Last month Labour members of the London Assembly wrote to the UKSA asking it to investigate differences in office strength figures cited on the London datastore and in the public consultation on planned police reforms.
At the time Labour’s Joanne McCartney accused the Mayor’s team of “spinning” officer numbers and engaging in a “flawed” consultation.
UKSA Chair Andrew Dilnot has since written to the Mayor “suggesting that he might arrange for publication of a reconciliation between the different sets of GLA figures and the corresponding National Statistics published by the Home Office.”
In his letter to Mayor Johnson, Mr Dilnot says that a published clarification “would assist informed public debate on this important matter and avoid any confusion that may have inadvertently been generated about the true picture in respect of policing numbers in London.”
Commenting on the UKSA’s request, Assembly Member McCartney said: “the Mayor’s figures are far from clear, he has been asked to publish an explanation of why his figures differ from the Home Office figures.
“He needs to do this as a matter of urgency so that Londoners can have confidence in his future plans for the Met.”
A spokesperson for the Mayor’s office said: “The UKSA have asked if we would be willing to provide more information to reconcile the statistics we have used with other available statistics, and we are happy to do so in due course.
“The UKSA have not called into question the accuracy of the budgeted figures we are using, which remain the correct baseline for our plans.”
