Sir Paul has been Met commissioner since January 2009 Top officer queries safety rules
Sir Paul has been Met commissioner since January 2009 Police officers should be able to do their jobs without having to think about health and safety, the head of the Metropolitan force has said.
Sir Paul Stephenson questioned whether safety legislation was appropriate for the emergency services.
Concerns about their response was raised at the inquests into the deaths of those killed in the 7 July bombings.
While officers had to be kept as safe as possible, recruits knew they faced risks, Sir Paul added.
His comments in the Daily Telegraph came after the inquest heard emergency services were hampered by problems including health and safety regulations.
The coroner ruled the delays did not cause the death of any of those killed.
Four suicide bombers killed 52 people on London’s transport network on 7 July 2005.
In concluding the inquests into the deaths, Lady Justice Hallett formally ruled that the victims had been unlawfully killed.
She praised the efforts of both the Security Service MI5 and the emergency services but criticised lapses, making nine recommendations that aim to “save lives”.
No further inquiries or inquests on the bombers were needed, she said.
Relatives have called for the inquest recommendations to be implemented, and called on Home Secretary Theresa May to promise action as “swiftly as possible”.
But some families are continuing to call for a public inquiry, with many asking questions about whether MI5 could have prevented the atrocities.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph after the inquest, Sir Paul said: “When health and safety legislation was first applied to the police in its raw form, I wondered whether it was entirely appropriate for emergency services.
“Health and safety is important for my staff but they engage in the risk business.
Four suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured more than 700 in the attacks in London in 2005 “Cops join the force knowing they have to put their life on the line. Thankfully very few pay the ultimate price.”
He went on to say some officers do get injured, and he “applauded” them for taking risks.
“I don’t want to criticise them or to be doing a risk assessment on every occasion,” he said.
Referring to the bravery shown by members of the public on 7/7, he added: “The last thing we should ever do is make the families of people who have a go, be they cops or public, feel they made the wrong choices.”
The inquests had heard from explosives sniffer dog handler Pc Glen Hesketh, who hit out at other officers for holding back from getting on the bombed Tavistock Square bus to help the injured.
He said members of the emergency services were “not paid to be wrapped in cotton wool”.
“I seem to recall when I joined in the 80s they said our priority was to save life, and I think that’s really what took precedence,” he said.
With the examination of the emergency service response having been a major part of the inquiry’s remit, the coroner concluded that the problems encountered had not led to any deaths.
“I’m satisfied on balance of probabilities that each victim would have died whatever time the emergency services had arrived,” she said.
But she said they must work better with each other at major incidents to help them respond more quickly and “hopefully prevent future deaths”.
All the services encountered “real difficulties” in locating each other in the immediate wake of the bombings.
Heads of the services said they were proud of the work done by police, paramedics and firefighters on the day, adding that they would take time to digest the coroner’s recommendations.
Andy Trotter, chief constable of the British Transport Police, said his force would “take time” to read the report, while London Ambulance Service chief executive Peter Bradley said he recognised some aspects of their response “should have been better”.
Among several recommendations in the report were calls to review inter-agency major incident training, to review the way TfL is alerted to major incidents affecting the Tube network, and to look at how rendezvous points are established for emergency services in such incidents.
Lady Justice Hallett also expressed concerns about the Security Service’s record-keeping and addressed MI5’s 2004 assessment that Khan and Tanweer were not a threat to national security.
But she said it was “worth noting the huge task which confronts [the Security Service] on a daily basis”.
Lady Justice Hallett said in her remarks that she was not aware of having left any reasonable stone unturned during the inquests.
The proceedings had gone “much further than simply recording the sad fact that 52 innocent members of the travelling public were unlawfully killed in a dreadful act of terrorism,” she said, adding: “We have unearthed material that has never previously seen the light of day.”
The bombers targeted Tube trains at Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square and a double decker bus in Tavistock Square. Nearly six years on, the inquests heard 309 witnesses and a further 197 statements.
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