Police Complaints Statistics for England and Wales 2020/21 (Experimental statistics)

Contents

• Introduction
  • Formal and informal handling of complaints
• Findings
  • Initial handling of complaints and how long it takes
  • What complaints were about
  • Who is making the complaints and who are subject to them?
  • Time taken to informally handle a complaint and the outcomes
  • Time taken to formally handle a complaint and the outcomes
  • Reviews
• Discussion
  • Numbers of complaints, and what is being complained about?
  • Who is making complaints and who is being complained about?
  • Handling and outcomes of informal complaints
  • Handling and outcomes of formal complaints
  • Reviews
• Data tables
• Glossary

Introduction

The Policing and Crime Act 2017 and supporting regulations made significant changes to the police complaints and disciplinary systems. These changes were designed to achieve a simpler, more proportionate and customer-focused complaints system focusing on learning and improvement. The changes were implemented on 1 February 2020.

Alongside changes to complaints legislation, new recording guidance was issued to improve how information about complaints is recorded. These changes aim to make complaints data more meaningful.

This report presents figures on complaints about the police in England and Wales for the financial year 2020/21. It presents different data from previous annual complaints reports due to the changes in legislation and recording practice.

A police complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction by a member of the public about the service they have received from a police force. Police forces and local policing bodies deal with the majority of complaints themselves. The IOPC set the standards for complaints handling through our Statutory Guidance 2020.

Our Statutory Guidance helps local policing bodies and forces achieve high standards in handling complaints about those serving with the police, and to comply with their legal obligations. The IOPC also oversees the complaints system and investigates the most serious and sensitive cases, as well as carrying out some reviews of complaints.

The first stage of complaint handling is for the relevant police force or local policing body to decide how it will handle the complaint. The reforms allow for certain types of complaints to be resolved informally, while also allowing more flexibility in the handling of formal complaints. This allows the police to better meet the needs of the complainant, and quickly make improvements based on the complaints they handle.

A person can request a review if they are unhappy with the way their complaint was handled or the final outcome. In some instances, this review will be carried out by the IOPC. Other reviews are handled by local policing bodies (Police and Crime Commissioners and Mayors).

This is the first year of reporting on the changes to the complaints system and therefore, these statistics should be considered experimental¹.

Most of the data referred to in this report was recorded on police force IT systems and collected by the IOPC. Police forces updated their systems at different times, and it will take time for those inputting data to develop their understanding.

Given the significant changes to the complaints system it would not be meaningful to compare this complaints data to that of previous years.

We have issued police forces with guidance which sets out how we expect them to record the data we collect. Therefore, the consistency of the data we report relies on police forces applying our guidance correctly when they record data.

Our guidance on how police forces should record data about complaints under the Police Reform Act 2002, as amended by the Policing and Crime Act 2017, is available on our website: www.policeconduct.gov.uk

Formal and informal handling of complaints

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Findings

Initial handling of complaints and how long it takes

Complaint cases logged

Significant change has been made to the complaints system in this area, widening the definition of a complaint to make the system more accessible. This means many more complaints will now be logged than in previous years.

The definition of a police complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction by a member of the public about the service they have received from a police force. All expressions of dissatisfaction must be logged. Some dissatisfaction, which does not meet the criteria for recording a complaint under Schedule 3 of the Police Reform Act 2002 (PRA 2002), may be resolved quickly to the satisfaction of the complainant. Other expressions of dissatisfaction must be recorded.

• In 2020/21, police forces and local policing bodies logged 67,732 complaint cases (table 1).
• Forces took, on average, six working days to log complaints from the date the complaint was made.
• Most forces (29) logged complaints in five working days or fewer. Of the 15 forces that took more than five working days, seven had logged more than 1,500 complaints.

There are considerable differences in the size of police forces across England and Wales. This impacts the number of complaint cases logged by forces. Direct comparison of the number of complaint cases across forces would not take into account these size variations.

A complaint cases rate per 1,000 police force employees is used to provide a meaningful comparison of complaints logged across forces.

• In 2020/21, 290 complaint cases per 1,000 employees across all forces were logged.
• Complaint case rates per 1,000 employees ranged from 131 in North Yorkshire Police to 805 in Cleveland Police.² The average nationally was 290 per 1,000 employees (table 2).

