UK: Annesley Fails to Get Met
01 November 1992
RUC Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley has not been appointed Metropolitan Commissioner to replace Peter Imbert. The job has gone instead to Kent's Chief Constable, Paul Condon, who seems to have impressed the Home Secretary with his liaison with the French and preparations for policing the channel tunnel. Annesley was widely tipped for the post and his Police Foundation lecture (21.7.92) was seen as setting out his manifesto for the policing of Britain in the 21st century. The lecture questioned the need for 43 police forces and made the case for a national force operated on a regional basis. Understanding that this was unlikely in the immediate future, Annesley proposed two new operational units, a National Crime Squad and a National Anti-Terrorist Unit. The latter would have four divisions, one concerned with the cultivation of informants, the second with the gathering, analysis and assessment of intelligence, the third with providing an operational capacity to respond to such intelligence, and the fourth, a training, legal and support service wing. The unit, Annesley suggests, would incorporate the Security Service, the Metropolitan Police Special Branch and Anti-Terrorist Unit, with a significant input from provincial CID and Special Branches. It would also include military and customs personnel with the capacity to co-opt specific skills from other agencies or departments as appropriate. The National Anti-Terrorist Unit would provide "a single police and intelligence focal point for liaison with the RUC, the Garda and the police forces and intelligence services of Europe and North America". Who would lead such a unit, Annesley asks? The professional discipline of the post holder is secondary to getting the right person, he goes on to argue, and that person has to be someone capable of operating at the level of Metropolitan Police Commissioner and with a line of command to the Home Secretary "but with direct access to the Prime Minister".
Annesley's lecture gave details of firearms and explosives supplied by Libya to the IRA prior to the French customs seizure of the Eksund. These are estimated to include: 6 tons of Semtex, 1500 plus AKM rifles, 1.5 million rounds of ammunition, 20 SAM missiles, 50 RPG7 rocket launchers, 10 flamethrowers, a quantity of general purpose and heavy machine guns.
Guardian 23.10.92; Police Journal October 1992.