Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Sixth Report - Police Conduct and Complaints
Home Affairs Committee
HC 140
Published 1 March 2022
Recommendations
6
Deferred
Para 54
Appoint an independent chair alongside the IOPC director general to restore checks and balances
Recommendation
It has been argued that uniting the roles of chair and director general of the IOPC aids clearer decision-making and action. We disagree. This is not normal practice and it detracts from the ability properly to scrutinise the executive action …
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Government Response Summary
The government did not address the recommendation to appoint an independent chair alongside the IOPC director general. Instead, it discussed risks related to representation in Police Standards Departments and stated it would outline actions on ethnic minority staffing in PSDs in its response to the Macpherson report.
Home Office
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10
Deferred
Fund PCCs adequately to implement Models 2 or 3 for complaint-handling roles
Recommendation
We urge the Government to fund PCCs adequately to take on Models 2 or 3 as a minimum requirement in their complaint-handling roles. This will provide PCCs the opportunity to work more closely with their forces, for example, to record …
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Government Response Summary
The government did not commit to funding PCCs for specific complaint-handling models or systematic monitoring. Instead, it committed to updating the police super-complaints website to clarify collaboration between designated and non-designated bodies.
Home Office
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13
Deferred
Para 92
Urge Home Secretary to respond promptly to the Macpherson report findings
Recommendation
More than six months on from its publication, the Home Office has not yet responded to our report on Macpherson and has given no indication of when it will respond. We urge the Home Secretary to respond to that Report.
Government Response Summary
The government did not commit to responding to the Macpherson report. Instead, it agreed there is a case for greater coordination of recommendations from different bodies and committed to considering this proposal further, including how to better track progress against IOPC recommendations.
Home Office
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29
Deferred
Para 151
Require Government to monitor and review accountability for implementing IOPC recommendations bi-annually.
Recommendation
We recommend that the Government monitor and review bi-annually how effectively local policing bodies are holding their chief constables accountable for implementing IOPC recommendations to their forces, and report the outcomes to us.
Government Response Summary
The government will consider, in conjunction with the IOPC, how to go further in tracking and reporting on forces' implementation of IOPC recommendations, but does not commit to the recommended bi-annual monitoring by local policing bodies or reporting to the committee.
Home Office
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Conclusions (5)
3
Conclusion
Deferred
Para 28
The question arose during our inquiry whether the IOPC should be staffed by investigators who were not former police officers. Opinion divided on whether those who had served in the police should be excluded for potentially ‘marking their own homework’ or that of their colleagues. On the other side of …
Government Response Summary
The government stated it would not prescribe how police funding should be spent or how local decisions should be taken, referring instead to the overall police funding settlement and the role of Police and Crime Commissioners in ensuring a robust complaints system, thereby deflecting from the specific recommendation about widening the IOPC's investigator candidate pool.
4
Conclusion
Deferred
Para 31
Each complaint has unique features, and we have heard from a significant number of people whose dealings with police forces, the IOPC or its predecessor have left them unsatisfied with the investigation of their complaints or the level of sanction applied to officers found to have misconducted themselves. This includes …
Government Response Summary
The government agreed on the need for transparency but is not minded to prescribe new legal formats, deferring to existing frameworks and the independence of bodies like the IOPC, police, and CPS. It noted work already underway by these bodies and committed to keep the recommendation under review.
5
Conclusion
Deferred
The sorry story of Operation Midland and subsequent inquiries into how it was conducted demonstrates why a robust complaints and conduct system is necessary if the public is to be confident that police officers behave properly and will be held to account and suitably sanctioned if they do not. Lady …
Government Response Summary
The government largely highlighted its past actions, such as 2020 reforms to strengthen accountability and improvements to data collection. It stated its intention to provide a full and detailed response, including concrete actions, to the Committee's separate report on Macpherson in May.
11
Conclusion
Deferred
The Government’s recent changes to the police complaints and discipline systems were intended to simplify and speed up the process. Nonetheless, the language used to explain systems to members of the public who wish to make complaints remains too complex and too technical: this contributes to public disengagement and lack …
Government Response Summary
The government largely deflected by detailing the IOPC's ongoing efforts to uphold confidence, improve transparency, and engage with stakeholders. It also highlighted the IOPC's new Strategy 2, which will focus even more on increasing public confidence in the complaints system.
28
Conclusion
Deferred
Para 151
We are concerned that IOPC learning recommendations made to police forces across England and Wales to improve policies and practice in the handling of police complaints are not monitored for follow-up action. We have heard of a lack of clarity about how recommendations are monitored, and whether forces implement them. …
Government Response Summary
The government notes existing requirements for published IOPC recommendations and force responses, and commits to considering, with the IOPC, how to further track and report on progress by forces in implementing these recommendations.