Information about officers in Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection command since March 2021

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.029932

I note you seek access to the following information:

Since March 2021 can you tell me how many officers have been removed from duty on the parliamentary estate due to sexual offences?

And since March 2021 how many officers have been removed from duty on the parliamentary estate due to criminal allegations?

Clarification:
Can you give me the figures for all three: suspended, restricted and dismissed?

Decision

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full.

Please find below information pursuant to your request above.

This data was retrieved on 01/06/2023 from Centurion, the complaints, conduct and discipline case management system used by DPS.

Since March 2021 can you tell me how many officers have been removed from duty on the parliamentary estate due to sexual offences?

Restricted Duties	1
Suspended	4

And since March 2021 how many officers have been removed from duty on the parliamentary estate due to criminal allegations?

Restricted Duties	9
Suspended	1

 

Dismissed	2
Would Have been Dismissed	2

*Officers also appear in tables 1 and 2

We treat allegations of officer criminality very seriously. Officers under investigation for alleged crimes are usually suspended or placed on restricted duties that limit them to working away from the public.

Please note that ‘would have been dismissed’ in the above table denotes that officers resigned from their position prior to a misconduct hearing. However, the hearing still took place and it was decided if serving they would have been dismissed.

In addition, I would like to draw your attention to the information below, which has been included in MPS press lines and explains the work being undertaken in this area.

“The Met has launched its strongest doubling down on standards in 50 years.

We have launched a public-facing hotline asking for reports of Met officers abusing their position of trust.

We are also re-assessing some of our most sensitive professional standards investigations in recent years. We are reviewing all concluded cases in relation to which allegations of sexual offending or domestic violence were made against Met officers and staff between April 2012 and April 2022 and the officers or staff members concerned remain in the police service.

By the end of March 2023 we completed a thorough and comprehensive background assessment on 1,131 individuals across the widest spectrum of databases enhanced by open source checks to be able to properly assess the risk posed by these people.

Any cases that remain live, or cases in relation to which the allegation was made after April 2022, are being investigated by our newly formed dedicated and specialist Domestic Abuse and Sexual Offences Team within our Professional Standards Unit

We have invested more resource into our Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS), diverting officers from other missions – and are now investigating more gross misconduct and doing so more effectively.

Since September 2022, we have increased the number of gross misconduct hearings by more than a third and the number of officers dismissed for gross misconduct by more than 50%.

Through our concerted and thorough efforts to encourage and enable people to come forwards, assess past investigations and enhance and strengthen our DPS team, we are making headway in delivering the long-term improvements to standards and culture in the Met that Londoners deserve.

Please see Met provides first update on strongest doubling down on standards for 50 years for more information on the Met’s wide-reaching work to improve standards.”