Met ‘ignored lax security fears at Westminster for two years’
WARNINGS about “lax” security at the Palace of Westminster were ignored by Scotland Yard for two years, an inquest into last year’s terror attack heard.
Emails sent in February 2015, two years before Pc Keith Palmer was killed by Khalid Masood outside the Houses of Parliament, revealed a senior Met officer raised concerns about firearms officers’ positioning to Westminster’s chief inspector of operations.
Further emails revealed that those in charge “didn’t really know what the deployment plan was” as well as “frequent” misunderstanding about where officers were supposed to be stationed.
Pc Palmer was killed by Masood on March 22 2017 after he stormed the Carriage Gates at the front of Parliament, attacking the unarmed officer with two knives.
The inquest has already heard that armed officers were not near Pc Palmer, taking over one minute to arrive after Masood was shot by a plainclothes officer, and had not been in the vicinity of Carriage Gates for 46 minutes prior to the stabbing.
The lawyer representing Pc Palmer’s widow, Michelle, told the inquest that the security system at Westminster “had not been functioning for years”.
Questioning Pc Lee Ashby, a firearms officer on duty that day, Dominic Adamson said: “So for a period of years the security at the Palace of Westminster ... was so lax that the relevant posting instructions were not being
performed for a number of years?” Pc Ashby replied: “It would seem so, sir.”
On Feb 24 2015 an unnamed officer emailed Nick Aldworth, Westminster’s chief inspector of operations, expressing concern at the location of two firearms officers in Parliament, which he believed had recently been changed.
Mr Aldworth forwarded the email to colleagues, saying: “This is getting a bit too frequent for our liking... I experienced similar on Thursday 12 February when the two cops who were meant to be in New Palace Yard were not for some time and then there were no cops at SSE (St Stephen’s Entrance). I phoned the duty sergeant who acknowledged that he didn’t ... know what the deployment plan was.”
The inquest heard there was further confusion between where firearms officers believed they were meant to be stationed in New Palace Yard and where official Met documents expected them to patrol.
Instructions from Dec 14 2015 stated that officers were expected to be stationed near Carriage Gates while they were open. But neither Pc Ashby nor Pc Nicholas Sanders, who were on duty on the day of Masood’s attack, were aware this was a “specific responsibility”.
On Monday, the inquest heard that Pc Ashby and Pc Sanders were subject to an internal Met misconduct investigation following the attack. No formal misconduct findings were brought, although it was found that they should have been closer to Carriage Gate. This finding was disputed by Pc Ashby.