The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) welcomes Lord Harris’s comprehensive report into London’s preparedness to deal with a major terrorist incident, which highlights how emergency services in London are in a position to respond substantially faster and more effectively than five years ago.

The report also highlights the quality and effectiveness of the work done by counter terrorism policing and intelligence services as “amongst the best in the world” and supports the MPS’s belief that it is vital to keep a critical thread from communities through to counter terrorism policing.

The terrorist threat is constantly evolving and Lord Harris has provided an extremely thorough and valuable overview from a different perspective, which we will now need time to read, digest and consider.

Whilst there are many recommendations within his report, Londoners should be in no doubt that the MPS, along with our emergency service partners and other agencies, remains ready to respond should the worst happen and Lord Harris has recognised the huge amount of work, planning and exercising that emergency services have put in to prepare for such scenarios.

The MPS will now be working closely with all of our key partners and stakeholders over the coming weeks and months to carefully consider the report and its recommendations and identify any opportunities to put these into practice.