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Written question asked by Lord Hogan-Howe (Crossbench) on Thursday, 26 June 2025, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 10 July 2025. It was answered by Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour) on Thursday, 10 July 2025 on behalf of the Home Office.


Police: Disciplinary Proceedings

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average time taken from complaint to police misconduct hearing in England and Wales.

Answer

The Home Office publishes data on police misconduct annually as part of its statistical series on police misconduct and criminal investigations. In addition, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) publishes data annually on the police complaints system.

Data is collected and published on the total time taken to finalise cases. A case is considered finalised once all resultant actions have concluded, including criminal proceedings, appeals and any associated reviews. The majority of these cases do not result in formal misconduct proceedings.

For cases involving police officers that were finalised in the year ending 31 March 2024, it took on average (median) 111 calendar days to finalise conduct matter cases and 311 calendar days to finalise recordable conduct matters. It took on average 133 working days for complaint cases to be finalised in the same time period. Data on police complaints covers police staff as well as police officers.

Last year, the Home Secretary announced a review into systemic barriers to timeliness in the police misconduct system, which is due to commence in the near future.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL8904
Session
2024-26
Subjects
Disciplinary proceedings Police Standards
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk