Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board

Welcome Message from Deputy Mayor of Policing, Fire and Crime, Jo Coles:

Meeting Overviews

Meeting Date: 9th September 2025

Attendees:

• Dr Becky Leung (BL) – ISOB Chair
• Sharon Bartlett (SB) – Head of Organisational Learning, Development & Inclusion
• North Yorkshire Police
• CI Craig Malia – Chief Inspector Inclusion Team North Yorkshire Police
• Sheila Forder – Inclusivity and Public Confidence Manager, Policing, Fire and Crime
• York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (YNYCA)
• Hannah Nash Inclusivity and Public Confidence Officer, Policing, Fire and Crime
• York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (YNYCA)
• SGT Christopher Spackman Sergeant Operational Oversight North Yorkshire Police
• 5x ISOB Panel Members

Apologies from ACC Clarke, Kate Dickens (PRAP)

Chair Becky. L addressed the use of AI: AI is not permitted in any ISOB meeting. This is due to data protection and privacy issues. The board meetings also need to be made a safe space for individuals to feel they can share their thoughts and feelings openly, AI recordings and transcripts can prevent people from opening up as much as they otherwise would.

1. Introductions

BL introduced Sharon Bartlett, head of Organisational Learning, Development ＆ Inclusion. Sharon had been invited along to the meeting as a result of actions from the previous meetings, in which members wanted to understand the longevity of the cultural awareness program, and how organisational change was going to be sustained, past the training.

2. SB Presentation and Q&A.

ACTION: Slides from presentation to be shared

Question: Are discussions needed between Sharon and PSD?

Answer: Conversations have been had, however current policing is not served well enough by existing leadership programs, going forward the focus will be more on development. Will keep conversations with PSD open.

Question: Will this [behavioural and values framework] be rolled out across all new recruits?

Answer: Yes, this will be for all new recruits. It may take some time before working with recruitment and working out where this sits with the college of policing.

Question: The new framework looks at behaviour changes over values, are there any long-term measure plan to achieve what you want?

Answer: The heavy lifting for the change we want to see will not be done by this framework, measuring the behaviour change will be done in the leadership program.

SB: Overall, this is a challenging topic, but we have done similar work in South Yorkshire and are bringing lots of learning over. There will be lots of clear measures as to what people start and stop doing, which we will track going forwards. These will be a tangible measure against objectives.

Question: How do you plan to deal with resistance to behavioural change within the organisation?

Answer: So, part of this for me is starting and understanding where the resistance is coming from. We have already experienced some to a certain extent in behaviours. This has taken the team by surprise. It has helped understand where some resistance may come from.

Some learning from South Yorkshire was a discussion about rolling out from bottom up or town down. South Yorkshire decided to go bottom up, as there was a need to have impact on critical mass. However, the learning was that due to the rank structure of policing, the impact only reaches a certain point, and then unless leaders above create the environment in which they can embed behaviours and actions it reaches a standstill/comes to a head. The key things are engaging with senior leaders, having challenging conversations about privilege, tradition and modernity and moving forwards while respecting policing history. We (as police institutions) have developed functional leadership well, but not organisational leadership. It works operationally when dealing with harm and risk, and the ranks structure works well, but organisationally there is a need to lower armour and introduce levels of vulnerability. It is not about leadership styles, this is about creating facilitated development, reflection, emotional intelligence, valuable feedback, and lowering barriers and leaning in. This is about seeing senior leaders doing this. Until we try, we won’t know, but there is a huge appetite in the Chief Officer Team (COT), and with this COT there is a great opportunity to make some real impactful change.

Question: How are supervisors and leaders being prepared to model and reinforce these new behaviours?

Answer: We are going top down, and have already done a session with the COT. We have done reflection and growth mindset, and have already got meetings set up, both 1-1 and group. They are fully onboard with role modelling this which will be a good start.

Question: If the community feels the same historical issues persist despite these initiatives, how will their concerns be addressed?

Answer: Any feedback like this is really useful to the team, as if this is not having an impact on the ground we need to know. If we get this right, it will reflect externally. This will not be overnight or have immediate impact on communities. This will be a couple of years in the making, but we are hoping there will be subtle differences in the shorter term. This ties in with work the Police Race Action Plan team are doing on DEI and cultural awareness. The key is having the channels open for communities to feed back to us either way. Feedback about things that need to change are gold dust to us for providing reasons why we need to change behaviours and the impact it has. Everyone is working with the best intentions, but without feedback there is no way of knowing real impact.

