of a 20% funding cut.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police are investigating the deaths of “up to 20 patients” at a mental health facility in Essex.
Last week an inquest ruled that the authorities had failed to protect Richard Wade, 30, who died in May 2015 after staff at the Linden Centre in Chelmsford failed to confiscate the item he used to hang himself when he was admitted.
Matthew Leahy, 20, died at the centre on November 15, 2012. The inquest into his death concluded there had been “multiple failures”.
[ more...]
Police Demand
Police recorded 1,200 assaults between residents living at care homes between 2014 and 2016, the BBC has found.
More than one assault a day was reported in England and Wales, an investigation by File on 4 revealed.
Some care workers said they were not always given full information about who might pose a risk.
[ more...]
Fire
A police and crime commissioner has sent a business proposal to the Home Ofice on why he should be given responsibility for his local fire service.
Essex’s Roger Hirst is the first to announce that he has sent a detailed case to the government so that he can replace a county’s fire authority.
One of his arguments is that PCCs have been such a success for policing that they would be for the fire service too.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Non-Home Office forces would be merged into a ‘national infrastructure police force’ if the Conservatives are re-elected in June.
The party plans to bring together the Civil Nuclear Constabulary, the Ministry of Defence Police and the British Transport Police to protect nuclear sites and transport links.
The proposals, revealed in the Conservatives’ manifesto on Thursday (May 18), would also incorporate the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into the National Crime Agency (NCA).
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
The UK inflation rate rose to 2.7% in April from 2.3% in March, the Office for National Statistics says, its highest rate since September 2013 and above the Bank of England's 2% target.
Higher air fares were the main reason, which rose because of the later date of Easter this year compared with 2016.
[ more...]
Police Demand
One million hours of police time are being wasted each year on policing the ban on smoking cannabis, the Liberal Democrats say.
Research by the party drawn from official figures shows a total of 87,247 police caseloads relating to the drug were opened in 2015, with the average cost to the taxpayer per case estimated at £2,256.
The estimate says that in total £31m was spent on 1,044,180 police hours.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Policing is the "number one priority" as the most powerful metropolitan leader in Britain flexes his muscles after winning the race to be Greater Manchester's first directly-elected mayor.
Newly-elected Andy Burnham has placed former Home Office minister Baroness Beverley Hughes as an 'enforcer' at the heart of a new political order which gives him more responsibilities – additionally including the fire service, transport, planning and housing – than London's equivalent, Sadiq Khan.
[ more...]
Police Finances
A former professor, investment banker, sports marketer and police staff member are set to become fully-fledged police superintendents today as the second group of direct entry recruits graduates.
One third of the candidates on the scheme failed to complete the 18 month training course, with the College of Policing saying the two who dropped out did so “for personal reasons”
[ more...]
Police Finances
Labour is promising to put 10,000 more police on the streets of England and Wales if it wins the election.
The party said it would fund additional "bobbies on the beat" by reversing Tory plans for cuts to capital gains tax.
Labour said cutting the higher rate from 28% to 20% and the basic rate from 18% to 10% would cost public services more than £2.7bn over five years.
[ more...]
Police Finances
The Home Secretary has refused to rule out further police cuts following a Labour election pledge to put 10,000 more police officers on the beat
In an interview on Tuesday it was suggested to Amber Rudd that she had made “no promise on numbers, no promise on budget”.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Labour's promise to put 10,000 additional police on the streets was in tatters this morning after Diane Abbott struggled to explain how the party would fund the policy.
The shadow home secretary initially suggested that Labour would hire 10,000 officers for £300,000, which would would have left officers earning £30 a year.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Jeremy Corbyn has defended Diane Abbott after she appeared confused over Labour's plan for 10,000 extra police officers for England and Wales.
Ms Abbott - the shadow home secretary - said it would cost £300,000 over four years before correcting herself to "about £80m", in an interview with LBC.
Mr Corbyn has confirmed that the policy will cost £300m.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Diane Abbott says she "misspoke" when she got confused over the cost of Labour's pledge for 10,000 extra police officers for England and Wales.
Ms Abbott - the shadow home secretary - said it would cost £300,000 over four years before correcting herself to "about £80m", in an interview with LBC.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn later confirmed the policy would cost £300m.
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Police Finances
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott may have misspoken several times during her “car crash” tour of broadcasting studios on Tuesday morning to launch Labour’s campaign pledge to recruit an extra 10,000 police officers, but that doesn’t mean that the underlying figures she quoted don’t add up.
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Police Finances
Jeremy Corbyn will pledge to block almost £3bn of planned “tax breaks for the rich” in order to pay for 10,000 new community police officers in England and Wales.
The Labour leader believes money saved from scrapping a Conservative plan to lower capital gains tax will easily cover the cost of his pledge and enable him to guarantee current funding levels for 43 police forces.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy grew by just 0.3% at the start of the year, the slowest growth rate since the first three months of 2016, according to official figures.
The Office for National Statistics said that the slower pace in the January-to-March period was due mainly to the service sector, which also grew by 0.3% against 0.8% at the end of 2016.
Economists had been expecting GDP growth to slow as consumers tightened their belts in the face of rising inflation, but they had pencilled in a higher figure of 0.4%.
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Police Finances
The outgoing chief constable of the force which was set to gain the most from the botched reform of the police funding formula, says he wonders if its effects will ever be felt.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
It should be easier for the public and MPs to assess whether government spending offers value for money, a parliamentary committee has said.
The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee said departmental accounts were not designed for "democratic scrutiny" and being read or used as much as they should.
The published documents often fail to explain the "effectiveness of government spending", its report added.
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Police Demand
The number of crimes recorded by police in England and Wales last year was up by 9% on the previous year, nfigures show.
The police recorded a total of 4.8 million offences in 2016.
The Office for National Statistics said this increase was "thought to reflect changes in recording processes and practices rather than crime".
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Police Demand
Outcomes assigned to offences recorded to December 2016 and the total number of outcomes recorded, by outcome type and offence type.
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Police and Crime General
The Criminal Finances Act 2017 will give law enforcement agencies and partners, further capabilities and powers to recover the proceeds of crime, tackle money laundering, tax evasion and corruption, and combat the financing of terrorism.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
A man has become the first driver in North Yorkshire to be prosecuted after another motorist submitted footage of them overtaking dangerously.
It follows the launch of a North Yorkshire Police operation where drivers are encouraged to shop other motorists.
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Police Finances
Policing and fire minister Brandon Lewis has rejected a force’s appeal for extra funding to control fracking protests.
In February, around 250 people attended a rally at Preston New Road, with around 35 breaking through fencing in an attempt to breach the fracking site.
Protestors have been camped out at the UK’s first horizontal fracking site near Preston New Road, Lancashire since January.
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Police and Crime General
Secretary of State "sickened" by discovery of a bomb outside a north Belfast primary school.
Rt Hon James Brokenshire, MP said:
"I am sickened by this incident with dissident republican terrorists placing a bomb close to a primary school in north Belfast. This shows their wanton disregard for human life, potentially putting children in danger."
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Police and Crime General
Theresa May's plan for a snap general election on 8 June is set to be authorised by MPs later.
The early poll is expected to secure the two-thirds Commons majority it requires to go ahead, with Labour's Jeremy Corbyn welcoming the PM's surprise announcement on Tuesday.
