ground in a very invidious position where they are asking and encouraging, and a suspect in almost all cases, that encouragement would lead to the parents kind of complying with that was a very challenging scenario for police officers. ., �* challenging scenario for police officers. ., ,, challenging scenario for police officers. ., _ ., officers. you're obviously right to the olice officers. you're obviously right to the police officers _ officers. you're obviously right to the police officers weren't - officers. you're obviously right to| the police officers weren't issuing fixed penalty notices to children, but as you say, the consequence is the probable consequence of these regulations may have been that police officers would stop children playing and tell them to go back inside, tell their parents go back inside. ., , , inside, tell their parents go back inside._ what - inside, tell their parents go back inside._ what are i inside. undoubtedly. what are . uidance inside. undoubtedly. what are guidance that _ inside. undoubtedly. what are guidance that affect? - inside. undoubtedly. what are guidance that affect? not - guidance that affect? not specifically _ guidance that affect? not specifically but _ guidance that affect? not specifically but it - guidance that affect? not specifically but it back to the guidance that we gave and to the fore a's approach and it was about encouraging but you can only assume that must have felt incredibly uncomfortable for the officers the challenge that they had was this was about achieving compliance and is really difficult when you start asking how many exceptions do you start making a decision? and i'm sure there were exceptions that we never found out about but the kind of stories that that i have seen four people were moved on at a river or a park, four people were moved on at a river ora park, it was four people were moved on at a river or a park, it wasjust four people were moved on at a river or a park, it was just a very challenging position for them to be in. , ., _, , ., challenging position for them to be in. there is, of course, a broader auestion in. there is, of course, a broader question about _ in. there is, of course, a broader question about whether - in. there is, of course, a broader question about whether the - question about whether the regulations should have applied to children at all and the inquiry has heard evidence that in scotland, from july, he was in 2020, children under 12 were exempted but that obviously wasn't a decision for you, but was it something you discussed with, for example, the home office? we had all discussions around all the various aspects. it's important... i either met or spoke with the home secretary pretty much every day for the first year of the inquiry in one way or another and we would constantly come through the various meetings that we all had, we were discussing those issues and i would or was aware clearly from the chains that took place in scotland, but certainly, didn't push or feel at any point really that it was my position to be pushing and suggesting. we would have the discussions and then obviously the home secretary will be involved in whichever discussion she was involved in later. let whichever discussion she was involved in later.— whichever discussion she was involved in later. ., ., ., involved in later. let me move on to the question — involved in later. let me move on to the question of the _ involved in later. let me move on to the question of the disproportionate | the question of the disproportionate impact in fixed penalty notices on some groups within society. and for these purposes, can we look at page 29 of your witness statement, please? and, just by way of introduction, there were two reports were commissioned and will briefly look at both of them. do you take during the pandemic, in fact, it was an stage of the pandemic that the report we are talking about was published injuly report we are talking about was published in july 2020, report we are talking about was published injuly 2020, i'm not sure when it was commissioned exactly, profumo b before that. we say then you are describing a report and analysing the fixed penalty notices that have been issued in a relatively short period of two months between the end of march and the end of that year and you indicate the research was undertaken by mr flatley was peer reviewed and so on. before we bring the report up and have a look at it, what was it that prompted the npcc to make this? where the findings are particularly stark in both reports is in relation to race and race disproportionality. i started working on the pandemic with 20 years at least of policing experience of dealing with the challenges of the police relationship with minority communities and some of the disproportionality that exists therein and so as soon as the pandemic started and at the point where it was very obvious that we were going to be into a space of very unusual regulations, it was the fact that there was an issue in terms of the policing of that which was done in a fair way across our communities and particularly those communities and particularly those communities where the relationship with policing was more challenged. that was the reason and there are things that we did. the first one was to quickly initiate this first review that looked for the two—month period at the very outset to give us the pictures that we would then be able to feed that back to the police forces so they understood precisely what was going on in their own individual areas and also importantly one of the important thing we did at that stage was the creation of an independent ethics committee to work alongside us. it was very clear that we were going to have to go into territories that were highly unusual and some of those were going to have quite significant ethical challenges so we pulled together a group that was charged or chaired by the bishop of manchester and a group met up for a year and a monthly basis picking up the challenge is to them in the us is a further one in 2021. but that was the first subject that we took to that group, the issue around disproportionality in the issuing of fixed penalty notices. it was very much an amount of the outside. i5 fixed penalty notices. it was very much an amount of the outside. is it fair to say. — much an amount of the outside. is it fair to say. as _ much an amount of the outside. is it fair to say, as well _ much an amount of the outside. is it fair to say, as well as all of those things, that there had been some criticism of the npcc about the way in which the very early statistics relating to disproportionate impact were presented publicly? yes. relating to disproportionate impact were presented publicly?