• Question by: Kit Malthouse
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

Sir Bernard, in your long and distinguished career, has there been any crime type, the statistics of which have followed a linear progression, either up or down, or has it always been two steps forward, one step back?

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

I want to come back to the issue of the rate of violent crime and I heard and I have asked questions of the Mayor, I think the last three Mayor’s questions, about what is driving this increase. I would just like to comment on something Andrew Boff [AM] said about domestic violence, undoubtedly part of that is the increase in recorded domestic violence, however I am hearing from my boroughs it is about an increase in reporting, however also about an increase. Boris Johnson (Mayor of London): About actual domestic violence, yes. Joanne McCartney AM: Therefore I was wondering...

• Question by: Victoria Borwick
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

Just taking us back briefly, if I may, to the pressures on the LAS at this time of the year, and obviously the point that was made earlier about drinking and excessive street drinking at this time of the year. In the past I have been fortunate enough to go out with your teams and see the valuable work they did and last week I was out representing the Mayor with the ambulance teams, and again the vast majority of people who had drunk themselves and had been abandoned by their friends and then ended up putting pressure on our...

• Question by: Caroline Pidgeon
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

A couple of very specific questions here around violent crime in London. Recorded knife crime with injury offences has gone up 51% in the last six months. We have had some terrible recent incidents across London. Given the success of the London-wide firearms amnesty last month, and this current hike in knife offences, would you consider launching a similar amnesty for knives in London?

• Question by: Andrew Boff
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

Thank you, Mr Mayor. I mean you will forgive us for concentrating on this particular area because our job as Assembly Members is to see where it is going wrong, not where it is often going right. While the decline in overall reported crime is welcome, it is disturbing that we have these particular categories increasing. I wondered if you would be supportive of the recommendations in a report published by the Greater London Authority (GLA) Conservatives in June called On the Wagon, whereby we wanted to see a doubling of the penalty notice for drunk and disorderly behaviour from...

• Question by: Kit Malthouse
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

Then I just wanted to clarify the situation on Westminster and police stations, since Murad [Qureshi] raised it. My understanding is that Westminster will be like a Belgravia, West End Central and Paddington Green, is that right? Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe QPM (Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis): Sorry? Kit Malthouse AM: The City of Westminster will have three stations in the plan, which is Belgravia, West End Central and Paddington Green, will remain.

• Question by: Kit Malthouse
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

OK, the other area I wanted to ask you about was the horse, the mounted units, an area I know that is close to your heart. There has been some research recently about the effectiveness of mounted police officers, both in visibility and in terms of enforcement. In effectiveness, I do not know if you have seen the hilarious video of a motorcyclist just on London Wall, I think doing a wheelie, being stopped by a mounted police officer very effectively and dealt with. What are the plans for the mounted units going forward?

• Question by: Kit Malthouse
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

Anyway, just another specialist unit, you mentioned dangerous dogs and I wondered, given the pressures that you are going to be under, whether you will be able to maintain or indeed increase your activity around dangerous dogs, not least because my perception is the problem is not going away?

• Question by: Kit Malthouse
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

Commissioner, Mr Mayor, a variety of questions from me. First of all, just on the FGM one, do you have any sense of the level of resources that are currently applied to this particular issue, how many officers, is there a team of 20 or 200?

• Question by: Fiona Twycross
• Meeting date: 09 December 2014

I would like to ask a question about the Metropolitan Police Service’s capacity to tackle female genital mutilation (FGM) now that Department of Health statistics show that London accounts for over half of all FGM cases in England, and I wanted to ask the Commissioner, given we heard last month that ten out of 12 FGM cases put forward by the MPS to the CPS have fallen, are you concerned at the ability we have to prosecute the cases and what lessons have you taken from this for the future?