Time taken to contact the complainant

When handling complaints, the body responsible must contact the complainant and seek their views about how the complaint should be handled. This should happen as soon as possible after the complaint is made.

• In 2020/21, forces took an average of seven working days from the date the complaint was made to contact the complainant.
• The time forces took to contact complainants ranged from an average of one day in Cheshire Constabulary to 24 days in West Midlands Police (table 3).

Recording complaints

The new reforms allow for certain complaints to be handled informally. Schedule 3 of the Police Reform Act 2002 sets out legal requirements for police complaint handling.

A complaint does not need to be formally recorded under Schedule 3 of the Police Reform Act 2002 if it can be resolved quickly and to the satisfaction of the complainant. Even if attempts are made to initially handle the complaint outside of the requirements of Schedule 3, it may later be recorded and handled under Schedule 3 of the PRA 2002. Information about recording complaints is available in Chapter 6 of our Statutory Guidance (2020).

There are four reasons why a complaint must be recorded under Schedule 3:

• A total of 36,365 complaint cases logged in 2020/21 were subsequently recorded under Schedule 3 of the PRA 2002 (table 4).
• In 42% (15,225) of cases, the body responsible for the initial handling of the complaint decided it should be recorded.
• Just over a third (34%, 12,440) of complaints were recorded because the complainant wanted it to be recorded.
• 16% (5,811) of complaint cases were recorded due to the nature of the allegations made.
• In 8% (2,889) of cases, the complainant was dissatisfied with the informal handling and requested their complaint be recorded.

Figure 1: Reasons complaint cases recorded under Schedule 3 in 2020/21.

What complaints were about

A complaint case may include one or more allegations. Each allegation is allocated to one of 11 categories and a subcategory if applicable. The purpose of the categories is to capture the root of the dissatisfaction expressed in a complaint.

• In 2020/21, 109,151 allegations were logged (table 5).
• The five most commonly logged allegation categories in 2020/21 were:
  • delivery of duties and service
  • police powers, policies and procedures
  • individual behaviours
  • discriminatory behaviour
  • handling of or damage to property/premises

These five categories account for 93% of all allegations logged (figure 2).

• The most common allegation was logged under the ‘delivery of duties and service’ category. This category accounted for almost half (48%) of all the allegations logged in 2020/21.

Figure 2: Allegations logged in 2020/21 by category.

Who is making the complaints and who are subject to them?

Who is making the complaints?

In 2020/21, 62,606 people complained about the police.

• Most complainants were men (55%, 34,268) (table 8).
• Where known, most complainants were White (47%, 29,422). It should be noted the ethnicity of 41% (25,890) of complainants was either not stated or unknown (table 9).
• The most common age groups to complain about the police were those aged 30 to 39 years (20%, 12,614 complainants), closely followed by those aged 40 to 49 years (18%, 11,311). The people who complained least commonly were aged 17 or under. However, caution is advised when looking at the breakdown by age owing to 20% of complainants (12,499) whose age is unknown (table 10).

Who is being complained about?

In 2020/21, 38,982 people serving with the police were subject to a complaint.

• 67% (26,108) of those complained about were male and 32% (12,389) were female (table 11).
• Most people subject to a complaint were White (81%, 31,768). However, caution is advised when looking at the breakdown by ethnicity due to the number of subjects (12%, 4,797) with unknown or not stated ethnicity (table 12).

Time taken to informally handle a complaint and the outcomes

Informal complaint handling provides an opportunity to address promptly the concerns a complainant has raised. The key consideration is whether a course of action is appropriate and whether it will be an effective response to a complaint.

Allegations finalised

An allegation is considered finalised when the complainant is notified about the outcome of the allegation (a decision) and any planned action.

• In 2020/21, police forces finalised 32,012 allegations on complaint cases that were handled informally (table 13).
• On average, these allegations took 20 working days to finalise (table 14).

Allegation decisions

Where a complaint case is handled informally, the allegation decision will be: ‘resolved’ or ‘not resolved’ (table 18).

• In 2020/21, 94% of allegations handled informally were resolved to the satisfaction of the complainant.
• The remaining 6% could not be resolved and will either have been recorded under Schedule 3 or withdrawn by the complainant.

