Britain’s biggest police forces have hired tens of thousands of officers and staff without checking their employment records.
In a scandal which will raise questions about criminals in uniform, some of the UK’s largest forces secretly abandoned pre-employment checks on new recruits for six years after the last Government announced a £3 billion programme to recruit 20,000 officers nationwide.
As a result, tens of thousands of police officers and staff across England and Wales have been taken on without forces carrying out basic employment reference checks.
Earlier this week, the Metropolitan Police admitted that more than 130 officers and staff in Britain’s biggest police force had gone on to commit crimes or misconduct after being mistakenly let in the force due to vetting and employment check failures.
Among those allowed to join were David Carrick, one of the UK’s worst sex offenders now serving 37 life sentences for attacks on 14 women and Cliff Mitchell, a serial rapist who called himself ‘the devil’.
Now the Daily Mail can reveal that the practice of not checking references was far more widespread, with another five forces admitting that they ‘deviated’ from standard recruitment practices during the Police Uplift Programme between July 2019 to March 2023.
In some forces, managers switched off pre-employment reference checks in a rush to meet targets worth millions of pounds in extra funding.
In an ‘information-gathering exercise’ by the Home Office and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) in 2022 asking forces if they checked prospective candidates’ references, the Met, Greater Manchester Police, Lancashire, Merseyside and Cumbria Police ticked a box to say they were not doing so.
Three members of Metropolitan Police in high visibility uniforms watch protests in Westminster (file photo)
Earlier this week, the Metropolitan Policeadmitted that more than 130 officers and staff in Britain’s biggest police force had gone on to commit crimes or misconduct after being mistakenly let in the force due to vetting and employment check failures (file photo)
On Friday night Merseyside Police confirmed that 3,295 officers and staff were employed without their references being checked between March 2019 and August 2024.
Of those recruits, 55 have gone on to commit misconduct, resulting in 38 being sacked. The force said it is now ‘undertaking an extensive review to identify any and all criminal matters relating to officers and staff employed during this period’.
At Greater Manchester Police more than 1,000 officers and staff were hired without references being properly checked over a six-year period. A spokesman said: ‘In 2017, a decision taken by the then senior leadership team to request, but not seek confirmation of pre-employment history and character references… This decision was reversed in February 2023.’
At Lancashire Police, not one of the hundreds of officers and staff hired between 2019 and 2025 had their references checked prior to employment. A force spokesman said: ‘A risk-based decision was taken to remove the requirement for pre-employment reference checks for new employees during that period, but all other vetting practices and standards remained in place and were met.’
Cumbria Police has admitted that it ‘deviated in verifying employment history’ of new recruits between 2017 and 2025 where it was ‘not possible to complete checks due to businesses having closed down or failed to respond.’
All five forces said the recruitment shortcuts had not affected their vetting procedures, with all officers and staff still being subject to background checks. Under the Police Uplift programme, forces in England and Wales were under huge pressure to recruit 20,000 officers within three and a half years to replace those cut during austerity as the funding would be lost if targets were not met.
This week the Home Secretary ordered a nationwide inspection of recruitment and vetting procedures after the details first emerged. An NPCC spokesman said: ‘It is important to note that the obtaining of references is a distinct part of the recruitment process, and should not be confused with vetting.’
