Anti-black discrimination ‘baked’ into Met Police, report finds, as Stephen Lawrence’s mother says ‘change must take place now’

A review of anti-black racism within the Metropolitan Police has found that discrimination is “baked” into its HR systems.

The Met’s systems, leadership, governance and culture are producing racial harm, the investigation concluded.

Shereen Daniels, the review’s author, said discrimination is “baked” into the “institutional design” of the force.

“Plans that ignore this will always return to the same logic, manage perception, avoid power, thus continuing the cycle,” she added.

The internal review said darker-skinned staff are “labelled confrontational” while lighter-skinned staff may receive quicker empathy and leniency.

The review draws on more than 40 years of evidence showing how racism has shaped the Met’s relationship with black communities and affected black officers and staff.

Scotland Yard said it welcomed the report in full and recognised the scale of the challenges set out.

Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Mark Rowley described the report as “powerful”, adding that it “calls out that further systemic, structural, cultural change is needed”.

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He said: “London is a unique global city, and the Met will only truly deliver policing by consent when it is inclusive and anti-racist.”

He said the level of trust that black Londoners have in the Met has increased by 10% in two years, but still trails behind others, adding that “we remain committed to listening, learning, and acting on their concerns”.

Sir Mark also pointed to initiatives such as New Met for London and the London Race Action Plan, which he said were helping the Met Police to make progress.

The study, 30 Patterns Of Harm: A Structural Review Of Systemic Racism Within The London Metropolitan Police Service, was commissioned from the consultancy HR Rewired.

The latest examination of the force comes after Louise Casey’s 2023 review, commissioned after the murder of Sarah Everard, found the Met “institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic”.

Reviews spanning decades have criticised the Met for being discriminatory, including the MacPherson report (1999) that called it “institutionally racist” after officers’ mishandling of the Stephen Lawrence case.

Mr Lawrence’s mother welcomed the new report, but said it contained “nothing that I did not already know”.

Baroness Doreen Lawrence, whose 18-year-old son was killed in a racist attack in southeast London in 1993, said: “Racism was the reason why Stephen was killed and racism was the reason why the police have failed to find all of his killers.

“Racism must be acknowledged, accepted and confronted in the Met.

“In the three decades since my son’s murder there has never been an honest acceptance of racism and how it has affected how our communities are treated.

“The police must stop telling us that change is coming whilst we continue to suffer. That change must take place now.”

Ms Daniels said: “Systemic racism is not a matter of perception. For almost 50 years, reviews of the Metropolitan Police have documented the harm experienced by black Londoners, officers and staff.”

She said that “true accountability begins with specificity”, noting that “anti-blackness is the clearest indicator of organisational dysfunction”.

Ms Daniels added: “The same systems that sustain racial harm against black people also enable other forms of harm. Confronting this is not an act of exclusion but a necessary foundation for safety, fairness and justice for everyone.”

She said that the challenge facing the Met is to “build the leadership discipline to face what the report has revealed and act on its findings in a way that protects the public rather than the institution”.