Complaint cases finalised

A complaint case is finalised when all actions relating to that case are complete.

• In 2020/21, 28,202 complaint cases were finalised informally (table 19).
• These complaint cases took an average of 25 working days to finalise. This is longer than the 20 working days taken to handle allegations as it includes the time to complete all the actions on the case (table 20).

Actions

Any actions taken in response to the allegation are recorded; multiple actions can be recorded for each allegation.

• The most common action resulting from complaints handled informally was an explanation. 41% of complaint cases finalised resulted in an explanation being given to the complainant (table 21).
• 31% of complaint cases finalised informally had at least one allegation resulting in no further action.
• Different types of learning can be selected as the outcome of complaints. This include; organisational learning, individual learning and learning from reflection. This totalled 5% of the outcomes. Actions such as providing an apology or conducting a debrief accounted for a further 9%. Therefore, some sort of learning/reflective activity accounted for the outcome in 14% of cases.

Time taken to formally handle a complaint and the outcomes

All complaints recorded formally should be handled in a reasonable and proportionate manner. This may mean:

• an investigation
• otherwise responding to concerns raised and seeking to resolve them
• notifying the complainant no further action will be taken

Allegations finalised

An allegation is considered finalised when the complainant is notified about the outcome of the allegation (a decision) and any planned action.

• In 2020/21, police forces finalised 51,738 allegations on complaint cases handled formally (table 13).

Allegations handled by investigation

If an allegation is investigated, the investigation will fall into one of three types: local, directed, or independent. Please see the Glossary for an explanation of the different forms of investigation.

If at any time during an investigation, the investigating officer thinks a person complained about may have

the investigation must be certified as subject to special procedures (see explanation of ‘special procedures’ in the Glossary).

• In 2020/21, 13% of the 51,738 allegations handled under Schedule 3 were investigated.
• Just over 10% of those (688 out of 6,533) were finalised by investigations subject to special procedures.
• The proportion of investigated allegations ranged from 2% in Staffordshire Police, Cheshire Constabulary and Thames Valley Police to 50% in Warwickshire Police (this excludes six forces with fewer than ten allegations finalised by investigation and the British Transport Police who came under the new legislation from 4 January 2021).
• The majority of allegations finalised by investigation in 2020/21 (99%, 6,496) had been investigated by police forces. These investigations took an average of just under five months (106 working days) for forces to complete (table 14).

Allegations handled otherwise than by investigation

Most allegations will not need a full investigation to reach a conclusion and a decision.

• In 2020/21, the majority (87%) of allegations handled formally were finalised otherwise than by investigation.
• On average, these allegations took forces 57 working days to finalise (table 14).

Allegation decisions

The allegation decision reflects how it has been handled. The decisions available for allegations handled formally depends on whether it has been investigated or not (table 18).

• It was found there was a case to answer for misconduct or gross misconduct in 20% of allegations investigated subject to special procedures.
• 59% of allegations investigated subject to special procedures found no case to answer for misconduct or gross misconduct.
• Almost 2% found that the service provided was not acceptable.
• The remaining 19% of allegations investigated subject to special procedures found that either the service was acceptable or no further action was taken or the complaint was withdrawn.
• It was found the service provided was acceptable in almost three quarters (73%) of allegations investigated where special procedures did not apply.
• Of the 45,205 allegations finalised formally that were not investigated, the majority (66%) found the service provided was acceptable.

Complaint cases finalised

A complaint case is considered finalised when all actions relating to that case are complete.

This includes:

In 2020/21, 23,243 complaint cases were finalised formally.

• It took an average of 73 working days to finalise complaint cases formally in 2020/21.
• The average time forces took to finalise complaint cases ranged from 37 in Cheshire Constabulary to 119 working days in Gwent Police³ (table 20).

Actions

• Of the 23,243 complaint cases handled formally in 2020/21, more than half (57%) had at least one allegation resulting in no further action being taken (table 22).
• 18 complaint cases had at least one allegation resulting in either a misconduct meeting or hearing (table 22).
• 7% of complaint cases had at least one allegation resulting in learning for either the individual or the police force (table 22).
• 4% (815) of complaint cases handled formally had at least one allegation resulting in a referral to RPRP and 2% (516) resulted in learning from reflection for an individual (table 22).
• 5% of complaint cases had at least one allegation resulting in either an apology or debrief taking place (table 22).

