Mr. Mark Toland:

As a chief superintendent in charge of a busy London division, I certainly felt it held me to account. I appeared before it in thematic inspections. I was well used to appearing before it on issues around crime and domestic violence. What I liked about the London model was that one of the members was allocated to each division in London, so a member of the police authority was designated to look after our work. I worked in Brent at the end of my time there. There was almost a daily interaction and if something serious happened I would contact that individual member. The relationship was not just a one off, but certainly it was a robust process. I do not know how it operates at the moment and I will not comment on the make up of it but certainly I felt it was intrusive and robust and we had to appear before it. The commissioner in London appears on a regular basis in a format very similar to this one.