City of Westminster Archives Centre, St. Ann S Street, London SW1 2DE

Notes of the National Rural Crime Network Annual General Meeting – 14 July 2016

City of Westminster Archives Centre, St. Ann’s Street, London SW1 2DE

1) Present: Julia Mulligan (Chair – PCC North Yorkshire), Anthony Stansfield (PCC - Thames Valley), Adrian Harper (OPCC Kent), Dave Hunter (Crimestoppers), Stuart Tweedale (Dep PCC Lincs), Mark Trezise (Surrey Police), Craig Jones (OPCC Surrey), Kate Algate (Neighbourhood Watch), Lorne Greene (PCC Norfolk), Gavin Thompson (OPCC Norfolk), Dr. Karen Mellodew (OPCC Devon & Cornwall), Roger Hirst (PCC Essex), Cheryl Bridges (OPCC Warwickshire), Sue Arnold (Dep PCC Staffs), Paddy Tipping (PCC Notts),Helen Quinn (OPCC Herts), Phil Raymond (OPCC Hants), Sarah Lee (Countryside Alliance), Sam Durham (NFU), CI Matthew Rose (Suffolk Police), Nick Payne (Rural Services Network)

2) Apologies: Tim Passmore (PCC Suffolk), Jeff Cuthbert (PCC Gwent), Gemma Wilson (Crimestoppers), David Keane (PCC Cheshire), Liz Grannell (OPCC Essex), Mark Harrison (Historic England), Martyn Underhill (PCC Dorset), Wayne Nock (Dorset Police), Kathryn Buckle (OPCC Northants), Caroline Filmore (OPCC Wiltshire), Laura Williams (National Sheep Association), Phillip Seccombe (PCC Warwickshire), Hardyal Dhinsda (PCC Derbyshire), David Lloyd (PCC Hertfordshire), Peter McCall (PCC Cumbria)

3) Presentation – “Fairer Funding for Rural Police Forces” Research report - Dr. Alex Gibson, Plymouth University

PowerPoint presentation slides attached

JM introduced the background to this research commission undertaken by the NRCN and opened the discussion wanting to ensure that this contribution to the funding formula debate was taken forward. The general position with the funding formula was updated as it was currently understood. Paddy Tipping and JM were both involved in two Home Office working groups which will contribute to the next proposals for reforming the formula but there was no obvious timescale stated at present. 2017/18 was the earliest a new formula might be introduced although Dr. Gibson thought that even this would be a very tight timetable for a radical overhaul of the current arrangements based on the work his team had completed.

Dr. Mellodew (Devon & Cornwall) advised that the London School of Economics was carrying out some work on police demand which might be useful and agreed to supply further details. ACTION KM

JM said the College were also looking at this too. Forces with substantial rural areas to cover need to collaborate better. KM agreed and kindly volunteered to try and coordinate this effort. ACTION KM

JM and PT would ensure that they liaised closely between the work of the two Home Office work streams that they sit on.

Adrian Harper commented that the Home Office have consistently criticised the accuracy of police crime recording data sets yet chose to use this as the basis for the proposed changes to the funding formula. Dr. Gibson said the approach in relation to Health resources allocation was much more open and involved others outside of the Dept. of Health and NHS. This is a model approach that ought to be adopted by the Home Office going forward. JM agreed.

It was agreed that rural forces needed to develop and adopt some positive suggestions for a more equitable approach to funding distribution. All agreed to work together more effectively in this ambition. ACTION NP to liaise with KM.

4) Notes of the Executive Board meeting 21 January 2016

Agreed with no amendments or matters arising

JM requested that we add an Action Log in the notes of meetings in future – ACTION NP

5) Matters Requiring Urgent Attention – None

6) Report of the Chairman – Received

7) Finance Report

A further copy of the Finance Report was tabled at the meeting as that which was supplied with the agenda had been remodelled at the request of the Chair. The new report is attached to these notes and shows the outturn for 2015/16 and that the NRCN has begun 2016/17 in good financial standing with 26 Forces having already paid their subscriptions another 6 expected to do so shortly. Norfolk and Sussex had agreed to join for the first time. However, North Wales have now confirmed that they do not wish to be part of the network. JM to speak to her Chief Constable for a direct approach to the CC in North Wales. ACTION JM

The meeting reaffirmed its desire to maintain the network for those Forces which are rural in character.

8) Election of the Chairman and Vice Chairman and confirmation of the Executive Board membership for 2016/17

Julia Mulligan was confirmed as the Chairman for the next year and Tim Passmore, the Vice Chairman. Offers for filling the vacant PCC positions on the Board had come from a number of colleagues. It was agreed that the places should be taken by PCCs or Deputy PCCs. On this basis the meeting confirmed that the 4 other PCC Board seats would be taken by Peter McCall, PCC Cumbria, Alison Hernandez, PCC Devon and Cornwall, Sue Arnold, Deputy PCC Staffordshire, and Stuart Tweedale, Deputy PCC Lincolnshire.

June Armstrong had recently retired from the Institute of Community Safety and the Acting Chairman, Simon Ford had agreed to continue in this role. The other non PCC seats are filled by Sarah Lee, Countryside Alliance, Sam Durham, NFU with Kate Algate, Neighbourhood Watch and Gemma Wilson Crimestoppers sharing a place and alternating between meetings.

