Improve vetting decision-making quality and consistency
Angiolini Inquiry · Angiolini Inquiry Part 1 Report · Issued 29 February 2024 · Addressed to: College of Policing
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation, Recommendation 9
By March 2025, the College of Policing, in collaboration with force vetting units, should take steps to improve the quality and consistency of police vetting decision-making. This should include encouraging the use of greater professional rigour and curiosity when investigating lines of enquiry, in order to prevent those who commit sexually motivated crimes against women and those otherwise unsuitable for policing from joining the policing profession. These steps should include the following: a. Recruiting forces should be able to request that unresolved allegations discovered during vetting processes be reinvestigated. b. In collaboration with the National Police Chiefs' Council, a national vetting capability should be created, as an advisory function, to provide another layer of confidence in instances where complex vetting investigations and decisions are required. In such cases, forces should approach the national vetting function to seek proposed lines of enquiry and ensure that they are following an agreed, standardised approach when considering complex cases. c. Consideration should be given during vetting to any information or intelligence about police officers being reported missing, regardless of how quickly such reports were closed. d. Forces must ensure that force vetting units are complying with and practising Section 6.2 of the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice on Vetting (2021), which states that force vetting units must record the results of vetting enquiries; the rationale for refusing, suspending, withdrawing or granting clearance, including with restrictions; and where adverse information has been revealed and considered. This is to ensure that an audit trail is recorded to give the force confidence in decisions made at the time and to allow future vetting officers to constructively scrutinise vetting enquiries and outcomes.
Angiolini Inquiry, Angiolini Inquiry Part 1 Report · 29 Feb 2024 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
- The recommendation set a deadline of March 2025 for implementation, including the creation of a national vetting capability as an advisory function.
- The Angiolini Inquiry Part 2 report, published 2 December 2025, noted this recommendation was partially implemented, and that the national vetting capability (sub-recommendation 9b) had not been implemented and was marked as closed (Angiolini Inquiry Part 2 First Report, December 2025).
- No published evidence of the national vetting capability being established has been identified as of March 2026.
Response — verbatim from government
●Home Office — initial response
Home Secretary James Cleverly said: "The act of pure evil committed against Sarah shocked the nation to its core. My heart goes out to Sarah's family and to all the brave victims who came forward to help inform this report and drive change. The man who committed these crimes is not a reflection on the majority of dedicated police officers working day in, day out to help people. But Sarah was failed in more ways than one by the people who were meant to keep her safe, and it laid bare wider issues in policing and society that need to be urgently fixed. In the 3 years since, a root and stem clean-up of the policing workforce has been underway and we have made huge strides – as well as making tackling violence against women and girls a national policing priority to be treated on par with terrorism. But we will continue to do everything in our power to protect women and girls. I am grateful to Lady Elish for her meticulous investigation. Her insights will be invaluable as we move forward in supporting our police to build forces of the highest standards of integrity and regain the trust of the British public."
Home Office · 29 Feb 2024 Written response →
●College of Policing — follow-up
The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) and College of Policing has at the same time committed to addressing the remaining recommendations in Lady Angiolini's report concerning police culture and increasing the robustness of police vetting. The government will follow up with further detail on how the recommendations will be delivered in partnership with the College of Policing and NPCC in due course.
College of Policing · 25 Mar 2024 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
- 9 Oct 2025 Inquiry assessment: Partially implemented. National vetting capability (9b) has not been implemented and is marked as closed. Source →
- 9 Oct 2025 · Angiolini Inquiry Part 2 Report Partially implemented. National vetting capability (9b) has not been implemented and is marked as closed. View source → Insufficient Progress
Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.
How this page is built
Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.
This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.