Question/comment: Applaud the approach, top down is the way forward working in an organisation that is going through change. It is a very slow juggernaut, and the process will be

long and slow, but it does drive change where communication is key, where top down is constantly reminding everyone about the positive benefits it works, constant reminders needed otherwise it just gets lost.

Answer/Response: These behaviours stick when people keep hearing them in all channels. COT meetings, VIVA engage {a North Yorkshire Police announcement platform}, in meetings, in scrutiny boards, in panels etc. We just need to ensure the real core is consistent, repetitive and sustainable.

Question: How confident are you it will make real impact?

Answer: I’m a huge optimist, and I know that. But I am also determined and tenacious. Happy to try and try again until we get this right. This is hugely important and is the difference between our performance and how people experience North Yorkshire Police. We have to be really really focused on his. Because of input level and buy in from this Chief Officer Team, we have a window of opportunity, and I wouldn’t say that about every Police Force. While we have this Chief and team, we can do something really quite exciting.

Question: You are relying on senior leaders and what they are saying, do we have any assurance other than that?

Answer: The framework is the start, then leadership academy, and then Team NYP. Doing a supporting toolkit, lunch and learns etc. While it is top down, there are bits for everyone in the meantime. Who we promote over the next 18 months to two years in officer roles and staff to leadership, is important, we have to make sure we are testing them properly.

Question: Does your framework define what behaviours expect from everyone?

Answer: Yes, it highlights expected behaviours from everyone

SF: There will be opportunity to provide feedback and further questions if anyone wishes.

5 min break

 

Section Two: Police Powers Presentation (Chris Spackman)

Chair BL provided context – Exploring the possibility of scrutinising workstream 2about ensuring minoritised members of public feel respected during police use of powers, particularly regarding discrimination and disproportionality.

Need to gain more knowledge and understands stop and search to scrutinise properly prior to the December 2025 meeting.

Chris Spackman – Sergeant Operational Oversight North Yorkshire Police Materials already been sent 2 weeks ahead of meeting.

*Presentation on the laws and policies on stop and search, criteria in grading and assessing stop and search body worn videos* Question: How are stop and searches recorded compared to stop and question?

Answer: Stop and account {referring to ‘stop and question’ in the question} is not recorded formally – it is just speaking to someone, officers can ask a question to anyone, but a person does not need to answer, unless there is a suspicion of a crime. No details are therefore recorded, as it might just be everyday information. If we were to record stop and accounts, we would have to record every time we spoke to anyone in a policing manner. Body Worn Video, which I will come onto should always be recording if it is a policing interaction. i.e. anything more than a “hello how are you”. Stop and search has a formal recording process and officers must explain the legislation and must always be recorded, and a copy provided.

Question: If an officer is 110% certain they have something, even if they answer no questions, can they still search them?

Answer: Yes, but it all depends on their grounds, as always need grounds to search i.e. information, matches description, the officer still gives GOWISELY and has powers to carry out that search.

Question: How do you ensure all officers consistently follow the stop and search procedures, especially under pressure or in high-stress situations?

Answer: This is varied, the training that all officers get, but we have been developing it. Difficult with new younger officers. Have done training which we work with the College of Policing on. All Stop and Search is worn on Body Worn Video, all are reviewed by a supervisor, and a smaller team that dip sample younger people, minoritised individuals or no stated ethnicity. We work with use of force team and develop feedback on training. New training package is aimed at different levels, i.e. new starters less experienced. Always difficult in high stress but people have training that relates to the National Decision Model, first one is always nerve wrecking because it is so monitored and reviewed, officers must always have GOWISELY in their head.

Question: How do you balance race concerns in communities, and stop and search regulations?

Answer: The Police Race Action Plan team in North Yorkshire Police are working on this, but by always focusing on the impact on person, and community. At this point we have so many different forms of data, we can review the impact. This is also a part of the cultural awareness training that is being delivered to the force now. Should be using this training always and reviewed on Body Worn Video.

