Andrew Dismore

How are you consulting Londoners about your plans to close police front counters and change local policing in the capital?

 

Andrew Dismore AM: Thank you, Deputy Chairman. I have raised with you before the local concerns over the mergers in Camden and Islington, including poor community engagement, poor response to 101 calls and, most importantly, the worsening response times to emergency “I” and emergency “S” calls for help. You rightly said in response to a written question that the rollout across the capital will not happen until the merger problems are sorted out.

Can you say when the evaluation is going to take place and confirm it will be carried out on published and objective criteria?

 

Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London): My understanding is that the evaluation of the pathfinders we are going to do towards the end of this year. It would have been done earlier but for the problems that have been articulated by Assembly Member Desai. You will be aware of the additional increase in resources to resolve the issues. By the way, it would be unfair to say it has been a blanket failure because there have been improvements around dealing with vulnerable people and around some of the other services that were identified by the Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) report. The pathfinders have led to some improvements in services in some areas.

However, clearly, as was referred to by Assembly Member Desai, response times were a big source of concern for everyone and we still need to address those. The idea is that towards the end of this year the Commissioner and the Deputy Mayor will evaluate the pathfinders before deciding on how to proceed.

 

Andrew Dismore AM: Will that be on objective and published criteria?

 

Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London): Can I write to you about that? I am not sure what the criteria are, but they should always be criteria that reassure the public rather than a source of not reassuring the public. I will write to you to let you know exactly what the criteria is and when we expect to evaluate that by.

 

Andrew Dismore AM: Thank you.

 

 

What has been the Government response to your request for additional funding for the Met?

 

Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London): Thank you for this question. It allows me once again to  discuss one of the more pressing issues in my mayoralty. I have written recently to the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd [MP], to raise the issue once again, as I have done repeatedly since I became the Mayor. I will continue to engage with the Government in the run-up to the autumn budget. I want to thank the Assembly for its cross-party work on the most pressing matter that we face in relation to policing and I am sure any further representations you make ahead of the budget will be very helpful.

 

You will recall that the MPS has already delivered significant savings of more than £600 million over recent years. Front counters have closed, buildings have been sold and almost 3,000 PCSOs and police staff posts have had to be lost. A further £400 million of savings are required over the next four years because the flat cash budget settlement provided by the Government failed to take into account the increasing demand or inflationary pressures on policing. Of the £400 million savings, they have identified £200 million, which has already meant some hard choices and difficult decisions. As I have made clear previously, finding another £200 million

will be very tough.

 

Unfortunately, over the last few years crime in our city has been increasing in volume and complexity. We desperately need the Government to reverse the cuts and provide a real-term increase to MPS budgets. We also need the Government to announce that it is abandoning its funding formula review. We also need the Government to provide the full funding of the National and International Cities Grant to reflect the true additional costs that come with policing the nation’s capital. The Government has been too slow and too quiet on the issue. The MPS is running out time. We have to make decisions on the budgets and workforce now. If Ministers do not act and the current funding arrangements remain, officer numbers may fall

below 30,000 for the first time since 2003.

 

Andrew Dismore AM: Thank you for your answer. That paints a pretty bleak picture unless we actually do get more from the Government. I hope we can all welcome the reports that the Government is finally considering giving the police officers a much-deserved pay rise. Whether it is enough for our hardworking London MPS officers, it is rather debatable, to say the least. The $64,000 question though – and it is rather more than that – is where the money is coming from to fund this pay rise. Has the Government indicated they will meet the cost of the pay rise or will it have to come from the existing over-stretched MPS budget? If so, what will the impact

be on the MPS’s finances?

 

Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London): On that point, firstly, can I thank you for making the point how hard our police work day in, day out? In fact, the inflation is, roughly speaking, 3%. The announcement from the Government of 2% this year, 1% from next year, that does not appear to be funded. We discovered this  yesterday. My understanding is that the 2% increase will mean an additional cost of about £18 million per year. We have got to find that from a budget that has already got massive problems in it. There is no point the Government announcing a pay increase if they are not going to fund it, in the context where we already have big problems

with our budget in London.