9) Domestic Abuse in Rural communities – research proposal

JM introduced this discussion and asserted that our enquiries with academia and other organisations had demonstrated that this was a very poorly researched range of issues in rural communities in the UK. Currently a benchmarking exercise was being led by Dyfed-Powys Police to gather data from NRCN Forces. This had taken longer than anticipated. JM hoped to inject more pace in to this on the return of her Chief Constable from secondment at South Yorkshire.

We had approached Women’s Aid in England and Wales and had the support of the two NPCC leads for Rural Crime and Domestic Abuse in respect of this proposed area of focus. The College of Policing were also supportive. It was hoped that once a research brief had been agreed by the project team that approaches could be made for partnership funding to help support the work. Academic funding bodies tended to have long lead times on funding applications so we were hoping to explore alternatives sources. Craig Jones thought Ministry of Justice funding might be one potential source.

There was general support for the initiative and many concurred that it was an important and poorly understood area of work. NP agreed to share the detail of the literature search supplied by Women’s Aid with those present at the meeting.

KM agreed to share Devon and Cornwall’s approach to looking at domestic homicide rates in her Force area which she thought may assist us.

It was noted that Crimestoppers are currently running a domestic abuse campaign in Suffolk. Dave Hunter agreed to supply further details. ACTION DH

Roger Hirst also highlighted the issues of modern slavery and abuse in the traveller community which presented particular challenges for policing strategy. JM was discussing this with Lynn Owens (Home Office) and would pursue further and update the network on those outcomes. ACTION JM

10) Future Work Programme

This had been agreed at the Executive meeting in January but the Chairman wanted to give new members the opportunity to revisit the work programme and reprioritise it. In hindsight she felt that work programme was a little overambitious. Most felt that the top line themes were those which should be pursued. A discussion opened in connection with improving crime reporting. It was noted that the pilot projects had not progressed as a consequence of CC Jones secondment and changes in PCC in some Forces. KA was anxious that we learned from the experience of pilots before trying to do things on a large scale ineffectively. It was noted that Crimestoppers had developed a suite of rural crime reporting assets and artwork that had been part of a recent successful campaign. These could be used again. It was agreed that the learning from past campaigns would useful and those that had this were asked to share it. ACTION ALL

The Home Office had done some work on older more affluent people in isolated rural residential areas and their vulnerability to cyber-crime. Norfolk offered to adapt some the current NHW work identified by KA in to their latest crime reporting initiative. ACTION KA/GT

The National Wildlife Crime Unit would be asked to attend a future Executive Board meeting and it was requested that a further meeting with Dermot Murphy of the RSPCA be facilitated. ACTION NP

11) All Party Parliamentary Groups meeting

It was proposed that this be staged in the new year. A discussion ensued about what we wanted to achieve from these meetings and whether they provided added value. Vies differed but it was agreed to arrange a provisional date and for the Executive to determine the topics that could be best included for discussion. PT felt that the work being undertaken in respect of Capabilities would be a valuable topic to include.

12) Evaluation Plan Dr. Gilling’s report had originally been requested as a condition of the Home Office PIF support grant. It contained some helpful information and recommendations that needed to be included in the development of the NRCN going forward. Some key points were the need to connect more effectively with practitioners and the wider awareness of the role of the NRCN and avoiding overlap with other groups. A suggestion was made to develop a Rural Crime Award initiative. It was noted that NFU Mutual do stage their Country Crimefighter Awards but this had been suspended for 2015/16. It was not known when or whether these were to be re-introduced. NP to clarify. ACTION NP

Joint badging of the annual national Rural Crime seminar was another idea. JM to discuss with her CC. ACTION JM

Sue Arnold offered to prepare a paper for the next Executive on improving engagement. This was warmly welcomed. ACTION SA

Norfolk will be staging a rural crime seminar in October.

13) Any Other Business

An Historic England pamphlet on heritage crime was distributed.

JM highlighted the British Horse Society “Dead Slow” campaign which was being rolled out nationally.

14) Date of Next meeting of the Executive – 13 October 2016 – NFU HQ, Stoneleigh

Meeting closed at 11.55am ACTION LOG Minute Date Description Action by Status Comment Reference whom 3 14/7/16 LSE research on Karen Outstanding demand Mellodew 3 14/7/16 Coordinate rural Karen Outstanding police force Mellowdew collaboration on demand assessments 3 14/7/16 Positive ALL plus Karen Outstanding proposals to be Mellowdew promoted for and Nick Payne reform of the to liaise funding formula 7 14/7/16 Approach North Julia Mulligan Outstanding Wales Chief Constable via CC Dave Jones 9 14/7/16 Crimestoppers Dave Hunter Outstanding Domestic Abuse campaign - details to be circulated 9 14/7/16 Approach Lynne Julia Mulligan Outstanding Owens re abuse in the traveller community 10 14/7/16 Sharing the ALL Outstanding learning from previous/pilot crime reporting initiatives 10 14/7/16 Norfolk and Kate Algate and Outstanding NHW to Gavin collaborate on Thompson new local crime reporting project. 10 14/7/16 National Wildlife Nick Payne Outstanding Crime Unit and RSPCA to be invited to a future meeting 12 14/7/16 Clarify with NFU Nick Payne Outstanding Mutual the status of the Country Crimefighter Awards 12 14/7/16 Joint badging of Julia Mulligan Outstanding the national Rural Crime Summit with CC Dave Jones 12 14/7/16 Improving Sue Arnold Outstanding engagement across and with the NRCN