Police and Justice Bill

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the advent of the Metropolitan Police Authority has done a great deal for relations between police and the public in London? While successive Home Secretaries and commissioners, as well as the advent of neighbourhood policing, have had a lot to do with that, establishing a police authority with a democratic basis has turned policing in London from something imposed from outside into a service that is not only of and for Londoners, but, increasingly, provided by Londoners.