Agenda item

Under the Crime and Disorder (Overview and Scrutiny) Regulations 2009, the Committee undertakes the Council’s Crime and Disorder functions.

The Committee is asked to scrutinise the current partnership approach to tackling Digital Crime in West Sussex in order to obtain a more coherent and detailed picture of the threats, harms, risks and vulnerability that impact our residents, and the work being done to address these.

33.1     The Cabinet Member for Community Support, Fire and Rescue, Cllr Crow, introduced the item, reminding members that one of the priorities in Our Council’s Plan was to keep people safe from vulnerable situations and this item would demonstrate how digital crime would apply to that.  Victims of digital crime have impacts for the County Council. There was a direct correlation between people who become victims of digital crime and people who need services and assistance from the County Council, whether they were children or adults. 

33.2     Cllr Crow also asked members to help promote good messages to local communities using the Stay Safe pages on the County Council website and social media.  The County Council has a Stay Safe account on Twitter and messages can be retweeted.  The 36 libraries were a valuable front door for vulnerable people and those who like face to face contact and staff are well trained to provide good advice and signpost people to other support.

33.3     The Committee received presentations from officers and external witnesses PC Lawrie, Financial Abuse Safeguarding Officer for Operation Signature at the Sussex and Surrey Police Specialist Crime Command and Mrs Booker, Director of Police, MOD and Local Government Programmes at Get Safe Online.  Mrs Booker said she worked with organisations across the United Kingdom and that the Safer West Sussex Safer Partnership was much more active than anywhere else she worked with.  

33.4     Members of the Committee then asked questions and a summary of those comments, questions and answers follows.

33.5     Committee members were shocked to hear that in the 7–10-year-old age group self-generated sexual imagery was up 235% and was the fastest growing age group of concern.  Officers reported that this had been because much younger children were using digital technology, groomers had developed more sophisticated ways of contacting children, pandemic lockdowns had impacted, a lack of parental control and loss of school support.

33.6     The Digital Safety Package and associated training is available to schools for a fee. The Education for Safeguarding Programme, through a recent funding scheme was hoped to cover costs until 2024.  Officers would be undertaking a survey in the New Year to establish if schools have heard of the package and to understand why they were not subscribing.  Members asked for a list of schools not signed up by division so that local members could encourage schools to do so.  Information is also regularly shared with schools via the Headteachers’ letter, resources are offered for assemblies, updates on risk or threat information shared, as well as the upcoming West Sussex Children’s Safeguarding Conference which school staff were anticipated to be in attendance. 

33.7     Work is ongoing to share information via the monthly Staying Safe Online e-newsletter, which is also shared by internal and external networks e.g the library services newsletter, neighbourhood watch groups, digital ambassadors, parish, district and borough councils.  Work had taken place with the National Health Service (NHS) to produce a poster for all GP surgeries, and the Digital Safety team were exploring getting the message on to digital screens in surgeries.  The Police share a lot of literature with residents and the Fire Services’ wellbeing visits had also shared information and made referrals for several years. Members suggested that sharing at annual parish meetings and community groups would be a good idea. 

33.8     Trading Standards could take down websites, but sometimes they needed to contact the head offices of large companies which could take time.  Where there is no head office the National Trading Standards (NTS) crime team can help.  The main source of reporting comes from Citizens Advice.  They also worked with district and borough planning teams to disrupt rogue traders who breached planning law. 

33.9     Banks heavily subsidise online safety programmes through Get Safe Online as well as having their own safety procedures, e.g. they were the first to introduce cross-channel banking protocol, all bank staff are trained to call 999 for suspicious transactions in branch, if fraud is suspected payments are frozen for 72 hours and the Police contacted, and they provide regular advice for customers.  Additionally, the Bank Notification Scheme can be used to identify vulnerable customers. 

33.10  Digital Ambassadors are recruited via newsletters, press releases, radio interviews etc.  A lot of interest is expressed but often people drop out once they know what is involved e.g. training.

33.11  The figure that 80% of fraud went unreported came from the British Crime Survey.  There was no indication that any reductions in Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) were affecting the ability to identify victims, gain intelligence or share information.  Priority had always been given to visiting victims for the past 8 years and there was no indication that this would change.  There was no data for reducing incidents of fraud, but other metrics were used to measure effectiveness and performance. It was key that all instances of online fraud should be reported to Action Fraud (Action Fraud / 0300 123 2040).

33.12  General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) had not affected the sharing of information.  The Safer West Sussex Partnership has agreements for sharing protocols, particularly for information that legislation required them to share.  Scammers were quick to respond to events e.g. when the Government announced energy support payments fraudsters were quick to see opportunities.  The Partnership acted quickly to get information on this new area of fraud through the intelligence network.  The teams rely on services such as Meals on Wheels, patient transport, etc, being the eyes and ears of the community.

33.13  Libraries are a “key front” door for vulnerable residents, a safe secure digital access and staff had received training from the Digital Safety team.  Members were reassured that library staff were able to meet demand at the moment, but intensity of demand and complexity would have to be monitored in the future.

33.14  The Online Safety Bill is still at parliamentary stage and there is no set date for its introduction.  Monitoring of current compliance and reporting rests with the Information Commissioner.  Members asked who defined harm and how and against what (and whose) criteria, and the language used for these criteria?  Who decided what mitigation we should take and how? Against what (and whose) criteria? How could we measure our success?  Officers identified the current legal definitions around “harm” and adult and children safeguarding, and hoped that the Online Safety Bill would clarify some of these questions.

33.15  Cllr Crow thanked the members for their comments and questions and the officers and witnesses for their answers.  It demonstrated that a lot was going on and gave food for thought on what more could be done to further increase the awareness of residents, what more the County Council can do to prevent victims of fraud and how to deal with threats that change over time.

33.16  Resolved – That the Committee:

1.   Thanked the officers and guests for supporting the agenda item and for the impressive amount of work undertaken to protect people from harm and digital crime.

2.   Felt that there was a need for greater awareness of the Digital Safety Package amongst schools and would welcome a list of schools who had not signed up, by division, so that local members could encourage schools to do so.

3.   Acknowledged the philosophical concerns raised.

4.   Acknowledged the ongoing challenges Trading Standards faced with online ordering and goods moving across borders.

5.   Asked that the finalised report on the results and analysis of the county-wide parent/carer online safety survey be shared with the Committee.