Metropolitan Police Authority – June meeting

37/06
26 June 2006

The Annual Meeting of the MPA will be held in meeting room 1 (ground floor), 10 Dean Farrar Street, London SW1 on Thursday 29 June 2006 at 10.00 a.m.

During the annual meeting members will elect the chair and deputy chair(s) of the Authority. Appointments to outside bodies and organisations will also be made.

It will be followed immediately by the June meeting of the MPA. Both meetings are open to members of the public and press.

The Authority will be updated by the MPS on the police operation at Forest Gate, as requested by MPA chair Len Duvall.

Len Duvall said:

“While the public have a right to expect that questions should be asked about the way police operation are conducted, and the Authority believes that the police should be as open and transparent as possible with information about their counter-terrorist activities, we have to face the fact that these are very difficult times and a continual terrorist threat is the new reality.

“Consequently the public must face the fact that to do everything possible to prevent future attacks the police must actively follow every credible lead. Not to do so could result in more loss of live than any of us want to see again on our streets.

“The Authority would like to thank Londoners for understanding that the police must continue to be vigilant in the fight against terrorism. And I want to reassure Londoners that the Authority will continue our work to ensure the Met remains sensitive to community concerns.”

Speaking about the MPA’s ongoing programme of counter-terrorism community engagement events, Len continued:

“The MPA believes that our communities must be involved fully in the fight against terrorism. Effective resilience can only be achieved with community support and engagement.

“To foster this the MPA has begun a series of community engagement events - ‘Counter Terrorism: The London Debate’. We are inviting representatives from specific communities to tell the MPS what they think of current Met counter-terrorism policing and inform officers how their communities can play a more effective role.

“The first of these hearings, focusing on the experiences of young people and attended by the Commissioner, is on Thursday evening (29 June 2006) and continues the debate we began with our community conference ‘Together Against Terror?’ in December last year.

“We must listen to what Londoners are telling us and work even harder to promote confidence, co-operation and support amongst all our communities.”

Other subjects to be discussed by the Authority at the meeting include:

• traffic policing
• 2005/06 final accounts
• 2004/05 MPA/MPS annual report
• joint MPA and NHS review mental health and policing - MPA and MPS progress reports on implementation of the review’s recommendations

Commissioner Sir Ian Blair will give an update on operational policing issues in London and present a written performance report.

Notes to editors

1. The agenda and paper for the 2006 Annual Meeting and full Authority can be viewed at: www.mpa.gov.uk/committees/mpa/2006/060629-agm/default.htm

2. Further information about the MPA’s programme of community engagement events to enable Londoners to contribute to the debate about counter-terrorism can be viewed at: www.mpa.gov.uk/issues/counterterrorism/default.htm

Further media information

For further information, please contact the MPA press office

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