Reviews

The complainant has a right to apply for a review where a complaint has been recorded under Schedule 3 of the Police Reform Act 2002. They can apply for a review if they are unhappy with the way their complaint was handled, or with the final outcome.

The application for review will be considered by the local policing body or the IOPC. The relevant review body depends on the circumstances of the complaint. The relevant review body will look at whether the handling and the outcome of the complaint was reasonable and proportionate.

There is no right of review against a complaint handled informally outside of Schedule 3. If the complainant is not satisfied with the outcome given to them, they can request the complaint be recorded and handled formally. This will bring it inside the scope of Schedule 3 and, when the complaint is finalised, the complainant will get a right of review to the relevant review body.

Local policing body (LPB) reviews

In 2020/21, LPBs received 4,346 applications from complainants requesting a review of how their complaint had been handled or its final outcome (table 23).

• The number of reviews LPBs received following complaints that had not been investigated was 3,224.
• The number of reviews received following complaints that had been investigated was 1,122.

Outcome of LPB reviews

• In 2020/21, 15% of reviews about complaints that were not investigated, found the complaint outcome was not reasonable and proportionate.
• The proportion of reviews that found the outcome was not reasonable and proportionate varied considerably across police forces from 0% in four forces to 48% in Wiltshire Police (this excludes two forces with fewer than ten completed reviews) (table 24).
• 19% (105 out of 557) of the investigation reviews completed by LPBs found the complaint outcome was not reasonable and proportionate.
• LPBs for seven forces completed ten or more reviews of police force investigations. The proportion that found the outcome was not reasonable and proportionate ranged from 0% in North Yorkshire to 38% in Warwickshire Police (table 24).

IOPC reviews

In 2020/21, the IOPC received 969 applications to review complaints dealt with by police forces (table 25).

• In 2020/21, the IOPC received 491 applications to review complaints not investigated by police forces.
• The number of reviews received following complaints that had been investigated was 478.

Outcome of IOPC reviews

• In 2020/21, the IOPC found the outcome in 32% of complaints that had not been investigated was not reasonable and proportionate (table 26).
• 32% (88 out of 271) of the investigation reviews completed by the IOPC found the complaint outcome was not reasonable and proportionate (table 26).

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Discussion

The main body of the report explains that these statistics are experimental due to the significant changes to the complaints system, police forces updating their systems at different times and time it will take to develop understanding of the changes. Therefore, any analysis and discussion of the statistics is currently limited. In future years, with more data and experience, more analysis can be undertaken to draw out more learning and improvements from the complaints that are made.

Numbers of complaints, and what is being complained about?

As expected, following changes to the definition of a complaint and the removal of considerations around whether complaints are eligible to be recorded, the volume of complaints has increased significantly. The changes aimed to make access to the complaints system easier and ensure that all dissatisfaction with the police was documented. Given those changes, it would not be meaningful to compare the volume of complaints reported in 2020/21 with previous years.

New recording guidance was also introduced, including new categories to document the nature of complaints. The largest number of complaints were identified as relating to ‘delivery of duties and service’. This covers police action after contact with the public and the general level of service the police offer. Typically, these types of complaints could be about property not being returned or a member of the public not being given a regular update on progress after reporting a crime. Many of these complaints were dealt with informally.

The next two largest categories of complaints are more complex. They arose from situations when police are using powers, such as use of force, arrest, detention and stop and search – and of individual behaviours such as unprofessional attitude, impolite tone and language, and lack of fairness or impartiality. These types of complaints can vary greatly in seriousness.

Who is making complaints and who is being complained about?

There are considerable gaps in recording demographic data, in particular the ethnicity and age of complainants as well as those being complained about. This is significant. Evidence shows that people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, and young people, have less confidence in the police. Without this data, it is impossible to draw any meaningful insight about complaints received from these groups and how they were handled.

