Letter from MPA to Anne Tapsell, Chair, CPCG Lambeth

The following is a letter sent by the MPA Chair, to Anne Tapsell, Chair of the CPCG Lambeth.

Anna Tapsell
Chair – CPCG Lambeth

6 August 2007

Dear Ms Tapsell

Your letter to the Evening Standard about the Stockwell Two Report, published by them on Friday, was inaccurate and gravely mistaken.

I respect the right of individuals and groups – even groups wholly funded by the MPA – to be robustly critical of the Authority, and if necessary of me as Chair, where the facts justify it.

In the present case you accuse me of taking part in decisions to mislead the public. If you read the IPCC Report you will find not a shred of support for that assertion, and in fact paragraph 24.2 specifically states that the IPCC do not criticise me or any other person (apart from AC Hayman) who attended the meeting at Scotland Yard on 22 July 2005. You also suggest that the MPA has “been exposed” as incompetent and dishonest, clearly suggesting to a reader that that is what the IPCC have found. That is an untruth, and you have no basis whatsoever to justify your remark.

So I do not recognize your letter as legitimate criticism. It is a gross distortion, and defamatory.

You signed the letter to the Standard as Chair of Lambeth CPCG, although I understand that the CPCG Executive did not approve it. As it purported to be a letter on behalf of the CPCG, I am copying this reply to the CPCG Executive.

The MPA has throughout the past seven years, worked hard on behalf of Londoners to hold the Met rigorously to account for its actions and to scrutinise it at every level, while supporting its 50,000 police officers and staff to deliver a service that is effective, efficient and fair. We have made the Met more accountable to the people of London than it has ever been before. The work of the Authority across the range of policing issues of importance to Londoners - from stop and search to gun crime to counter terrorism community engagement - has led to changes being made that improve policing.

It is a great pity that you did not trouble to check any of your facts before writing your polemic, and that by writing as you have, you have chosen to mislead the public as to the truth and to identify the CPCG with your ill judged comments. I expect an apology. I trust you will not repeat any of your unjust and defamatory allegations.

Yours sincerely

Len Duvall OBE, AM
Chair, Metropolitan Police Authority#

Published clarification by the Evening Standard

The following clarification was published in the Evening Standard on 7 August 2007.

Inquiry report

We have been asked to point out that there was no suggestion in the Stockwell 2 Inquiry Report that either the Metropolitan Police Authority, or its chair Len Duvall, behaved in a dishonest manner: We are happy to clarify this.

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