INSPECTORS have raised systemic concerns about the Metropolitan Police, including the London force’s substandard response to emergency calls, barely adequate crime recording and a backlog of child abuse referrals.

Matt Parr from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary wrote to acting Met Commissioner Sir Stephen House on Monday, saying the watchdog has had substantial and persistent concerns about the force for a considerable time.

These included the findings of a damning report in March which said the force’s approach to tackling corruption was fundamentally flawed and not fit for purpose.

In the letter, Mr Parr said: “These systemic failures were not just in relation to countercorruption-related specialist matters but more generalist matters too, such as the quality of basic supervision provided to officers.”

A recent inspection carried out by the watchdog aimed at assessing the force’s effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy had raised further systemic concerns, he said.

These included a fall in performance far short of national standards for the handling of emergency and non-emergency calls and a barely adequate standard of crime recording accuracy.

About 69,000 crimes are going unrecorded each year, the inspection found, and almost no crimes are recorded when victims report anti-social behaviour. 

Further concerns included a failure to record the grounds for search in enough detail in around a quarter of stop-and-search cases and a backlog of online child abuse referrals.

Mr Parr also highlighted several high-profile cases that had raised concerns and damaged public confidence in the force, including the disturbing racist, misogynist and homophobic messages exchanged by officers at Charing Cross and the abduction and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer.

He told Sir Stephen that while the force could claim some “very considerable successes, the decision had been made to move it into a form of special measures called the Engage process.”

According to the inspectorate’s website, a force enters the process if it is “not responding to a cause of concern or if it is not succeeding in managing, mitigating or eradicating the cause of concern.”

The watchdog said failures have been worsened by the number of young and inexperienced recruits brought in as part of the national drive to replace thousands of officers cut during austerity measures.

The End Violence Against Women Coalition said in a statement: “Just days after the government introduced its ‘rights removal Bill’ trying to strip us of our ability to challenge police failings, the Met is placed in special measures for critical shortcomings.

“Now, more than ever, we must be able to hold the state to account.”

In the Commons, Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy said: “Policing confidence is at an all-time low under this government.

“And the minister may say that the mayor of London [the capital’s equivalent of a police and crime commissioner] should consider his position, but maybe the government should consider theirs. Because this is the first time that the Metropolitan Police has been under special measures, and this has been under this leadership.”

A spokesman for the Met said it is determined to be a police service Londoners can be proud of.