Met Police Considering More Riot Training

The Met Police is considering doubling the number of officers trained to deal with riots, its acting head has said.









Mayor Boris Johnson backed decisions by Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin.

Tim Godwin said the number of police given specialist "level 2" public order training could rise to 6,000.

And he admitted the force made mistakes in the aftermath of the police shooting in Tottenham of a man whose death sparked last month's disturbances.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson defended police handling of the riots, saying the "crisis" caught everyone unawares.

Both men appeared before MPs on Tuesday to discuss the riots which spread across London.

Mr Godwin said with hindsight more officers would have been deployed on the streets after the shooting of Mark Duggan by police in Tottenham.

"The number of sites of disorder was something we hadn't experienced in the city before - and that did take us by surprise," he said.

He said with the benefit of hindsight he "wished he had had lots more police officers on duty on the Sunday and then into the Monday."

Mr Godwin defended the force's actions saying that decisions on tactics and numbers were taken on the basis of the best evidence available.

He said he wished he had more officers available by the third day of incidents - but nobody had foreseen "22 boroughs of serious disorder" driven by "copycat" criminality.

Regarding riot training, he said: "Looking ahead at what might come in the future, I think we're going to need to increase it."

He said that 43 of the force's officers had received commendations for their "extreme bravery" and 282 had been injured.

But Mr Godwin also rejected suggestions that his commanders had used the wrong tactics or were lacking specific tools, such as water cannon or baton rounds, also known as rubber bullets.



"We had a full range of tactics," he told MPs. "It was purely numbers [of officers] that was the inhibitor."

"Baton rounds were available but I think we would have been having a different conversation [if they had been used and people had been injured].

"I take pride in the fact that we filled up prison places instead of hospital beds, and I think that's the British way."

Mr Johnson declined to agree with the prime minister that police had got their tactics wrong.

The mayor said lessons could be learned with the benefit of hindsight - but disorder had been contained.

The mayor and the Met's acting chief echoed Justice Secretary Ken Clarke's views that the riots were the legacy of a broken penal system.

Mr Godwin told the committee: "I think this is a wake-up call for the criminal justice system.

"We have in London been seeking to speed up justice, make it more relevant, make it more relevant to communities, and that's something that we need to do.

"The amount of people who have previous convictions does pose questions for us."

UNIFORMED POLICE ON STREETS DURING LONDON RIOTS

* SAT 6 AUG: 3,000
* SUN 7 AUG: 3,000 (then upped to 4,200)
* MON 8 AUG: 6,000
* TUES 9 AUG: 16,000 (total on duty 24,300)
* Source: Met Police

Giving evidence to the Commons Home Affairs committee, Mr Johnson said that the Metropolitan Police and the city's authorities had been completely surprised by the scale of the disorder in August that spread from one incident in Tottenham to other boroughs.

"I think with 20/20 hindsight people may feel that it would have been wiser to upscale the police presence.

"But if you look overall at what the police did on [the first] night and on successive nights and what they are doing now … the riots were contained and there were remarkably few casualties"

During the emergency recall of Parliament last month, Prime Minister David Cameron told MPs that there had been far too few police on the streets and they had used the wrong tactics.

Asked by the committee if he agreed with the prime minister, Mr Johnson said: "It's self-evidence that there was a difficulty, a crisis, on the Sunday and Monday that caught everyone unawares."

Mr Johnson compared the scenes in London to those in Paris six years ago. He said that the police had to rely on emergency powers to restore order in the French capital - whereas the British approach had ended the disorder within a week.

The Metropolitan Police has told the committee in a letter that policing the disorder cost £74m and they now have 500 officers working on investigations.

The force also said that its commanders took the decisions to increase the number of officers deployed over the course of the disorder and later informed the home secretary and prime minister. The decision to increase numbers had been taken before police chiefs met ministers in an emergency Whitehall meeting.

Gangs

The MPs were hearing from the Mayor and police chiefs as new figures emerged about people who took part in the rioting and looting.

The Metropolitan Police says that the proportion of rioters with links to gangs has dropped from almost a third to 19%, almost certainly because detectives had arrested known suspects before targeting others filmed on CCTV.

Figures indicate that eight out of 10 offenders were known to the police and 75% of them had a criminal record.

In an article published in the Guardian on Tuesday morning, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke blamed the "broken penal system" for the riots.

He said the Ministry of Justice's latest statistics showed that the hardcore of those involved had previous convictions and the criminal justice system had failed to stop them reoffending.

A Formula For The Break-Up Of Britain

When the Barnett formula was devised in 1978, it was meant to share annual Government spending equitably between the countries of the United Kingdom according to their populations.


















