Stephen Greenhalgh told Assembly Members he thought Hogan-Howe was too busy to appear before the Police and Crime Committee which scrutinises the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPC).
Greenhalgh’s stance directly contradicted the stance of the previous police Deputy Kit Malthouse who told this site in January: “While I’m Deputy Mayor for Policing and Boris is Mayor it would be inconceivable that the commissioner will not accept an invitation to appear in front of the Assembly and answer questions.”
AMs were told of Hogan-Howe’s non-appearance just 8 minutes before the start of this morning’s meeting.
During the meeting Greenhalgh appeared under briefed and was unable to answer questions, including those from Green Party AM Jenny Jones on the HMIC report which found offers acted outside their terms of reference by having sex with those under surveillance.
Speaking after the meeting committee chair Joanne McCartney said: ““When the new arrangements for policing in London were established the then Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime said that it would be inconceivable that the Commissioner would not accept an invitation to appear before the Assembly.
“Sadly today his successor has prevented London’s elected representatives from hearing directly from the capital’s chief of police.”
On Twitter LibDem AM Caroline Pidgeon said: “I think after his performance today [the Deputy Mayor] may realise why he needs Met by his side.”
Ms Jones said: “Today’s performance from the new Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime was a shambles. With 36 days to go before the Olympics the Deputy Mayor said he had not been briefed on policing for the Games and was unable to answer even simple questions on the policing issues Londoners care about, which highlighted the need to have the Commissioner present to be held to account.
“After today I think the Deputy Mayor will have a long way to go before Londoners fully trust that he has a firm grip on the Met and isn’t leaving a worrying gap in the Mayor’s accountability on policing.”
paulie says
June 21, 2012 at 6:44 pmDoesn’t surprise me. Always a cocky rude and arrogant man. He appeared clueless. He shouldn’t be in the role at all I am glad the intelligent panel tore him apart. Another Tory boffin . God help London if this fool is running the police!
Stanford Brook says
June 22, 2012 at 12:21 pmI saw this on the news last night – how embarrassing.
Still – the people of London chose Boris and his tactic of “getting someone else to do the job while I swan around at PR stunts” – so they can only blame themselves.
How long will this fool last? I’m guessing not long – Boris doesn’t give people a second chance if they fail him (or are seen to fail him) – just like a true dictator.
So we’re a few months into Boris’s new term and we have London in chaos due to a well forseen bus strike and the chief of the MOPC is celarly a bufoon.
Well done Boris – you are really teaching these thick London voters a lesson in why you should always vote “policy before personality”
tom kelly says
June 23, 2012 at 1:00 pmWhat has been played out here is a fndamental conflict in the new arrangements for governing policing not just in London but after November across the country.
The new Deputy Mayor was seeking to tell the Assembly “I am in charge”
The Assembly wants to discharge it`s responsibilty by having access to the force and influence the Chief Officers directly, in a sense replicating the arrangements of the old Police Authority.
The Commissioner is saying, “That is now my job which I do through the mandate of the people as delegated by the Mayor. You scrutinise me not the Force”
The flaw lies in the ability of a new Commissioner to stand up to the scrutiny of a committee which contains members well versed in policing governance in the short term and in the longer term a scrutiny panel denied access to senior officers being able to properly take the Commissioner to task.
The end result is a scrutiny panel at war with the Commissioner (set against the ususal political rivalries) instead of being a critical friend and asset to achieving what all should want. A community feeling safe and at ease with it`s police.