Dame (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op): It
has been a torrid time for the Met, but I am not so concerned
about the Met; I am concerned about constituents of mine and
those of us all who worry about policing. We had the report just
last week about child
q People in my constituency and elsewhere, and
particularly black parents, black pupils and parents of black
pupils, are worried about what the impact is on them. I know that
the response has to be done in 12 months, and I worry that that
will divert the Met to dealing with corruption, which obviously
has to be dealt with. Can the Minister give some comfort from the
Dispatch Box today that the issues of racism and inappropriate
action against child
q will be dealt with much quicker than waiting for
an IOPC report? Action needs to happen quicker. Tackling
corruption has to happen, but not just that.
The Minister for Crime and Policing (): As I said in the urgent question
on child
q I am hopeful that the IOPC will conclude its
investigation on that matter shortly, and then we can quickly
learn the lessons from that, exactly as the hon. Lady says, and
hopefully ensure that that does not happen again. Just to be
clear on the timeline, the Mayor has a statutory duty to respond
to this inspection within 56 days with an action plan. The IOPC
has put a 12-month time limit on implementing its 20
recommendations for change. Some may be done quicker than that,
and some have already started. For example, my understanding is
that inexplicably, the Met police is the only force in the
country that does not have the software in place to monitor the
inappropriate use of its systems. The work to implement that has
started already, and I hope that will done before 12 months. Such
is the importance of this issue, I am happy to commit to coming
back to the House at some future point, when completion is in
sight or done on all these 20 matters, and report that to the
Members who are concerned.
