• Reference: 2020/4060
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

On 7 October 2020, conservative think tank the Bow Group received an email from the Metropolitan Police, informing its vice-president, the historian Dr David Starkey, that he was being investigated under the Public Order Act for stirring up racial hatred, due to words he used in an online interview in June 2020. Is Dr Starkey currently under any form of investigation by the Metropolitan Police and if so, for what?

• Reference: 2020/4059
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

In notifying journalist Darren Grimes that the Metropolitan Police have cancelled the interview scheduled for 15 October 2020, he was informed that a ‘senior officer’ had been appointed to conduct a review into the investigation to ensure it ‘remains proportionate’. What was the outcome of this review?

• Reference: 2020/4058
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

In notifying journalist Darren Grimes that the Metropolitan Police had cancelled the interview scheduled for 15 October 2020, he was informed that a ‘senior officer’ had been appointed to conduct a review into the investigation to ensure it ‘remains proportionate’. Would it not be more to the point if they reviewed whether it was appropriate to use the Section 22 of the Public Order Act 1986 to regulate debate and free speech?

• Reference: 2020/4057
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

Who decided to investigate journalist Darren Grimes and who took the decision to cancel the interview with him, which was originally scheduled for 15 October 2020 and why?

• Reference: 2020/4056
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

On 9 October 2020, the Daily Telegraph reported: ‘Darren Grimes is being investigated by police on suspicion of stirring up racial hatred over an interview with the historian David Starkey that he published, it has emerged. Mr Grimes, a conservative commentator, has been asked to attend a police station to be interviewed under caution after publishing a podcast in which Dr Starkey said slavery was not genocide because there are ‘so many damn blacks.’ It has been warned that the investigation, by the Metropolitan Police, will have a ‘chilling effect’ on free speech, while Mr Grimes has described it as...

• Reference: 2020/4055
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

What has been the long-term impact on the efficiency of the Metropolitan Police of the Government’s December 2010 privatisation of the Forensic Science Service?

• Reference: 2020/4054
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

As you will be aware, a Section 60 is a power given by a Chief Officer (or in urgent circumstances an Inspector or above) which allows police officers to stop and search anyone in a specific area, without needing to have reasonable grounds. It is granted under Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. Could you tell me how many Section 60’s were issued in the Metropolitan Police District over the last three years and tabulate your response by borough.

• Reference: 2020/4053
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

To ask the Mayor are there any circumstances under which you can see officers from the Metropolitan Police entering private houses and breaking up family Christmas gatherings, for the purpose of enforcing the Coronavirus Regulations?

• Reference: 2020/4052
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

To ask the Mayor if the demonstration held outside the French Embassy in Knightsbridge on Friday 30 October was compliant with the terms of its risk assessment, government guidelines and whether the demonstrators maintained social distancing. If this was not the case, could you please explain what fines were handed out to the organisers by the Metropolitan Police.

• Reference: 2020/4051
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

To ask the Mayor if the demonstration held at the Nigerian High Commission at the corner of Northumberland Avenue and Great Scotland Yard on the afternoon of Saturday 24 October was compliant with the terms of its risk assessment, government guidelines and whether the demonstrators maintained social distancing. If this was not the case, could you please explain what fines were handed to the organisers by the Metropolitan Police.