The Met could be more than 2,000 officers short by next year because of recruitment failures in a “missed opportunity for the people of London”, the policing minister has warned Sadiq Khan.
Chris Philp says in a leaked letter to the London Mayor that he has “serious concerns” about Scotland Yard’s officer numbers and urges Mr Khan to do more to address the problems.
Mr Philp says the Met — which earlier this year fell 1,089 officers short of the number it was meant to hire in a government-funded uplift programme — is already the only force in the country to fail to hit its target.
But he warns that modelling suggested the shortfall is poised to get even worse to leave the Met 1,800 to 2,000 officers down on the 36,500 it should have by the end of March 2024.
In the letter, obtained by the Standard, Mr Philp asks the Mayor what more he is going to do to support the Met in its recruitment efforts.
“I am writing to you about serious concerns I have over the Metropolitan Police plans to maintain officer numbers in 2023-24,” Mr Philp tells Mr Khan. “I am disappointed to note that, by the end of March 2024, the force could be further from its target level [of 36,500 officers], and at least 1,800 officers short of where it should have been in terms of total headcount.
“This shortfall could extend to over 2,000 officers based on... modelling assumptions. I am sure that you will recognise this failure to recruit enough officers as a missed opportunity for the people of London. Funding was made available to all forces to recruit additional officers and maintain numbers.”
Mr Philp says the problem “has been reached largely through a deficit in the required number of applications for police constable roles over a sustained period of years”.
He adds that the Met’s efforts to increase applications and “support the officer headcount” via other schemes have “evidently failed” to achieve enough success and urges Mr Khan, who oversees the Met, to assist the force to stop numbers deteriorating.
Sophie Linden, City Hall's deputy mayor for policing, insisted that the Mayor was helping the Met recover from previous government funding cuts and was “directly funding 1,300 police officers in our town centres and communities” as well as supporting the force’s wider recruitment efforts.
She added: "The Mayor and I make no apology for ensuring that the Met recruits police officers of the highest quality, rather than focusing on quantity at any cost. There has been a huge mountain to climb given the sheer numbers of officers lost due to government austerity measures.
“The Commissioner believes 6,000 more officers are needed yet the Government have only provided funding for 4,557. That’s why we continue to call on the Government to work with us and support the action being taken by the Mayor and Met to reform the police and provide London with the number of officers required to help build a better, safer city for all.”
