Minutes

27 February 2001

Minutes of the meeting of the Consultation, Diversity and Outreach Committee held at the Central Library, High Street, Bromley BR1 1EX.

Present

Members

• R David Muir (Chair)
• Cindy Butts (Deputy Chair)
• Angela Slaven (Deputy Chair)
• Nicholas Long
• Cecile Lothian
• Abdal Ullah

MPA staff

• Julia Smith

MPS staff

• Assistant Commissioner Michael Todd
• Gerry Howlett (Borough Commander, Bromley)

In addition, approximately 40 members of the press/public and other MPA/MPS staff were present.

Part 1

69. Apologies

(Agenda item 1)

Apologies for absence were received from Jennette Arnold, Jenny Jones and Catherine Crawford.

70. Minutes: 23 January 2001

(Agenda item 2)

Resolved:
that the minutes of the meeting held on 23 January 2001 be agreed and signed as a correct record.

71. Questions from the public

(Agenda item 3)

The comments, questions and replies are contained in Appendix 1 of the minutes.

Resolved:
that questions be received from the public for thirty minutes.

72. Chair's update

(Agenda item 4)

The Chair reported on several current issues relating to the work of the Committee. These included:

Lay Visiting - Floyd Millen had been appointed by the MPA to carry out the review of the custody visiting arrangements.

Virdi Inquiry – a meeting had been held earlier in day with the MPS Staff Association.

Angela Slaven reported on the work she and Cindy Butts were doing with the MPS on gender issues. Cecile Lothian reported in her capacity as lead member for lay visiting and also spoke on work she was doing with the MPS on child protection

Resolved:
that the Chair's update be noted.

73. Action plan for CDO

(Agenda item 5)

The Committee has a wide remit and to assist members to discharge their responsibilities a paper was submitted which proposed that the Committee should develop an action plan and work programme. At a workshop on 16 February members had given preliminary consideration to the process.

Resolved:

1. the rationale outlined in paragraphs 2 and 3 for the Committee's action plan and work programme process be noted;
2. the milestones chart at Appendix 2 be noted;
3. consideration be given to the need to utilise the expertise of a consultant for aspects of the work;
4. further papers are presented to this committee as the process develops.

74. Meeting arrangements

(Agenda item 6)

The Committee received a report which reviewed the arrangements for meetings of the Committee and asked members whether they wished to make any revisions.

With regard to the starting times for meetings the Committee considered that generally speaking the meetings should continue to start at 6.00pm. However, in order to enable members of the public who found it difficult to be present at the start of the meeting the published agenda order could be varied from time to time so that the item on questions appeared later in the running order. If a suitable opportunity is identified it was agreed that a meeting be held in the afternoon as this might assist people with child care difficulties Abdal Ullah stressed the importance of good local publicity to ensure a good attendance at the meetings.

On paragraph 12 Members agreed that from time to time the Committee should receive a presentation on a topic which would address an issue of local concern.

The list of venues at paragraph 13 was agreed. It was also agreed that the Committee would meet in Southwark at the earliest opportunity.

Resolved:

1. generally speaking the meetings of the Committee continue to be held at 6.00pm and that, if a suitable opportunity, is identified a meeting be held in the afternoon;
2. where appropriate, presentations be made to the Committee on issues which would be of interest to the local community.

75. Funding of consultative groups and lay visiting panels

(Agenda item 7)

A report was submitted which sets out the proposed process for evaluating bids from the Police Community Consultative Groups and Lay Visiting Panels.

It was noted that an initial analysis of the bids submitted showed a wide variation in the amount of the bids and the level of detail submitted in support of the bid. Nicholas Long, who is providing member input into the assessment of the bids, commented that it was important for the groups to bear in mind the need for transparency and accountability in the budget process especially as the expenditure of the MPA is itself subject to scrutiny by the GLA.

Resolved:

1. the process and proposed timetable for consideration by the CDO Committee of the allocation of funds to PCCGs and Lay Visiting Panels in 2001/02 be noted;
2. members note the intention to strengthen budget monitoring to support proper accounting practice in the Authority's accounts.

76. Approach to measuring stop and search performance

(Agenda item 8)

At the meeting of the Finance, Planning and Best Value Committee held on 20 February a report was tabled which set out a suggested way of including information on stop and search in the Best Value Performance Plan. It had been agreed that these be referred to the Consultation, Diversity and Outreach Committee and Independent Advisory Group for consideration.

In generally supporting the proposals members considered that with a more intelligence led approach to stop and search there should be less need for integrity testing.

Resolved:
that the proposed way forward be noted.

77. Stop and search – recommendation 61

(Agenda item 9)

The Home Office has asked all police authorities to consult their communities on Recommendation 61 of the Stephen Lawrence Report. A report was submitted which set out the background to the consultation exercise and the arrangements the MPA was making for its own consultation event to be held on 23rd March.

Resolved:

1. the Home Office requirement for the MPA to consult on Recommendation 61 be endorsed;
2. members be advised of the content of the event;
3. further consultation takes place with other groups and communities which are not able to engage in the conference.

