What progress has been made to improve the trust and confidence of Londoners in the police one year on from your action plan being published, and what challenges have you faced?

Keeping our city safe relies on strong relationships between the police and all of London’s communities. The key to improving trust is having a police service that better represents and understands Londoners. As a result of my Action Plan, we have provided £1.2 million to the police over three years to support the recruitment and progression of Black officers. We have also made £700,000 available for community‑led training so that officers can understand the local communities they are serving.

Claire Waxman OBE, London’s Victims’ Commissioner, has engaged directly with Black women survivors to ensure their experiences are better understood and this will inform my strategy for tackling violence against women and girls. Additionally, the police’s Public Attitude Survey has been extended to ensure the voices of London’s Black communities are better represented. Following a review of pre‑arrest handcuffing, the MPS has revised their policy to ensure officers are accountable for their use. Further, we are undertaking to strengthen London’s ability to hold the police to account, which is going to be really important if we are going to build confidence going forward, as is the review that Baroness Louise Casey is doing, which will be looking into culture and standards of behaviour within the police service.

Unmesh Desai AM: Along with London’s Black communities, many women in London are also understandably now less trusting of the police following Sarah Everard’s murder and a number of other scandals involving serving MPS officers. You already mentioned your Action Plan and the [Baroness Louise] Casey review into the MPS’s standards. Also, it is important to stress the findings of the Daniel Morgan inquiry, which found that the MPS is “institutionally corrupt”.

Most recently, following the truly shocking allegations that have emerged from the Stephen Port inquiry, you commissioned Her Majesty’s Inspectorate [of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS)] to conduct an investigation of the MPS’s investigation standards. I want to very specifically ask you about this. Can you say that this inquiry will consider whether homophobia or other prejudices impact on the MPS’s investigations? Secondly, do you think any other work needs to go into reassuring London’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) community that they can trust the MPS to protect them, particularly given the rising levels of homophobic hate crime across the city?

Firstly, anybody who saw even part of the evidence that came out during those inquests will have been shocked at the number of mistakes made by the police service. They caused me huge concern. The fact that they were in 2014 and 2015 is irrelevant. We have to make sure that our LGBTQ+ community feels reassured that the police are there for them as well. That is why the work we are doing is so important, not simply to make sure that police have changed for the better but to reassure those communities who suffer in silence.

Louise Casey’s work is looking at the culture. That includes homophobia. The work HMICFRS are doing as well will see if there are still any concerns that we need to address. The Commissioner [of Police of the Metropolis] herself has personally reassured me that she takes this issue very seriously. It is important that we provide that reassurance based on the evidence. Not blind reassurance, but reassurance based upon the work that is taking place.

Thank you. You will be aware that Barking and Dagenham Council called for an inquiry into the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) and their investigation into some of the issues raised as well.

I just want to move on because of time. Mr Mayor, if the police are to strengthen their standards and integrity and the confidence the public have in them, the procedures of calling out bad behaviour internally must be strong and, more importantly, trusted by MPS officers. I have received information that shows an overall fall in the use of the MPS’s internal whistleblowing hotlines in recent years. Is this an issue that you are aware of and feel needs resolving?

One of the things that concerned me in relation to the behaviour of the serving police officer who abducted, raped, and killed Sarah Everard was the need for there to be a lot of ways to check the behaviour of police officers who may be misbehaving, in advance of the criminalities we are talking about in that particular case.

In addition to the hotline you referred to, there are a number of things that the police are doing to make sure we are reassured. They are making sure that officers are given the confidence to challenge inappropriate behaviour by other officers, particularly towards women. We are also making sure that there is an improved sexual harassment policy, a toolkit for leaders, and support for women and minorities in the police service. The hotline should not be the only thing that officers who are unhappy go to. That may lead to a reduction in numbers for the hotline because there are now other things they can do. We have to completely transform the culture in the police service and be reassured that it has been transformed.

Thank you, Mr Mayor. Thank you also for earlier describing the Royal Docks as a great part of London. Further proof, if any is needed, that London is going east.

Hear, hear.