Further Answer from C. Malia: This is reinforced on two occasions, the PRAP team are now reviewing all Stop & Search on a deep dive basis. Looking at where there are community tensions, and if Stop & Search are worsening these. Current tension around asylum seekers for example, mean it would not be appropriate to hold Op Tornado in those areas. The stop search procedure is legislative and so must be adhered to, the scrutiny and review process is fed back to the individual officer involved, and any patterns are identified and addressed by supervisors. We {NYP} have stop search champions who are independent of the individual, and who will support, advise and guide, issues beyond this – it would go to PSD as misconduct

Question: What challenges do you face in implementing these frameworks, and how are they being addressed?

Answer: Challenges for me regarding disproportionality are making sure we combine together all available information. There is a lot going on for Police Officers all at the same time. We can sometimes lose sight of people and individuals, and how we should talk and react. Policing is all about talking, it doesn’t matter if people come from a different area, always be confident and polite and proportionate. Not overruling or overbearing.

Getting these frameworks in with a young front line can be difficult as there is so much churn and information. Even the same with the public if you think about how much information overload we now get as general public, but with Police Officers you also must think about taser, Body Worn Video, having people to protect etc. Sometimes people just get it wrong, and we are all human but there are lots of challenges, paperwork, scrutiny. Scrutiny is always for everyone’s benefit. People do not have to agree to a Stop and Search, but they have to understand the grounds.

Question: Police powers are externally managed nowadays, with mobile phones etc. Are Police Officers more aware now, and go through correct procedure?

Answer: It appears officers are conscious of this. We have seen a decrease in Stop and Search and increase in violent crime. Some officers scared of using force and Stop and Search because of these situations {referring to being filmed/scrutinised online}. We need experienced officers to guide new ones through this. Auditors can be hard to deal with as they are very aggressive, to the point we have had to change how security applies and entrances to stations, because they are sensitive areas in policing and sometimes, we need to protect that for public safety. Global social media has changed understandings of policing, which is sometimes tarred by other forces and other countries, and sometimes the line is blurred to the point you don’t know where it is taking place. All of this goes on online or on TV, and while they do get cameras in their face, it is not as often as you think, and we always promote to officers be confident in what you are doing, if you have your camera on and they do it is no problem unless they are stopping the Stop and Search being carried out. All about being balanced, having grounds and recording it.

Question: If new officers are scared to Stop and Search, surely if they go with experienced officer that should be no problem?

Answer: Agreed, the problem is that we do not have enough experienced officers on the front line to pair up with all new recruits. Every new officer gets paired up with a tutor officer, however you might not do a stop search in your first few months. So, the experience is not being built up frequently. E.g. on a night shift might be double or single crewed. More difficult when you have more people involved in the incident.

*End of questions*

Chair BL encourages follow up questions once information has been processed – the online feedback form will be open right up until a week before the next meeting to give plenty of time for reflection and further questions.

SF explained that it is important for this panel to understand Stop and Search, because we need an educated view if the panel are to grade body worn video of the occurrences. Emphasised the impact this panel really can have in terms of ability to scrutinise and send things to PSD if required. Particularly from the extra input from a race perspective.

ACTION: ISOB member who are not present in the meeting need to watch the recording of CS’s input on stop and search prior to the December meeting

5 min break.

Went through actions from previous meetings.

All actions addressed.

PRAP team have made sure all items addressed – will feed back in full at next meeting.

 

AOB

Question: At the 1st meeting it was mentioned the pane; would love to hear from either Dave Skaith or J Coles, to understand their values.

Answer: SF spoke with line manager, as DM Jo Coles is Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime, she will be at the next meeting as she is currently on AL. She will be available to be asked any questions and get the reassurance the panel require. This therefore has been addressed and is coming to the next meeting.

Concern Raised: Concerned about attendance, are we recruiting more panel members?

Answer: SF – discussions are ongoing, we agree. Some boards have a larger cohort, and not everyone can come to every meeting, which is ok. However, we have a few members who have never been to any meetings, so we will reassess their membership. Going forwards, we are going to put an advert out. 6 members at each meeting is the ideal number. Please do provide any feedback on the form as we need to hear how it is working for you. We want to have a meeting where everyone thinks they can attend, and want to do so.

