Policy paper

Factsheet on the government’s policy package on police accountability

Published 23 October 2024

The British tradition of policing by consent relies on mutual bonds of trust between the public and the police. The public need to have confidence that there is an appropriate system to hold officers to account where they may exceed the lawful use of their powers or otherwise fall short of the standards we expect our police to meet. Police officers need to have the confidence to be able to use their powers to keep the public safe, and know that accountability arrangements are timely and proportionate. The government has set out a series of reforms to address longstanding concerns with accountability systems and improve standards in policing.

1. The work of armed officers is dangerous and officers, and their families, can potentially become targets for criminality if their identity is revealed following an armed incident. The government will legislate to create a presumption of anonymity for firearms officers who are charged with offences relating to, and committed during, their duties as a firearms officer and who are subject to criminal trial following a shooting, up until the point of conviction. This change will ensure there is a presumption that officers have their anonymity preserved during the court process, whilst also leaving room for judicial discretion in individual cases. The government will carry out technical engagement during the process of drafting measures to ensure they work in practice.

The government will bring forward legislation to create this presumption in this Parliamentary session.

2. To improve the timeliness and appropriateness of investigations and the rights of victims, the government will legislate for three measures to speed up processes between the Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). These measures, previously agreed for inclusion in the last government’s Criminal Justice Bill, will:

• align the threshold for IOPC referrals of officers to the CPS to that used by police when referring cases involving members of the public, to avoid the system being clogged up with cases, allowing greater focus and swifter resolution of those that are referred.

• speed up processes by allowing the IOPC to send cases to the CPS where there is sufficient evidence, prior to their final investigation report.

• put the IOPC victims’ right to review policy on a statutory footing to ensure the voices of victims and their families are heard.

The government will bring forward legislation for these measures in this Parliamentary session.

3. As a consequence of recent legal rulings, there are currently different thresholds for different types of investigations which can lead to confusion, long delays and perceptions around fairness in the end-to-end process. The Home Office and Ministry of Justice have appointed two independent reviewers, Tim Godwin OBE QPM and the Rt Hon Sir Adrian Fulford, who will work together to rapidly assess whether there is a case for change in relation to:

• The legal test for use of force in misconduct cases, and whether it should be raised to the criminal standard.

• The threshold for determining a short-form conclusion of unlawful killing in inquests.

This work will be established at pace, and the independent reviewers will jointly report to the Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor within three months.

4. Too often the public and police are let down by lengthy delays to misconduct investigations. The Home Secretary will establish a wider review to address systemic barriers to timeliness in the misconduct system to improve public and police confidence, considering lessons from other countries. Measures to improve the accountability system will also form part of the government’s longer-term work with policing, ensuring that systems can address wider issues with policing performance to improve confidence, not just focusing on individual officer’s decisions.

The Home Secretary will establish this review in early 2025 and it is expected to report to her by the end of 2025.

5. The Attorney General has invited the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to review CPS guidance and processes in relation to charging police officers for offences committed in the course of their duties, considering changes which are possible within the existing legal framework.

The DPP’s review will conclude by the end of 2024.

6. When police drivers are involved in a death or serious injury on the roads, it is vital this is properly investigated. However, overly lengthy investigations are not in the interests of officers or of the victims and their families. The government will work with partners to update guidance relating to investigations of police driving incidents and other incidents in the line of duty.

• The government will work with the IOPC and NPCC to amend guidance to reflect this by including a requirement to seek evidence from a subject matter expert at an early stage and consider in-car video footage of an incident at the earliest available opportunity of an investigation into a death/ serious injury arising from police driving. Consideration of the right evidence at an early stage will expedite investigations.

• The government will also look at investigation guidance in the round to ensure that it is clear on the need to consider officer training in any decision making.

This will be completed by the end of 2024.

7. When a member of the public is injured, or killed, following police action, an investigation takes place to establish the facts and identify lessons to be learned. To ensure that policing can take action to prevent future deaths or injuries, the Home Secretary has asked the College of Policing to create a lessons learned database. This will:

• Enable the College to consider lessons learned from investigations into deaths or serious injury arising from police contact or pursuits in any College of Policing or police force Authorised Professional Practice, guidance or training.

• Ensure police forces and the College of Policing always make use of findings and recommendations that emerge from post-death investigations, improving prevention and providing transparency for all involved.

This database will be established by Summer 2025.

8. To ensure high standards, and improve public confidence, police forces need to apply consistent vetting standards and ensure that those who are not fit to be police officers are swiftly removed. The government will introduce legislative measures to strengthen police misconduct and performance regimes, delivering the recommendations of the Home Office’s review of police dismissals last year. We will also overhaul police vetting following the Angiolini Inquiry’s Part 1 report published earlier this year. This package of regulations, to be delivered from early 2025, will:

• Ensure that officers convicted of certain criminal offences should automatically be found to have committed gross misconduct.

• Create a presumption of dismissal where there is a finding of gross misconduct.

• Create a presumption of fast-track hearings for former officers.

• Streamline the performance system for individual officers.

• Provide a process for police forces to dismiss officers who cannot hold vetting.

The Home Office will also introduce regulations to deliver on the government’s manifesto commitments to put stronger vetting standards on a legislative footing by the end of 2025 and, to ensure violence against women and girls is not tolerated in policing, we will strengthen requirements on police forces to suspend officers under investigation for domestic abuse or sexual offences.