More than 150 Metropolitan Police Officers are being investigated for allegations of sexual misconduct or racism, preventing them holding public-facing roles.

Revealed in a Freedom of Information disclosure provided to the Guardian this week, the numbers are double the previous estimate by Scotland Yard.

These latest figures show 118 officers are being investigated for sexual misconduct and 43 for racism as of the end of November.

The Met have attributed this rise in restrictions on officers duties to ‘concerted efforts’ to recognise and respond to wrongdoing by their staff members.

The force, Britain’s largest, are under pressure to reform in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer, and the jailing of officers in relation to the investigation of the murder of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman.

Mark Rowley has been at the helm of the Metropolitan Police since September 2022. Shortly after his appointment he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I have got about 100 officers in the organisation who have very restrictive conditions on them because frankly we don’t trust them to talk to members of the public… it’s completely mad that I have to employ people like that as police officers who you can’t trust to have contact with the public. It’s ridiculous’

In the wake of these new figures, a spokesman for the Met said: ‘Following concerted efforts to encourage employees to recognise and report wrongdoing, mandatory training that makes it a duty to report misconduct, boosting officer numbers in the directorate of professional standards, and listening to the public’s views about their expectations of suspension, we’ve seen restrictions and suspensions of officers almost double.’

‘Our work continues at pace to identify those who let down the public and police, and deal with them as swiftly as possible.’