The 100-Year Life Health Education and Government
A damning report on Britain’s biggest police force says its response to criminal and sexual exploitation of children was "not currently effective". A review of London’s Metropolitan Police by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) found that of the 244 cases examined more than half (121) were graded as inadequate, while 80 needed improvement. The watchdog also found that officers had encouraged children not to pursue complaints and used “victim blaming” language, including describing a 12 year-old girl who had been raped as being “sexually active with older men”. The failings are so significant that HMIC has made them formal issues of concern, meaning the Met has to fix them before it can get out of special measures (which it has been in since June 2022). Kevin Sutherworth, the Met’s lead for public protection, said he was “deeply sorry” to the children and families the force had let down and promised more police resources to “continue our work to win back the trust of Londoners”. Baroness Louise Casey had this to say yesterday about Met Commissioner Mark Rowley not accepting her similarly damning finding last year that the force was “institutionally” racist, misogynistic and homophobic: “Political pressure is not an excuse. If you are not ‘man enough’... to deal with those sorts of issues don’t take the job. And don’t run behind the skirts of [then-home secretary] Suella Braverman and say she told me to say it. That doesn't work for me. That doesn’t wash”.