A damning internal review has revealed that the Metropolitan Police failed to properly vet thousands of officers and staff between 2013 and 2023, allowing serial rapists including David Carrick and Cliff Mitchell to join or remain in the force. The Home Office confirmed that more than 5,000 individuals were recruited without adequate checks, and around 17,000 officers and staff cannot be confirmed as having undergone pre-employment vetting.
The review found that 1,400 officers who should have been flagged during vetting were left in post with police powers. Among them, 131 officers committed criminal or misconduct offences, ranging from rape to drug crimes and hate offences. David Carrick, one of the UK's worst sex offenders, was able to stay in the force after passing revetting in 2017 despite prior complaints, and was later jailed for 48 rapes. Cliff Mitchell, hired despite an unproven child rape allegation, was convicted of 10 counts of rape.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood described the abandonment of vetting checks as 'a dereliction of the Met’s duty to keep London safe' and commissioned an inspection by HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary. The Met attributed the failings to intense pressure to recruit quickly, particularly during the government's Police Uplift Programme which aimed to hire 20,000 officers between 2020 and 2023.
The report warned that the scale of deviations had led to the recruitment and retention of individuals who should never have joined, contributing to police-perpetrated harm and public distrust. Assistant Commissioner Rachel Williams acknowledged historical shortcomings but stressed that the force had identified the issues itself and fixed them, with 1,500 officers removed since 2022.
Five other police forces in England and Wales were also found to have made similar vetting errors, raising broader concerns about recruitment practices across the country. The Met said its current standards are much higher, but the review exposed a systemic failure that allowed dangerous individuals to remain in policing.
