IOPC Director General statement following publication of the 2020/21 police complaint statistics

Commenting on the publication of the Annual Police Complaint Statistics for England and Wales 2020/21, IOPC Director General Michael Lockwood, said:

"Today the IOPC has published its Annual Police Complaints Statistics for 2020/21. This is the first report since significant changes to the police complaints system were implemented in February 2020.

"An effective complaints system and independent oversight of it, is a vital part of securing public confidence in policing. Now more than ever the public need assurance that policing is listening to their concerns and taking action to put things right. They want to know that there are checks and balances to police powers and there is accountability and learning when things go wrong. These statistics provide a view of police complaints in England and Wales – identifying what complaints are being made and how police forces are responding to them.

"Given the significant changes to how complaints are recorded and handled by police forces in the last year, more time is needed to ensure the consistency and completeness of this data. Therefore, these figures are what the Office of National Statistics defines as ‘experimental statistics’ - they are in the testing phase and not yet fully developed.

"Notwithstanding that, I am encouraged that widening the definition of a complaint to any expression of dissatisfaction and removing many of the barriers to recording, has seen the expected significant increase in the volume of complaints being received. What is equally positive is that many more complaints are now being resolved quickly and informally, with fewer resulting in lengthy investigations. These are being replaced with more tailored responses such as explanations and apologies which address the concerns raised.

"We know that Black and Minority Ethnic and young people have less confidence in the police – therefore it is really important that greater efforts are made to improve the demographic data that is collected. It is important to understand who is complaining and how they are responded to.

"Given the experimental nature of the statistics, we must be careful in drawing firm conclusions on outcomes at this stage. However, it is notable that very few complaints resulted in an investigation into an individual’s conduct and fewer still (18), a misconduct outcome for an individual. As more outcomes data becomes available, we will be seeking assurance that there is an appropriate response when concerns about conduct are raised.

"I am concerned that so few cases have resulted in learning for individuals, or the police force concerned – and particularly that very few cases (815) resulted in use of reflective practice as an outcome.

"The introduction of reflective practice was central to the reform of the complaints system. It is a process intended to provide an open environment to encourage all those involved to reflect, learn and, where necessary, put things right to prevent issues reoccurring.

"These reforms are a real opportunity to improve the complaints and discipline system for complainants and officers. But this can only happen if the service and individuals within it are genuinely open to reflection, learning and improvement.

"As part of our role in overseeing the complaints system, we will be examining the use of reflective practice across forces to see how it has been applied.

"I would ask all Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners to consider how they can use the data in this report to further improve their handling of complaints and demonstrate to the public that there is an appropriate response when issues are raised."