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Economy & Public Finance
UK Prime Minister Theresa May has announced plans to call a snap general election on 8 June.
She said Britain needed certainty, stability and strong leadership following the EU referendum.
Explaining the decision, Mrs May said: "The country is coming together but Westminster is not."
There will be a Commons vote on the proposed election on Wednesday - she will need Parliament's backing to hold a vote before 2020.
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Minister for Policing and the Fire Service Brandon Lewis has awarded £1 million from the Police Transformation Fund to 9 police and crime commissioners (PCCs) for their work in developing proposals to take on the additional responsibility for the governance of fire and rescue in their area.
The proposals are expected to bring about a fundamental shift to the way police and fire services work together, including sharing estates or back office functions. It follows a police-led process which saw funding recommendations made by the Police Reform and Transformation Board.
The PCCs who will receive funds are Sussex, West Mercia, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire, Gloucestershire, Staffordshire and North Yorkshire.
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Police and Crime General
Police sent to investigate an incident at a supermarket were dispatched in the wrong city more than 140 miles away.
A door had been damaged at Tesco in Aberdeen's Great Western Road, but officers were instead sent to Glasgow's Great Western Road Tesco store.
More than three hours after the initial call on 3 April, officers were sent to the correct store.
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Police Demand
A rise in the use of former legal high Spice in Manchester is putting pressure on public services, police say.
Extra patrols have been launched to deal with an increase in anti-social behaviour fuelled by the drug, said to leave users in a "zombie-like" state.
Officers were called to 58 incidents related to Spice in the city centre between Friday and Sunday.
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Police and Crime General
Two serving police officers have been suspended after they were arrested on suspicion of dealing Class A drugs.
Greater Manchester Police Pcs Kerry Reeve and Adam Jackson, both 35, were reportedly among four people held in connection with the investigation.
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Police and Crime General
The head of the College of Policing will retire in September to investigate sporting corruption.
Self-professed “life-long cricket fan” Chief Executive Officer Alex Marshall has confirmed he will step down from policing to join the International Cricket Council (ICC).
The 55-year-old chief constable will become the ICC’s new General Manager for its Anti-Corruption Unit – where he will play his part in “keeping my favourite sport clean”.
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Police and Crime General
Leading tech firms have promised to work closely with the government to remove extremist material from the internet and social media following a meeting with the home secretary, Amber Rudd.
However, while senior executives from Facebook, Twitter, Google and Microsoft pledged to “to tackle this vital issue”, a joint statement from the companies after the meeting made no mention of dealing with encrypted messages.
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Police Demand
Police can face a backlog of up to five months to analyse computers linked to suspected paedophiles, a report has found.
MP Ann Coffey highlighted the delays as part of a study into child sexual exploitation in Greater Manchester.
The report found the number of "known or suspected" child sex offenders in the region had risen to 1,139, double the number recorded in 2014.
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Police and Crime General
Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of Twitter and Square, has told Sky News there is a "middle ground" in the row over encryption between governments and Silicon Valley.
"I think there's an absolute middle ground," he said. "I think it really has to be measured by the individual and how they're using it.
"As we talk about security, we also need to talk about accountability and about transparency and how things work.
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Police Demand
Tech companies are facing demands from the home secretary, Amber Rudd, to build backdoors into their “completely unacceptable” end-to-end encryption messaging apps. Speaking on Sunday, just five days after a terror attack in Westminster killed five and injured more than 50, she said “there should be no place for terrorists to hide”.
This may sound familiar. Two years ago, after the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris, the then British prime minister David Cameron said Britain’s intelligence agencies should have the legal power to break into the encrypted communications of suspected terrorists. He promised to legislate for it in 2016.
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Police and Crime General
Amber Rudd has vowed to “call time” on internet firms who give terrorists “a place to hide” as it emerged security services are powerless to 
access Westminster attacker Adrian Ajao’s final WhatsApp message.
The Home Secretary said it was “completely unacceptable” that Whats App – which is owned by Facebook – was enabling terrorists to communicate “in secret”, knowing the police and security services will not be able to read their encrypted communications.
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Economy & Public Finance
UK retail sales posted a 1.4% rise in February from the previous month, but there are signs that higher fuel prices have begun to hit shoppers' pockets.
In the three months to February, sales volumes fell by 1.4%, a sharper slide than the 0.5% decline for the three months to January.
That was the biggest three-month fall recorded by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) since March 2010.
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Police and Crime General
The justice secretary is to announce plans to build four new “supersized” jails in England and Wales, creating a total of 5,000 modern prison places.
Sites at Full Sutton in east Yorkshire, Hindley in Wigan, Rochester in Kent and Port Talbot in south Wales have been earmarked for development as part of the government’s £1.3bn programme to transform the prison estate.
The justice secretary, Liz Truss, said: “We cannot hope to reduce reoffending until we build prisons that are places of reform where hard work and self-improvement flourish.
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Police and Crime General
Four people, including an armed police officer and a man believed to be the attacker, have died in a terrorist incident near the UK's Houses of Parliament, Scotland Yard has said.
At least 20 people were injured, including three other officers.
Prime Minister Theresa May is to chair a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee later.
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Police and Crime General
When Nigel Lang was wrongly arrested on suspicion of sharing indecent images of children, he says his life fell apart. It all stemmed from nothing more than a typing error by police.
Speaking to the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme, Nigel Lang recalls the questions racing through his head one July morning in 2011.
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Police and Crime General
A police force is set to launch Britain's first 24-hour drone unit to find missing people, take pictures and help with major crime investigations.
Devon and Cornwall Police has advertised for a manager to head up the unit, which will launch in the summer and will be shared with Dorset.
An advert for the post says the "operational and dynamic" unit will be run from nine stations across the three counties.
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Police and Crime General
Police made "major failings" while investigating electoral fraud in Tower Hamlets, a London Assembly committee chairman has said.
Steve O'Connell said there was concern the Met Police had not charged former Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman.
Mr Rahman was forced to step down after an Election Court found him guilty of corrupt and illegal practices.
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Police Finances
The Fed, unions and the Mayor of London have critised the Chancellor for not mentioning public sector pay or police funding in his Spring Budget.
Phillip Hammon sang the praises of enexpetedly strong UK growth figures, and introduced policies in health, education and tax today.
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Police Finances
The Government must offer financial support to enable forces to buy the new model of Taser, the Police Federation has said.
As previously reported, the Gome Office announced last week the new X2 model of Taser has finally been approved and is set to gradually replace the current X26 which was discontunued by the manafactuter in December 2014.
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Police and Crime General
A whistleblower at the category B jail was appalled by the brutal details – and the bragging chats may also constitute a security breach.
The source said: “They shouldn’t be discussing prisoners like this – they’re using their names and making fun of them. It’s so unprofessional.”
One message read: “I was on her left arm, she was squealing. It was brilliant.”
Private firm Sodexo, which operates the jail, said: “We take allegations of misconduct very seriously."
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Economy & Public Finance
Conservative promises to protect spending on police, sixth form education and childcare are at risk as Philip Hammond demands £3.5bn in new cuts from his cabinet colleagues, according to an analysis by the IPPR thinktank.
