Policer Reform and Social Responsibility Bill

Memorandum submitted by the Independent Police Complaints Commission

(IPCC) (PR 123)

Summary

1. The Independent Police Complaints Commission is pleased that the Government has tabled an amendment to the Bill to give effect to some of the ideas generated by our review of the police complaints system called the Stock Take.

Submission

2. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (hereafter "the IPCC") was established by the Police Reform Act 2002 and started operating on 1 April 2004. The IPCC’s main role is to increase public confidence in the police complaints system in England and Wales.

3. During 2007 and 2008 the IPCC carried out a Stock Take of the police complaints system. The purpose of this review was to establish whether the police complaints system reflected the aspirations of Parliament and the public following the introduction of the Police Reform Act.

4. The IPCC Advisory Board, which included representatives from the majority of the IPCC’s major stakeholders, was central to this process – from identifying broad shifts that the Stock Take should try to promote in the police complaints system, to developing proposals for how these changes might happen in practice.

5. The result of this process was a public consultation document. The document set out how the system was currently performing and identified where there was consensus for change. The rational behind the changes was to make the system more responsive to the public’s concerns and to fix the problem leading to the complaint, not just to focus on whether an officer had breached their code of conduct.

6. In late 2008 the IPCC began implementing the proposals from the Stock Take agreed by the Commission and our stakeholders that could be dealt with without legislative change. We have now implemented all the changes that are within the IPCC’s power to change, through revising the IPCC’s Statutory Guidance material and through the Performance Framework.

7. The IPCC asked officials at the Home Office to consider the proposals that required legislative change and we are pleased that the Government has now introduced an amendment to the Bill that includes some of the ideas that came out of the Stock Take.

8. The IPCC is committed to increasing confidence in the police complaints system and it will continue to work with Home Office officials to deliver this aim within the framework set by Parliament.

February 2011