Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Tijs Broeke, Alderman Professor Emma Edhem, Alderman Tim Hailes. Andrew Lentin was observing online. Michael Mitchell, external Member of the Professional Standards and Integrity Committee, was also observing virtually.

Sir Craig Mackey attending in person to observe the meeting.

There were no declarations.

To agree the public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 4 November 2021.

RESOLVED, that the public minutes and non-public summary of the meeting held on 4 November 2021, be approved as an accurate record.

Joint report of the Commissioner and Town Clerk.

Members received a report of the Town Clerk and Commissioners regarding the Committee’s outstanding references.

Report of the Commissioner.

Members received a report of the Commissioner regarding the Quarter 3 National Lead Force Performance.

There was a discussion on the issue of time taken to answer calls and the link between that and abandoned calls. 30% abandoned calls was considered high. A push toward guiding people to online reporting tools was necessary, to leave the call handlers free to speak to those who needed to (repeat victims, the elderly and vulnerable). Capacity was being built within the contact centre. As part of the user experience, callers would be assured there would be a handler waiting to speak to them when they got through.

There had been an attrition of staff within the contact centre which had impacted the call answering time. If at full staffing capacity, the numbers would improve.

The Chat Bot had managed 800hours (4FTEs) worth of reporting. It was about to commence its second iteration and was proving successful.

Further information was sought on the 50% of reports that don’t meet the target response date of 28 days. For example, were they dropped? When was the next target date for resolution?

Within the report there was no reference to the number of businesses that had reported fraud as a distinct data set to individuals who had reported. This would be an enhanced tool available in the Next Gen service.

There was concern that there was a perception of the public that by reporting, there would not be a reduction in crime. The positive outcomes of the work of the service needed to be reported through the right channels.

Where victims of crime were reporting cases of economic crime, the as NLF, COLP wanted to be as efficient as possible at identifying those where significant funds would be lost or making links to organised crime. It would

Report of the Commissioner.

Members received a verbal report of the Assistant Commissioner regarding National Lead Force.

Members heard about the renewal of an arrangement with Microsoft and suggested that the Force seek to do similar with other such as Amazon, PayPal and Google.

Social media companies had a duty of care as outlined in the Online Safety Bill. The Force was trying to be proactive in encouraging large, data rich, organisations to share their data to help improve the Force’s ability to prevent and investigate cyber crime.

A discussion was had on the involvement of COLP with insurance companies, primarily on the need to improve the messaging so that these companies knew who to speak to when there was a cyber threat. The Chair of Policy and Resources supported the idea of improving this. She felt that UK Finance would be a good forum to raise this and suggested a round table for insurers be held (1/2022/P).

RESOLVED, that the update be noted.

Report of the Commissioner.

Members received a report of the Commissioner on Cyber Griffin.

There was support expressed for the use of POCA funds on Cyber Griffin.

Members wished to understand the breadth, depth and reach of this activity. What volume of services had been provided to what sectors, and where? (2/2022/P)

RESOLVED, that the report be noted.

Report of the Director of Innovation and Growth.

Members received a report of the Director of Innovation and Growth, on the Department’s activities related to Cyber and Economic Crime.

The Chair of Policy and Resources explained that she had started holding informal meetings with Police to see what work was being done to push the competitiveness agenda.

Some ‘blue sky’ thinking on the Centre for Cyber Excellence was sought (3/2022/P).

RESOLVED, that the report be noted.

There was a question on the campaigning undertaken for the Online Safety Bill.

There was no urgent business.

MOTION - That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

RESOLVED, that under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act.

To agree the non-public minutes of the meeting held on 4 November 2021.

RESOLVED, that the non-public minute of the meeting held on 4 November 2021, be approved as an accurate record.

Joint report of the Commissioner and Town Clerk.

Members received a report of the Town Clerk and Commissioner regarding the Committee’s Non-Public Outstanding References.

Report of the Commissioner.

Members received a report of the Commissioner regarding the Concentrix Extension and Costed Roadmap.

Joint report of the Commissioner and Town Clerk.

Members received a report of the Commissioner regarding Stakeholder Engagement and Policy.