The IPPR believes the government will not be able to hit its savings target, even allowing for proposed budget cuts, at the same time as meeting spending promises made by George Osborne when he was chancellor.
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Police Demand
Police forces are putting the public at “unacceptable risk” by failing to investigate crimes, downgrading emergency calls and letting dangerous criminals roam free in what amounts to a “national crisis”, a damning report by the police watchdog has found.
A critical lack of detectives and the rationing of services in the face of increasingly tight budgets has plunged the force into a “potentially perilous” state, according to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.
Officers are “writing off” crimes and failing to track down tens of thousands of known suspects for offences including terrorism, rape and murder, the report reveals.
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Police Demand
Some police forces are putting the public at an unacceptable risk by rationing their response as they struggle with cutbacks, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary warns.
The inspectors say there are now too few detectives and in some areas an erosion of neighbourhood policing.
Their report found that most of the 43 forces in England and Wales were providing a good service.
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Police Demand
A police officer has published a damning resignation letter on social media criticising police for "putting their employees last".
Laura Beal has served with the Devon and Cornwall force for 13 years as a police constable and even featured in a force advertising campaign.
In her letter she says inadequate staffing has made it "impossible to do her job to the best of her ability".
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Police and Crime General
Drivers caught using a phone within two years of passing their test will have their licence revoked under new rules in England, Scotland and Wales.
Penalties for using a phone at the wheel double from 1 March to six points and a £200 fine.
New drivers who get six points or more must retake their practical and theory. More experienced drivers can be banned if they get 12 points in three years.
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Police Demand
A group of influential MPs has demanded “immediate reassurance” from a senior child protection officer after he suggested only paedophiles who pose a physical risk to children should face a criminal sentence.
Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for child protection, said police were struggling to cope with the huge numbers of criminals looking at indecent images of children online and should focus their resources on high-risk offenders.
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Police and Crime General
A blind man who was waiting for a train home was tasered by police at a railway station in Manchester, England, after someone reported that his walking stick was a firearm.
Armed police attended the scene at Levenshulme train station on Thursday night after it was reported that a middle-aged man had been seen carrying a gun.
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Police and Crime General
Teachers, police officers, nursery staff and other professionals should look for "soft" signs that could indicate that a child is being abused or neglected, new guidelines suggest.
Signs may include excessive clinginess, low self-esteem, recurrent nightmares or over-friendliness towards strangers.
The draft guidance from NICE - the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence - is open for consultation.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy grew by more than previously reported in the final three months of 2016, according to the latest official estimate.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 0.7%, up from 0.6%, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The upward revision is mainly due to manufacturing industry having done better than thought.
The ONS cut its estimate for growth in 2016 as a whole to 1.8%, down from the 2% it forecast last month.
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Police and Crime General
Plans to form a new armed police force from three existing ones, alongside airport and roads units from other constabularies, have been kicked into the long grass.
The government had been examining a proposal to amalgamate British Transport Police, the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and the Ministry of Defence Police since late in 2015.
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Police and Crime General
Two policemen who stopped for cups of tea at a McDonald's before attending an emergency call for a suicidal woman will face a misconduct hearing.
Fahima Begum, 22, was found hanged after a friend called 999 saying she had sent him a suicidal text message.
An investigation found Met officers Tony Stephenson and Gavin Bateman bought hot drinks then waited 24 minutes before contacting the friend.
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Police and Crime General
Failing to hold a proper inquiry after armed police shoot a suspect would be a threat to democracy, said the police watchdog as it published new rules on how serious incidents should be investigated.
The IPCC said it had to keep open the possibility of bringing prosecutions against armed officers and produced guidance that said police should not be allowed to confer before, during or after making their statements about a shooting.
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Police Demand
Police warnings and fixed penalty notices for cannabis possession have more than halved in four years, leading to claims that the drug is being effectively decriminalised by overstretched forces.
The steep fall in on-the-spot punishments for people caught with the Class B drug comes amid cuts to police numbers and a drastic reduction in suspects being stopped and searched. It also follows statements by some police and crime commissioners that people would not be targeted for personal use.
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Police Demand
Tens of thousands of crimes are not reported because victims give up on 999 calls that are not answered, figures released by the police show.
In the past year the number of abandoned emergency calls to the police has risen by 20 per cent and in the past four years at least 250,000 calls have been abandoned.
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Police Finances
An extra £27.8 million funding was announced today for the Metropolitan Police after the outgoing Commissioner warned the force faces NHS-style “rationing” of services.
Mayor Sadiq Khan said the extra money would help maintain police numbers at 31,000 just days after Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe warned the force would struggle to cope if they dropped below 30,000.
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Police and Crime General
Hundreds of drug tests may have been manipulated by staff at a forensics lab, with almost 500 police investigations under review.
Two employees of Randox Testing Services (RTS), which analyses blood, saliva and hair samples on behalf of police forces, have been arrested by Greater Manchester police.
RTS said the issue had come to light as a result of an internal investigation at its Manchester site.
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Police Finances
A ‘Centre of Expertise’ on stopping child abuse will be established as part of a new £40 million investment to protect UK children.
The centre will become the “definitive source” for information and guidance for officers investigating child abuse and trafficking, according to the Home Office.
More than £7 million has been invested in the facility, which will be overseen by charity Barnardo’s.
Another £20 million has been provided to help the National Crime Agency continue its focus on investigating online abuse as part of the measures, announced on Thursday (16/02/2017)
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Police Demand
Britain could be more vulnerable to terrorism and organised crime after Brexit if the Government fails to secure access to Europol's intelligence sharing.
That is a claim made by the agency's UK director in an interview with Sky News.
Rob Wainwright warned that security threats in Europe had grown over the last year and it was more important than ever that police in different nations worked together to tackle terrorism and crime.
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Police Demand
A majority of police forces in England and Wales saw record levels of hate crimes in the first full three months following the EU referendum, according to new analysis.
More than 14,000 hate crimes were recorded between July and September.
In 10 forces the number of suspected hate crimes increased by more than 50%, compared to the previous three months.
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Police and Crime General
Chaos in one of the biggest prisons in the country has been revealed in secret filming for the BBC.
An undercover reporter spent two months at HMP Northumberland, which houses up to 1,348 male inmates, for Panorama.
He discovered widespread drug use, a lack of control, door alarms that did not go off in one block and a hole in an internal security fence.
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Police Demand
Britain is being hit by dozens of cyber-attacks a month, including attempts by Russian state-sponsored hackers to steal defence and foreign policy secrets, GCHQ’s new cybersecurity chief has said.
Ciaran Martin, head of the new National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), told the Sunday Times there had been a “step change” in Russia’s online aggression against the west.
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Police and Crime General
The police and crime commissioner for West Mercia Police is urging youngsters to join their police cadets.
The scheme, which is grant funded by the commissioner, is aimed at giving 16 and 17 year olds the opportunity to help their communities. It also allows them opportunities in volunteering as well as to gain an understanding of policing.
Police and crime commissioner John Campion said “Our cadets are a credit to our communities, providing a valuable contribution to helping others.
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Police and Crime General
Police are failing to properly record tens of thousands of offences, including rape and violent crimes, according to inspectors.
HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) assessed four forces' crime recording.
