• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 01 January 2001

Shortly after the meeting which you referred to when the motion was agreed here, it became apparent that there were further savings within the net police budget around the execution of magistrates' warrants which had not been reported to the Assembly during the budget process, despite the fact that they had become apparent, I understand, in December. Can you explain to us why they were omitted from the budget, and can you undertake that yourself and Graham Tope will be more open with us next year?

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 01 January 2001

Well, I must say I am very heartened to hear that it is such a high priority for the MPA and MPS. But then that brings us on to the real key issue which is about funding and with the reassessment of the borough funding formula looming, will the MPA be taking into account the relative use of translation services by a borough command unit and take into account the amount of time that takes front-line officers away from front-line duties in the allocation of money for borough command units?

• Question by: Meg Hillier
• Meeting date: 01 January 2001

Well, thank you for that. But one of the concerns that I'm sure not just I have but others representing certainly inner London areas where there is a high need to use these facilities, I think particularly, for instance, of Hackney where the access to translators and interpreters can take some time and obviously there are a number of sensitivities involved. It's no good having someone just speaking the language, in some cases there are often cultural issues which need to be taken on board. My concern is that there perhaps isn't a readily accessible pool at any one time...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 01 January 2001

You've gone some way into this question but it is about police officers, specifically police officers with minority language skills. There is a fairly common frustration, I think, that minority community officers may be recruited in one community, trained at Hendon, and then allocated without any apparent consideration of the community into which they are going. Obviously, it's a twin-edged sword because we want to create professional officers who will work anywhere but clearly where there are particular language issues, do you feel the police should have a line on this?

• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 01 January 2001

Thank you. Toby, whilst clearly a very high standard is required for interpreters and translators who are involved with evidence taking and that's appropriate, a rather lesser standard is a lot better than nothing in terms of simple communication with people who do not speak English. Can you tell us what use the Met and police stations make of other interpretation facilities available? Many local authorities have lists of local interpreters and so on which can certainly be used for routine communication purposes. Is that done?

• Question by: Nicky Gavron
• Meeting date: 01 January 2001

Yes. I understand it's not known how many in the police force actually live outside London, though anecdotally we know it is a great many. In my negotiations with the South-East on the London Plan, one of the things which has come up is that the shires and the South-East find it very hard to recruit to their police forces. One of the reasons being given is the advantageous conditions that are offered in London. Would it not be sensible to offer the free rail fares and the pay lead, which is quite substantial, to those in London only as...

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 01 January 2001

Second supplementary. Yes, it does concern me that when officers make decisions about where they might buy a house, free travel will obviously form a factor of that. But the second supplementary is about the Mayor's subsequent decision to offer free travel to traffic wardens including Metropolitan Police Service traffic wardens and whether you think this is an issue which will roll out even further in terms of public sector workers? Do you think civil staff, for example, should have free travel?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 01 January 2001

I think this is a very welcome initiative, particularly given the chronic recruitment problems that the service has had. My first supplementary is, though, to test this, I suppose. Is there a question of whether the operational efficiency of the service might be compromised by large numbers of officers travelling long distances? It's one thing if you're a stockbroker who can wing it in the Stock Exchange but if you're a police officer you can't really wing it on the streets of London if you've had a long journey. I'm not speaking about you personally, Andrew, by the way.

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 01 January 2001

Lord Harris, I'm looking at the Commissioner's Report for tomorrow that ethnic minority police officers are running at 4.1%. Do you think our target, which is to increase the percentage to 5% of minority ethnic police officers in the force, is ambitious enough?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 01 January 2001

Thank you. Can you tell us, from the stats that you've seen, what levels of concerns were there around racial discrimination against black officers in the Met? I ask this because clearly, if it is high, then this may well be an issue about why staff don't rise throughout the ranks.