Handling and outcomes of informal complaints

Complaints that are handled informally should be dealt with flexibly, with customer contact and understanding at the heart of how the matter is handled. These complaints should be dealt with quickly – usually within a few days. Contact with the complainant was made on average within seven days of the complaint being made and cases took an average of 25 days to complete. 94% of these complaints did not go on to be formally recorded so it appears that the majority were resolved to the complainant’s satisfaction.

Aside from no further action, the most common outcome was that complainants were offered an explanation. Only 14% resulted in some sort of learning or reflective practice. Given the volume of cases, it is likely there are more opportunities to learn and improve the service to the public from this type of complaint.

Handling and outcomes of formal complaints

Of those cases handled formally, only 13% were subject to formal investigations. Investigations are more likely to feature allegations of abuse of position, discreditable conduct, and sexual conduct allegations. It took forces an average of 106 days to complete a complaint investigation. It is expected this figure will fluctuate over time as older cases are closed that have not featured in this data set. However, this does demonstrate improved timeliness compared to complaint investigations under the previous legislation (which took on average 151 days).

The remaining 87% of cases handled formally, were assessed as not requiring a full investigation to reach a conclusion and outcomes. These cases should be handled more quickly and with good customer engagement. These cases took, on average, 57 days to complete. Under the previous legislation, forces could locally resolve cases. In 2019/20, local resolution cases took an average of 73 days to complete.

Of those cases completed in 2020/21, 18 resulted in a finding of a case to answer for misconduct or gross misconduct. In 19% of cases a learning or reflective activity was identified as an outcome. Only 4% of cases resulted in a referral for the Reflective Practice Review Process. Given these cases are likely to be the more serious allegations, it is envisaged these figures may increase with time as the legislative reforms are embedded and as more cases are closed. It is likely that some of these more serious allegations will not have been closed within the 12-month period of this report.

Reviews

A complainant can request a review if they are not satisfied with how their complaint was handled. Under the previous system, there were three different appeal rights, including an appeal against a decision not to record a complaint. This appeal type no longer exists as all expressions of dissatisfaction must be documented and handled reasonably and proportionality.

Replacing several different appeal types with one overarching review has reduced the numbers of reviews by about 1,000 in comparison to appeals under the old system. The nature of the complaint determines whether the review should be handled by the local policing body or the IOPC.

In 2020/21, local policing bodies received more reviews than chief officers did under the old system and the IOPC received fewer reviews. More than 1,000 reviews to the local policing bodies were because the complainant was dissatisfied with a formal complaint investigation. If a matter is serious enough to warrant an investigation, it often follows that it has reached a level that determines the IOPC as the review body. These figures highlight that more work is needed to understand where it is a result of a misunderstanding/misapplication of the Relevant Review Body (RRB), or some other reason.

Data considerations

This is the first year reporting on the new complaints legislation so it is worth highlighting not all complaints logged will have been finalised in the same financial year.

The flexibility in the new system means there will be different ways to handle complaints in a reasonable and proportionate manner. Some forces will choose to handle matters in a different way to other forces. Furthermore, there will be a settling in period for police force Professional Standards Departments to get familiar with the new complaints system.

Data about complaints handled outside of Schedule 3 to the PRA 2002 by Bedfordshire Police, Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Hertfordshire Constabulary and Northumbria Police is not included in this report because of technical issues. The IOPC is working with these forces to make sure reporting of these complaint cases is possible in the future.

The British Transport Police only came under the new reforms from 4 January 2021 and this report only presents information about the complaints handled under the new regime.

Hampshire Constabulary only started capturing information about complaints handled outside of Schedule 3 from 1 February 2021.

Allegations handled under Schedule 3 and investigated not subject to special procedures may be under-represented in this report, instead grouping some of these allegations as finalised under Schedule 3 and not investigated. This is because police forces were not able to collect this data consistently and accurately on their systems until the implementation of an upgrade from November 2020.

Allegations finalised by directed investigations are being included under ‘local investigation’. The IOPC is working with force IT suppliers to make sure reporting on this is possible in the future.

Statistical notes

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Data tables

Table 1: Number of complaint cases logged in 2020/21

* The figures for City of London include complaint cases logged in relation to ‘Action Fraud’. Action Fraud is the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime. The service is run by the City of London Police, which is the national policing lead for economic crime.