Merseyside and Devon and Cornwall were both rated "inadequate" after inspectors found they were under-reporting serious crimes including violent and sexual offences.
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Police Demand
The number of women in jail could rise amid a "revolving door" of release and return to custody, a new report claims.
Campaigners said probation reforms risk driving up the number of female prisoners.
Figures show the number of women recalled to custody following their release has increased by more than two-thirds (68 per cent) since the end of 2014, according to analysis by the Prison Reform Trust.
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Police Finances
Police forces in England and Wales paid out at least £19.5m to informants over the last five years, according to figures obtained by BBC Radio 5 live.
The Met topped the list, spending £5.2m from 2011-16, data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) shows.
One critic said paying informants does not stop the "cycle of crime", however, the National Police Chiefs' Council said it was "a cost effective tactic".
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Police and Crime General
British police seized more than 800 firearms, including assault rifles and a loaded Kalashnikov, during an intensive month-long, multi-agency counterterrorism operation.
Among the weapons seized by National Crime Agency (NCA) and counterterrorism police were 200 handguns, two machine guns, one sub-machine gun, 11 assault rifles, and 4,385 rounds of ammunition.
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Police and Crime General
Lies spread by the far right will be challenged in an online campaign by Theresa May’s government as part of a £60 million battle against extremism, it has been revealed.
The Home Office campaign, run by advertising giant Saatchi, will attempt to tackle “racist myths” perpetuated online by the far right and address threats of “extreme right-wing narratives.”
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Police and Crime General
Regional forces should not be left to carry the burden of complex fraud after one of biggest ‘thefts’ in British policing history, a police and crime commissioner (PCC) claims.
Instead, a new central body of experts should be brought together in a national rollout framed around the largest cases, says Thames Valley PCC Anthony Stansfeld.
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Police Finances
CIPFA answers some key qiestions surroundin the IR35 changes.
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Police and Crime General
Fourteen people have been arrested in connection with claims that security workers were paid by convicted criminals to deliberately fit electronic tags loosely.
Staff at Capita, which is contracted to run the Government's electronic monitoring service (EMS), allegedly received £400 a time to help at least 32 offenders evade court-imposed curfews, according to The Sun.
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Fire
The Home Office has today (2 February) commissioned a full statutory inspection of Avon Fire and Rescue Authority – the first of its kind.
The inspection has been ordered by the Minister for Policing and the Fire Service, Brandon Lewis, in response to serious, wide-ranging allegations over the authority’s governance in relation to spending, contracts, complaints, discipline and culture. It follows the authority’s repeated refusal to commission its own independent investigation into the claims.
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Economy & Public Finance
The government's target to rapidly increase the number of apprentices risks being "poor value for money", says the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The think tank warns that it could devalue the "brand" of apprenticeships by turning it into "just another term for training".
The government has a target of three million apprenticeships and is imposing a levy on employers to fund it.
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Police and Crime General
Cleveland Police acted unlawfully in monitoring the phones of two of its former officers, a tribunal has ruled.
A judge found the legislation it used, normally reserved for anti-terror investigations, was not proportionate.
The force said it was justified as there had been tip-offs to journalists, which may have been a criminal offence.
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Police and Crime General
PCC ordered force to have 900 volunteer officers - but nearly 300 have been removed since he left office.
Special numbers have dropped by nearly 40 per cent at a force which spend £250,000 in an effort to have 900 officers on its books.
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Police and Crime General
Nearly half of all officers in England and Wales are over 40 years old, government satisticians have highlighted.
The proportion of officers aged over 40 has hone up from 39 percent in 2007 to 48 percent today.
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Economy & Public Finance
Strong consumer spending helped the UK's economy to grow faster than expected at the end of last year.
The economy grew by 0.6% in the October-to-December period, the same rate as in the previous two quarters, according to an initial estimate from the Office for National Statistics.
The figure indicates that the feared economic slowdown following the Brexit vote has not materialised.
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Police Demand
The size of the total police workforce in England and Wales has fallen below 200,000 for the first time in more than a decade.
Forces employed 198,228 personnel - including officers, civilian staff and PCSOs - at the end of September.
The tally fell by 6,201, or 3 per cent, year-on-year - while it has dropped by more than 25,000 compared to a decade earlier.
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Police Finances
A petition calling on the government to scrap legislation which could make it harder for local authorities to hire interim staff has garnered more than 14,000 signatures.
From April, new HM Revenue & Customs rules will pass responsibility to councils for policing compliance with the tax rules, known as IR35, on off-payroll working.
A statement from the Local Government Association said that applying the IR35 rules just to public sector hires will make the sector a less attractive place for workers and recruitment firms.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police budgets are a "continued failure" that have left communities "abandoned".
That is the view of Greater Manchester Police and Crime Comissioner Tony Lloyd who has accused the government of 'refusing' to safeguard funding for policing.
PCC Lloyd said Greater Manchester faces a shortfall of £22 million on top of £180m budget cuts 2,000 fewer officers.
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Economy & Public Finance
Government borrowing fell by £0.4bn in December to £6.9bn, compared with 2015.
The figures, from the Office for National Statistics, means borrowing for the year is £63.8bn, £10.6bn lower than for the same period a year ago.
The last Autumn Statement indicated that the government would borrow £68bn over the full financial year to the end of April.
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Police Finances
The new emergency services network is unlikely to be implemented on time with costs of the delays coming out of the police budget, a report by the Public Accounts Committee says.
Mps raised concerns over the timelines around the new network and say it may "require more testing and assurance work than the current december 2019 delivery date seems to allow for".
[ more...]
Police Demand
The number of people defrauded in the UK by online dating scams reached a record high in 2016, the Victoria Derbyshire programme has learned.
According to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, there were 3,889 victims of so-called romance fraud last year, who handed over a record £39m.
Action Fraud, the UK's cyber-crime reporting centre, says it receives more than 350 reports of such scams a month.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
This consultation seeks views on HMIC’s proposed inspection programme for 2017 to 18.
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Police and Crime General
A drug stash found in a long-serving police officer's home "would have kept a 1970s rock star, as well as his band, entertained for weeks", a jury has heard.
Inspector Keith Boots is accused of stashing a narcotics "warehouse", with an estimated value of £750,000, at his Bradford home instead of destroying it for West Yorkshire Police (WYP).
The 55-year-old was supposed to be responsible for disposing of seized drugs for the force but, instead, he stole large quantities to supply to others.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police services in Hampshire will be put at risk if the government does not fund the force properly, that's according to Hampshire's Chief Constable and the Police and Crime Commissioner.
They have joined forces and written to the Government to highlight what they say is an unfair funding formula.
Independent figures from Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary (HMIC) show that the county gets far less money than the average police force, estimated at around £44.8 million.
[ more...]
Police Demand
The boss of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission claimed today the triggering of official Brexit talks could spark a surge in hate crime.
David Isaac, the quango's new chairman, warned MPs about the possibility of a backlash when Theresa May formally file Britain's exit from the EU to Brussels.
But the claim was dismissed today by Brexit supporters who branded it an 'unsubstantiated over-reaction'.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Police funding cuts would make it “increasingly difficult” to keep Londoners safe from terrorist attack, Sadiq Khan warned today.
