HR bosses at Britain’s biggest police force have found it will take 100 years before it has the same ethnic mix as the population it serves.

Currently, 14% of Met officers are from BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) backgrounds – this is 16% among Pcs, then less than 10% for higher ranks, up to chief officers where the proportion is 4%.

BAME officers and staff are more likely to resign from the force or raise grievances, and the Met’s HR department found that it would take a century to match the proportions of the population of London if it continued to recruit at current rates.

According to data from the 2011 Census, 40.2% of London residents identified as Black, Asian, Mixed or Other ethnic group.

Stephen Lawrence
Stephen Lawrence’s racist murder in 1993 shocked the nation (Family handout/PA)

The force’s head of HR, Clare Davies, said: “For many the progress is too slow.

“Some would say that we need to do more than we have done, particularly in terms of our recruitment and representation.

“If we continue, even with the great progress we’ve made, it would take over 100 years to be representative of London.”

The force wants to boost recruitment of BAME officers by another 250 per year.

Ms Davies and force chief Cressida Dick spoke to journalists to mark 20 years since the publication of the damning Macpherson report, which branded the force institutionally racist.

Commissioner Ms Dick said the 1999 report into the aftermath of the black teenager’s murder had “defined my generation of policing”.

Cressida Dick
The Met Commissioner said the Stephen Lawrence case had defined her generation of policing (Victoria Jones/PA)

She said she does not believe the force is now institutionally racist.

“I simply don’t see it as a helpful or accurate description.

“This is an utterly different Metropolitan Police.”

Stephen Lawrence was murdered by a gang of racists while waiting for a bus in Eltham, south-east London, in 1993.

The bungled initial investigation into his death was hampered by claims of racism, corruption and incompetence, and it took nearly 20 years for two of his five or six killers to finally be brought to justice.

Ms Dick paid tribute to Stephen’s parents, Baroness (Doreen) Lawrence and Neville Lawrence, whom she said had fought “absolutely tirelessly” for justice for their son.

She said: “The Stephen Lawrence public inquiry has defined my generation of policing. It’s very hard to think of any other one event which has made such a big impact on policing.

Doreen Lawrence
Baroness Lawrence, Stephen’s mother (Yui Mok/PA)

“We’re not at all complacent. London keeps on changing and there are lots of challenges for us in policing it well and giving the best possible service to all our communities.

“We are ambitious for the future, we are not going to forget Stephen or his legacy and we will continue to educate our officers about why it is that this police service does what it does now, and how that comes from the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry.”

The Met admitted last year that it had no new leads in the investigation into Stephen’s murder, but Ms Dick said “a small handful” of officers remain working on the case.

“We are constantly on the alert for any changes in information and intelligence and technical possibilities,” she said.

“It’s a small team, that’s all we need at the moment, but if and when we get a really significant breakthrough then obviously we would scale it straight up.

“The Met doesn’t forget big, significant, egregious cases and there couldn’t be a more significant stain on our country than this case.”