CECCG14100 - England & Wales: Role and Responsibilities of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC)

The IOPC has oversight of complaints, conduct matters and death or serious injury (DSI) matters that meet the mandatory referral criteria (or are referred voluntarily by HMRC) resulting from the activities of HMRC staff in England and Wales.

For details of the mandatory criteria, see CECCG15200.

Following a referral, the IOPC decides whether an investigation is required and, if so, determines the mode of investigation. The options available to the IOPC are:

• Local Investigation – the IOPC returns the case to HMRC to investigate with no IOPC involvement, see CECCG16400.
• Supervised Investigation – the IOPC refers the cases to either HMRC or to a Police Force, to investigate under IOPC supervision. In such cases, HMRC or the Police Force will have control over the investigation. The majority of supervised cases will be referred back to HMRC for investigation (referrals to Police Forces are in exceptional circumstances where IOPC consider it appropriate). For more details, see CECCG16300.
• Managed Investigation – the IOPC refers the case to either HMRC or the Police to investigate. However, the case is under IOPC management, and it is the IOPC who determines the direction and control of the investigation see CECCG16200.
• Independent Investigation – the IOPC undertakes an investigation using its own resources. This will be for the most serious incidents, complaints and allegations, or where it is inappropriate for HMRC to investigate, see CECCG16100.

If the IOPC decides an investigation is not required, they will return the matter to HMRC to deal with as HMRC considers appropriate, including taking no further action.