Met wins legal challenge as part of determined drive for higher standards

The Met has won a legal challenge to allow all misconduct allegations to be considered during vetting for police officers.

The judgment follows an appeal by the Met on an important point of law after losing a High Court judicial review in February 2025. The JR challenged Operation Assure, the Met’s then process to consider dismissing officers who could no longer pass vetting.

The High Court ruled that previous unproven misconduct allegations would not usually be a basis for a vetting decision save in exceptional cases. The Met appealed on the grounds that forces must have greater discretion to consider all vetting risks presented by an officer’s past behaviour, including alleged behaviour, to protect the public and colleagues.

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said: “Today’s judgment by the Court of Appeal is a welcome and important step in our drive for the highest of standards across policing and to root out those not fit to serve.

“It is a judgment that will be welcomed as common sense by the public who must have faith our officers do not have a back catalogue of alarming allegations. It will be welcomed by the tens of thousands of good officers we have in the Met who care deeply about the safety of the public and their colleagues.

“The High Court judicial review was brought by a Met officer unhappy at his vetting removal and imminent dismissal for three unproven allegations of rape plus more allegations about his conduct towards women. While every individual has the right to bring a judicial review, I remain surprised the Met Police Federation funded his legal action, using subscription fees of their members. It is hard to believe their female members backed the use of their funds to keep an alleged rapist in the Met.

“We will continue our work, alongside policing nationally, to sack those who corrupt our integrity, with confidence the legal system has supported us.”

Today’s judgment says that vetting decisions require an evaluation of risk about what may happen in the future and that “no particular event need be proved to have happened at all”. Those making vetting decisions need to be able to consider all available information relating to an individual.

It complements and reinforces new vetting regulations introduced by the Home Office in May to close gaps in the law and ensure officers who lose their vetting after a fair process also automatically lose their jobs.

The Met continues work under this new process to review the vetting of those identified through Operation Assure, as well as deal with any new cases.

Today’s full judgment is published here - Lino Di Maria, R (on the application of) v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis - Find Case Law - The National Archives

Background

In March 2023 the Met adopted Operation Assure to consider dismissing officers who could no longer pass vetting as part of our relentless drive to raise professional standards across the organisation.

We considered it unacceptable there had never been an explicit legal provision to enable dismissal of officers who failed vetting reviews. Policing had asked for this loophole to be closed for more than 20 years but little progress had been made.  

Our own analysis and that of Casey and Angiolini pointed to the need to ‘join the dots’ – using intelligence to spot patterns of behaviour to remove those who should not be in the job. This followed in the wake of significant cases such as Wayne Couzens and David Carrick.

We carefully interpreted the existing guidance and laws as best we could and we filled that gap in the public interest. Op Assure was a programme of prioritised vetting reviews for serving officers where we held significant adverse information that meant we needed to review their vetting clearance.

The majority of those subject to Op Assure had worrying patterns of behaviour, many with allegations of sexual offending. They would not pass vetting if joining the police for the first time today. Over 18 months under Op Assure 96 officers were sacked or resigned due to vetting removal. 

Examples include the first officer dismissed, in October 2023, after his vetting clearance was removed in the wake of multiple rape and sexual assault allegations between 2011 and 2023. In another case intelligence checks identified a serving officer arrested in the USA on suspicion of endangering the welfare of a child, having travelled there to meet a 13-year-old girl he had been talking to online. The officer resigned in May 2023 when he was told he was to have a vetting review.

Last year’s judicial review was brought by another Op Assure officer, Sgt Lino Di Maria, who during his police service received three allegations of rape involving two women, and other allegations about his conduct towards women.  Two of the rapes were submitted to the CPS who determined they did not reach the evidential threshold for charges. The third allegation did not proceed as the victim felt unable to support the investigation at that time.

His vetting clearance was reviewed and removed.  

Sgt Di Maria applied to the court for judicial review, challenging the lawfulness of the Met’s decision to remove his vetting and refer him to gross incompetence proceedings for dismissal, as well as the wider Op Assure process.

His legal action was supported and funded by the Met Police Federation.

Op Assure is no longer required as new regulations introduced by the Home Office in May allow automatic dismissal for those who fail vetting. 

Sgt Di Maria remains suspended from duty while his case is reviewed under this new process.

Our appeal against the High Court judgment was supported by the College of Policing and the Home Office.