The London Assembly is urging a reassessment of crowd safety measures at the Notting Hill Carnival, following police apprehensions regarding the risk of “a mass casualty event” during the two-day festival.

Susan Hall AM, who chairs the assembly’s Police and Crime Committee, expressed that there have been “several alarming incidents related to crowd congestion” at the carnival.

She voiced doubts about the Metropolitan Police’s capability to “ensure visitor safety or effectively respond to incidents as they arise”.

The committee recommended that the mayor carry out a thorough evaluation of critical congestion points and establish stringent regulations for the number of stewards needed throughout the event.

They also acknowledged that the Notting Hill Carnival is a “distinctive celebration of Caribbean culture and heritage”, drawing approximately two million attendees annually.

Nevertheless, this large turnout presents “a complicated policing challenge”.

For its 2024 Carnival operations, the Metropolitan Police deployed around 7,000 officers, sourced from local units and specialized forces, amounting to roughly 14,000 officer shifts over the entirety of the event.

During his testimony to the committee in September 2024, Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist of the Met stated: “While we understand crimes often dominate the headlines, my primary concern is crowd density and the threat of a mass casualty situation.”

On Tuesday, after the release of the committee’s report on public order policing in London, Ms. Hall commented: “We cannot passively wait for a tragic event to occur; proactive measures are essential.”

She emphasized: “Last year, two individuals lost their lives at the carnival due to violent acts, making it absolutely critical for the Met to fulfill its responsibilities, rather than compensating for inadequate stewarding from the event organizers.”

Cher Maximen, a 32-year-old mother, and Mussie Imnetu, 41, who had traveled to London from Dubai, were both tragically killed at last year’s event.

The Notting Hill Carnival is celebrated over two days during the August Bank Holiday along a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) route in north Kensington, west London, and has been a tradition for over 50 years.

Notting Hill Carnival Ltd, the event organizers, have stated that they engage “experts from various sectors of event management” and employed 3,300 stewards in 2024 to help manage the crowds.

The committee’s recent report highlights that the rising demands for public order in central London are putting significant pressure on the Met, which has not seen a corresponding increase in government funding.

The report noted: “Officers trained in specialist public order procedures are increasingly withdrawing from such responsibilities due to the demands of regular weekend shifts and the effects on their family life.

“The Met continues to depend on ‘abstraction’, which involves pulling local officers from their regular duties at short notice to assist with public order tasks in central London.

“This withdrawal of neighborhood officers from their routine roles is detrimentally affecting local policing services.”