The Mayor said the number of frontline officers — the “eyes and ears” of the force — could fall if ministers press ahead with plans to change how money was allocated.
The Home Office is consulting on plans to change how the police budget is divided between forces across the country, with a risk that money will move away from London.
[ more...]
Police Demand
More crimes are being committed in cyberspace in north Wales than on the streets, its police and crime commissioner has claimed.
North Wales PCC Arfon Jones also warned businesses were "most at risk".
The North Wales Police Cyber Crime Team said ransomware crimes - where hackers encrypt files and demand thousands of pounds to unlock them - were being reported to the force "each week".
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Police use of data extraction equipment to download information from suspects’ mobile phones should require a search warrant, according to privacy campaigners.
The practice is becoming increasingly routine across most forces but is inadequately regulated and being carried out by insufficiently trained officers, Privacy International claimed.
Digital forensic equipment has been used under counter-terrorism powers at ports and airports to download data from mobile phones for several years. Concerns over the practice were first raised by the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, David Anderson QC, in 2012.
[ more...]
Police Finances
Counter-terrorism money is being used to redact police evidence to an inquiry into undercover policing tactics, it has been revealed.
Nearly £750,000 from the counter-terrorism budget has been earmarked for an IT system to assess and redact material which might be sent to the Pitchford Undercover Policing Inquiry, according to papers obtained from a Freedom of Information request and seen by the website PoliceOracle.com.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
West Midlands Police has said the home secretary's speech to last year's Conservative Party conference is being treated as a "hate incident".
In the speech, Amber Rudd suggested tightening rules that allow UK firms to recruit workers from overseas.
An Oxford University professor complained to the force claiming Ms Rudd was using "hate speech" to foster support for her political aims.
But West Midlands police said no crime had been committed.
[ more...]
Police and Crime General
Human rights campaign group Liberty has launched a crowdfunded legal challenge to the “sweeping state spying powers” in the newly enacted Investigatory Powers Act, which has been dubbed the snooper’s charter.
Liberty is seeking a high court judicial review into the new legislation’s core powers, which include tracking everybody’s web browsing history and hacking computers, phones and tablets “on an industrial scale”.
The group is asking the public to help fund the legal challenge after more than 206,000 people signed a petition calling for the repeal of the Investigatory Powers Act, which reached the statute book last month.
[ more...]
Economy & Public Finance
There’s a lady I’ve been thinking about for the past few days, even though we’ve never met. She’s the central character in a true story told by the Europe expert Anand Menon. He was in Newcastle just before the referendum to debate the impact of Britain leaving the EU. Invoking the gods of economics, the King’s College London professor invited the audience to imagine the likely plunge in the UK’s GDP. Back yelled the woman: “That’s your bloody GDP. Not ours.”
Subtle and learned this was not. But in all the squawking over the past few days about what’s wrong in economics and with the economy, her brutally simple criticism is closer to the mark than are most of the pundit class.
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Police Demand
A “wave” of hate crimes against European migrants could follow the start of Britain’s exit from the EU, a Polish community leader has warned.
Triggering Article 50 could act as a “flashpoint” for new xenophobic attacks, Joanna Mludzinska, Chair of the Polish Social and Cultural Association told MPs on Tuesday.
“Where those people who for whatever reason thought everything would be resolved by Brexit find that doesn’t miraculously happen... there might be another wave of response...”, Mludzinska told the Commons Home Affairs Committee.
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Fire
Proposals to push ahead with bringing police and fire services in Staffordshire under a single umbrella body and chief officer have been lauded for driving millions of pounds into reinvestment for frontline operations.
Both services have signalled cautious ‘common sense’ support after a ten-month independent review pointed the two sides towards a merger as early as April next year.
The study by independent consultant Fiona Tamplin offers a number of recommendations and examples of how fire and police services could integrate within one organisation while retaining the unique and separate services they provide to the public.
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Police and Crime General
Stalkers will face longer jail terms under a drive to toughen the punishments handed to those responsible for the most devastating campaigns of harassment.
The maximum custodial sentence available to courts in England and Wales for stalking will rise from five to ten years under measures announce by the Ministry of Justice.
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Police Demand
Theresa May is set to announce major government action to improve support for people struggling with mental illness, including moves to help troubled young people and reduce the number of suicides.
The prime minister has been interested in mental illness and its consequences since learning during her six years as home secretary how much police time is taken up dealing with the issue and the very high number of prisoners who have serious psychological or psychiatric conditions.
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Police and Crime General
Bobbies on the beat will for the first time have to pass an exam to get a pay rise.
The move will end the tradition that only length of service determines the salary of police constables.
The new scheme will mean that PCs with between two and four years’ service will be examined on how they support victims, carry out searches, and interview suspects.
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Police and Crime General
The prison population of England and Wales should be cut to 45,000, a former deputy prime minister and two former home secretaries have urged.
In a letter to the Times, Nick Clegg, Ken Clarke and Jacqui Smith said jails had become unacceptably dangerous.
They said inmate numbers had risen to more than 85,000 since Michael Howard declared in 1993 that "prison works".
The cross-party trio pointed out that almost half of inmates are re-convicted within a year of being released.
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Police Finances
Chief Inspector Rob Hill of Cambridgeshire Constabulary, and head of service for the Prevention and Enforcement Service (PES), explains how the new service is helping to deliver a joined-up approach to tackle crime and quality of life issues in the area.
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Police Demand
Police forces across Britain are reviewing their security plans after the Berlin Christmas market attack and remain on high alert.
The threat level in London remains at “severe”, meaning an attack is considered highly likely, the Metropolitan police said on Tuesday.
A Downing Street spokesman said: “The safety and security of British citizens is the government’s number one priority. Clearly in the light of what has happened in Berlin, police will be reviewing what is in place.”
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Economy & Public Finance
Government borrowing fell in November to £12.6bn, down £0.6bn from November 2015, according to the Office for National Statistics.
However, the fall was less than analysts had been expecting.
The monthly borrowing figure had been expected to shrink to £11.6bn, according to an economists' poll.
Borrowing for the financial year so far is down on last year. From April to November, borrowing, excluding state-owned banks, fell by £7.7bn to £59.5bn.
Despite the smaller-than-expected fall in November's borrowing figure, economists said the government was on track to meet its less ambitious deficit forecast set out in November's Autumn Statement.
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Economy & Public Finance
UK firms need to continue to have "barrier-free" access to European Union markets after Brexit, the CBI business lobby group has warned.
It said UK companies should not be subjected to trade tariffs, with only "minimal" other barriers in place.
In a report, it also called for a migration system that allowed firms to obtain the skills and labour they need.
The government said it was committed to delivering the best possible access to European markets for UK businesses.
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Police and Crime General
All new police officers in England and Wales will have to be educated to degree level from 2020, the College of Policing has announced.
It said the training would help police address changes in crime-fighting.
Prospective officers can either complete a three-year "degree apprenticeship", a postgraduate conversion course or a degree.
The National Police Chiefs' Council said the changes would "help modernise the service".
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Police and Crime General
The government is to formally adopt a definition of what constitutes antisemitism, which includes over-sweeping condemnation of Israel, with Theresa May saying the measure will help efforts to combat hate crime against Jews.
Britain will become one of the first countries to use this definition of antisemitism, as agreed last May at a conference of the Berlin-based International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), the prime minister will say in London.