Unjust: Joel - now Baron - Barnett has advocated scrapping the funding formula he devised for Scotland

In the intervening decades, it has become nothing less than a grossly unfair tax on the English to subsidise lavish public services in Scotland.

This is because the formula has not changed, though the population of England has risen sharply over those 33 years, while that of Scotland has remained static.

The result is that the Scottish subsidy has grown to such an extent that even Lord Barnett, the former Labour cabinet minister who invented the formula, thinks it is unjust and should be scrapped.

New figures which we reveal today show that public spending is now £1,624 per person higher in Scotland than in England, up 15 per cent in just a year.

This equates to the average English family being forced to pay more than £400 a year to fund Scottish services, and that the figure is sure to go on rising.

The scale of the handout allows the Scots to enjoy benefits the English can only dream of – free prescriptions, residential elderly care, university tuition, primary school meals, hospital parking, and most recently cancer drugs.

The injustice is palpable and, unless rectified, it presents a real danger to the integrity of the Union.













Danger to the integrity of the Union: Scottish National Party leader and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond wants full independence.

Recent opinion polls show fewer than a third of Scots in favour of independence. But in England, a clear majority believe it is time for them to go it alone.

If the Barnett formula is not reformed, resentment south of the border can only grow and it may soon be the English, not the Scots who demand the break-up of the United Kingdom.

Is it too cynical to suggest that is precisely what Scottish Nationalist leader Alex Salmond wants?

Harsh but fair

Even the leader of Britain’s prison governors has now joined the shrill chorus of liberal protest over tough punishments meted out to those involved in this month’s riots.

In an extraordinary and intemperate attack, Eoin McLennan-Murray accuses magistrates of indulging in a ‘sentencing frenzy’, likening them to ‘sharks when there’s blood in the water’.

He said guidelines were being flouted and defendants unfairly treated.












Flashpoint: Riots across London and other cities of England in earlier this month were among the worst scenes of civil disobedience in recent history.

There is no doubt that magistrates and judges have taken a robust approach. Of more than 1,400 people brought before the courts in connection with the mayhem, around 70 per cent have either been given jail terms or remanded in custody awaiting sentence — far more than is usual.

But what did Mr McLennan-Murray expect magistrates to do? Put them back on the streets to wreak more havoc?

Offences included aggravated burglary, robbery, violent disorder, assault, arson and even murder.

In their own right these are all serious crimes, but against a backdrop of indiscriminate looting, destruction and anarchy they constitute a serious danger to the fabric of society.

So, understandably, the courts came down hard on perpetrators, in many cases handing out exemplary sentences.

If punishments are deemed too harsh, there is a perfectly sound appeal court system to moderate them.

And precisely what does sentencing policy have to do with a prison governor anyway? His role is surely to contain, and where possible rehabilitate offenders, not determine how long they should serve.

Perhaps Mr McLennan-Murray should just get on with his own job and let magistrates get on with theirs.

Pensions Row Could Bring First Teachers' Strike Since The 80s

Teachers in Scotland's schools could be set to strike for the first time since the 1980s in protest against changes to their pensions.
The country's largest teaching union, the EIS, is expected to begin balloting members in the coming weeks over strike action in response to reforms to public sector pensions.







Scottish Government spokesman: "We believe the UK government must reconsider".

Union leaders claim the changes will see teachers forced to contribute more to their pensions and work longer before they retire.

Changes to the way pensions are calculated will also see teachers receiving less, according to the EIS.

Calls for a strike ballot have come from the union's influential strategy sub-committee.

Should a ballot be approved by the union's executive, teachers at all local authority nursery, primary, secondary and special schools would be asked to vote on possible strike action, which is expected to take the form of an initial one-day walkout.

If it went ahead it would be the first time since 1986 that a national teachers' strike has taken place in Scotland.

Ronnie Smith, general secretary of the EIS, said: "At the recent EIS annual general meeting, Scottish teachers sent a clear message that their patience with attacks on their standard of living is exhausted.

"At a time of imposed pay freezes on public sector pay, coupled with soaring prices for food, fuel, clothing and transport, teachers are not prepared to accept further erosion in their living standards. For hard-pressed teachers, the prospect of paying more of their salary into a pension scheme with the promise of working longer and getting far less at the end just might be the straw that breaks the camel's back."

Eileen Prior, executive director of the Scottish Parent Teacher Council (SPTC), told teachers not to expect any sympathy.

She said: "Parents are going to be very concerned about the prospect of strike action. I suspect the response is going to be one where there's not a huge amount of sympathy for teachers.

