The Metropolitan Police will no longer attend emergency calls related to mental health incidents unless there is a threat to life, Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has announced. The change takes effect on 31 August, giving health and social care services a 99-day deadline to prepare for the new policy.
In a letter to the force's health partners, Sir Mark said the status quo was “untenable” because officers were being diverted from crime-fighting and patients requiring medical expertise were being failed by police attendance. The move is part of the national “Right Care, Right Person” (RCRP) scheme, which aims to ensure mental health crises are handled by health professionals.
The Met currently handles approximately 10,000 hours of mental health-related calls each month, and officers spend nearly one million hours a year waiting in hospitals for patients to be assessed – equivalent to attending 500,000 domestic abuse incidents or 600,000 burglaries, according to national police data. Sir Mark said the force received a record 9,292 emergency 999 calls on 28-29 April, of which only 30% were crime-related.
The RCRP approach was pioneered by Humberside Police, where it has freed up 7% of officer time for crime-fighting and improved patient care, according to a November 2022 report by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary. The government has called for nationwide rollout, but health chiefs argue that austerity has left services under-resourced to cope with additional demand.
Sir Mark acknowledged the change may be challenging for ambulance and NHS staff, but stressed that “every day that we permit the status quo to remain we are collectively failing patients and are not setting officers up to succeed.” The Met is Britain’s largest force, accounting for nearly a quarter of all police officers in England and Wales.
