LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s most senior policeman said it was “absurd” that a court judgment handed down on Tuesday meant he could not sack serving officers who failed a vetting review, even if they had been accused of rape or other serious crimes.
Mark Rowley, the Commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), has been under huge pressure to clean up his force, the largest and most prominent in the country, after the conviction of a number of officers for serious high profile crimes including murder and rape.
In order to regain the public’s trust, he instigated a scheme to review vetting approval for serving officers who had previously faced allegations of domestic or sexual offending, but had not been convicted of any offences.
The aim was to dismiss those who would not have been hired under current vetting procedures.
However, the High Court in London on Tuesday quashed a decision to remove the vetting clearance for a serving sergeant who had faced allegations of rape and other accusations about his conduct, ruling it would be unlawful and a breach of his human rights. The sergeant had denied all the allegations.
“Today’s ruling on the law has left policing in a hopeless position,” Rowley said. “We now have no mechanism to rid the Met of officers who are not fit to hold vetting. It is absolutely absurd that we cannot lawfully sack them.”
Inquiries in recent years have found serial failings and mistakes in the MPS’s vetting of officers, and flawed investigations into those against whom complaints were made. A 2023 review concluded the MPS was institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic.
In the past 18 months, 90 officers have been sacked or resigned during the review process brought in by Rowley, 29 have lost their vetting clearance, and more than 100 are still having their vetting reviewed.
Rowley said the court’s ruling, which the MPS will appeal, meant those officers who had lost their vetting clearance would be placed on special leave at a cost of millions of pounds.
“A ridiculous waste of money, but the least bad option until regulations are repaired,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Home Office (interior ministry) said the government was acting rapidly to change the rules to allow those who had lost their vetting clearance to be sacked.
(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Gareth Jones)
