MPS recruitment and retainment statistics, and policies before and after Cressida Dick's resignation
Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.22.026739
I note you seek access to the following information:
1. Please Provide organigrams of the structure of The Met's senior officers and local teams:
a) Before Cressida Dick resigned
b) After Cressida Dick resigned
2. Please specify any changes to the structure that were implemented after Cressida Dick's resignation.
3. Please Provide Recruitment statistics from the two intakes of officers immediately before and after Cressida Dick's resignation, specifically:
a) How many prospective candidates applied
b) How many candidates passed interview
c) How many were employed
4. Please Provide officer resignation statistics for the 6 months immediately before and after Cressida Dick's resignation, specifically:
a) How many probationary officers resigned
b) How many officers who had passed their probation resigned
c) How many of these were senior officers
5. Where there any changes / additions to the following polices / processes post Cressida Dick's resignation:
a) Inclusion Strategy
b) Equality Scheme
c) Recruitment
d) Social Media
e) Vetting
f) Onboarding mandatory learning
6. And if so, what were they?
7. Please provide statistics from the staff engagement survey directly before and after Cressida Dick's resignation.
Decision
I have today decided to disclose some of the requested information. Some data has been withheld as it is exempt from disclosure and therefore this response serves as a Refusal Notice under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) by virtue of the following exemptions:
Section 21 – Information reasonably accessible by other means
Section 40(2)(3)&(4) – Personal Information
Reason for decision
Please also be advised that, as per our previous correspondence, I am still waiting for some of the requested information from other departments and this response is therefore relevant only to your questions numbered 1(a)(b)[in part], 2, 3(a)(b)(c), 4(a)(b)(c)[in part], and 7.
Section 21 – Information reasonably accessible by other means - The information requested has been identified as being accessible via other means as it is already published. Where information is already in the public domain we are not required to re-publish the data; instead public authorities are required to direct you to the information, which we have done in this instance. This action is in accordance with Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Section 40(2)(3)&(4) – Personal Information - provides an exemption for Personal Information and this is known as the Section 40 exemption.
Where a request is seeking access to third party personal data the section 40(2) exemption may be engaged.
In order to apply the Section 40(2) exemption, the disclosure of the requested information must satisfy either the first, second or third conditions as defined by subsections 3A, 3B and 4A of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (as amended by Section 58 of the Data Protection Act 2018).
The first condition ensures that the exemption would apply in circumstances where the disclosure of the information would breach any of the Data Protection Act 2018 principles.
There are six Data Protection principles set out in the 2018 Act and these can be found at section 34.
In this instance I have decided that the disclosure of the Personal Data requested would be incompatible with the first Data Protection principle which states that the processing (in this case the disclosure) of the data must be both lawful and fair.
At your question numbered 4(c) you have asked how many senior officers resigned within the 6 months immediately before and after Cressida Dick's resignation. Please be advised that extremely low figures have been located in response to this question and if we were to disclose this information it would, due to low data, identify individuals and release personal information in relation to those individuals into the public domain. Any such disclosure of personal information would be in breach of the rights provided by the Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulations. This would be neither fair nor lawful as individuals concerned would not expect information that would identify them to be released in response to a FOIA request. I have therefore made the decision to disclose total figures of resignations broken down by month and Section 40(2)(3) of the Act, has been applied to refuse any further breakdown.
Secondly, at your question 7 you have asked us to provide statistics from the staff engagement survey directly before and after Cressida Dick's resignation. I am pleased to inform you that the information requested is held by the MPS and is already in the public domain. The staff survey is conducted twice a year, in October and May and the results for the October 2021 and May 2022 surveys are currently published on the Publication Scheme on the MPS website. To assist and for your convenience please find links direct to the published information below:
MPS staff Survey - October 2021.pdf
MPS staff Survey -May 2022.pdf
Disclosure
Please note: your questions have been numbered to ensure clarity in our response.
