Former Ealing Boss To Head Riots Panel

---

Darra Singh to chair inquiry panel

The former chief executive of Ealing Council is to head a team of experts who will be looking into the riots of this summer.

Darra Singh - now chief executive of Jobcentre Plus - will chair the panel, which will also include Simon Marcus, the founder of the Boxing Academy in London, Baroness Sherlock, previously chief executive of the National Council for One Parent Families, and Heather Rabbatts, a former barrister.

Mr Singh,51, who was born in Wolverhampton but grew up in Bradford, previously chaired a commission for integration and cohesion panel for Labour in 2006. Trained as a lawyer he worked in housing advice and went on to run housing authorities he worked in Ealing from 2005- 2009, before moving to Jobcentre Plus.

Mr Singh said: "This is an important opportunity. I think it is vital that we hear straight from individuals and communities that have been affected directly and indirectly by the riots. Along with the other panel members, I am looking forward to hearing their views on the causes and their ideas on how similar events can be prevented in future."

 

The panel has been asked to investigate six areas:

• Why people took part in riots.

• Why the riots happened in some areas and not others.

• How key public services engaged with communities before, during and after the riots.

• What motivated local people to come together to take civic action to resist riots in their area or to clean up after riots had taken place.

• How communities can be made more socially and economically resilient in the future, in order to prevent future problems.

• What they think could have been done differently to prevent or manage the riots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1st September 2011