 

Andrew Dismore AM: What would you say to those Conservative London MPs, like the three we have in Barnet, and especially the MP for Chipping Barnet, who says she does not recognise the £400 million shortfall in Government funding, who consistently voted for the central Government budgets that have led to this underfunding crisis in the MPS and who now questions the need to close the police station in Chipping Barnet?

 

Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London): What always astonishes me is the collective amnesia from Liberal Democrat politicians and Conservative politicians who are responsible for the cuts we have seen over the last seven years. They laugh. Conservative Assembly Members and Liberal Democrat Assembly Members laugh when I have to remind them we have faced, since 2010, £600 million worth of cuts. MPs voted at every budget, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015. Since

2015 we have got to find another £400 million, a £1 billion cut from the MPS budget voted through by the MPs you refer to. At the same time, they say how wonderful – and they are, by the way – our police officers are. At the same time, they vote through a 1% increase only in relation to pay in previous years. We know inflation is 3%, so nobody should be surprised that police officers look aghast at the MPs who are now celebrating a cap being lifted and an increase in their pay of 2%, in the context of there being fewer police officers, fewer police staff, front counters are closing down, police officers being stretched and the prospect of police

numbers in London going to levels we have not seen since 2003.

 

Andrew Dismore AM: You mentioned the national police funding allocation formula, which could be reduced from 2018/19. The estimates were that the MPS stood to lose somewhere between £184 million and £700 million from its yearly budget under the previous version. Have there been any indications from the Government that they will drop this scheme and, if not, what would the outcome of that be?

 

Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London): One of the consequences of the Government calling a General Election in June is not simply the cost – £140 million spent on this General Election, which was not needed – think about the police officers that could have paid for. Also, they have missed the boat for the police funding formula to take place next year, which is good news for us, because we get another year’s worth of grace, which is one way of looking at it. They have not ruled out the police funding formula being changed in subsequent years. My call to the Government is to reverse the cuts, give us the funding that we need, give us the funding that experts say that we need, including the Government experts, but also say once and for all

they will not be changing the police funding formula, which would punish London.

Police 101 number

Question No: 2017/3682

Andrew Dismore

Are you satisfied with the performance of the police 101 number; and if not, what are you doing about it?

Written response from the Mayor

The 101 number continues to be an important way for the Londoners to access the police for non-emergency support. I am aware that unfortunately some callers are experiencing extended waiting times.

These waiting times are heavily influenced by the national increase in demand on this service and vacancies that exist within the Met’s Contact Centres. Work is also ongoing both in London and nationally to identify the causes of the increased use of 101.

 

The Met are working on a number of solutions to bring the service to an acceptable service level and to build longer term capacity in to the system for the future.  57 new staff members have recently joined and are in training, with further recruitment ongoing.

I and S calls

Question No: 2017/3681

Andrew Dismore

What is the average attendance time for I and S calls a) in inner London; and b) outer London?

Written response from the Mayor

 

	Median* response time (mm:ss)
	I calls			S calls
	June	July	August	June	July	August
Inner boroughs	08:50	08:50	08:27	36:36	37:03	31:53
Outer boroughs	09:58	09:55	09:34	37:04	36:42	33:11
MPS	09:25	09:23	09:01	36:51	36:52	32:36

 

*The median value is used to give a better indication of the average due to the spread of the data and is not distorted by outliers.

 

 

 

Police Now scheme

Question No: 2017/3691

Andrew Dismore

How many officers under the Police Now scheme have been allocated as dedicated ward officers after completion of their 6 weeks training?

Written response from the Mayor

It is an integral part of the Police Now programme that those recruits who complete their initial six weeks training are posted to a neighbourhood to serve as Dedicated Ward Officers (DWOs) for a period of two years.

 

Since they started in 2015, all 155 Police Now Constables who joined the MPS were posted as DWOs.

 

Note that after the two year period Police Now officers have a range of options. They may continue as a DWO, move to other roles in the MPS (including applying for a national Fast Track promotional programme) or seek further career development outside the MPS.