Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 32
32
Persistent concerns regarding delays, complexity, and inconsistency in police investigations.
Conclusion
It is troubling, nine years on from the Committee’s last report on this topic, that concerns are still raised about delays to investigations that detrimentally affect people’s lives, about complexity of language and processes, and about inconsistency in updating and supporting officers and complainants during investigations. (Paragraph 154) Police Conduct and Complaints 51
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government notes the Committee’s positive comments on the February 2020 reforms to the police conduct and complaints system, and is pleased that the Committee welcomes the reforms that “ensure the delays to investigations are minimised”, and that they “welcome the super-complaints process” and are ‘encouraged by the Home Office’s pledge’ to review the designated bodies to include a broader range of organisations. It is also positive that the Committee recognises the “significant strides” made by the IOPC since 2018. The Government also notes the Committee’s concerns that, based on some of the evidence it has seen and heard, the work of “providing—and demonstrably providing—a fair, open and, above all, fully trusted mechanism to deal with misconduct remains, as yet unfinished”. The Government agrees that improving the police complaints and discipline systems is an ongoing process and notes the findings on recent high-profile police conduct cases. The Home Secretary has recently set up the Angiolini Inquiry into matters arising from the murder of Sarah Everard and it is intended that this will look at the wider cultural issues affecting policing as part two of that inquiry.