THE family of Daniel Morgan have claimed that concerns over corruption in the Metropolitan Police will not be addressed until there are “root-and-branch changes” in its top team.

Relatives of the Cwmbran private investigator, whose murder remains unsolved 35 years after the initial Met investigation was “hampered by police corruption”, made the comments after a police watchdog found the force’s procedures for tackling corrupt officers and staff within its ranks were “not fit for purpose”.

Responding to the findings, the family – who are suing the Met – said “unless and until there are root-and-branch changes” in its leadership team, “we consider we are unlikely to see any meaningful progress within the Met in relation to police corruption”.

They called on the Mayor’s Office, Home Office and Independent Office for Police Conduct to “stop turning a blind eye to those within the Met who, at best, deliberately turned away from the stench of police corruption; those who sought to manage the fallout from that corruption instead of confronting it”.

In June, an independent inquiry accused the force of institutional corruption over its handling of the case, saying it had concealed or denied failings to protect its reputation.

The family described the findings as “an accurate reflection of our lived experience”.

But the latest report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found “no evidence of any deliberate or co-ordinated attempts” by the Met to “frustrate” the work of the Morgan inquiry and although there was “much to criticise”, based on this inspection “it would not describe the Met as institutionally corrupt”.

The report added: “This should not for a moment be understood to be a finding that there are not serious areas of concern which have been, and continue to be, present in the MPS (the Metropolitan Police Service).

“It is essential that the MPS should be more open to criticism and prepared to change where necessary, including by implementing our recommendations. A further failure to do so (without good reason) may well justify the label of institutional corruption in due course.”

In response, Mr Morgan’s family said in a statement that the inspectorate “appears to have lacked the courage” shown by the earlier inquiry, adding: “The refusal of the inspectorate to use that language may well be a matter of semantics, since its findings describe the way in which the sickness of police corruption continues to be allowed to flourish in the Met.”

When questioned by reporters, Inspector of Constabulary Matt Parr agreed he was “not really very far away from the independent panel’s finding about institutional corruption” and it was “just a definitional issue”.

The bar for a finding of institutional corruption was not met during the latest inspection, he said, adding: “We didn’t see evidence of dishonesty.”

“I’m not disagreeing with the panel at all. And I’m not saying there isn’t a huge amount that’s wrong in the Met and the way it deals with corruption”, he said.

Police pursued thousands of lines of inquiry and conducted six extensive investigations into Mr Morgan’s death, while numerous independent assessments and five forensic reviews have already been carried out.

Another forensic review of evidence linked to the case has now been commissioned.

A £50,000 cash reward for information leading to a successful prosecution – one of the largest rewards ever made available by a UK police force – is still being offered.