Mayor of London statement on Met exiting Special Measures

• The Mayor has put the Met on the path of far reaching systemic and cultural reform. His focus on improving policing in London led to the appointment of a new Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner, the Baroness Casey Review and Sadiq is fully committed to turning the recommendations of the Baroness Casey review into long-lasting and meaningful change.
• As Mayor, Sadiq has delivered a package of measures to support the Met to exit Special Measures/Engage as quickly as possible and to accelerate the root and branch reforms and systemic change to the Met’s performance and culture. 

This includes:

• A record increase in police funding from City Hall, directly putting 1,300 extra police officers on the streets. This financial year alone, the Mayor has put in a record £151m to bolster policing and crime prevention in London. Since 2016, he’s doubled the funding the MPS receives from City Hall, taking it from 19 per cent of the Met’s total budget, to 25 per cent. 
• Enabled by this record funding, the MPS is spending nearly £480 million between 2023-24 and 2025-26 to address issues identified in the Engage process.
• Moving quickly to fulfil a key recommendation of the Baroness Casey review and established a London Policing Board which meets regularly and is chaired by the mayor to support and scrutinise the urgent reform of the Met.
• Directly funding nearly £15 million per year for the Met's Leadership Academy to support all Met leaders and line managers to raise standards across the Met Police Service. This is on top of £3 million funding each year from City Hall to improve the service all victims of crime receive when they call the police.
• Attending quarterly Engage process meetings (Policing Performance Overnight Group, led by HMICFRS since June 2022, with the Commissioner to ensure the Met’s reform and improvements are on track, and held fortnightly bilateral meetings with the Commissioner to go into further depth on progress and plans with the New Met for London plan.
• Following His Majesty’s Inspectorate finding cause for concern, asked HMICFRS to review of the Met’s handling of child sexual and criminal exploitation. The report’s findings led to improvements in the Met’s online child sexual abuse and exploitation teams. The Commissioner then built on this to drive significant improvements in his New Met for London Plan which has now trained 8,000 officers in the identification of child exploitation, launched a new Children’s Strategy and significantly increased the number of officers in our child exploitation teams. 
• Nothing is more important to the Mayor than keeping Londoners safe and he is determined to continue leading from the front to be tough on crime and its complex causes to build a safer London for all. Against the backdrop of devastating cuts to policing and youth services over the last 14 years by the previous Government, the Mayor’s record investment in the police and early intervention, through London’s Violence Reduction Unit, means the number of young people being injured with knives is down and there were fewer homicides of people under-25 in London last year than any year since 2003.

Crimes which have fallen over the Mayoralty (12-month period to May 2016 as compared to 12-month period to November 2024):     

• Knife crime with injury victims aged under 25 years (down 24%)    
• Gun Crime Lethal Barrel Discharge (down 40%)
• Violence with Injury (-7%)    
• Homicide (down 11%, thirteen fewer offences)     
• Burglary (down 22%)