Funding of Operation Avert

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.022151

I note you seek access to the following information:

1. Can you please tell me how much money is being spent on Operation Avert on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

2. How is Operation Avert funded, where does the money come from.

3. How long will Operation Avert run.

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

Q1 - Can you please tell me how much money is being spent on Operation Avert on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.

Operation Avert is the name allocated to pan-London deployments into Violent Crime Hotspots. The budget for Op Avert is £1.5m. Whilst deployments vary they are informed by analytical data, which in turns feeds into the weekly and monthly cost. This means costs fluctuates dependent on demand.
To assist with your request, it is fair to explain that the £1.5m can be averaged out across the year evenly.

As the deployment is over 9 months, this gives the following costs:

Monthly - £167k average
Weekly - £38.5k average
Daily - £5.5k average.

Q2 - How is Operation Avert funded, where does the money come from.

Operation Avert is one part of the MPS activity associated with the National Home Office Violence Grip Fund. The MPS allocation from the Grip Fund for the FY 2021/22 was £9m. The funding for Operation Avert is drawn exclusively from that fund.

Q3 - How long will Operation Avert run.

Specifically Operation Avert is scheduled to run until 31 March 2022. However, it should be clear that Operation Avert is a specific operation that forms part of wider and ongoing activity targeting violent crime hotspots in London.