Police misconduct, England
and Wales: year ending 31 March 2023
Details
This statistical release is accompanied by new open data tables which
include information on misconduct proceedings.
This release contains information on the number of police
complaints, conduct matters and recordable conduct matters
recorded by the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales
in the year ending 31 March 2023.
The publication primarily focuses on those which were referred to
misconduct proceedings. Data for all cases referred to misconduct
proceedings is presented by:
- breach type
- the type of proceeding
- the outcome at such proceedings, including the level of
misconduct found proven and disciplinary actions imposed
Following the outcome at misconduct proceedings officers may
appeal to the Police Appeals Tribunal (PAT). Information is
presented in this bulletin on the number of appeals made by
police officers to the PAT.
Not all allegations will be handled at misconduct proceedings; in
some allegations there may not have been a case to answer for
misconduct, or the allegation was resolved via others means.
Information is provided on the total number of police complaint,
conduct matter and recordable conduct matter allegations
finalised, including those not referred to misconduct
proceedings. For all allegations, information is provided on:
- allegation and breach types
- whether there was a case to answer
- the action and result taken
In addition, timeliness measures are presented for how long it
took to finalise such cases.
Information is also presented on the number of police complaints,
conduct matters and recordable conduct matters, that were
finalised in the financial year, which involved criminal
proceedings.
The data includes cases handled under the current regulations
only, which came into effect on 1 February 2020. Data is provided
for police officers (which includes special constables) and
police staff (which includes civilian staff, designated officers
and Police Community Support Officers).
The data is Official Statistics in Development (formerly known as
experimental statistics) to acknowledge that they should be
interpreted with caution. These statistics are going through
development, with a potentially wider degree of uncertainty in
the figures whilst processes are established and verified.
See the ‘User guide to police
misconduct statistics’ for further information, including a
glossary, conventions used and other background information.