A Downing Street statement said the intention of such a definition was to “ensure that culprits will not be able to get away with being antisemitic because the term is ill-defined, or because different organisations or bodies have different interpretations of it”.
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Economy & Public Finance
A comprehensive piece by Iain Begg around the economic consequences to brexit . He conjectures why the treasuries reports about the immediate aftershock have not come to pass.
Iain Begg is a Professorial Research Fellow at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, and Senior Fellow on the UK Economic and Social Research Council’s initiative on the UK in a Changing Europe.
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Police Demand
A Conservative MP has protested at having to wait for his shotgun licence – despite backing big spending cuts to his local police force.
Ian Liddell-Grainger, MP for Bridgewater and Somerset West, revealed he will miss out on the winter shooting season, after forgetting to renew his licence.
He was left fuming when he was told it would take 16 weeks for Avon and Somerset to complete the necessary paperwork.
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Police and Crime General
Home Office files concerning events at the “battle of Orgreave” are due to be released next year among a cache of records relating to the 1984 miners’ strike.
The home secretary, Amber Rudd, told the home affairs select committee the documents would be among 30 files planned for release to the National Archives.
The subject titles suggest at least one file relates to the clash between police and strikers in South Yorkshire that became one of the bloodiest events of the dispute. A further three files are said to be under consideration for release by the Home Office.
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Police Demand
Nearly two in five people have not seen a police officer patrolling their neighbourhood in the past year.
A further 23 per cent had witnessed a bobby on the beat where they lived only 'once or twice' in that period.
For the first time, a force-by-force breakdown shows stark disparities across England and Wales's 43 constabularies – fuelling claims that households face a postcode lottery when it comes to being protected.
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Police Demand
A bill has been tabled at Holyrood to have Police Scotland take over railway policing duties north of the border.
Railways across the UK are currently overseen by British Transport Police.
The Scottish government said it would be more efficient for these duties to be integrated into Scotland's national police force.
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Hundreds of police officers have been accused of abusing their power to sexually exploit people, including vulnerable victims of crime.
A report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) describes the issue as "the most serious form of corruption".
The watchdog, which was asked to investigate the problem earlier this year by then Home Secretary Theresa May, also rebuked forces over their efforts to root out cases.
Its initial findings identified more than 400 claims of abuse of authority for sexual gain over two years.
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Local authorities in England spend “close to nothing” on mental health despite dedicating millions on improving physical health in their communities, according to the charity Mind.
Less than one per cent of each local authority’s public health budget is spent on mental health on average, showed new data obtained by the organisation.
Using the Freedom of Information Act, Mind found the proportion of health budgets spent on preventing mental health problems has fallen year on year for the last three years.
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Police and Crime General
The families of three victims of serial killer Stephen Port are to sue the Metropolitan Police over its failure to investigate their murders.
Anthony Walgate from Hull, Daniel Whitworth and Jack Taylor were murdered by Port in 2014 and 2015.
Their relatives, Sarah Sak, Amanda Pearson and Donna and Jenny Taylor, told the Victoria Derbyshire programme the Met "must be held accountable".
Ms Sak accused the police investigating the murders of homophobia.
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Police Demand
The Office for National Statistics has developed a measure of recording crime to take into account how serious offences are rather than just how many take place.
The body says it hopes to be able to publish this score in future in order to create a clearer picture of the impact of crime.
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Economy & Public Finance
More than £500bn in planned public and private investment is now in the UK’s infrastructure pipeline, according to an update issued by the Treasury today [05.12.2016].
Ministers hailed it as the largest and most comprehensive infrastructure plan ever, which would help boost Britain’s flagging productivity.
“This record infrastructure pipeline is set to make a real difference to people’s lives form quicker and easier journeys, to better broadband access, and building more homes for people who need them in high demand areas,” said David Gauke, chief secretary to the Treasury.
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Police Demand
Britain could become more attractive to foreign criminals after the UK leaves the EU, one of the country’s most senior police officers has warned.
Steve Ashman, chief constable of Northumbria police, dismissed the argument of many of those who campaigned to leave the bloc that Britain’s departure would lead to a reduction in foreign criminals operating in the UK.
He added that he would be very concerned if Brexit meant UK police could no longer apply for a European arrest warrant (EAW) or have access to surveillance and information-sharing systems from their European counterparts.
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Police and Crime General
My brother, Jack Frost, who has died aged 73 from liver cancer, was a village bobby and a fine example of an aspect of English rural life that has gone for ever, swept away by police budget cuts.
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Police Demand
Serious and violent crimes increased at more than three times the rate recorded by police over the past five years, according to a new type of measurement.
Crimes weighted on a severity index on the basis of the harm they cause society and individuals increased by almost 17 per cent compared with under 5 per cent on those reported and recorded by police in England and Wales.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS), which published initial findings, said that the figures showed police were dealing with a more complex mix of crimes including serious, violent and sexual offending while the volume of offences such as theft fell or were stable. West Yorkshire topped the crime severity table while Dyfed Powys was bottom.
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Police Demand
A national anti-hate crime campaign backed by the government is to be launched on Thursday in response to the rise in incidents after the EU referendum.
Home Office figures showed the number of racially or religiously aggravated offences leapt 41% in July, compared with the same month last year, prompting fears that the Brexit vote had fuelled intolerance.
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Police Finances
Home Secretary Amber Rudd has today awarded more than £26 million over the next 3 years to 28 policing projects designed to help transform the police service for the future. The funding from the police transformation fund is granted through a police-led bidding process.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK should be careful with its plans to raise the National Living Wage, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The OECD said "caution" was needed in the roll-out of the policy, given its possible impact on employment.
In the Autumn Statement, Chancellor Philip Hammond pledged to raise the wage to £7.50 an hour next April.
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Police and Crime General
Police computer files logging the journeys of millions of motorists since 2012 are to be deleted after The Sunday Times revealed they were potentially breaking the law.
The data on billions of vehicle movements has been gathered by a network of 8,000 automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) cameras around the country. The Metropolitan police set up a “feed” from the national ANPR system to improve security for the 2012 Olympic Games.
The system was never turned off, however, and police were repeatedly warned that holding the data for longer than two years might breach data protection laws.
The Metropolitan police said on Friday it would be deleting all data of vehicle movements more than two years old.
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Police Demand
Grimsby is a long way from the oak-panelled conference rooms of the government departments in Whitehall. A world away, in fact.
‘If your wheelie bin gets stolen,’ says Neil Barber, manager of a local community centre, ‘the council says you have to buy a replacement. So, people don’t bother to get a new one and the rubbish litters the street.’
This bleak fishing port on the Lincolnshire coast is home to many so-called dysfunctional families — jobless households prone to crime, truancy, domestic violence and anti-social behaviour.
They are typical of those who David Cameron promised to ‘turn around’ (the then Prime Minister’s own phrase) in 2011.
Earlier that year, London and other cities had been hit by riots with crime sprees, looting and arson organised through social media — costing an estimated £200 million.
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Police and Crime General
Plans to keep a record of UK citizens' online activities face a challenge from tech firms seeking to offer ways to hide people's browser histories.
Internet providers will soon be required to record which services their customers' devices connect to - including websites and messaging apps.
