Agenda item

12.35pm

The PCC provides a report on Operation Deter which combines two approaches; a more robust criminal justice approach to adults found in possession of an offensive weapon, and for young people, earlier and intensive intervention through the Youth Offending Team Act Now programme which aims to divert them from the criminal justice system and prevent further offending.

The PCC provided a report on Operation Deter which combined two approaches; a more robust criminal justice approach to adults found in possession of an offensive weapon, and for young people, earlier and intensive intervention through the Youth Offending Team Act Now programme which aimed to divert them from the criminal justice system and prevent further offending.

The PCC referred to the work on under 18s and referred to the work in Milton Keynes and Slough by the Youth Offending Teams (YOTs)on Achieving Change Together – Now (ACT) programme. He was hoping that the under 18s process in custody would operate across Thames Valley.

Initially, the PCC funded the YOTs, but this could not continue. For Milton Keynes YOT, the local authority had part funded the team as well as the PCC. It was hoped that funding could be received from the Home Office through the Homicide Prevention Fund. It needed to link in the YOTs and custody suites.

Work took place with Oxfordshire County Council for Oxfordshire and with Buckinghamshire Council for Buckinghamshire, but it was more complicated with Berkshire. For example, if you were in Loddon Valley which was in the Bracknell and Wokingham LPA, the greatest number of knife offences were likely to come in from Reading. Would Reading Borough Council fund a YOT where the custody suite was in Loddon Valley, Wokingham?

There needed to be a formula with Berkshire local authorities on funding and who was host it. The under 18s programme was valuable in terms of early intervention for people who have already carried a weapon. Engagement with young people is so important and it was important that there was partnership work with local authorities.          

Members’ Questions

(1)   A Member referred to a good initiative in terms of getting offenders to court quickly. However, there were problems with terminology, when an offensive weapon was not referred to as a bladed or sharply pointed article. There were too many people employed in the Criminal Justice System who have failed to make that leap in the terminology because it is easier to prove the offense relating to offensive weapons.

On the statistics in the report, there were 694 arrests across the whole of Thames Valley (July 2022 – 31 May 2023), however, there were still 327 cases outstanding. The PCC was asked if he would submit a more detailed report to a future meeting with greater detail on the statistics. Also, the PCC was asked what did the term “straight to prison mean”. Was it from people who were on licence for carrying offensive weapons and effectively their licences have been withdrawn and they were now in prison? 

[The PCC made the point that he could not directly get involved in the charging route area as it was operational. However, the PCC commented that the approach was right. The figures were for the first six month and he would be happy to provide further figures.[ACTION: PCC]  

The PCC talked about timescales of getting prosecutions to court and admitted that a better outcome would occur if someone carrying an offensive weapon was put to the courts quickly. With regard to “straight to prison”, most of these would be those where there have been a number of verdict and sentencing on the same day.]

RESOLVED – That the report of the PCC be noted.