The Home Affairs Committee has criticised evidence given by both the officers subject to the disciplinary investigation and their Chief Constables. The individual officers gave evidence which the Committee found to be misleading, possibly deliberately so, and lacking in credibility. The Committee has decided to recall both Sergeant Jones and DS Hinton, next Tuesday 5th November 2013, to apologise for misleading it and has reserved the right to recall Inspector MacKaill should it be found that he too has misled the Committee. Both DS Hinton and Sgt Jones have been referred to the IPCC. The apologies given by Chief Constable Shaw (West Mercia), Sims (West Midlands) and Parker (Warwickshire) were welcomed although the decision taken by Chief Constables Parker and Sims not to redetermine whether their officers should face a misconduct panel was criticised. Mr Parker has also been criticised for seeking to correct the evidence of DS Hinton in a manner which suggested that he lacked impartiality. Assistant Chief Constable Cann (West Midlands) has been criticised for attempting to access the final report of the misconduct investigation prior to it being signed off by the IPCC. The Committee regretted an absence of leadership by all three Chief Constables at a critical time which could have, if utilised earlier, prevented reputational damage to the police service. The Committee believes that the IPCC should have carried out an independent inquiry in this case although it recognises that resource constraints which would have prevented it for completing an investigation quickly were the main factor behind the decision not to do so

We are facing an epidemic of psychoactive substances in the UK with deaths increasing by 79% in the last year. New versions of these "legal highs" are being produced at the rate of at least one a week, yet it has taking the Government a year to produce five pages of guidance on the use of alternative legislation. This slow response to the crisis may have led to more deaths. Those who sell these killer substances need to be held responsible. New laws should be enacted to put the onus on them. Especially at this time of year, young people need to take care about what substances they consume so their health and lives are not put at risk. Quick turn around mobile testing units should be utilised at festivals in order in order to facilitate the removal of potentially harmful or illegal substances from the site immediately and more specific education on psychoactive substances should be given in school and colleges. There are also currently 1.5 million people addicted to prescription drugs in the UK. The abuse of these types of substances is taking place in the shadows and its extent is still unquantified. Local GPs need to report their suspicious and collate information to illuminate this problem. Medical Royal Colleges should establish a joint working group to examine whether local health teams are effectively communicating concerns around individuals visiting multiple practices to request specific drugs.

The Committee were shocked by the scale of bullying that was found at the Federation's Headquarters. It is disgraceful that any Chairman should have been hounded out for championing the long-overdue reforms set out in the Normington Report. Only a new National Chair, elected directly by the Federation's rank-and-file members, will have the authority to implement these changes in full. At a local level, while some smaller branches struggle financially, others have accumulated reserves which add up to around £35 million, some of it in obscure "No. 2" accounts. A new funding formula, with subscriptions going straight to the centre and being distributed to branches, would remedy this. Federation funds should serve the Members and the public directly, not the organisation itself. Police officer's from every corner of England and Wales should receive an immediate rebate on their current subscriptions, which have accumulated into unnecessary reserves of around £70 million, and a subscription freeze for next year. There needs to be full transparency of all the Federation's accounts, at both national and local level.. Our police service is the best in the world but its reputation has been extensively damaged by the Federation suffering a sustained period of self inflicted harm.

Recent events involving Boko Haram, Al-Shabab and Al Qaeda show that the terrorist threat to the UK is as grave as at any point in the past thirteen years. Interpol have the resources and experience to build a platform and the UK must take the lead in bringing others to the table. However, ensuring public safety cannot be the sole purview of the counterterrorism command and the security service, it is a responsibility in which all UK citizens and companies take a share. Stopping British men and women going to become foreign fighters, in Syria and other theatres of conflict, and engaging with them when they return is vital to avoid endangering the security of the UK. Whether in classrooms, local community centres, or through the global reach of the internet and social media, a clear message needs to be sent to those at risk. The agencies are at the cutting edge of sophistication and are owed an equally refined system of democratic scrutiny. It is an embarrassing indictment of our system that some in the media felt compelled to publish leaked information to ensure that matters were heard in Parliament. The Intelligence and Security Committee should be given a democratic mandate in the same way as other Select Committees

This report considers the events surrounding the police raid on 14 August of the home of Sir Cliff Richard OBE in Berkshire, and the circumstances under which the BBC came to have advance information about the raid. It concludes that South Yorkshire Police's handling of this situation was inept. The naming of suspects (or the confirming of a name when it is put to a force) when there is no operational need to do so is wrong. South Yorkshire Police should not have tried to cut a deal with the journalist, but rather approached senior BBC executives to explain the damage that such premature disclosure could do to the investigation. The BBC's Director General, Lord Hall, confirmed to the Committee that the BBC would act on such requests from Chief Constables. In the absence of any such approach from South Yorkshire, the BBC was well within its rights to run the story, although as a result Sir Cliff himself has suffered enormous, irreparable damage to his reputation. It appears that the BBC reporter clearly identified the source of his leak as Operation Yewtree. It is unfortunate therefore that South Yorkshire Police did not notify the Metropolitan Police so that the source of the Yewtree leak could be investigated.

This report is a follow-up to the Committee's second report of session 2013-14. That report revealed results of an inquiry into children being treated in an appalling way not just by their abusers but, because of catastrophic failures by the very agencies that society has appointed to protect them. There is no mechanism at all to suspend or remove a Police and Crime Commissioner for behaviour which falls short of criminal. The current report includes a draft Bill which suggests mechanisms for removing PCCs from their post. It is vital that children's services are dramatically improved to prevent a similar situation from happening again. It was shocking that evidence of child sexual exploitation in Rotherham was ignored by both Rotherham Council and South Yorkshire Police. A number of individuals attempted to bring these crimes to light, only to face obstacles from the Council and Police which in some cases questioned their credibility and the veracity of their claims. If the Council and Police had taken these warnings seriously, the abusers could have been brought to justice more quickly and some of the later victims could have been spared their ordeal. The proliferation of revelations about files which can no longer be located gives rise to public suspicion of a deliberate cover-up. The only way to address these concerns is with a full, transparent and urgent investigation

In 1998, the previous government abolished exit checks, paper-based embarkation records of passengers departing from the UK, because they were too resource intensive. Those universal exit checks were replaced by an intelligence-led approach, using CCTV and greater liaison between border agencies, port operators and transport carriers. This approach was subsequently superseded by the e-Borders programme, announced in February2005. The e-Borders programme has stalled and was "terminated" in March 2014 and that the Home Office would bereplacing individual systems, such as the Warnings Index and Semaphore, separately. At the moment, data for air passengers travelling in and out of the UK is sourced from carrier lists, known as Advanced Passenger Information (API). Air passengers buy tickets in advance and check in a reasonable time before departure, so API coverage is good, about 80% and increasing. Coverage is not so good for rail and ferry passengers, partly because of the ticketing systems and partly because customers can decide to travel, buy a ticket and have checked in at a time near to departure. Both the Minister and the Director General of Border Force have assured the Committee that 100% exit checks will be in place by 31st March 2015. To deliver exit checks, the Home Office needs to find a mechanism that can count all of the rail and maritime passengers as they depart the UK by the end of March. Exit checks will be carried out by the transport operators' staff, not Border Force. The Committee hope this can be delivered.