Minutes:
The Head of Commercial Regulation and Trading Standards (Rob Vale) attended and updated the Board as follows:
DHR 1 COMPLETE.
The Head of Commercial Regulation and Trading Standards would be attending the DVA/VAWG Operational Forum on 23rd September 2021 to review the action plan for this DHR and would then formally seek the sign off from the Chairman of the Safer Bromley Partnership Board.
DHR 2:
This report had yet to be presented to the Chairman of this Group for sign off prior to sending to the Home Office Quality Assurance Panel. Delays had occurred because of the non-availability of the author who had sadly been dealing with some personal issues. The action plan however was progressing but LBB was reliant on the final report to complete the action plan, as there were some changes made by partners which impacted the recommendations.
DHR 3
The report was with the Home Office Quality Assurance Panel. So no update was available; the response was expected in October 2021.
Prevent Update:
The Board was updated on the Prevent Review which was being led by William Shawcross CVO.
The corresponding report, including any recommendations from the review, had to be submitted to the Secretary of State for the Home Department by 30 September 2021 in time for the Secretary of State to respond to each recommendation and to lay the review report and government response before both Houses of Parliament by 31 December 2021.
The Protect Duty Consultation:
The Consultation (which closed on 2nd July 2021) sought to improve the safety and security of public venues, as outlined in the Government’s 2019 manifesto. It would look at how legislation might be used to enhance the protection of publicly accessible locations across the UK from terrorist attacks and ensure organisational preparedness. With some exceptions (e.g. on transport security and for certain sports grounds), there was no legislative requirement to consider or implement security measures at publicly accessible locations.
The proposed Protect Duty could apply in three main areas (but may also apply to other locations, parties and processes by exception):
1. Public venues (e.g. entertainment and sports venues, tourist attractions, shopping centres).
2. Large organisations (e.g. retail, or entertainment chains).
3. Public spaces (e.g. public parks, beaches, thoroughfares, bridges, town or city squares and pedestrianised areas).
The review would look at how any new duty would sit alongside existing duties and the delivery of work in the counter-terrorism space. This included work undertaken by Community Safety Partnerships, Local Resilience Forums and Safety Advisory Groups (SAGs)
Many of these had overlapping partner representation and/or interest in these issues. Not all of these were statutory, such as SAGs, which provided a forum for partners to discuss and advise on public safety for particular events/locations – one option Government could consider was strengthening this framework to increase consistency across different areas.
There may be scope to extend existing legislation to cover counter terrorism risks, e.g. the Health and Safety at Work Act which considered risks to employees and customers.
The Board heard that there was an LGA response to the Consultation which looked at the potential impacts on local authorities.
It was agreed that the DHR updates would be presented also to the Domestic Abuse Strategic Board.
It was noted that the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill was due to gain Royal Assent in 2022, and the Assistant Director would provide a briefing paper regarding this to the Board before the next meeting.
RESOLVED that:
1) The DHR updates would be presented also to the Domestic Abuse Strategic Board.
2) The Assistant Director would draft a briefing paper regarding the Police Crime Sentencing and Courts Bill before the next meeting.