Minutes - draft

Please note these minutes are currently draft and are subject to committee approval.

Minutes of the meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority held on 24 February 2005 at 10 Dean Farrar Street, London, SW1.

Present

Members

• Len Duvall (Chair)
• Cindy Butts (Deputy Chair)
• Tony Arbour
• Jennette Arnold
• Richard Barnes
• Toby Harris
• Kirsten Hearn
• Peter Herbert
• Jenny Jones
• Karim Murji
• Bob Neill
• Aneeta Prem
• John Roberts
• Richard Sumray
• Abdal Ullah
• Rachel Whittaker

MPA officers

• Catherine Crawford (Clerk)
• Peter Martin (Treasurer)
• David Riddle (Deputy Clerk and Solicitor)
• Simon Vile (Head of Secretariat)

MPS officers

• Sir Ian Blair (Commissioner)
• Alan Brown (Assistant Commissioner)
• Richard Bryan (Deputy Assistant Commissioner)

Apologies for absence were received from Reshard Auladin, Lynne Featherstone, Nicky Gavron, Damian Hockney, Elizabeth Howlett, Murad Qureshi and Graham Tope and from Toby Harris for lateness.

113. Apologies for absence

(Agenda item 1)

114. Declarations of interest

(Agenda item 2)

Peter Herbert declared that, as a trustee of the Community Advice Project, he had a prejudicial interest in item 10 (Old Street Police Station) and would withdraw from the meeting when that item was discussed.

115. Minutes

(Agenda item 3)

Resolved – That the minutes of the Authority meeting held on 16 December 2004 be confirmed and signed as a correct record.

102. Minutes of committees

(Agenda item 4)

The Authority received the minutes of the following Committees:

• Equal Opportunities & Diversity Board, 10 January
• Planning, Performance & Review Committee, 19 January
• Human Resources Committee, 20 January
• Finance Committee, 20 January
• Community Engagement Committee, 3 February
• Professional Standards & Complaints Committee, 10 February
• Co-ordination & Policing Committee, 10 February

Resolved – That the minutes of committees be noted.

103. Chair’s, Members’ and Clerk’s update

(Agenda item 5)

Areas covered in the members’ updates included:

• The re-opening of the North London Central Mosque and the role played by local police and residents
• The good presentation made by the MPS to the International Olympic Committee on security
• The Broken Rainbow event the previous week – the first project in Europe dealing with domestic violence in the LGBT community
• The successful Independent Custody Visiting conference arranged by the MPA and held on 12 February
• The successful 999 Awards for emergency service cyclists, although it would be good to see a member of the MPS senior management team at next year’s events

104. Commissioner’s update

(Agenda item 6)

At his first meeting of the full Authority as Commissioner Sir Ian Blair outlined the key themes that he wanted to characterise his period in office.

He than introduced the written performance report, highlighting successes and areas where improvement was needed. Total notifiable offences and crimes in general continued to fall. However, the rise in violent crime (up 8.8%) continued to be a cause for concern, not least in understanding what this increase represented. The MPS was now doing work with South Bank University to try to get behind the crude figures. Contributory factors appeared to include the continued (and positive) rise in reporting of domestic violence; an increase in police initiated crime reports (for example penalty notices for disorder); and alcohol-related disorder. Only a very small proportion of the increase related to serious violence.

The discussion and questions to the Commissioner covered a range of other issues. During this, Jenny Jones asked for a briefing on why Newham borough had closed down one of its bike teams.

The Chair reported that arrangements were being made to hold a joint away day between MPA members and the MPS management team towards the end of May.

105. Annual policing and performance plan 2005/06

(Agenda item 7)

The Authority considered the final draft policing plan. It also had before it a letter from the Mayor.

The meeting discussed a range of issues in connection with the plan, including meaningful targets for minority ethnic recruitment; some terminology changes needed in the report; the importance of keeping child protection as a regular feature of the plan; the need to develop targets for some of the ‘soft’ issues in the plan such as community reassurance; the wide differences in some instances between sanction detections and total detections (for instance in respect of domestic violence); and the lack of targets in relation to road safety.

After discussion it was

Resolved – That

1. the 2005/06 Plan be agreed and endorsed for publication;
2. the Clerk be authorised to finalise the Plan in consultation with the Chair; and
3. the letter from the Mayor be noted and the Chair respond to it (with that response copied to all members)

106. Virdi Inquiry Report part 2

(Agenda item 8 (a))

The Authority considered the conclusions and recommendations of Part 2 of the Virdi Inquiry. R. David Muir, the Chair of the Inquiry Panel attended to introduce the report. Sergeant Virdi had also commented in writing on the report and these comments had been copied to all members. The Chair explained that Sergeant Virdi was present although it was not appropriate for him to address the meeting as that had been the role of the reconvened panel. Sergeant Virdi’s comments would be passed to the appropriate committee in relation to the recommendations of the Morris Inquiry Report. The Chair also apologised to Sergeant Virdi on behalf of the Authority for the fact that he had not been informed about the process for receiving the report – this apology would be put in writing.

