Minutes

Minutes of the Professional Standards and Performance Monitoring Committee meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority held in AG23, Romney House, Westminster on Tuesday 14 November 2000.

Present

Members

Richard Sumray (Chair)
Elizabeth Howlett, (Deputy Chair)
Reshard Auladin (present items 3-10)
Lynne Featherstone (present items 1-3)
Cecile Lothian

MPA staff:

Peter Edwards (Clerk) and Ian Gaskell (Deputy Clerk)

MPS staff:

A Dunn (Assistant Commissioner), C Kitching (Corporate Performance Analysis Unit) and B Riddell (Director of Corporate Development)

In addition, approximately 12 members of the press/public and other MPA/MPS staff were present.

Part 1

Constitutional/procedural matters

The Professional Standards and Performance Monitoring (PSPM) Committee has seven Members including its Chair. In accordance with Standing Orders, half of the Committee’s members needed to be present throughout the entire meeting in order to provide a quorum and enable business to be transacted. For only a very brief period were four PSPM Committee Members present. The Chair therefore had to adjourn the formal meeting.

However, Members present agreed to proceed with discussion of planned agenda items on the basis that any decisions would be subject to confirmation at the next meeting on 12 December 2000. Accordingly, decisions reached are presented in the form of recommendations in the following minutes.

25. Apologies

Apologies were received from Roger Evans (Member - MPA), R David Muir (Member - MPA), Ian Blair (Deputy Commissioner), Peter Martin (Treasurer - MPA), Colin Balkman (Deputy Treasurer).

26. Minutes (Part 1 and 2): 10 October 2000

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed

Resolved:
the minutes of the meeting held on 10 October 2000 be agreed and signed as a correct record.

Performance monitoring

27. MPS performance report -September 2000

A report was received giving an overview of MPS performance at the mid-point of the planning year, and providing a full listing of Policing Plan and Best Value Indicators.

Members asked about the correlation between call times and the centralisation of divisions. They were told that there were a number of factors that may have produced a decline in attendance times. Call response times had increased because of the proliferation of calls originating from mobile phones and shortages of officers. The Chair requested a report on calls, including information on how calls were classified and officers were deployed. This was agreed, although the MPS felt it would be helpful to have a dialogue with Members about the content of the report first.

A report was also requested on Operation Strongbox, detailing relevant statistics, before, during and after the Operation.

It was noted that the MPS Performance Review Committee (PRC) had received a report on Community and Race Relations (CRR) training. It was felt information was needed on the quality, as well as quantity, of training.

The Chair asked about juvenile persistent offenders. He was informed that the MPS had asked the Home Office for a definition of, and guidance on, the recording of persistent offenders. The MPS dealt with many juvenile cases where evidence rested on identification and forensic evidence. To improve the timeliness of identifications, £1½ million had been spent on opening Identification Suites sixteen hours a day, seven days a week, thus increasing opportunities for identification parades from 50, to 104 a week.

The MPS had spoken to the Home Office about recalculation of population figures for London, to take into account its non-resident population. The Home Office had responded with some proposals, but it was felt they did not go far enough. The Home Office now wanted to involve ACPO and APA in getting population statistics that could be used by all forces. Members asked that pressure be maintained on the Home Office to ensure that a full account of the London factor would be taken when drawing up proposals. The first meeting would probably take place within the month. It was suggested that the MPA and GLA should be involved in these discussions. It was noted that any change to population figures would affect the MPS’s grant.

Members undertook to review the borough information in more detail at the next meeting.

Resolved:

1. the report be noted;
2. the report be forwarded, with any additional comments, to the full Authority in December;
3. a report on calls to the police be submitted to the PSPM (scheduled for January), as part of the quarterly report covering ‘response’;
4. a performance report on Operation Strongbox be submitted to the PSPM (scheduled for February), as part of the quarterly report covering ‘street crime’);
5. a report on the quality of CRR training be submitted to the PSPM (scheduled for January), as part of the quarterly report covering ‘diversity’; and
6. a report on persistent offenders be submitted to the PSPM (scheduled for December), as part of the quarterly report covering ‘diversity’.