The Home Office says it will help combat terrorism, but critics have described it as a "snoopers' charter".
Critics of the law have said hackers could get access to the records.
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Economy & Public Finance
Measures aimed at boosting workers' income and increasing housebuilding are expected in Chancellor Philip Hammond's Autumn Statement on Wednesday.
The first major economic statement since the Brexit vote will also unveil forecasts which are expected to show higher borrowing and slower growth.
Mr Hammond has warned of "turbulence" and "an unprecedented level of uncertainty" as the UK leaves the EU.
Labour predicted he would fail to help people on low and middle incomes.
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Economy & Public Finance
The BBC has summarised the Autumn statement, splitting it down into categories with consise figures.
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Economy & Public Finance
Government borrowing fell by more than expected to £4.8bn in October, thanks to a record amount of tax income for that month, official figures show.
The amount borrowed was £1.6bn lower than for the same month last year.
From April to October, the financial year to date, borrowing, excluding state-owned banks, fell by £5.6bn to £48.6bn, the lowest for the first seven months of a tax year since 2008.
The figures come a day ahead of the Autumn Statement on Wednesday.
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Economy & Public Finance
A cross party group of MPs has renewed calls for cannabis to be legalised in Britain.
Senior Liberal Democrats and other Labour and Tory figures backed a report that argues the UK should follow the lead of the US.
Eight states have legalised the drug so far, four in this month's elections, and several others allow its use for medical reasons.
The report, by the Adam Smith Institute and Volteface, claims legalisation could net the Treasury more than £1bn a year in tax revenue.
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Police and Crime General
Scientists have developed a new roadside test for cocaine in an effort to improve driver safety.
The device is an improvement on current tests, avoiding the problem of false positives, and can offer insights into how much of the drug drivers have taken.
“Drug-driving is an increasing problem,” said Melanie Bailey of the University of Surrey and co-author of the research published in the journal Analytical Methods. “We want to try to improve safety on the roads and this is one way to do that because we will be able to monitor a larger number of people without wasting their time by getting false positive results.”
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Police Demand
The government’s controversial counter-radicalisation strategy, Prevent, has failed to change the attitudes of those on the far right, the shadow home secretary has said in response to figures showing the number of referrals linked to neo-nazism is overtaking Islamic extremism cases in some parts of the UK.
Diane Abbott said the figures reflected “the alarming rise of far-right activity across the country”. “It also reflects the increasing confidence of far-right groups to air their views publicly,” she said on Monday.
“These figures are useful in proving what we already know, but the Prevent programme has failed to change the attitudes of those on the far right.”
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Police and Crime General
A rural police station led by a Waitrose part-timer is believed to be the first in the country with no front-line officers.
Hucclecote police station in Gloucestershire once had several full-time police officers and a sergeant patrolling the streets.
But thanks to budget cutbacks it is now staffed by a team of 10 special inspectors, who are not fully trained or paid.
In charge of them is Richard Godfrey, 29, who works on a voluntary basis around his full-time job as a branch manager at Waitrose.
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Economy & Public Finance
Philip Hammond is expected say in his Autumn Statement he will still aim to achieve a budget surplus, despite abandoning a formal target by George Osborne to do so by 2020.
The chancellor's friend, MP Stephen Hammond, said Mr Hammond planned to set out an "intellectual framework" to bring the economy back to surplus.
But this would not be achieved until the economy has been stabilised after the uncertainty of the Brexit vote.
The Autumn Statement is on Wednesday.
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Police and Crime General
People suffering a mental health crisis should never be held in police cells as they find it terrifying and become even more unwell, ministers will be told.
Peers will move an amendment to the policing and crime bill on Wednesday to ensure that adults who are feeling suicidal, are psychotic or are self-harming are never taken to police stations for assessment. It already plans to do that for under-18s.
The number of people to whom that happens has fallen sharply in recent years and the number taken instead to hospitals has risen as a result, after widespread concern about the practice.
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Police and Crime General
A Green peer has called on the police watchdog to investigate claims that a secretive Scotland Yard intelligence unit improperly destroyed files it had compiled on her.
Jenny Jones has written to the Independent Police Complaints Commission asking for an inquiry into what she says appears to be “serious misconduct”.
Her call follows claims by a whistleblower who worked for the Metropolitan police intelligence unit tasked with spying on alleged extremists.
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Police Demand
Police chiefs have warned Ministers they cannot cope with further savage cuts and may need to stop looking for missing people or taking patients to hospital, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
A leaked document sent by chief constables and crime tsars to the Treasury claims that forces are spending £620 million a year on looking for missing people – many of whom have run away from hospitals or children’s homes.
It tells how constables are being forced to wait at A&E departments for more than three hours at a time with injured patients because there are not enough ambulances or doctors.
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Police and Crime General
Derbyshire's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has announced his preferred candidate for the role of deputy PCC.
Kevin Gillott, a north-Derbyshire solicitor who was previously legal advisor to the Derbyshire Magistrates' Court Service, has been put forward by PCC Hardyal Dhindsa.
The proposed appointment follows a recruitment process wherein several “high-calibre” candidates applied for the role.
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Police and Crime General
A police force has been criticised after it emerged it handed out cautions for serious offences including rape, child abduction and soliciting to commit murder.
The police and crime commissioner, Tony Lloyd, has demanded answers from Greater Manchester police (GMP) after it was revealed that cautions were given out for hundreds of serious crimes over the past five years.
The figures were released under freedom of information legislation and revealed that the force had handed out 14 cautions for rape offences and a further 177 for a variety of sex crimes.
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Economy & Public Finance
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said weak growth would lead to lower-than-expected tax receipts, increasing borrowing by £25bn by 2019-20.
The weaker prospects for the economy would result in a "significant increase in the deficit", it said.
Its forecasts come ahead of the Autumn Statement on 23 November.
The event will mark Philip Hammond's first significant test since he became chancellor.
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Police and Crime General
Numerous errors were made in Scotland Yard's investigation into paedophile allegations against VIPs, an independent review has found.
The decision to abandon Operation Midland should have been taken "much earlier", Sir Richard Henriques said.
Five officers have been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission following the review.
The Met Police commissioner accepted "accountability for these failures" and apologised to those involved.
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Police Demand
The scale of online child abuse in Wales is "both shocking and saddening", the police chief leading a campaign to tackle the offence has said.
Operation Net Safe is being launched by Wales' four police forces on Monday and a new unit has already started 19 investigations since late September.
South Wales Police's Assistant Chief Constable Jon Drake said he wanted people to think about their actions.
He said "hundreds, if not thousands" were viewing images online every day.
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The first Police and Crime Plan for London had a crowd-pleasing quality, as might have been expected from the mayoralty of Boris Johnson. The document, which the capital’s mayors must produce through their office for policing and crime (MOPAC), set a list of six targets for the period 2013-2016, all of which featured the figure 20%.
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Police and Crime General
A pioneering police force is laser scanning crime scenes to build a hyper-realistic virtual world they can continue to investigate long after the real location has been cleaned.
West Midlands Police use cameras that take millions of measurements of a room, accurate to within two millimetres.
A computer then builds a 3D image from the readings and images taken from multiple locations.
