Agenda item

Apologies were received from Nick Bensted-Smith and Caroline Addy. Tijs Broeke issued apologies for leaving the meeting early in order to make another City Corporation commitment at 11.30.

The Chair of the Board took this opportunity to issue thanks to Alderman Alison Gowman, who would not be seeking re-election to the Board as her current term ended in April 2021.

Alderman Gowman had given twelve years of service to the Police Authority. Throughout, she had shown total dedication, commitment and has constantly strived for improvement within the Force – bringing about real change, most notably, in terms of police professional standards, ethics and integrity, most notably serving 10 years since 2011 on the Professional Standards and Integrity Committee and serving as Chair for the last 6 years since 2015.

Alderman Gowman had also served as Member of the Performance & Resources Management Committee and Police Accommodation Working Party. She had been the Police Authority’s representative on the Streets & Walkways Sub-Committee and had been the SIA Lead for Human Rights, Equality & Diversity, Public Order and Roads Policing.

Alderman Gowman has been a consistent, fair and objective critical friend to the force and the Chair highlighted four areas of significant contribution:

Ethics & Integrity – as Chair of PSI, Alderman Gowman had been instrumental in strengthening the remit of the Professional Standards Committee – bringing early on in her tenure, the focus on integrity to support the implementation of the Policing Code of Ethics in the Force.

She was a regular attendee of the Force’s own Integrity Standards Board to strengthen the joint focus on this important area.

Alongside this, the Alderman had been a strong champion of the Force’s own work on ethics and supporting their engagement with the London Police Challenge Forum bringing together associates from City, British Transport Police  Met and Counter Terrorism Command.

Equality & Inclusion – the Alderman had been a constant and consistent champion of the equalities & inclusion agenda throughout her tenure – most notably through her SIA Human Rights, Equality & Diversity Lead role, and as a member of the P&RM Committee.  As Chair of PSI she had ensured that it will be a central focus for the that Committee going forward.

Police Complaints & Appeals – The Alderman demonstrated great leadership in the adoption of the new statutory remit of the Committee with the responsibility for determining police Complaint appeals, that became the Authority’s duty in early 2020.

Roads Policing – The Alderman has been a strong & effective advocate on improving road safety and casualty reduction. She was the SIA Roads Policing Lead since 2013 and the Police Authority representative on Streets and Walkways Committee since 2009 as well as our standing member on the APCC Road Safety Portfolio Group meetings. She had also been the Chair of the Executive Committee of the charity - London Road Safety Council.

On behalf of the Board, the Chair wished to record the warmest and add his own personal thanks for the rigour and vigour with which Alderman Gowman had undertaken her role unfalteringly.

In addition, the Commissioner of Police also added his thanks to Alderman Gowman for being a robust and thorough critical friend over the preceding 10 years whilst he had served as Commander, Assistant Commissioner and now Commissioner.