Agenda item

Report of the Executive Director of Secretariat

Contact: Becky Short, [email protected]; 020 7983 4760

The Committee is recommended to:

(a)  Note, as background to the question and answer session with the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), the monthly report from the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (attached as Appendix 1 to the Committee’s report); and

(b)  Note the answers given by the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime and the MPS to the questions asked by Members.

7.1  The Chair welcomed Craig Mackey, Deputy Commissioner, MPS, to the meeting who joined the panel with Stephen Greenhalgh, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, and Helen King, Assistant Commissioner for Territorial Policing, MPS.

7.2  During the discussion Jenny Jones AM, Deputy Chair, declared a non pecuniary interest as her daughter was a journalist.  As the interest was not a pecuniary interest she remained in the meeting for this item.

7.3  A transcript of the discussion of the question and answer session is attached at Appendix 2.

7.4  During the discussion about the sale of New Scotland Yard, a Member noted that the MPS was meeting its targets on capital receipts but expressed his concern regarding the MPS capital expenditure in terms of its impact on invest-to-save and in terms of the productivity of the MPS’s staff and its ability to achieve longer-term revenue targets.  The Member stated that the position would need to be monitored closely.

7.5  During the course of the discussion the invited guests undertook to provide the following information:

·  The Deputy Commissioner undertook to provide information on boroughs that were receiving data from Accident and Emergency hospital departments on persons presenting as the result of knife attacks or other violent crime injuries and those that were not; and what further work was needed;

·  The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime undertook to write to the Chair on the Mayoral Office for Policing and Crime’s progress on the Strategic Ambitions in relation to gangs and serious youth violence including the targets for at risk children, a collaborative gang exit service, resettlement models and intervention and diversion schemes; 

·  The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime undertook to write to the Chair to clarify the position concerning the advice he had received about water cannon from the MPS once he had had an opportunity to review the letter the Committee had received from the German Federal Ministry of the Interior concerning other prospective purchasers of the water cannon.  He also undertook to inform the Committee about how much the water cannon had cost in terms of maintenance and storage since they had been purchased;

·  The Deputy Commissioner agreed to make enquires to Channel 4 about a recent allegation concerning a document which alleged that police officers in a borough were required to make a certain number of arrests per month and write to the Chair about the outcome;

·  The Deputy Commissioner undertook to write to the Chair about the retention of data on the MPS’s National Domestic Extremist database and to provide the information on the Management of Police Information (MOPI) criteria that allowed the MPS to retain data on its databases.  He also undertook to inform the Committee, subject to the information being in the public domain, whether the Security Services had any input into the database;

·  The Deputy Commissioner undertook to write to the Chair concerning allegations that in or around 2004 MPS officers had met with persons in the private sector to exchange information about individuals’ political beliefs or activities in relation to blacklisting; and

·  The Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime undertook to include young people and the Youth Independent Advisory Group in MOPAC’s roadshow at Waltham Forest.

7.6  The Deputy Commissioner undertook to write to Jenny Jones AM to inform her whether her file had now been deleted from the National Domestic Extremist database.

7.7  During the discussion Caroline Pidgeon MBE AM, Deputy Chair, suggested that the MPS might wish to consider a knife amnesty as part of its work on tackling violent crime.

7.8  The Chair thanked the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Deputy Commissioner, MPS and Assistant Commissioner for Territorial Policing, MPS, for their attendance and contributions to the discussion.  She stated that she would write to them regarding the above actions.

7.9  Resolved:

(a)  That the monthly report from the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, as attached at Appendix 1 to the report, be noted as background to the question and answer session with the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS); and

(b)  That the answers given by the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, the Deputy Commissioner, MPS and the Assistant Commissioner for Territorial Policing, MPS, to the questions asked by Members, be noted.