Cressida Dick will leave her role as commissioner of the Metropolitan police with a payoff of £166,000, the Guardian understands.
Dick announced her resignation in February after clashing with the London mayor, Sadiq Khan. She officially ceases to be commissioner on 24 April.
Before that she will take holiday owed to her, meaning her last day working at New Scotland Yard will be 10 April. Her severance terms were agreed after intense and protracted negotiations with the London mayor’s office for policing.
Dick will receive a severance payment of £165,727.36. A source said the majority of that sum related to six months’ notice plus an additional payment of two months’ salary.
In September 2021 she was granted a two-year extension to her five-year contract. By the time Dick ceases to be commissioner, she will have served just over five years as Britain’s top police officer, starting in April 2017.
Whitehall sources say the process for her successor could start the week after next with the advert for the next commissioner being published.
Dick took a salary of £240,000, though was entitled to £30,000 more a year.
Khan, who is the police and crime commissioner for London, will work with the home secretary, Priti Patel, to appoint Dick’s replacement. Senior officials have already had informal discussions with at least one chief constable interested in the job.
The new commissioner would be expected to “address the deep cultural issues facing the Met police service”, the mayor’s office said.
Potential candidates include Lynne Owens, former head of the National Crime Agency, Mark Rowley, the former head of counter-terrorism, and Matt Jukes, the current head of counter-terrorism. Several others are considering whether to apply.
Dick’s deputy, Sir Stephen House, will serve temporarily as acting commissioner. There is expected to be a period of months before a new commissioner is found.
A spokesperson for the mayor of London said: “The mayor thanks Dame Cressida Dick for her decades of public service. The mayor has been clear that candidates for the next commissioner must have a plan to restore the trust and confidence of Londoners.”
In a tweet, Dick said: “My last working day as Met commissioner will be April 10. It has been a tremendous honour to serve the people of London and the UK.
“I will share more on the work of my brave officers and staff next week.”
Dick, who was the first female commissioner of the Met, resigned in February after she failed to convince Khan she could reform the force and decided to boycott a meeting with the mayor to discuss why he thought her plans were inadequate. Her resignation was announced hours after she told a radio phone-in that she had “absolutely no intention” of stepping down as the head of the police force.
Khan’s confidence in Dick’s leadership reached breaking point after an official report revealed details of a scandal at Charing Cross police station, where officers swapped racist, sexist, misogynistic and Islamophobic messages. Two of the 14 officers investigated were promoted, while nine continued to serve in the Met.
Dick’s time in the role has been marked by controversy. During her tenure, the Met was described as “institutionally corrupt” and she faced resignation calls from Black Lives Matter activists who said she “failed to acknowledge” racism within the force. Among other scandals at Britain’s biggest police force, Dick has also been criticised over Operation Midland, Sarah Everard’s murder and the death of Daniel Morgan.
Before becoming head of the Met, she had been gold commander in the room during the fatal shooting of 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005. While she was cleared of any “personal culpability”, his family called for Dick to be barred from leading the Met.
House has demanded an inquiry into the circumstances of Dick’s resignation. Aides to Patel hope it will reassure any candidates for Met commissioner that they could not be easily pushed out of the role. The review by Sir Tom Winsor, who stepped down at the end of March as the chief inspector of constabulary, will focus only on Dick’s ousting from the force.
The Met commissioner is appointed by the home secretary, who must have “due regard” for the views of the mayor of London.
