Agenda and minutes

To approve as correct the minutes of the meetings held on 17 November 2020 and authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meeting held on 17 November 2020 were agreed as a

correct record and would be signed by the Chairman at a later date.

Report attached

The Committee received a report that gave information on the performance against the indictors previously requested. Members noted that the indicators had not incorporated changes requested by the Committee but those changes would be implemented for the next report.

Members noted that 74.21% of calls were responded to within 15 minutes of the call being placed, a reduction of 6.3% compared to 2019 but this was not of concern. It was noted that there had been a reduction in violent crime, burglary and domestic abuse. There had been a slight increase in anti-social behaviour crimes but it was reported that this was mainly due to breaches of COVID-19 restrictions. Disability hate crime had also increased. Members noted that cyber-crime, e.g. scams, were not dealt with by the police so local data was not available.

The Committee noted the report.

Report attached

The Committee were presented a report which updated them on the domestic abuse numbers and prevention strategies in Havering.

Members noted the second Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy was launched after approval by Cabinet in March 2019 and the domestic abuse bill was due to get royal sign off on 1^st April 2021. It was noted that 4,546 incidents had been reported and in 2,610 of those cases, crimes were found to have been committed. The MASH had 2,923 cases sent to it of which 1,516 had come directly from the police.

It was explained to members that support and refuge was made available to victims of domestic abuse which included group support and 1-2-1 counselling. MENDAS provided support for male victims and the young person’s IDVA commenced in November 2020.

The Committee noted the report.

Members are invited to put forward ideas for future agenda items.

Members noted that a review of the Council’s Enforcement Structure was planned to be presented to the Committee however, due to COVID-19 pressures, was unable to be completed in time. It was therefore agreed by the Committee for this report to be presented at the next meeting.

Members requested a topic group to scrutinise the new CCTV budget to be created following the meeting.

Members requested that a report updating the Committee on the Domestic Abuse bill would be brought back to the Committee 6 months following the meeting.