The Future of UK Policing: Confronting bigotry and corruption within policing and forcing through meaningful change

Back to search results

Date of Event: Tuesday, January 20th 2026
Time of Event: 9:30 AM — 1:00 PM GMT
Place of Event: Webinar

Key Speakers

• Dr Nasreen Rehman, Director of the National Commission on Forced Marriage UK
• Saba Ali, Steering Group Member at the Alliance for Police Accountability
• Cllr Priti Joshi, Councillor at Oadby & Wigston Borough Council & former Member of the Local Government Association’s Safer & Stronger Communities Board
• Dr Bisi Akintoye, Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Roehampton

Recent revelations in the BBC’s Panorama undercover investigation of racism, misogyny, falsification of statements and use of excessive force within Charing Cross police station have brought to the fore the lack of progress in rooting out corruption and discrimination from UK policing and have raised questions as to the commitment of police forces and senior police officers to improve standards and confront entrenched bigotry. An internal review of anti-Black racism within the Metropolitan police, carried out from May to July 2025, has been “buried” by the force, despite finding discrimination “baked into its HR systems” and warning that the Met’s ambition to become an ‘anti-racist organisation’ was being undermined by its own internal culture, a Guardian investigation revealed in October 2025. The review, commissioned from the consultancy HR Rewired, concluded that bias, racial stereotyping and inequity were woven into the force’s recruitment, promotion and grievance processes, affecting Black staff specifically. It is understood the document was circulated among senior leaders in July 2025, but with no public acknowledgment or reform plan following on despite internal discussions.

Following the publication of Louise Casey’s 2023 review, commissioned after the murder of Sarah Everard, which found the Met “institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic”, the Met promised a two-year follow-up to assess progress since the Casey review. This was due in March 2025 but has not yet materialised. In response to the BBC Panorama investigation, the Met Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, wrote to the Home Secretary pledging renewed efforts to tackle discrimination and referencing recent “significant progress” that the Met had made on race. Sir Mark, believes his force’s corruption crisis is so deep it may take a decade or more to detect and remove pockets of bigots operating around Britain’s biggest force, according to the Guardian.

A Met insider with knowledge of the HR Rewired review told the Guardian: “If the leadership truly believed in reform, this would have been public long ago. Instead, it’s been buried.” Shereen Daniels, HR Rewired’s Managing Director who led the review, said: “The report sets out the recurring patterns of racial harm affecting Black Londoners, officers and volunteers, patterns evident for decades and raised repeatedly by individuals from many different backgrounds inside and outside the Met. Crucially, it also shows that even Black officers and staff are not protected from racial harm. Wearing the uniform offers no insulation. This reflects the Met’s culture, its everyday practices, its decision-making lens and, ultimately, its leadership. That is why racial harm recurs despite decades of review and reform efforts. This isn’t a story of a few ‘racist’ officers. Irrespective of well-intentioned yet ill-informed activity, it’s about an institution whose structures keep reproducing the same outcomes.”

This timely symposium will provide police officers, regulators, legal professionals, diversity, equality and inclusion practitioners, human rights campaigners, policymakers, community groups and other key stakeholders with the opportunity to examine the current state of policing across the UK and to discuss the reforms needed from government, regulators and police leaders to improve standards in policing, further professionalise the police service, strengthen transparency and accountability, and decisively root out corruption and bigotry from police forces.

Programme

• Review and assess the progress made by police forces in rooting out racism, misogyny and homophobia since the publication of the Casey review
• Exchange views on how to change internal police cultures such that bigotry can be rooted out organically from within
• Consider the role that regulators and central government should play in forcing cultural change within police forces and tackling corruption, racism, misogyny and homophobia
• Formulate improvements in police training and regulation to tackle police corruption and prevent use of excessive force by police officers and hold perpetrators to account   
• Devise strategies for better integrating police forces within communities, improving community relations, and increasing diversity within police forces
• Generate plans for further professionalise policing, with clear structures for ensuring transparency, accountability, ongoing professional development and the maintenance of high professional standards
• Design police recruitment, promotion and grievance processes that promote diversity, equality and inclusion  
• Exchange regulatory and internally-driven best practice from across the UK and internationally on tackling bigotry within police forces

Who Should Attend?

• Police Forces
• Police Associations and Regulators
• Police Officers
• Chief Constables
• Special Constables
• Deputy Chief Constables
• Assistant Chief Constables
• Chief Officers
• Chief Inspectors
• Chief Superintendents
• Commanders
• Borough Commanders
• Police Training Providers
• Day One Assessment Centres
• Police and Crime Commissioners 
• Independent Advisory Groups
• Independent Advisory and Scrutiny Group
• Strategic Independent Advisory Groups
• LGBT+ Independent Advisory Groups
• Strategic Youth Independent Advisory Group
• Stop Search Independent Advisory Groups
• Disability Independent Advisory Group
• Stop and Search Community Monitoring Groups
• Joint Audit Committees
• Joint Audit and Standards Committee
• Heads of Diversity
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officers/Coordinators 
• Directors of Human Resources
• Human Resources Teams
• Police Ethics Committees
• Independents Ethics Panels
• Professional and Ethical Standards Panels
• Ethics, Integrity and Complaints Committees
• Police and Crime Commissioners
• Deputy Mayors for Policing and Crime
• Community Safety Officers/Managers
• Community Safety Partnerships
• Community Monitoring Groups
• Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships
• Crown Prosecution Service
• Branch Equality Officers
• Racial Equality Practitioners
• Gender Equality Practitioners
• Legal Professionals
• Victim Care/Advocacy Organisations
• Neighbourhood Policing Teams
• Community Cohesion Officers
• Community Engagement Officers
• Inclusion and Engagement Support Teams
• Local Authority Officers and Councillors
• Combined Authorities
• Police Community Support Officers
• Central Government Departments and Agencies
• Third Sector Practitioners
• Trade Union Representatives
• Violence Reduction Units
• Academics, Analysts and Researchers

Back to search results