The Met has published the results of a major internal review examining historical vetting and hiring practices during the Police Uplift Programme (PUP).
Operation Jorica examined a 10-year period up to April 2023, covering the PUP’s recruitment of 20,000 new officers across England and Wales, with the Met tasked to hire 4,557 of them.
The review found a series of failures in vetting and hiring standards.
Assistant Commissioner Rachel Williams said: “In publishing this report today, we are being open and transparent about past vetting and recruitment practices that led, in some cases, to unsuitable people joining the Met.
“We have been honest with Londoners on many occasions about previous shortcomings in our professional standards approach.
“This review is part of our ongoing work to demand the highest standards across the Met so the public can have trust and confidence in our officers.
“We found that some historical practices did not meet the strengthened hiring and vetting standards we have today.
“We identified these issues ourselves and have fixed them quickly while making sure any risk to the public has been properly and effectively managed.”
In order to meet national targets, the Met deviated from aspects of Vetting Authorised Professional Practice (APP), national guidance and Police Regulations 2003 immediately before and during the PUP.
Key failures included not carrying out national security and Ministry of Defence vetting checks on new recruits, and no additional vetting for officers transferring from other forces or those returning after less than a year away.
For just over four years, some or all pre-employment references were not obtained for new hires.
The Met said: “The combined effect of these deviations meant a number of police officers and staff joined or remained in the Met who would not have passed vetting checks using the strengthened standards we have today.
“Sadly, some became involved in criminal behaviour or misconduct.”
The review identified that around 5,100 recruits were subject to limited checks.
In addition, around 3,338 existing officers and staff had limited vetting during renewal.
Analysis suggests that approximately 1,200 individuals—4.4 per cent of 27,300 applicants during the review period—might have failed vetting under updated standards.
Of a potential 17,355 applicants who may not have had all their references taken, an estimated 250 people (1.4 per cent) could have been found unsuitable.
The force said: “However, over the last three years the Met has exited more than 1,500 officers and staff who have fallen short of the high standards we expect from our workforce—the biggest clear-out in the force’s history.”
Of those still serving and identified through Operation Jorica, 39 officers needed to be fully re-vetted.
Eight have been referred into the Police (Vetting) Regulations 2025 process to consider whether they should have their vetting removed and be dismissed.
The review also criticised a vetting panel system designed to address disproportionality in refusals, which overturned 114 decisions and ultimately allowed individuals later involved in wrongdoing to join the Met.
In response to the findings, the Met has reinstated reference checks, and strengthened entry vetting procedures.
Pre-employment references for officers were reinstated in April 2022, and new recruits are now subject to “much strengthened” vetting standards.
The force is also piloting new intelligence-led approaches to workforce vetting and has increased its professional standards team by 200 officers.
Operation Onyx—a linked review focused on sexual and domestic abuse case handling—led to 378 individuals leaving the Met.
A separate review, Operation Assure, resulted in 96 dismissals for vetting failures.
The Met now cross-checks its entire workforce daily against crime and intelligence databases.
It has made 11 recommendations for wider policing, including calls for a national review of recruitment and vetting standards by the College of Policing and the Home Office, and for any future large-scale hiring schemes to fully consider vetting capacity and compliance.
