Mayor welcomes Race and Faith report
7 July 2010

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson has welcomed the publication of the Race and Faith report, which he commissioned to explore diversity issues within the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). The report was presented to the Mayor this evening by Cindy Butts, chair of the independent Inquiry panel. The report makes a series of recommendations to improve equalities and address diversity issues in the MPS.

Mayor Boris Johnson said: “To deliver successful policing in the capital, we have to get equalities and diversity issues right. It is encouraging that the Met's workforce is now more representative of all Londoners and the Metropolitan Police Authority in particular has played a pivotal role in implementing the recommendations from the Stephen Lawrence report.

“The report asks ‘have we discovered a wholly dysfunctional, institutionally racist organisation, riddled with conscious and unconscious bias and prejudice?' And concludes ‘no, unquestionably we have not’. I welcome this finding, but I urge against complacency and the MPA will now consider closely the recommendations of the report. I thank the panel for rising to the challenge to find a new vision for a stronger future for London’s police service.”

Cindy Butts, Metropolitan Police Authority member and chair of the independent panel said: “It was a great honour and responsibility to be asked by the Mayor to lead this Inquiry. I would like to pay tribute to the panel members, to all those who gave evidence or took part in focus groups - for some it was an emotional and draining process - and to our reference group.

“Following on from the Inquiry panels’ emerging findings published in September 2009, the Met addressed some of the concerns the panel had identified, but there is still much to do.

"We encourage the Met, along with the MPA, to embrace the panels’ recommendations and ensure all steps are made to implement them. The Met has much to be proud of in championing diversity. But it would be wrong to relax and we are determined that momentum should be maintained.”

Click here to read the Race & Faith Report (July 2010)