Next Item: Way forward:

• Next meeting is election day
• We asked Becky to be the chair initially, everyone expressed interest. BL was always to be interim chair before proper elections. We will put out in writing by end of week but if you are interested, please write to SF with expression of interest. This is why the next meeting needs to be an in-person meeting. HN and SF will continue with admin work for now while the group is small.

SF: Force awards, out of all the categories, there is something called the people’s choice award determined by our office. Do the group want to be part of the panel? If you are interested in being a part of let SF have expression of interest.

Chair BL confirms dates going forwards, in June we agreed on a date 10th December. In person due to election on that date. Currently booked a room in YSJ, SF going to see about food/drinks. Time 5:30-8pm. Agreed start time best for everyone coming from different locations. Please give us feedback on post meeting form about format and meeting times if you have any.

Question: What is the expectation from us.

Question What is the expectation from the chair

*ACTION* Answer: SF & BL: The purpose for this meeting was to get everyone up to speed in evaluating and scrutinising stop and search, ensuring all members are prepared for the scrutiny work to take place in the December meeting.

Sheila to put full details into an email to ISOB members.

Question: ISOB name – should we not have oversight of all the scrutiny boards?

Answer: SF: Will raise this going forwards. Our oversight is however, in relation to the Police Race Action Plan within North Yorkshire Police only.

 

Previous Meetings

Meeting Date: 18 June 2025

Cultural Awareness; Workplace Development Programme as the focus of the evening.  

Session objective: To identify actionable recommendations for NYP PRAP. Second half of the meeting to be an open table discussion with ISOB members.  

Attendees:

• Becky Leung – Interim Chair of Board
• Sheila Forder – Inclusivity and Public Confidence Manager within the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority – Policing, Fire and Crime Directorate
• Hannah Nash –  Inclusivity and Public Confidence Officer within the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority – Policing, Fire and Crime Directorate
• Chief Constable Tim Forber – North Yorkshire Police
• CI Craig Malia – North Yorkshire Police
• Sgt Lailah Nijaila – North Yorkshire Police
• Five Public Panel Members also attended this meeting.

Meeting Notes: 

• Welcome from Chair Becky Leung. 

Agenda item 1 – Introduction to Chief Constable Forber. 

• Introduction to Tim Forber. About his first year leading the force and where he wants to take it in the medium term going forwards. 
• Chief Constable Forber stated he is determined to deliver effective community policing with communities – not to them. He believes this happens by understanding the cultural dimensions and what makes them tick. The recent Cultural Awareness Workplace Development Programme is the first step in becoming an outstanding police service to all organisations – but this will not be achieved with training alone.  
• The Chief said he is proud of the crime rate falling in North Yorkshire. There is comparatively high levels of confidence, and anti-social behaviour is falling. He believes an important part of all of this is independent scrutiny, such as this ISOB. 
• Chief Constable Forber concluded the opening by explaining he wants and welcomes constructive challenge. He then opened the room for questions.  

Questions by members of the ISOB to Chief Constable Forber.  

Question: When it comes to diversity, we are looking at a lot more than Black people – can the Police Race Action Plan’s focus on ‘Black’ make other people feel left out? Are you thinking about this when talking about the work being done? 

Answer:  This (the Police Race Action Plan) came out of the George Floyd incident, and the national programme looks at Black communities. My view is that North Yorkshire Police Race Action Plan should be about all communities and how North Yorkshire Police Interact with them. North Yorkshire does not have huge pockets of diverse communities which means people are potentially more isolated – if there is less of you, you are more isolated. It is more important to get it right here, communities draw strength from community, but there is not the same huge concentration in North Yorkshire as there is elsewhere. Police therefore need to be more proactive about that.  

Question: What do you consider to be the three main challenges internally regarding race? 

Answer:  

1 – Equality, Diversity and Inclusion structure and governance. North Yorkshire Police did not have a clear EDI strategy or a clear command structure. The governance was chaotic – we have now fixed this with a clear strategy and structure.  