28. A proposal for providing performance information to the MPA Professional Standards and Performance Monitoring Committee

The Deputy Clerk introduced a report that had been written in consultation with MPS staff. It proposed an approach to performance reporting which would ensure that the PSPM Committee was kept fully informed on matters relevant to its remit, but which would minimise duplication of reporting. The approach scheduled regular quarterly in-depth consideration of specific matters of interest, which arose from MPS Performance Reports, and in addition, the PRC reports would now come to the PSPM. It was noted that youth and motor crime would feature on the next PRC agenda.

Resolved:

1. the PSPM receive on a monthly basis the PRC performance report and a tabulated Performance Indicator (PI) report listing all Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPIs) and Policing Plan Performance Indicators (PPPIs). The MPS should also provide a summary of the key issues discussed by the PRC;
2. more detailed reports on key subject areas be provided to the PSPM in accordance with a quarterly cycle, Members should agree at PSPM meetings subjects on which they would like reports for the following month from the quarterly cycle list; and
3. the MPS monthly performance report to the PSPM be forwarded to the full Authority meeting on a quarterly basis, with comments from the PSPM.

29. Customer satisfaction surveys

Members received a report that updated the information supplied to the PSPM Committee in September and included details of the latest quarter, July-September 2000. They were informed that although the respondent figure was small for individual boroughs, the total figure was large enough for the MPS to have confidence in the figures overall. Since 1 April, some statistical information had been obtained by telephone, using an independent agency. This had elicited responses from a broader spectrum of the population.

Resolved:
that the report be noted.

30. Best value performance indicators 2001/2002 consultation document

At the Committee meeting held on 10 October 2000, Members had been informed of the Government’s consultation document on BVPIs, and were informed that the closing date for responses was 27 October 2000. Members had resolved that a joint MPA/MPS response, agreed by the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Committee, would be forwarded to the Home Office. A copy of the response submitted had been circulated as a report.

Resolved:
that Members note the MPA and MPS response to the Government consultation on best value performance indicators.

31. MPS targets for drug crime, and community and race relations (CRR) training

Members received a report that covered both delivery of CRR training, and performance reporting for drugs offences. It summarised progress in delivering CRR training within the MPS and recommended a change to the published target for delivery of training. It also recommended a change of focus in performance reporting for drugs offences. The Deputy Clerk suggested that future reports should not cover unrelated subjects, unless the topics were very brief.

Resolved:

1. future reporting on performance against drugs targets be for Class A drugs as well as all drugs;
2. the PSPM agree that the MPS delivery of CRR training be monitored on the percentage of identified staff who have been trained. This issue to be referred to the Chairs’ Co-ordination and Urgency Committee, to seek agreement from the other interested committees; and
3. the PSPM receive information on the percentage of staff trained, with a target of 40 per cent of staff to have been trained by 31 March 2001, and 80 per cent staff by 31 March 2002. (The programme to be completed by 31 December 2002.) This monitoring would be in place of the existing reports on the number of boroughs on which CRR training had been delivered.

Professional standards

32. Arrangements for members to monitor complaints and discipline

Members received a report outlining proposals for a training programme for Members of the PSPM Committee on Police Complaints and Discipline Procedures. The Chair stated that training had been delayed because of Members other commitments, but that two training sessions had now been arranged. Members had a choice of two dates for receiving the first training session, in either November or December. The second session would take place in January. The Chair requested that a timetable of work be drawn up for a subsequent programme of complaints sampling.

Resolved:

1. members note the proposed arrangements for training; and
2. a timetable be drafted for a subsequent programme of complaints sampling.

33. Proposals for monitoring management vetting and service confidence

Members received a report proposing a means by which they might monitor Management Vetting and Service Confidence cases. They were informed that the planned briefings would enable them to understand all the issues involved. The Clerk suggested that there might be scope for some Members to specialise in this kind of monitoring.

It was noted that Part E of the report, 'Background Papers', should have included mention of previous reports on this subject.

Resolved:
that the Service Confidence and Management Vetting cases should be monitored as set out in the report.

34. MPA Membership of Management Vetting Panel

This item was withdrawn.

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