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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 4, Town Hall, Upper Street, N1 2UD. View directions

Contact: Peter Moore 

Items
No. Item

392.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Councillors Doolan, Kllute, Russell, Debono, Khan and Calouri – Executive Member Children, Young People and Families

Councillors Jeapes and Gallagher for lateness

393.

Declaration of Substitute Members

Minutes:

Councillor Picknell stated that she was substituting for Councillor Doolan

394.

Declarations of Interest

Declarations of interest

 If you have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest* in an item of business:

§  if it is not yet on the council’s register, you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent;

§  you may choose to declare a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest that is already in the register in the interests of openness and transparency. 

In both the above cases, you must leave the room without participating in discussion of the item.

 

If you have a personal interest in an item of business and you intend to speak or vote on the item you must declare both the existence and details of it at the start of the meeting or when it becomes apparent but you may participate in the discussion and vote on the item.

 

*(a) Employment, etc - Any employment, office, trade, profession or vocation carried on for profit or gain.

(b)  Sponsorship - Any payment or other financial benefit in respect of your expenses in carrying out duties as a member, or of your election; including from a trade union.

(c) Contracts - Any current contract for goods, services or works, between you or your partner (or a body in which one of you has a beneficial interest) and the council.

(d) Land - Any beneficial interest in land which is within the council’s area.

(e) Licences- Any licence to occupy land in the council’s area for a month or longer.

(f)   Corporate tenancies - Any tenancy between the council and a body in which you or your partner have a beneficial interest.

 (g) Securities - Any beneficial interest in securities of a body which has a place of business or land in the council’s area, if the total nominal value of the securities exceeds £25,000 or one hundredth of the total issued share capital of that body or of any one class of its issued share capital. 

 

This applies to all members present at the meeting.

 

 

Minutes:

None

395.

To approve minutes of previous meeting pdf icon PDF 147 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 5 October 2017 be confirmed and the Chair be authorised to sign them

396.

Matters Arising from the minutes

Minutes:

None

397.

PUBLIC QUESTIONS

Minutes:

The Chair outlined the procedures for Public questions and filming and recording of meetings

398.

Chair's Report

Minutes:

The Chair stated that the Annual Crime and Disorder report that was being considered that evening reflected an increase in crime figures. The Chair added that the Police had had to suffer substantial reductions in funding over the past 7 years and this has had an impact no doubt, on their ability to respond. It was stated that the Council had similarly had a 70% reduction in funding in a similar period.

 

The Chair added that the implications of Government funding cuts were now beginning to be felt significantly

399.

Annual Crime and Disorder Report pdf icon PDF 168 KB

Minutes:

Catherine Roper, Borough Commander, was present together with Councillor Andy Hull, Executive Member, Finance, Performance and Community Safety. Keith Stanger, Service Director Community Safety and Crime Reduction and Catherine  Briody, Head of Youth and Children’s Services were also present.

 

Agenda item C9 – Knife Crime, Mobile Phone theft – 12 month report back was also considered in relation to this item.

 

During consideration of the report and presentation the following main issues were raised –

 

·         Crime trends in Islington are largely mirroring those seen across London and there had been an increase in overall crime by 19%

·         Key areas for the SIP are youth crime, violence against women and girls, Hate Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour and PREVENT

·         Youth Crime is a main focus and knife crime remains an area of concern

·         Islington largely reflects trends across London except for theft snatch, where Islington is disproportionately high, and knife crime with injury victims under 25 years of age

·         Theft snatch offence levels have risen 83% and theft of motor vehicles is linked to this and increased 45% due to stolen mopeds

·         There has however been a reduction in first time entrants to youth crime and youth custody rates continue to reduce

·         The Youth Offending Service is now operating well and reoffending rates are decreasing despite the needs of the cohort becoming more complex

·         Violence against Young Women and Girls – domestic abuse offences increased by 4% in line with London rises, but detection rates fell 13% to 21% against MPS falling 2% to 26%

·         The Domestic Violence MARAC is functioning well with good multi agency representation

·         Sexual offences continue to increase 33% and there are low numbers of other types of VAWG

·         Faith hate crime is increasing and other types of hate crime are decreasing. This is in line with the MPS overall, however detection rates on all forms of Hate Crime in Islington are improving, but remain low

·         The Committee noted that the Police were employing new measures to detect perpetrators of moped crime, and a number of significant arrests of individuals has recently been made

·         It was noted that Islington is the only borough that had designate safer schools officers in all primary and secondary schools and work is also taking place with Universities in the borough. All secondary schools in the borough had a Safer Schools officer and there were 10 in total

·         In response to a question it was stated that there is a need for better information to be given to the Public in relation to mobile phone theft it was stated that crime prevention information was given to the Public

·         The Borough Commander also referred to the fact that a lot of the crime in Islington is related to inter generation crime and family links. In addition, the ‘rat runs’ in Islington made it easier for mopeds to escape the Police and measures were being looked at in this regard to make it more difficult for moped crime

·         In response to a question it was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 399.

400.

Knife Crime/Mobile Phone theft Scrutiny Review - 12 Month Report Back pdf icon PDF 392 KB

Minutes:

This item was dealt with in conjunction with minute    above

 

401.

Financial Monitoring update pdf icon PDF 195 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Andy Hull, Executive Member Finance, Performance and Community Safety was present for discussion of this item.

 

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

 

·         It was noted that there was an overspend at month 4 but it was hoped that by year end this could be covered by contingency reserves

·         The situation for the Council is however extremely challenging as the Council had had a 70% reduction in Government spending since 2010

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the report be noted

 

The Committee thanked Councillor Hull for attending

 

 

402.

Welfare Reforms update pdf icon PDF 308 KB

Minutes:

Councillor Andy Hull, Executive Member Finance, Performance and Community Safety was present and was accompanied by Robbie Rainbird Head of Processing, Housing Benefits

 

During consideration of the report the following main points were made –

 

·         Islington is due to move to a full Universal Credit service by March 2018 and feedback from pilot areas had highlighted a number of significant issues for claimants and Local Authorities

·         These included an increase in rent arrears that is likely to lead to a loss in income stream to landlords and the Council and more demand for Council services and support teams

·         Members expressed concern at the implications for claimants and landlords of the changes and that they would support a Council motion to request the Government to look again at implementation and assess the results of the trial in the pilot areas and the problems encountered before a full rollout of Universal Credit takes place

·         Discussion took place as to the length of time that it took for claimants to receive payment of Universal Credit, in some cases up to 9 weeks and the problems of sanctions being imposed

·         In addition, claims for Universal Credit needed to be made on line and some residents would have difficulty with this

·         In response to a question as to whether there had been any financial modelling on Islington residents on the results of the introduction of Universal Credit, it was stated that 22000 residents would be on Universal Credit, and of these 48.6% of claimants would be worse off and 29.3% better off

·         It was stated that the level of rent arrears could increase significantly as a result of the introduction on Universal Credit

·         The Committee noted, that unlike most other Local Authorities, they had protected voluntary sector funding, and had the best funded Law Centre to assist residents

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the report be noted and the Committee support a motion to Council calling for the introduction of Universal Credit to be halted, in order to assess the problems encountered in the pilot areas, as outlined above

 

The Committee thanked Councillor Hull and Robbie Rainbird for attending