Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Deferred
Mandate common national standards for police vetting, making vetting upon transfer statutory
Recommendation
Common standards for vetting should be enforced nationally, with sanctions upon non-compliant forces. We recommend the Government make vetting upon transfer a statutory requirement within the lifetime of the current Parliament. It should also ensure all forces immediately implement His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services’s recommendation on re-vetting officers of concern, including those who have been subject to a criminal investigation, received a formal warning or reduction in rank following a misconduct hearing, or where “adverse information” has otherwise come to the force’s notice. We recommend the Home Office monitor how local policing bodies are holding their chief constables accountable for implementing the recommendation, taking remedial action swiftly where accountability is found lacking or progress in implementation unsatisfactory. We invite the Home Office to report its progress on this in six months’ time: that report should include details of monitoring mechanisms and any remedial steps taken or planned. (Paragraph 18) 60 Policing priorities
Government response summary AI-generated
The government noted the NPCC's work on continuous integrity screening and general efforts to allow officers to report wrongdoing, but did not commit to enforcing common national vetting standards with sanctions, making vetting upon transfer statutory, or ensuring immediate re-vetting of officers of concern.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
7. Forces are required to vet in line with the statutory code of practice on vetting and the vetting authorised professional practice (APP) which are issued by the College of Policing. These both set out considerations in relation to transferees and we believe the framework for how vetting is carried out should remain with the College, in-keeping with other guidance on operational matters. The College updated their vetting code in July 2023 and is due to publish its draft vetting APP for consultation shortly. 8. The NPCC has already asked forces to check all officers and staff against the police national database (PND) to identify any intelligence which could warrant action being taken. Further to this, the NPCC is working on a programme which will help to facilitate automated continuous integrity screening checks, enabling relevant issues to be raised in real time. 9. It is a decision for PCCs on how they hold the Chief Constable to account on how they lead their force. The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) may wish to consider taking forward findings in relation to PCCs. 10. The Home Office will provide Parliament with regular updates as appropriate on a number of pieces of ongoing work relating to integrity matters such as the Dismissals Review, Angiolini Inquiry and relevant vetting actions being taken forward by policing.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