The Crime and Disorder Scrutiny Committee met to discuss the Safer City Partnership strategy, community safety, serious violence and the late night levy. Councillors were scheduled to discuss the Safer City Partnership's (SCP) strategy for 2025-2029, and how to deliver community safety in the City of London. They were also scheduled to receive an update on the Serious Violence Sub-Group and the Hotspot Response Grant, and a report on the Late Night Levy.

Safer City Partnership Strategy 2025-2029

The Safer City Partnership (SCP) Strategy for 2025-2029 was scheduled to be discussed. The strategy outlines a plan to ensure the City of London remains a safe and welcoming place for residents, workers, learners, and visitors.

The report pack states that the strategy delivers the statutory requirement established in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 section 6¹. The SCP has identified four key focus areas for the Strategy 2025 - 2029:

• Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)
• Serious Violence (SV)
• Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB)
• Acquisitive Crime (AC)

The SCP strategy is structured around three overarching principles:

• Effective and Accountable Partnerships
• Evidenced and Intelligence-Led Action
• Prevention-Focused Interventions

The report pack states that the SCP Strategy aligns with the City of London Police’s Policing Plan 2025–2028, with both sharing a commitment to keeping the City safe, inclusive, and resilient, with a focus on prevention, victim support, and community engagement.

To ensure the strategy is shaped by those who live, work, and operate in the Square Mile, two consultations were carried out. The first was jointly held with the City Police to gather views on safety in the City. The second consultation was specific to the SCP Draft Strategy conducted in Spring 2025. The feedback received highlighted key themes such as the need for more visible policing, improved lighting, and clearer communication.

Community Safety Delivery in the City of London

The committee was scheduled to discuss a report outlining the need for an expanded and changed Community Safety function within the City Corporation. The report stated that this was required to respond to changing demands and context, and to mitigate the strategic and operational constraints of the current model. The report proposes a direction of travel, in which an expanded function strengthens the ability of the City Corporation to fulfil its partnership working with the City of London Police to tackle crime and disorder.

The report stated that the City Corporation spends £0.43m annually on Community Safety, which it claims is the smallest community safety function in London, where the average local authority spend is £2.7m. The report notes that the current resourcing and established structure of the City Corporation’s Community Safety Team (CST) reflects a historic approach which focusses on the strategic and co-ordinating roles and functions. The operational response to issues such as ASB has rested with the police, or those services within the City Corporation that exercise specific powers such as those in relation to noise, licencing and ASB on housing estates.

The report also notes that there has been a significant and continuing growth in the nighttime economy with which much of the City’s ASB and crime and disorder is associated, as well as a significant increase in encampments of rough sleeping, with which there are also associated ASB issues.

A review of the CST’s partnership working with the City Police was commissioned to identify how the CST can effectively fulfil its statutory and operational responsibilities while maintaining a productive partnership with the City Police. The review highlighted three key areas of development:

• Operational response to issues of ASB
• Analytical capacity
• Engagement

The report recommends an enlarged CST that resources both strategic and operational activity.

Serious Violence Sub-Group and Hotspot Response Grant Update

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the work of the Safer City Partnership’s serious violence sub-group, which is implementing the Serious Violence Duty in the City. The update also covered plans for ‘hotspot response’ grant-funded initiatives in 2025/26.

Legislation introduced in 2023 requires all local areas to develop and implement multi-agency strategies to reduce serious violence – the Serious Violence Duty. The City developed its strategy within the Safer City Partnership (SCP). The refreshed strategy was developed concurrently with the new (2025-28) Policing Plan, and alongside the wider Safer City Partnership strategy, which has sought to delineate more clearly between action on ‘serious violence’ and on ‘violence against women and girls’.

On ‘hotspot response’, the City received £1 million grant funding from the Home Office in 2024/25 to implement visible policing and ‘uniformed presence’ initiatives to reduce serious violence and anti-social behaviour. In 2025/26, the City has again received £1 million grant funding and the proposed use of this is summarised in the slides.

Late Night Levy - 12 Month Report (1 Oct 2023 - 30 Sep 2024)

The committee was scheduled to receive a report on the late-night levy, which has been operating within the City of London since 1 October 2014. The report looks at the tenth year of operation, setting out the number of premises paying the levy, income collected and how that money has been spent to date.

The levy is applied to all premises selling alcohol after midnight between the hours of 00:01 and 06:00. This includes premises that only sell alcohol after midnight on limited occasions such as New Year’s Eve.

In October 2014, when the levy was introduced in the City, there were 308 premises subject to the levy. During the tenth levy year (October 2023 to September 2024) 303 premises were subject to the levy.

The total amount collected in the tenth levy year was £436,000, of which £15,000 was allocated to administration costs, £295,000 to the City Police and £126,000 to the City Corporation.

The City Corporation are required to spend their allocation of levy money in specific areas namely:

• The reduction or prevention of crime and disorder
• The promotion of public safety
• The reduction or prevention of public nuisance
• The cleaning of any highway maintainable at the public expense within the City of London (other than a trunk road) or any land to which the public are entitled or permitted to have access with or without payment and which is open to the air.

The City’s current annual committed spend exceeds the forecast annual income. This is due to a combination of inflation price increases, and the City Corporation supporting the Police led partnership initiative Operation Reframe².