New data collected by a police watchdog has revealed the number of public complaints made against the Metropolitan Police.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct published its annual report on police complaints of 2020/21 on Thursday, October 18.

It is the first publication on police complaints since a February 2020 law change that allowed for more complaints to be dealt with informally and in-house by police.

The report shows, 8,375 complaints were made against London’s police force in 2020.

A total of 17,135 allegations were made against the force, including 692 allegations of discriminatory behaviour and 99 of corruption/abuse of position.

Of those allegations, 4,657 were finalised.

An allegation is considered finalised when the complainant is notified about the outcome of the allegation and any planned action.

Fifteen per cent were handled informally, 6,688 (64 per cent) were looked into by a force supervisor or manger who determined a formal investigation by the standards department was not necessary, while 2,183 (21 per cent) were handed over to the standards department.

Commander Paul Betts, Professionalism expalined: “The Metropolitan Police Service has nearly 45,000 officers and staff in its ranks - the overwhelming majority of them perform their duties diligently and professionally every day, and behave appropriately when not on duty.

"When the behaviour of our staff falls below the standard the public and the Met expects of them, appropriate action is taken.

“We are always looking at ways we can improve how we deal with complaints, while ensuring that misconduct matters are dealt with quickly and efficiently to maintain public confidence and trust.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson added: “The Met is by far the largest police service in England and Wales so it is proportionate that we would receive the most complaints.”

The report shows the number of complaints logged per 1,000 employees for the Met stands at 184 – below the average of 290 for all police forces.