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Police Demand
Only one police officer is on duty for every 10,000 residents across much of the country at night, a Mail on Sunday investigation can reveal today.
Shocking figures show for the first time that just a few dozen PCs can respond to emergencies after hours in some rural counties covering hundreds of miles, leaving the public at risk from serious crime and disorder.
Even in big cities the forces of law and order are just as thin on the ground after dark – when official statistics show most crime occurs. In Manchester there is just one police officer for every 14,000 people, and in London the ratio is one to 11,000.
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Police and Crime General
A major review of London's ability to deal with a terror attack has suggested the three police forces serving the capital could be merged.
Lord Harris of Haringey said the Home Office should consider combining the Met Police, the City of London Police and the British Transport Police (BTP).
The review was ordered by mayor Sadiq Khan to assess London's security.
Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said there was "good argument" for a merger, but others had concerns.
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Economy & Public Finance
The UK economy grew faster than expected in the three months after the Brexit vote, official figures have indicated.
The economy expanded by 0.5% in the July-to-September period, according to the Office for National Statistics.
That was slower than the 0.7% rate in the previous quarter, but stronger than analysts' estimates of about 0.3%.
"There is little evidence of a pronounced effect in the immediate aftermath of the vote," the ONS said.
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Police Finances
Home Secretary Amber Rudd is poised to announce a fund of over £11 million to tackle the “barbaric” crime of modern slavery.
It comes after Theresa May said Britain will lead the fight against modern slavery and called it “the greatest human rights issue of our time” shortly after entering Downing Street as Prime Minister.
Ms Rudd, who is Ms May’s successor at the Home Office, will commit £11 million to a dedicated fund for groups fighting the crime in high-risk countries from which victims are trafficked to the UK. In addition, £3 million will be available for projects aimed at protecting vulnerable children overseas and in the UK.
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Police Demand
In my time as the deputy and then commissioner of the Metropolitan police, my primary concerns were with terrorism and issues around diversity. But a constant problem for my officers was dealing with people exhibiting psychotic behaviour in public, which seemed to be getting worse. A main driver of this was the inadequacy and local unpredictability of mental health services.
Since I left office in 2008 the situation has deteriorated more dramatically than I could have imagined, with the latest report suggesting that police across England and Wales are now using powers under section 136 of the 1983 Mental Health Act 50% more than they did a decade ago – nearly 30,000 times in 2014-15. These numbers are a symptom of a crisis in mental health provision.
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Economy & Public Finance
Public borrowing was £10.6bn in September – an increase of £1.3bn compared to the same month in 2015 – exceeding Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts and adding to the economic gloom.
The latest public finance bulletin, issued by the Office for National Statistics today, revealed that public borrowing for the year to date was £45.4bn, £2.3bn lower that at the same point last year. However, borrowing for the entire 2016-17 year was forecast by the OBR to come in at £55.5bn, just over £20bn down on 2015-16.
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Police and Crime General
The site of a new police hub for east Hampshire has been announced by the county's police and crime commissioner (PCC).
Michael Lane said the Eastern Police Investigation Centre would be built on a site leased on the Merlin Park Development, off Airport Service Road.
Housing both investigation and custody facilities, it would serve Portsmouth, Fareham, Waterlooville, Havant and Hayling Island.
It is due to open in spring 2019.
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Fire
Minister for Policing and the Fire Service Brandon Lewis talks about fire reform at the Fire Protection Association Sector Summit.
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Police Finances
£5million will help Police Now expand across 19 forces and take on 250 graduates recruits.
Yesterday [19,10.2016] , Home Secretary Amber Rudd has granted more than £5 million to fund a major expansion of Police Now through investment from the Police Transformation Fund.
Police Now is a groundbreaking scheme aimed at giving university graduates with leadership potential a route to becoming police officers, so that they can make a difference in the fight against crime as well as supporting their communities.
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Police Finances
The Home Secretary has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to stamp out modern slavery by today announcing £8.5 million of funding to help law enforcement agencies to tackle this horrendous crime.
The funding, granted until 2018/19 following a bid to the Police Transformation Fund, will improve the country’s enforcement response to modern slavery by providing high quality intelligence and analysis to assess the threat at a national and regional level, and an improved operational response throughout the investigative process.
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Police Demand
The head of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has criticised police forces in England for failing to take child protection matters seriously.
He said that a failure to change could lead to further cases of child abuse like the ones in Rotherham and Oxford.
Sir Michael said police forces were not sharing information "in a timely way" and were not informing social workers quickly when children went missing.
His criticisms were made in a letter to the chief inspector of constabulary.
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Police Demand
ITV Border has learnt that Cumbria's police officers are being called on "an almost daily basis" to help transfer patients from West Cumbria to Carlisle.
The county's Police and Crime Commissioner fears the situation could get worse if plans to downgrade services at the West Cumberland Hospital go ahead.
Proposals to change maternity, children's and other emergency care services in Whitehaven could see hundreds of extra patients travelling between west Cumbria and Carlisle every year:
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Police Finances
The mayor of London Sadiq Khan is looking to raise council tax for the first time in nine years in order to support the Metropolitan Police (Met) following the cut in local government funding last week.
The London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee’s Pre-Budget Report, which scrutinises Khan’s draft 2017-18 budget, found that the mayor is proposing to increase the police precept element of council tax bills by 1.99%, adding £4.02 to the average Band D property.
This will aim to counteract a fall in central government funding for the Metropolitan Police of £17.4m compared to the last financial year, the committee said.
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Police Finances
Police staff have accepted a cut to their overtime rate in exchange for new rights to know rest days in advance and more annual leave.
The agreement to alter terms and conditions was announced on Wednesday (February 22) by the three unions representing the majority of police staff members in English and Welsh forces – Unison, GMB and Unite.
The deal comes after members “overwhelmingly” agreed to proposals put to them in a poll in January.
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Police and Crime General
One of the UK’s biggest force areas is halting the roll-out of a flagship scheme that limits drivers to 20mph.
Town hall chiefs in the Greater Manchester Police area are scrapping the low speed zones after they made “almost no difference”.
Manchester City Council found speeds only fell by a maximum of 10mph and on an average 0.7mph. But on some roads motorists actually drove faster.
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Police and Crime General
The UK Government demanded that WhatsApp comes up with a way to offer access to encrypted messages this summer, Sky News has learned - a request that was rejected by the instant messaging service.
The inability to access terrorists' encrypted conversations is creating a "black hole" for security services, according to a security source.
Terrorists are "frequent users of encrypted apps" - specifically WhatsApp and Telegram, the source said.
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Police and Crime General
A specialist police team set up to investigate crimes against MPs has dealt with 102 complaints in its first year of operation.
The Metropolitan police’s parliamentary liaison and investigations team, set up in August 2016 after the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox, has dealt with 71 complaints of “malicious communication”, which includes abusive messages or letters, 15 thefts and seven allegations of criminal damage.
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Police Finances
The Metropolitan police are to stop investigating many lower level crimes as a result of spending cuts, a senior police officer has said.
On Monday, it was reported that the UK’s largest force would no longer look into many reports of crimes, including burglaries, thefts and assaults, where there was judged to be little prospect of identifying a suspect.
The plan has been denounced as a “green light to thieve” but the Metropolitan police said it needed to balance the books.
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