78. Stop and search – section 95

(Agenda item 10)

The Committee received data relating to stop and search within London which had been collected between April 1999 and March 2000 pursuant to Section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991.

In reply to a question from Cecile Lothian Assistant Commissioner Todd said that the present reporting arrangements meant that not all the instances of stop and search were recorded.

Members highlighted the level of disproportionality within London where black people were recorded as being five times more likely and Asian people twice as likely to be stopped and searched than white people. The Chair stated that there was a perception in the black community that stops and searches were informed by negative stereotyping of black people. The value of stop and search in fighting crime had to be weighed against the concerns expressed by members of some groups within the community that this power was being used unfairly.

Resolved:
that the report be noted.

Arising:
Angela Slaven asked for all members of the Committee to be supplied with details of the numbers of arrests amongst members of ethnic groups referred to at paragraph 7.

79. HMIC inspectorate winning consent embracing diversity

(Agenda item 11)

A report was considered which informed members of the key recommendations in the HMIC report "Winning the Race: Embracing Diversity" and proposed a process for monitoring the MPS progress on those matters which fall within the remit of the Committee.

Resolved:

1. the report and the audit monitoring paper be noted;
2. the audit monitoring role identified in the paper as being the responsibility of the Committee be noted;
3. the draft monitoring schedule, actions and timescales for consultation with the MPS be noted;
4. Cindy Butts be appointed as the lead Member with responsibility for monitoring the MPS implementation of the recommendations, to timescale.

80. Community and race relations training

(Agenda item 12)

As requested by the Committee at its meeting in December 2000 the Committee received an interim report on a review of MPS CRR training.

Resolved:

1. a workshop be held with key MPS and other players to discuss CRR training and the scope of the review programme;
2. following the workshop members consider the need for a review of CRR training.

The meeting ended at 8.00pm.

Appendix 1: Questions from the public

(Agenda item 3)

The Chair, in accordance with Standing Order 33, invited questions from members of the public. It was noted that an allocation of thirty minutes would be made for this item. The following is a summary of the questions and comments put to the Committee:

(a) as the GLA representative for Bromley and Bexley I am aware that the police budget for 2001/02 made provision for 1050 extra police officers and that the Mayor had stressed that this would mean extra officers on the street. Can we please be advised about the arrangements for the deployment of these extra officers;

(b) I am a Bromley borough Councillor and I understood that the borough is due to be allocated 23 of these extra police officers and I would like to know when they will be actually in place.

Assistant Commissioner Todd explained that there was ring fenced provision in the budget for all the extra officers. The task of recruiting sufficient officers not only to make up natural wastage but also to provide the extra officers would be formidable, but as soon as they were trained the new recruits would be allocated to the boroughs. The Borough Commanders would deploy the extra officers in consultation with the local community. In addition to attracting new recruits it was hoped that initiatives such as free rail travel would encourage former MPS officers who had left to join neighbouring forces to return to working in London.

The Borough Commander for Bromley confirmed that the extra officers would be deployed in line with borough priorities which in the case of Bromley had recently been identified in consultation with the local community as burglary, street crime and other "quality of life" issues.

(c) does the recruitment process still exclude people who are colour blind?

Assistant Commissioner Todd explained that in recent years the medical requirements for potential recruits had been examined very closely and many of the criteria had been relaxed. Severe colour blindness would still be regarded as being an area of concern.

(d) Bromley has 16 police officers per 10,000 head of population which means it has a very low allocation of officers in the league table of boroughs. How are decisions made as to the number of officers allocated to each borough?

The number of officers allocated to each borough is determined by the Resource Allocation Formula. Although the model has many factual variables (e.g. density of population, level of street crime) it did produce some anomalies which had to be reconciled, so the final decisions on the allocation of officers included an element of intuition. A review of the formula was being carried out jointly by the MPA and MPS. He hoped that Londoners would be able to understand how the revised formula worked even if not everyone was entirely satisfied with the outcome in their area.

In reply to a point from the Chair the Assistant Commissioner stressed that it was not the intention for boroughs which had been successful in meeting their performance targets to be penalised.

Nicholas Long, a MPA member on the review group, outlined the work programme of the group. He stressed that one of the aims was to make the process more transparent.

(e) what will happen to the administrative costs for PCCG's in the new arrangements?

There is no specific recommendation in the Best Value report concerning the administrative arrangements. Discussions were continuing to determine the way forward and in this connection a meeting with PCCG Administrators will be held on 15 March.

(f) as a member of the local Police Community Consultative Group I wish to draw attention to the borough crime figures for the second half of 2000. These showed a very low rate of detection for burglary and other offences and I wonder if manpower resources are being used effectively.

The Borough Commander stated that as was the case across London there was a shortfall in the complement of officers in Bromley. However, there were some targets which had been met or exceeded locally. For example, there was a target to reduce the incidence of burglary by 2 per cent whereas in practice there had been a 10 per cent reduction.

(g) what is the protocol for police officers when dealing with persons with a mental illness who are suspected of offences relating to cannabis.

The Borough Commander outlined the protocols involved and said that if the questioner had a particular incident in mind which he wished to discuss further he would be happy to do so outside the meeting.

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