"There's a feeling that everyone is being squeezed. The reaction I'm getting from parents is they feel that teachers are getting a pretty good deal."

The EIS said the recommendation for a strike ballot from its strategy sub-committee was a "warning" to ministers not to ignore its members.

While pension reform is a matter reserved for the UK government, any changes north of the Border would require the support of the Scottish Government.

However, finance secretary John Swinney has voiced criticism of Westminster's approach to public sector pension reform.

Labour's shadow education secretary Ken Macintosh said: "The SNP government has a very serious obligation to parents and pupils to ensure we do not return to the type industrial action which Scotland's schools saw in the 1980s.

"It is absolutely critical that changes are negotiated properly, and it would be completely wrong for ministers to try and trade pension rights for salary cuts."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "Public sector pensions must be affordable and sustainable but we do not believe the UK government's proposals represent the correct course of action.

"We believe that the UK government must reconsider its proposals before seeking to impose significant changes on public service staff at this time.

"The Scottish Government has embarked upon a series of meetings with other public sector employers and unions as to how we address this significant issue."

According to the EIS, indications from England and Wales show pension contributions may rise by 0.6 per cent of pay for those earning less than £26,000 and up to 2 per cent for those earning between £40,000 and £75,000.

Kenny MacAskill Looks Abroad For A Case For Single Police Force

Kenny MacAskill has outlined the case for a single police force in the face of opposition from councils and some parts of the service across Scotland.







Kenny MacAskill: ‘We will not attack pay and conditions'.

The justice secretary told a conference of police leaders from this country and across Europe that the alternative to reform was to "jettison" officers and slash their pay and conditions.

The International Policing Summit was held yesterday to hear from other countries that have faced reform, or are going through it now.

Representatives from Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands all spoke about the benefits and problems of restructuring.

It followed a conference held by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) last week as part of its campaign against a single force.

The Scottish Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, has also voted against a national structure, while superintendents have backed it and chief officers have been split.

However, Mr MacAskill, who is expected to spell out the timetable for the creation of a single force following an announcement on 7 September, said it would provide "greater benefits" which other options for change do not deliver, and he was "convinced" the case had strengthened following debate over the summer.

"I can't expect people to do more with less, or the same with less, but less there will be," he said. "The way to deal with that is to change the way we do things, to do away with any unnecessary costs."

Referring to proposed changes in England and Wales, Mr MacAskill added: "We will not see officers jettisoned. We will not attack the pay and conditions of those whose service we rely on.

"That, ladies and gentlemen, is the alternative."

There were plenty of warnings from representatives of countries further along the path of police reform than Scotland.

In Northern Ireland, a huge number of watchdogs had meant the national police force had at times found itself more interested in "measuring and not on delivering", Assistant Chief Constable Alistair Finlay said.

Denmark found that reform made policing better, but not cheaper as it had hoped.

Norway - whose experience Denmark had tried to learn from - said hopes that it would deliver more uniformed officers on the streets never became a reality.

In Finland - which already had a national force, but reduced the number of districts while also creating a national board - local councillors lost all say in the way policing in their communities was delivered, although Senior Officer Konsta Korhonen told the conference this had not been seen as a bad thing.

In fact, he added, Finland had one of the highest rates of police satisfaction in the world.

Deputy Chief Inspector Simon O'Brien, of the Garda Siochána Inspectorate, warned a robust external inspector would be essential to the success of a single police force.

However, none of the delegates warned Scotland against the expected moved to a national structure.

Cosla criticised the Scottish Government for not inviting delegates from countries with strong regional policing models.

Cosla president Pat Watters said: "Why is the government unwilling to listen to any examples from abroad of strong regional policing?

"The government's unwillingness to listen is both dispiriting and disappointing - one police quango, one fire quango, one view allowed, one theme emerging - a government that, certainly on this issue, will not listen.

"It seems that the government does believe that it has a mono-poly on wisdom after all."

Alison McInnes, the Scottish Liberal Democrats' justice spokeswoman, who was in the audience, said outside the conference: "These flawed plans will only erode local accountability and community decision- making."

The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland has been divided on whether there should be a single force, with Colin McKerracher of Grampian, and Ian Latimer, who retired this year from Northern, being vocal in their opposition.

However, Kevin Smith of Central said he was convinced that restructuring the police force in Scotland "would not break it".

He added: "There are many, many positive things that will be achieved by a single service."

Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland, Scotland's most senior public prosecutor, said "certain safeguards" would need to be part of any new police structure.

He warned the police must work "for reasons of public justice" and "not to create tabloid headlines or serve the interests of the political party in power".

"Independence is crucial and should be incorporated in law," he added.