Table 2: Number of complaint cases logged per 1,000 employees in 2020/21

* “Number of employees” is taken from the Home Office publication Police Workforce, England and Wales, 31 March 2020.

Table 3: Time taken to log complaints and contact complainants in 2020/21

Table 4: Reasons complaint cases recorded under Schedule 3 in 2020/21

Table 5: Number of allegations logged in 2020/21

* The figures for City of London include complaint cases logged in relation to ‘Action Fraud’. Action Fraud is the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime. The service is run by the City of London Police, which is the national policing lead for economic crime.

Table 6: Number of allegations logged - what has been complained about in 2020/21

Table 7: Number of allegations logged - what has been complained about and subcategories in 2020/21

Table 8: Gender of complainants in 2020/21

Table 9: Ethnicity of complainants in 2020/21

Table 10: Age of complainants in 2020/21

Tables 8 to 10: Complainants are only counted once in these tables regardless of how many complaints they have made throughout the year.

Table 11: Gender of those subject to a complaint in 2020/21

Table 12: Ethnicity of those subject to a complaint in 2020/21

Tables 11 and 12: Subjects are only counted once in these tables, regardless of how many complaints they have been subject to in the year.

Table 13: Means by which allegations were finalised in 2020/21

Table 14: Time taken to finalise allegations in 2020/21

Only allegations with valid dates are used in the calculation for the average number of days to finalise allegations.

Table 15: Allegations finalised by investigation under Schedule 3 in 2020/21

Table 16: Nature of allegations finalised outside of Schedule 3 in 2020/21

Table 17: Nature of allegations finalised under Schedule 3 by how they were handled in 2020/21

Table 18: Decisions on allegations by how they were handled in 2020/21

The number of allegations presented in this table may not match the totals in Table 13. This is due to a small number of finalised allegations which had recorded decisions incompatible with the way they were handled. These have been excluded from the totals.

Table 19: Number of complaint cases finalised in 2020/21

Table 20: Time taken to finalise complaint cases in 2020/21

*The number of complaint cases presented in this table are only those with valid dates that are used in the calculation for the average number of days to finalise complaint cases. Therefore they may not match the actual number of finalised complaint cases presented in Table 19.

Table 21: Actions on complaint cases handled outside of Schedule 3 in 2020/21

Actions are captured at allegation level and multiple actions can be selected on a single alleation. The figures in the table are based on complaint cases finalised in the year with at least one allegation that resulted in the corresponding action.

Not all of the available actions arising from the complaint handling are shown. The actions presented in the table are those that focus on putting the issue right and preventing it from happening again.

Table 22: Actions on complaint cases handled under Schedule 3 in 2020/21

Actions are captured at allegation level and multiple actions can be selected on a single alleation. The figures in the table are based on complaint cases finalised in the year with at least one allegation that resulted in the corresponding action.

Not all of the available actions arising from the complaint handling are shown. The actions presented in the table are those that focus on putting the issue right and preventing it from happening again.

Table 23: Applications for a review received by local policing bodies in 2020/21

Table 24: Outcome of reviews completed by LPBs in 2020/21

Some reviews may be deemed ‘invalid’ and these have been excluded from the number of “valid completed” and the calculation for “% outcome not reasonable and proportionate”.

Some caution is advised when looking at the percentage of reviews that found the complaint case outcome was not reasonable and proportionate due to the sometimes small number of reviews involved.

Table 25: Applications for a review received by the IOPC in 2020/21

Table 26: Outcome of reviews completed by the IOPC in 2020/21

Some reviews may be deemed ‘invalid’ and these have been excluded from the number of “valid completed” and the calculation for “% outcome not reasonable and proportionate”.

Some caution is advised when looking at the percentage of reviews that found the complaint case outcome was not reasonable and proportionate due to the sometimes small number of reviews involved.

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Glossary

Allegation

This describes what is being complained about. An allegation is made by someone defined as a complainant under the Police Reform Act 2002 (see ‘complainant’). An allegation may be made by one or more complainants about the service they received from a police force. It may, for example, be about force-wide crime initiatives, the organisation of policing resources or general policing standards. However, it can also be about the conduct of any person serving with the police.