Q1 - Please provide organigrams of the structure of The Met's senior officers and local teams:
a) Before Cressida Dick resigned
b) After Cressida Dick resigned
Firstly, please note that information in relation to local teams has not yet been passed to the Information Rights Unit and is not included in this response.
Answer 1 (a). Please find attached Executive Structure Organigram for March 2022, the executive structure in place prior to Cressida Dick’s resignation, and
Answer 1 (b). Please find attached the Executive Structure Organigram for April 2022, the organisational chart immediately after Cressida Dick’s resignation.
Q2 - Please specify any changes to the structure that were implemented after Cressida Dick's resignation.
Answer 2. The only changes were Sir Steve House becoming Acting Commissioner (AC) and AC Helen Ball becoming Acting Deputy Commissioner (ADC), however, please refer to the organigrams disclosed in response to your questions 1(a)(b) for your own comparison.
Q3 - Please provide recruitment statistics from the two intakes of officers immediately before and after Cressida Dick's resignation, specifically:
a) How many prospective candidates applied?
b) How many candidates passed interview?
c) How many were employed?
Answer 3 (a). The table below details the number of applications in the two months prior and the two months after Commissioner Dick’s resignation:
| Jan 2022 | Feb 2022 | March 2022 | April 2022 |
| 1549 | 1765 | 3508 | 2421 |
Answer 3 (b). Candidates who would have completed their interview two months prior to, and two months after, Commissioner Dick’s resignation are unlikely to have completed the full recruitment process and therefore, it is highly probable that none of those candidates would be included in the two intakes prior to or after Commissioner Dick’s resignation.
Answer 3 (c). The candidates who would have started their recruitment process two months prior to and two months after Commissioner Dick’s resignation would not have had sufficient time to complete the full recruitment process. Therefore, it would be impossible for any candidates starting their recruitment journey at that stage to have been employed within a two month window.
Q4 - Please provide officer resignation statistics for the 6 months immediately before and after Cressida Dick's resignation, specifically:
a) How many probationary officers resigned?
b) How many officers who had passed their probation resigned?
c) How many of these were senior officers?
Answer 4. Please see table attached. Please note, the data provided is based on Commissioner Dick’s last day of work and not her resignation. We are still awaiting data for August and September 2021.
Answer 4 (a)(b). It is most likely that if an officer has over two years’ service then they will have passed their probation.
Q5 - Were there any changes / additions to the following polices / processes post Cressida Dick's resignation:
a) Inclusion Strategy
b) Equality Scheme
c) Recruitment
d) Social Media
e) Vetting
f) Onboarding mandatory learning
Answer 5. Firstly, please be advised that information is still being collated in response to your questions 5(a)(b)(d)(e) & (f)
Answer 5 (c) – Recruitment. From March 2022, the MPS made a number of improvements to the police officer recruitment process to improve overall time to hire, reduce attrition in the pipeline, and enhance the candidate experience in order to yield talented candidates from the employment market. Enhancements to candidate engagement included materials relating to professional standards and MPS values to be used throughout candidate engagement and ‘in offer’ documentation to ensure that candidates are clear about what the MPS’ expectations are. Post implementation of those improvements, the MPS has a follow-up programme of work looking to make further improvements to time of hire, attrition and candidate engagement – due to conclude this financial year.
In terms of experienced officer recruitment, the MPS follows the nationally set transferee and re-joiner recruitment guidelines and ensure that we have adequate checks throughout the process to assess values, standards and suitability including a good standard of performance, attendance and conduct. We are firm in our requirement to hold in-person values-based interviews, conducted by trained resourcing Inspectors, which is above the baseline national transferee recruitment guidance issued by College of Policing.
In May 2022 The MPS made further enhancements – strengthening employment references by requiring approval from a senior ranking colleague (i.e. minimum Chief Inspector rank) as opposed to first line manager in order to provide assurance around the robustness of the reference.