Riots: Fears Over Violence As Prison Population Swells To Record Level

Police officers stand in front of a prison van. Prison chiefs appear to be concerned about the volatility of the jail population after the incarceration of hundreds of rioters.

Prison service chiefs have sounded the alarm over potential unrest and violence in overcrowded jails in England and Wales as hundreds of rioters have swelled the prison population to a record level.

The Prison Service admitted on Friday that they are "closely monitoring the estate for any potential unrest" after the prison population broke through the 86,000 mark for the first time.

The governors of all jails in England and Wales were earlier this week warned by the Prison Service's "gold commander", who was running the emergency response to the riots, to take steps to ensure the safety of those involved in public disorder who had been remanded in custody for the first time in their lives, it emerged on Friday.

"This morning there has been a nasty three person alleged assault. All three victims were public disorder remands, two currently in hospital," Andrew Cross, the Prison Service's deputy director of operations who was acting as gold commander, reported in the email sent out on Monday.

A separate email to governors from the Prison Service's national operations group asks them to "watch the mood and atmosphere in your prison" in the aftermath of the alleged assault on three people, which it says took place at Cookham Wood young offenders institution at Borstal in Kent.

The internal justice ministry emails indicate that while prison chiefs are fairly confident that they can provide sufficient cells to cope with the rocketing prison population, they have more immediate concerns about the volatility of the jail population.

They appear particularly concerned that existing inmates, perhaps from rival gangs, will attack some unwary, unconvicted riot defendants who have never been in trouble before and have little idea of how to safely navigate the gang-hardened culture inside some jails.

The email sent to all governors by Cross said: "Over the past few days there has been emerging intelligence regarding the consequences of receiving public disorder remands/offenders."

Cross said individual prisons were responding to this intelligence: "The consideration that has been gathering pace is the safety of remands/offenders and is not limited to the young offenders/young persons estate but also includes adult male and female offenders."

He told governors that when they were dealing with riot defendants or offenders it was important they put thought into their background in terms of their experience of a custodial setting.

"Whilst the induction process ensures that remands/offenders are aware of the risks of stating where they live, what gang they may be in, what team they may support or faith they may be, it is worth ensuring that reception staff give a verbal brief and assess risk where they remand first time in custody people."

A Prison Service spokeswoman said the emails were reminding governors to ensure that, despite the increased arrivals to prison, all reception procedures were thoroughly followed: "It is entirely appropriate to remind governors of the need to make proper assessments of the risks that apply to certain prisoners and the steps they should take to manage such risks."

She added that officials at Cookham Wood were clear "that this incident was not riot related".

But Harry Fletcher of Napo, the probation union, said the memos showed real concerns about the danger to people who were being remanded in custody for the first-time on riot related charges: "They could be at risk of self-harm or of assault by other prisoners because of resentment about their actions or their notoriety."

On Friday, David Cameron appeared to moderate his hardline-approach to sentencing the rioters during the BBC's Test Match Special, on which he made a guest appearance while watching the cricket.

He said it was right the courts should pass exemplary sentences to demonstrate what had happened was wrong but he also said that those convicted deserved a second chance once they had served their punishment: "I'm an optimist. I'm a believer in giving people second chances in life. I don't think anyone is totally lost," he said. "Even these people that are going to prison – and they are getting some pretty hefty prison sentences – there is still a chance for them to rebuild their lives."

The internal memos were disclosed after the prison population in England and Wales hit a record high of 86,654 following the courts' decision to remand hundreds charged with rioting and looting in custody.

The Ministry of Justice said the prison population had risen by 723 over the past week. Officials are making contingency plans to accelerate the opening of new prison buildings and bring mothballed accommodation back into use.

There are currently only 1,439 spare, usable places left in the jail system, but prison chiefs say they remain confident they have enough to cope with those being imprisoned by the courts in relation to the recent riots.

"We are developing contingencies to increase usable capacity should further pressure be placed on the prison estate," the Prison Service said.

It is thought the plans include opening accommodation at the new Isis prison next to Belmarsh in south-east London earlier than expected, and bringing back into use a wing at Lewes prison, East Sussex, which had been closed for refurbishment.

The Prison Service said it had no plans to reverse the decision to close two prisons – Latchmere House in London, and Brockhill in Redditch – next month.

But Geoff Dobson, the deputy director of the Prison Reform Trust, said the rapid increase in prison numbers meant that some parts of the system were "becoming human warehouses, doing little more than banging people up in overcrowded conditions, with regimes that are hard pressed to offer any employment or education. The likelihood is that for some first time offenders that will provide a fast-track to a criminal career."

