Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, blames Home Office foot-dragging for a failure to change regulations that would allow police forces to dismiss officers failing vetting procedures. A recent high court ruling deemed the Met's policy of dismissing such officers unlawful. Rowley expressed disappointment with civil servants, highlighting a 25-year history of inaction despite support from home secretaries. He emphasized the need for quick action to ensure public safety and cited a letter from former senior officers calling for necessary reforms on vetting policies.
We needed the ability to remove officers who had failed vetting and subsequent appeal procedures. That nothing has changed 25 years later is bewildering.
I've had all home secretaries in the last two years saying yeah, we'll fix this', and they've asked officials to do it. I could see officials were being slow.
Collection
[
|
...
]