2 – Recruitment and positive action. This was once a tick box exercise. North Yorkshire Police were, on paper, the only force that represents the community. You do need to recruit and make it an attractive organisation so that anyone sees it as an attractive organisation to join – but the real challenge is what it’s like when you get here and how inclusive is it. The focus here (and elsewhere) was that if you use overt racism you’re out – which is true as anyone being overtly racist will lose their job. But, if you speak to colleagues in the force, particularly from diverse backgrounds, this is not the issue, it’s about covert language, feeling like people don’t belong, microaggressions. Having a spreadsheet gives you a sense of who you have, but the power of diversity is the challenge. Groupthink would not be a good organisation; North Yorkshire Police need different perspectives to challenge and do things differently. People must have the confidence to speak up and feel like their opinions are valid.  

3 – Building leadership that lasts. A key piece of work will be a values and behaviours strategy to underpin the leadership academy and training, the key is not courses and a strategy, the key is about the highest quality frontline leadership. Leadership academy and training will be rolled across all tiers of officers and staff. Every single selection process will test on the values and behaviours expected within the organisation. Values and behavioural statements need to have clear positive and negative behaviour statements, that underpin the broader policy.  

• Chief Constable Forber closed this section of the meeting by thanking all members for their time, and explaining how appreciated it is that they have given up their time to be here.  

Agenda Item 2: Police Race Action Plan team presentation about the Cultural Awareness Programme. 

• (Programme has already been attended by all ISOB members in the room).  
• Slides to be shared with the group.  

Questions following the presentation:  

Question: Some officers are not sure how to react to different cultures, some people will still be problematic after training. Do you think they need to go out with experienced officers to experience it? 

Answer: The training for concepts is provided, and application will be helped by the ‘influencers’ within the organisation who are the people who can go with and help those who need additional assistance and/or learning. Leadership also crucial, when they see officers day in, day out, they will need to pick people up on areas for development. A whole system approach is needed as people might not pick things up or know how to address them now. This is just the fundamental basics and how it is implemented afterwards will come with the further work.  

Question: The narrative of today seems to be we are working with these officers to make culture changes. Are we recognising how difficult culture change is? Recent interactions with people who are born and raised in North Yorkshire showed that people using ‘coloured’ as a normal way to refer to an individual in a conversation. Recruiting in North Yorkshire is drawing people from a population who may not be open to change.  

Answer: North Yorkshire Police have just appointed someone who is doing a cultural audit to baseline where the organisation is in terms of the culture. We are aware that North Yorkshire Police have lots of little cultural issues rather than a big one, we need to identify them and find out where they come from. The focus on performance over culture needs to change, Sharon Bartlett has created a new framework, and the cultural audit piece will be important in seeing how this training has landed, and where the next training needs to be based. Cultural training will be a slow process, while adapting to a high staff turnover (due to the new modern nature of policing jobs).  

• • Action: Have S. Bartlett invited to next meeting to discuss the work her team are undertaking.  

Question 2: This influencer programme sounds good, and the workplace development programme. Do you think within the force you have a genuine education problem outside of police, i.e. Exposure and emotional intelligence? 

Answer: In general terms yes, an emotional intelligence problem, down to training that is yes, or no. A lot of policing is reading body language so frontline police officers (that are the minority) have a specified situational emotional intelligence. We have seen and monitored that this is something that lacks. Not grasping that situations being explained are the true lived experience of someone – people get defensive and defend their mates, no matter what anyone says their experience is. We need more people to be open to understanding it is not an attack on policing but is an education. This sweet spot was achieved today in the training, so it looks positive going forwards.  

Question 3: There is a national educational issue, so might this be worth considering in recruitment processes? 

Answer 3: The police are the community, and the community are the police. Policing isn’t perfect or we wouldn’t be sat here now or have matters that reach reflective practice. Reflection is not something people are used to doing, as they have three years of training being told what to do. 

Agenda Item 3: Break  

• Action: Request food for future meetings. Timing of meeting and travel times means people have been unable to eat. 

Agenda Item 4: Table Discussion on Powerpoint and thoughts on training viewed 

• Police Race Action Plan team left the room to ensure discussion could be unbiased, open and honest.  
• Section 2: Table discussion.  
• BL: each identify two areas for constructive feedback.  

ACTION: send material out 2-3 days in advance before next meeting i.e. PowerPoints or other feedback.  

