Agenda item

Report of the City of London Police.

The Sub-Committee received a report of the City of London Police concerning details how the City of London Police (CoLP) identifies, supports, and safeguards vulnerable people.

Members were presented with the City of London Police Vulnerability Reports for 2024. The report covered a wide range of responsibilities in the vulnerability area, including updates on data sets and various initiatives.

Key highlights from the discussion included:

• The importance of gathering anonymised data from the voluntary sector working with women and children, particularly in relation to honour-based abuse.
• The need to collect information from academies on child exploitation and child abuse.
• The use of heat maps to link data on sexual offences to ward maps, which could be useful for the new Destination City Advisory Board and licensing.

In response to questions raised by Members, officers noted that they would need to look into whether any information is being gathered from the voluntary sector working with women and children regarding honour-based abuse, as they were not aware of any such data being collected at that time. They added that while they have good links with academies, they have not received any actionable information on child exploitation and child abuse at this stage.

Officers also agreed to speak to the analyst about linking the heat map on sexual offences to a ward map, as it should be possible to do so. Regarding work with hotels and massage parlours around vulnerable young women, Officers explained that they engage regularly with hotels through the Licensing Forum and provide updates on identifying different crime types. They also run Operation Make Safe to combat child sexual exploitation and act on signs of exploitation in massage parlours through various measures.