Transcript of this meeting [PDF]

Caroline Pidgeon (AM): Sorry, have I got myself muddled on that.Referring to the G20 report, Civil Liberties, obviously we have not seen that yet. Areyou going to be supporting all of those recommendations or is that the one you are sayingyou are only going to support 85%?Sir Paul Stephenson (Commissioner, MPS): Is this the one coming out of the MPSCivil Liberties Panel?Kit Malthouse (Chairman): Yes.Sir Paul Stephenson (Commissioner, MPS): What we have said there is, out of all therecommendations, there are 22 recommendations, 18 have been completed. There is onethat is not for us to complete; that is Section 44 which Government is now consulting on.We have provided the rationale why we did not accept three of those, and I think that hasbeen provided to this Authority and the Civil Liberties Panel. That is an 85.7%compliance rate, so I think it does demonstrate we do value the recommendations.Caroline Pidgeon (AM): When it moves to the London Assembly, when all the changescome through, will you be saying a similar yes and implementing 85%/90% plus of therecommendations that the Assembly will be making?Sir Paul Stephenson (Commissioner, MPS): I think, first of all, we have got to find outwhat is the role of the London Assembly and nobody has yet told me how this is all goingto pan out. I know the Mayor has made a proposal that the London Assembly will be ascrutiny body so I think that will change the relationship, but it is not for me to decide onthe format of the governance of policing. That is for others to do. I will wait and seewhat the GLA role is.Kit Malthouse (Chairman): OK? Jenny [Jones], your question on officers in the rapecommand?Jenny Jones (AM): Yes. We have had a report in the Evening Standard that the numberof Sapphire officers would increase to 470 from April 2011. I wondered is that officerand staff and a budget increase?Sir Paul Stephenson (Commissioner, MPS): Approval for (inaudible) strength(?) ofSCD2 was increased by 117 offices from 1 September this year, making a total of 477 asyou said. To date we have got 435 of those officers recruited and recruitment continueswith internal open days and advertisements seeking to fully staff that unit by April 2011.Of course, in December 2010, you are having a detailed 12 month update report of theactivities of that new command, what they have achieved and what the challenges are.Jenny Jones (AM): We are going to have a lot of reports in December 2010 aren’t we?We will be struggling to read them all over Christmas.www.merrillcorp.com46