• • Be aware of culture, language and accent and how they look at officers (i.e. different cultures look at officers in different ways). When they know about this it will be easier to deal with jobs and different communities.  
  • Remember there are all sorts of cultures everywhere.  
  • Lack of problem-based discussion within the training. Most of the officers were asked to commit one thing they will do. A lot was about self-understanding and was on the passive side. Using more problem-based learning might help – might increase investment. – add to that, the concern is the roll out plan in a long term, how do you maintain it? How do you encourage a person to learn more? 
  • To add to the above – the myth busting exercise was useful in the practical side, but could there be a scenario based learning to make it more realistic to how to apply it in reality when interacting with racially minoritised members of the community.  
  • Last part of the training on allyship, with policing now its always a plan on a page, might need to revisit what sort of follow up has been done, they go into a day of training but what consolidates the learning is continuity and reflective practice.
  • ACTION: follow up in the next meeting with the PRAP team about what they will do with creating the learning that will be sustainable  

• • Rethink in terms of baseline education and emotional intelligence. 
  • How are officers encouraged to internalise the learning.  
  • Feel they need to be treated like humans, the educators just fired information at them but start with something to ease them in like a pre session homework or something to think about.  

• • ACTION: all materials and updates to be sent out prior to meetings. Send out pre and post learning materials.  

• • Q: Programme very flat in nature, did not consider multidimensional nature. Different ways to consider race from public, police, assumptions, introduced to concept and lacked multidimensional nature. This opinion was seconded, it was a lot of information – was hoping for more time for the learners to interact.  
• • ACTION: opportunity for the group to provide more detailed feedback. Send out pre and post learning materials and people can provide feedback to be compiled in a large document. Response from the PRAP team to be provided in the next meeting.
•  Chair asked each ISOB member to identify two areas for constructive feedback. 
• Policing, Fire, and Crime team member, H. Nash shared the feedback from the Youth Commission.  
• Each ISOB member shared their initial feedback, but given new information had been provided from the Police Race Action Plan team, it was agreed they would be provided with additional materials and given another opportunity to provide feedback.  
• Feedback will be collected post-meeting, and a response from the Police Race Action Plan team will be provided at the next meeting. 

25 March 2025

The first meeting of the new Independent Scrutiny and Oversight Board (ISOB) took place at Police and Fire Headquarters, in Northallerton, on Tuesday the 25th of March from 18:00-21:00.

The ISOB is administered by the Police Fire and Crime Team within the Combined Authority but chaired by an independent member of the ISOB until elections are held at a future meeting.

Attendees:

• Becky Leung – Interim Chair of Board
• Sheila Forder – Inclusivity and Public Confidence Manager within the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority – Policing, Fire and Crime Directorate
• Hannah Nash –  Inclusivity and Public Confidence Officer within the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority – Policing, Fire and Crime Directorate
• DCC Scott Bissett – North Yorkshire Police
• CI Craig Malia – North Yorkshire Police
• Sgt Lailah Nijaila – North Yorkshire Police
• Sgt Lejli Scrowston – North Yorkshire Police
• Nine Public Panel Members also attended this meeting.

Meeting Notes:

The meeting started with the opening address from Deputy Mayor Jo Coles in which she welcomed our volunteers and thanked them for their commitment to improving policing for the people of York and North Yorkshire.

The full video can be viewed on the Combined Authority website, under Police, Fire and Crime.

DCC Scott Bisset followed to echo the Deputy Mayor’s words, and explained why public scrutiny is crucial in this space, and assured the board that tough scrutiny is both welcomed and encouraged.

Introductions were led by Chair Becky Leung, and origins and backgrounds to everyone’s names were explained.

The ISOB then took a short break for food and prayer time, for those participating in Ramadan.

Once introductions were concluded, Sheila Forder, Inclusivity & Public Confidence Manager in the Combined Authority ran through administration and expected conduct for ISOB members. This included a presentation and brief video.

The Chair then opened the room up for discussion on the date of the next meeting. Once a time, day and week had been decided between all of the ISOB members in attendance, the next meeting was set for the Wednesday 18th June, at 17:30.

CI Malia then presented an overview of the work that North Yorkshire Police are currently doing on the national Police Race Action Plan (PRAP), and what the North Yorkshire Police Race Action Plan looks like specifically.

CI Malia explained the set up in North Yorkshire was a dedicated PRAP team and ran through the four workstreams that the team are currently working on.

All ISOB members were provided with copies of both the National PRAP and the North Yorkshire PRAP. The floor was then opened up for questions.