— relating to disproportionate impact were presented publicly? yes, and i would challenge _ were presented publicly? yes, and i would challenge some _ were presented publicly? yes, and i would challenge some of _ were presented publicly? yes, and i would challenge some of that - would challenge some of that challenge in the basis that i understand how difficult it was to set up the system. we had to create as system from scratch in about 36 hours that allowed us to collate the information and i think the piece you are referring to was talking particularly from the 27th of march through to mid april which was the first four orfive or through to mid april which was the first four or five or three or four weeks of the pandemic and at that stage, we were running to catch up or keep up quite frankly in terms of, not the work we were doing necessarily but certainly the data to support and understand the work that we were doing. we were doing that we were doing. we were doing that but i adopted a position from the very beginning of transparency about the fixed penalty notices that we issued. we produced the data that we issued. we produced the data that we produced and on a monthly basis, i held a conference call and that became a teams call... it was with reporters who look after crime and media, i met with them every single month and we went in detail the statistics of the operation that we were running. at the beginning they were running. at the beginning they were interested in how many police officers were sick on this and that on the other but we very quickly got into fixed penalty notices and particularly any issues of disproportionality, either by the person who had been given the ticket, that was a not very often age but certainly gender but definitely race but also the disproportionality between different police force areas. we were transparent throughout the process and we produced its first report, the first report was produced and i think was the 22nd of 23rd ofjuly that that was shared with all chief constables, it was on the npcc website and it was public and then website and it was public and then we subsequently commissioned the longer report. studio: you are watching bbc news on the live coverage of the covid inquiry and for watching testimony of martin hewitt, the former chairman of the national police chiefs' council between 2019 and 2023. that was during the covid pandemic and he has talked about policing during the course of the crisis and just a reminder about the top story here on the bbc. criticism of article by suella braverman in which she criticised the met police over their handling of pro—palestinian marches. the bbc understands ms suella braverman did not make the edit clear to downing street that she wrote in the times. we will have more understory in the coming hours. but first, the weather by carol. hello again. the weather forecast for today is one of sunshine and showers. now, most of the showers are going to be in the south and the west where they could be heavy with some hail and also some thunder and lightning. and on the tops of the scottish hills, we could well see some wintriness. low pressure is driving our weather. it's anchored to the northwest of scotland. but look at these ice bars. but look at these isobars. it's going to be very windy today across the south west of england and that won't moderate until tomorrow. now, as we head on into the weekend, well, this weather front is going to try and come in during the course of saturday, armistice day. but of course, after a cool start with some mist and fog, which will be slow to clear, many of us will hang on to the dry weather in the sunshine. but you can see it's going to cloud over a bit later into the southwest where the wind will strengthen and we'll start to see some rain coming in later again. for remembrance sunday, it's going to be a cloudier day, generally, any mist and fog that forms overnight will be slow to clear. and then we've got the rain sweeping in from the southwest. now, there's still a level of uncertainty about how far north this is going to track. so do keep up to date with the weather forecast. but temperature—wise, we're looking at eight in the north to 1a. you're watching bbc news, i'm samantha simmonds. the political row over a newspaper article by the home secretary, suella braverman, in which she criticised the met police over its handling of pro—palestinian marches, has deepened. the bbc understands ms braverman did not make all the edits requested by downing street to the article. writing in the times, ms braverman accused the met of "double standards", saying what she called "pro—palestinian mobs" were "largely ignored" even when they were clearly breaking the law. the prime minister does have full confidence in the home secretary. live now to our chief political correspondent henry zeffman, joining us from westminster. we have just had this we havejust had this in we have just had this in from the prime minister offering his full support from the home secretary. yes offerin: support from the home secretary. jazz offering his full support from the home secretary. 1213 offering his full confidence support from the home secretary. i2; offering his full confidence to the home secretary but there is another element that is really quite extraordinary, which is the prime minister's of spokesman saying the article that suella braverman wrote in the times newspaper this morning plastered across their front page dominating all the headlines was not cleared by 10 downing street that is extremely unusual that is to say if fact the article wasn't cleared is extremely unusual when anyone anyone in the government was to me because happy get it cleared by downing street first that is a government in 2023 works. it also to have downing street effectively airing that doty laundry in public and telling the public that didn't say toots will them will burma dispersion in the times, that is quite something.