Sharon Shoesmith Wins Appeal Against Sacking Over Baby P Tragedy

Former Haringey council children's services boss Sharon Shoesmith has won an appeal against her controversial sacking in the wake of the Baby P tragedy after a judge upheld her claim that she had been unlawfully removed from her post.













The high court ruled that Ed Balls – children's secretary at the time of her dismissal – had failed to give Shoesmith the opportunity to defend herself from criticisms in a specially commissioned Ofsted report.

Balls used the report to support his dismissal of her at a live TV press conference in December 2008. In its ruling the court said: "She was denied the elementary fairness which the law requires."

The court also upheld her appeal against Haringey council, which formally sacked Shoesmith a week after Balls removed her. The ruling said the council's procedures were "tainted by unfairness".

Shoesmith said after the hearing: "I'm over the moon. Absolutely thrilled. I am very relieved to have won my appeal and for recognition I was treated unfairly and unlawfully." But she added that the sorrow of the child's death would "stay with me for the rest of my life".

An attempt by Shoesmith to quash an Ofsted report into the case was rejected, however. The ruling said Ofsted had complied with the requirements of the statute and of the common law.

Shoesmith was challenging a judicial review ruling made last year that cleared the regulator Ofsted, Balls and Haringey of acting unlawfully. Her lawyers had argued there was "procedural unfairness" in her removal from the £133,000-a-year post.

She had claimed that the manner in which she was dismissed was a breach of natural justice and the result of media pressure. She was seeking compensation for two years of lost salary, reinstatement of her pension rights, and a negotiated settlement from Haringey.

The court put off a ruling on compensation for Shoesmith, saying that the issue should be referred back to the high court for "further consideration".

It is understood the current children's secretary, Michael Gove, intends to launch an appeal against the court's ruling.

Shoesmith was sacked in December 2008 after the childcare regulator's report, ordered by Balls after the Baby P case, exposed failings in her department. The 17-month-old boy, since named as Peter Connelly, was on Haringey's child protection register when he died violently at the hands of his mother, Tracey Connelly, her lover Steven Barker, and Barker's brother Jason Owen, in August 2007.

James Maurici, representing Shoesmith, told the appeal court in March that "buck passing" between Ofsted, Balls, and Haringey had led to her being denied natural justice and a fair hearing.

He said Shoesmith had been a highly thought-of public servant with a successful 35-year career, but that she now faced ruin. She had held a number of senior education posts within local authorities and risen through the ranks before taking her post with Haringey in 2005. A year later she was singled out in an Ofsted report for providing "strong and dynamic leadership".

But in 2008, a "media storm" broke over Baby P's death and she became the victim of a witchhunt and political pressure which led to a flagrant breach of the rules of natural justice, Maurici said. He added: "On 1 December 2008, while trapped in her flat by the media, she had the extreme misfortune to see on TV Ed Balls at a live press conference announce he was directing that Haringey remove her from her post 'with immediate effect'." Balls told the press she was "not fit for office", and acted before Shoesmith had seen, or been given a chance to respond to, the report.

Maurici said, although high court judge Mr Justice Foskett had found her sacking lawful in a judicial review ruling in March 2010, he had said he did not think that "any fair-minded person could think that this was a satisfactory state of affairs."

The appeal judges were told of the "catastrophic" personal impact on Shoesmith following Baby P's death. Maurici said she had been unable to find any work since December 2008, experienced suicidal thoughts, and was still regularly hounded and vilified by the tabloid press.

James Eadie QC, appearing for the government, defended Balls's actions to the appeal court, saying urgent action had to be taken following Ofsted's "ghastly findings", which uncovered "dangerous" failings in Shoesmith's department that threatened local and national confidence in effective child protection.

Ofsted chief inspector Christine Gilbert welcomed the ruling, saying: "I am pleased that Ofsted has comprehensively won this case and that the original judicial review judgement in our favour has been upheld in every aspect on appeal.

"Ofsted carried out a robust inspection and came to a sound conclusion based on evidence. On any view, our inspection report was extremely critical and there has been no challenge to the finding that services for children in Haringey were inadequate. The fairness of our process and rigour of our inspection has now been confirmed through the scrutiny of not just one, but two court hearings.

"The most important thing, of course, is that Haringey's children's services are now much improved as a result and that children are better protected."

In a statement responding to the ruling, Balls declared "faced with the same circumstances I would make the same decisions again".

He added: "Ministers need to be able to exercise their legal duties and make judgments in the public interest based on independent analysis and advice. That is what I did - and I am concerned that this judgment will make it harder for ministers to do so in future. That is why it is constitutionally very important that the secretary of state has decided to appeal this judgment."