A complaint case may involve more than one allegation. For example, a person may allege that an officer pushed them and was rude to them. This would be logged as two separate allegations forming one complaint case. Each allegation is logged against a specific category (a full list of the allegation categories and their definitions can be found in the IOPC’s Guidance on capturing data about police complaints).

Appropriate authority

(Section 29, Police Reform Act 2002)

The organisation that is responsible for assessing how to deal with a complaint. For example – whether it can be handled locally or reaches the criteria for referral to the IOPC. The appropriate authority may be the chief officer of the police force or the Police and Crime Commissioner for the force. If a complaint investigation finds someone has a case to answer for misconduct, the appropriate authority is responsible for arranging any misconduct proceedings. If you make a complaint, the appropriate authority for your case will contact you.

Complainant

A person who makes a complaint about the conduct of someone serving with the police or about a police force. The law sets out the circumstances that need to exist for someone to make a complaint (see section 5.6 of the IOPC Statutory guidance on the police complaints system).

Complaint

A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction raised by or on behalf of a member of the public to a police force. A complaint does not have to be made in writing and does not have to state explicitly that it is a complaint.

Complaint case

A complaint may involve more than one allegation. The allegation/s may be made by one or more complainants, against one or more persons serving with the police. ‘Complaint case’ refers to all the allegations and complainants connected with a complaint.

Directed investigation

An investigation conducted by the appropriate authority under the direction and control of the IOPC. The IOPC directs the investigation by appointing an investigator and setting out its scope and investigative strategy. The IOPC controls the investigation by reviewing the policy books, confirming the investigation has met the terms of reference and making the decisions at the end of the case.

Independent investigation

An investigation carried out by IOPC staff (Paragraph 19, Schedule 3, Police Reform Act 2002).

An independent investigation is often used for the most serious incidents and/or those with the greatest public interest. For example, incidents that cause the greatest level of public concern, have a high potential to impact on communities, or have serious implications for the reputation of the police service.

Local investigation

An investigation carried out by the appropriate authority on its own behalf (Paragraph 16, Schedule 3, Police Reform Act 2002).

Local policing body

The body responsible for all policing in their area. It holds the chief constable and the force to account. This is a collective term for:

• Police and Crime Commissioners
• the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (for the Metropolitan Police Service district)
• the Common Council (for the City of London police area) (Section 101, Police Act 1996)

Reflective practice review process (RPRP)

This focuses on putting an issue right and preventing it from happening again by encouraging those involved to reflect on their actions and learn from them. It is not a disciplinary process or a disciplinary outcome.

Review

Where a complaint has been recorded under Schedule 3 to the Police Reform Act 2002, the complainant has a right to apply for a review of the outcome of the complaint. The review will consider whether the outcome of the handling of the complaint is reasonable and proportionate. It will uphold the review where the relevant review body finds that the outcome of the complaint is not reasonable and proportionate. This applies whether the complaint has been investigated or handled in another way.

Special procedures

Special procedures only apply to investigations of complaints about a member of a police force or a special constable. In the case of any other person, the investigator must adhere to the relevant policies and procedures for investigating allegations of any form of misconduct.

Investigators must apply special procedures:

• in a complaint investigation, when there is an indication a person being investigated may have committed a criminal offence or behaved in a manner that would justify disciplinary proceedings
• in all investigations into recordable conduct matters (Paragraph 19A, Schedule 3, Police Reform Act 2002)

Unsatisfactory performance procedure (UPP)

A series of steps used to improve someone’s performance. It is used when a person was unable or failed to perform their role to a satisfactory level but did not breach the Standards of Professional Behaviour.

1 The Office for National Statistics describes these as ‘a series of statistics that are in a testing phase and not yet fully developed’.↩

2 Outliers have been removed from ranges. These are the British Transport Police, who began handling complaints under the Police Reform Act 2002 as amaneded by the Police and Crime Act 2017 from 4 January 2021, and Bedfordshire Police, Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Hertfordshire Constabulary, and Northumbria Police owing to technical issues with collecting complaints logged outside of Schedule 3 data.↩

3 Timeliness range excludes the British Transport Police, who began handling complaints under the Police Reform Act 2002 as amended by the Police and Crime Act 2017 from 4 January 2021.↩

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November 2021