• Question by: Unmesh Desai
• Meeting date: 06 August 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Assembly Member Desai. Unmesh Desai AM: Thank you, Chair. Good morning, panel. My questions are to you, Assistant Commissioner. What evidence base was used to determine which front counters would be closed or reduced in hours?

• Question by: Thomas Turrell
• Meeting date: 06 August 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Assembly Member Turrell. Thomas Turrell AM: Thank you, Chair, and good morning to our guests. I am also really dissatisfied with the way this has been handled. A month ago, Assembly Members around the table only found out about these proposals through the press. That is unacceptable in itself. Secondly, the list that came out yesterday. Yesterday. We have known this since July and only yesterday have we been given the list of front counters that are being closed, and on this list it does not break down which are going to remain open 24 hours...

• Question by: Krupesh Hirani
• Meeting date: 06 August 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Moving on to Assembly Member Hirani. Krupesh Hirani AM: Thank you, Chair. I hope the strength of feeling is felt and recognised, particularly where I represent in Brent and Harrow. Harrow is one of the proposed closures of front counters and so people are rightly concerned in the area I represent. AC, you mentioned in one of your earlier remarks about the interaction that this decision could have on frontline policing. Can you just go into a bit of detail about how it impacts frontline policing?

• Question by: Keith Prince
• Meeting date: 06 August 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Let us move on to Assembly Member Prince. Keith Prince AM: Thank you, Chair. Good morning and thank you for coming. Could I start with you, Kaya, please? As you quite rightly have said a number of times so far, local policing and community policing is very important to you. Unfortunately, what we are seeing on the ground in my constituency of Havering and Redbridge is that, yes, we have more Dedicated Ward Officers (DWOs) and more police officers in name but, in reality, they are always being abstracted. Originally, there was the commitment that these...

• Question by: Alex Wilson
• Meeting date: 06 August 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Thank you, Deputy Mayor. OK, I am now going to open up the questions to the rest of the Assembly Members. I am going to begin with Assembly Member Wilson. Alex Wilson AM: Thank you, Chair. My question will be to you, Kaya, but before I come on to that, I just want to reiterate what Susan [Hall AM] has already said. It is an absolute disgrace that the Mayor himself is not here to answer these questions. He is the Police and Crime Commissioner for London. The buck really should stop with him and it...

• Question by: Hina Bokhari OBE
• Meeting date: 06 August 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Assembly Member Bokhari. Hina Bokhari OBE AM: Thank you, Chair. The question on when the Mayor knew about these cuts was quite an important question, but it is also important, Deputy Mayor, when you found out about the proposed cuts. We found out about them in July [2025]. Did you know about them before the last Police [and Crime] Committee meeting or did you know about them after the last Police [and Crime] Committee meeting? This is why we are having this Extraordinary Plenary meeting today because we are worried that you knew about these cuts...

• Question by: Zoë Garbett
• Meeting date: 06 August 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Let us move on to Assembly Member Garbett. Zoë Garbett AM: Morning. I am going to ask a bit about how the decision was made and identified. In the current A New Met for London Plan, phase one, you had a target to ‑‑ it said: “Londoners will be able to easily contact us, whether by phone digitally or face-to-face. Each borough will have at least one 24/7 counter by April 2025.” That was the date. That was just three months ago that that date was meant to be met and now you are planning to...

• Question by: Marina Ahmad
• Meeting date: 06 August 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): Assembly Member Ahmad. Marina Ahmad AM: Thank you, Chair. Good morning, panel. AC, why is there an in-year crisis in police funding and why was not this identified earlier?

• Question by: Susan Hall
• Meeting date: 06 August 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): I am going to now turn to Assembly Member Hall for the opening question. Susan Hall AM: Lovely, thank you very much, Chair. Deputy Mayor, why is the Mayor not here?

• Reference: 2025/3227
• Question by: Len Duvall OBE
• Meeting date: 06 August 2025

Len Duvall AM (Chair): We now move to our question-and-answer session. Joining us in the Chamber we have Kaya Comer-Schwartz, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, and attending alongside her is Matt Twist KPM, Assistant Commissioner (AC) for Frontline Policing, Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). Can I thank you again for attending at short notice? Welcome to this meeting. There will be a lead-off question from me as Chair to both of our guests. Assembly Members may then put supplementary questions. Please can I ask Assembly Members to specify who they would like an answer from when they put their questions...