Agenda item

The CNA (Crime Needs Assessment) update was provided by Matthew Hodges—Corporate Services Graduate Intern.

Partners were reminded that the Crime Needs Assessment was an annual statutory requirement for all Community Safety Partnerships in England and Wales, as stated in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998.

The CNA was produced to better understand the crime related needs in the borough and to help decision makers set strategic priorities related to crime. It could be used in supporting future commissioning processes and helped to gain a greater understanding of the needs of the victims and where the highest offence rates were.

It was explained that the Mayor of London had published the Police and Crime Plan for London (2017-2022), which set out the priorities for the safety of London. In the Plan there were pan-London priorities and local priorities:

The high-volume local priorities that boroughs were required to consider were:

·  Non-Domestic Abuse Violence with Injury

·  Robbery – Personal Property

·  Theft from Motor Vehicles

·  Theft of Motor Vehicles

·  Theft from the Person

·  Burglary

Within the plan, MOPAC agreed two local police priorities with each Borough, alongside antisocial behaviour and a mandatory focus on high-harm crimes, and those which affect the most vulnerable Londoners, supported by data and research about crime, antisocial behaviour and confidence in the police.

The two Local Priorities that were agreed with Bromley for 2021-2022 were:

·  Non-Domestic Abuse Violence with Injury

·  Burglary (Residential)

Partners noted that the ward where the levels of Non-Domestic Violence With Injury was highest was Bromley Town and that the levels of burglary were highest in Cray Valley East, followed closely by Bromley Town. It was pointed out though that given the population density of the Borough, it was still a safe borough to reside in. 

Mr Hodges said that from March 2021 to February 2022, the London borough average for Total Notifiable Offences was 25,742, and the recorded figure for Bromley was 11% lower than the London Average at 23,185. When compared with other London Boroughs, Bromley remained one of the safest boroughs with 68.2 crimes per1000 population between March 2021 and February 2022. When compared with the London average of 91.54 crimes per 1000 population, this placed Bromley as the borough with the 7^th lowest crime rate.

The most common notified offences in Bromley in 2022 were Violence against the Person which made up 28.9% of the total, Theft, which contributed 21.4%, and Vehicle Offences, such as the theft of or from a vehicle, which made up 15.1%

The Covid-19 pandemic had a significant effect on crime numbers in the 2020-21 months, with noticeable dips during the months when lockdown measures were in effect.

It was highlighted that if you analysed the data for overall crime reporting, then Bromley ranked as the 7^th safest borough in London.  In terms of theft from motor vehicles, Bromley was the 10^th safest borough in London. In terms of assault with injury, Bromley was the 5^th safest borough in London. In terms of common assault, Bromley was the 3^rd safest borough in London. Bromley was the safest borough in London in terms of rape and the 2^nd safest in terms of other sexual offences.

Mr Hodges said that the figures for transphobic crimes and disability hate crimes were such small figures that it was difficult to come to overall statistical conclusions as one or 2 offences could completely change the borough’s London ranking so tabular data had not been produced for these specific crime reports.

The Head of Community Safety, Environmental and Domestic Regulation commented that the reporting of domestic abuse cases did not seem to be reflected in the CNA data and it would be worth investigating why this was the case. 

The Chairman expressed her thanks to Mr Hodges for the CNA presentation. 

It was queried if there was data available with respect to the age ranges around the priority of ‘Keeping Young People Safe’, particularly with respect to knife crime. Mr Hodges explained that the data that he had used was from the current public dashboards. If the data with respect to age ranges of the young people was available, then he would be happy to break it down further as required.

The Head of Trading Standards and Commercial Regulation said that the CNA data would be useful when it came to re-drafting the new Safer Bromley Strategy.

The LBB Head of the YJS said that in the Youth Justice/Youth Offending Service they did have the data regarding the age ranges of young people involved in knife crime and this could be shared with Mr Hodges by the relevant Information Officer.

The Bromley CCG Adult Safeguarding Manager said that more detailed analysis was required for the SBPB generally, but especially from the point of view of setting strategic priorities. He expressed the view that the information provided on the current CNA was not the data that was required by the Partnership. He felt that a more specific breakdown of relevant data could be accessed from the police. He pointed out that financial abuse of the elderly was not reported on by MOPAC, and so this was a glaring hole in the CNA data. He felt that in this regard, data would be available from the police and adult social care. He pointed out that the Government had recognised that crimes against the elderly should be given more priority and so consideration was now being applied to creating a dedicated ministerial appointment to this end. The LBB Head of Service for Early Intervention and Family Support suggested that perhaps relevant statistics from Victim Support could be added to the CNA going forward. 

RESOLVED that the Crime Needs Assessment Update be noted.

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