After members’ questions and discussion it was

Resolved – That

1. the Authority welcomes part 2 of the Virdi Inquiry Report; and
2. progress on implementing recommendations 1 – 4 of the Report should be monitored by the Professional Standards and Complaints Committee.

107. Responding to the report of The Morris Inquiry

(Agenda item 8 (b))

The Authority considered a report proposing a process for taking forward the recommendations of the Morris Inquiry. Some of the Report’s recommendations needed further consideration before an Authority view could be formed on them so the Authority was not at this stage asked to agree the recommendations.

Resolved – That

1. the Morris Inquiry Report be adopted as a framework for change in the MPS and the MPA;
2. the process set out in this report be approved for taking forward the recommendations of the Morris Inquiry Report; and
3. the Commissioner submit reports to MPA committees and the Steering Group with specific proposals to address the Morris recommendations.

108. External Audit Annual Letter 2003/04

(Agenda item 9)

The Authority considered the External Auditor’s Annual Letter for the year 2003/04. Mr Kash Pandya attended to introduce the report, his last as the Authority’s External Auditor. Jennette Arnold, the Chair of the Corporate Governance Committee, thanked Mr Pandya on behalf of the Authority for the constructive relationship that had been fostered between the Authority and External Audit, and wished him well for the future.

Tony Arbour referred to a request he had made previously for information about the extent of MPS sponsorship. The Commissioner responded that, as previously reported, a project was underway to review the sponsorship procedures, criteria etc. It might be the case that not all information on sponsorship had been captured in the past but Tony Arbour would be given whatever was available and one aspect of the review would be to ensure that all information was captured in the future.

Resolved – That

1. the External Auditor’s annual letter be received; and
2. the action plan be endorsed and a summary of progress reported to the Authority in September 2005.

109. Old Street Police Station and Community Courthouse Project

(Agenda item 10)

The Authority considered a report by the Clerk summarising the history in connection with the proposal to dispose of Old Street Police Station and courthouse to the Community Advice Project (CAP). The report also outlined options for the disposal of the property and sought a decision from the Authority.

Having previously declared a prejudicial interest in this item (see item 114), Peter Herbert withdrew from the meeting and took no part in the discussion and decision-making.

The Authority had before it three options:#

1. to market the property as recommended by the Finance Committee
2. to instruct the officers to obtain an independent valuation of the property
3. for the Authority itself to look for a development partner to secure an appropriate development of the site including a defined community use of the building (which the Authority would expect to work up with CAP)

A variety of views were expressed during the consideration of this matter. There was reference to the Authority’s fiduciary duty and the extent of the subsidy that would be given to CAP if disposal to that organisation was agreed. The Authority did not have before it any information on CAP’s ability to meet ongoing revenue costs and this would be necessary, especially if there was a decision that the Authority should be involved on an ongoing basis. It was recognised that whatever option was chosen should be progressed quickly to minimise the further deterioration to the fabric of the building and consequential maintenance costs.

The Deputy Clerk and Solicitor to the Authority advised that option 3 would probably entail advertising in European Union Journal, which could not be done in a short timescale.

Some members favoured option 1. Others favoured option 3, although not necessarily with the reference to working with CAP to develop a community use. There was also a view that a combination of options 1 and 3 might be feasible.

After further discussion, the matter was put to the vote and it was

Resolved – That the property be marketed as recommended by the Finance Committee
(Majority decision)

110. Security at the Palace of Westminster

(Agenda item 11)

The Authority considered a report by the Commissioner summarising the work of the MPS and Security Services in relation to the review of the security of the Palace of Westminster.

Resolved - That the report be noted.

111. MPA calendar of meetings 2005/06

(Agenda item 12)

The Authority considered a report by the Clerk proposing the calendar of its formal meetings in 2005/06.

Resolved – That the calendar of meetings be approved, subject to the following changes:

• the Human Resources Committee on 1 December 2005 to move to 15 December at 10 a.m.
• the Community Engagement Committee on 5 January 2006 moving to 19 January at 10 a.m.

112. Treasurer of the Authority

The Chair reported that this was the last Authority meeting before Peter Martin’s retirement as Treasurer. On behalf of the Authority, he thanked Peter for his great contribution to the work of the Authority since its creation.

The meeting closed at 1.05 p.m.

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