Police integrity and corruption

2014 – Integrity matters

In our 2014/15 inspection programme, HMIC committed to carry out an inspection of police integrity and leadership. In March 2014, the Home Secretary asked HMIC to look at the anti-corruption capability of forces as part of this inspection, including the ability of professional standards departments to gather regular, actionable, intelligence on corruption matters.

In April 2014, the Home Secretary wrote again to HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary in relation to reports into past investigations of corruption carried out by the Metropolitan Police Service, and asked that these reports be considered fully in this inspection.

This report sets out our findings, and considers previous counter-corruption work in the Metropolitan Police Service.

Get the report

Integrity matters: An inspection of arrangements to ensure integrity and to provide the capability to tackle corruption in policing

Get the literature review

Police integrity and corruption – literature review, by Professor Tim Newburn, London School of Economics & Political Science (PDF document)

Force reports

Reports for each force in England and Wales were published on 27 November 2014, as part of HMIC’s PEEL assessments.

Read the police integrity and corruption force reports.

2012 – Revisiting police relationships: progress report

In 2012, HMIC conducted a review to track forces’ progress against the recommendations of our 2011 report, Without Fear or Favour. This revisit found that while forces have made some progress, particularly around putting in place processes and policies to manage threats to integrity, more needs to be done. The pace of change also needs to increase, not least to demonstrate to the public that the service is serious about managing integrity issues, which have retained a high media profile over the last year.

Read Revisiting police relationships: progress report

Read the press release for Revisiting police relationships: progress report

To see the research findings that contributed to our 2012 report please visit our data section

2011 – Without Fear or Favour – a review of police relationships

On 18 July 2011 the Home Secretary made an oral statement to Parliament about the Metropolitan Police Service when she stated that “current allegations about phone hacking are not, unfortunately, the only recent example of alleged corruption in the police service.”

On 20 July 2011 HMIC was formally commissioned by the Home Secretary to consider instances of undue influence, inappropriate contractual arrangements and other abuses of power in police relationships with the media and other parties and to make recommendations about what needs to be done.

The report looked at the system of controls that seek to prevent and tackle relationships that create a conflict of interest and therefore a risk to police impartiality.

Get the report

Without fear or favour – a review of police relationships

Read the press release for Without Fear or Favour – A review of police relationships

To see the research findings that contributed to our 2011 report please visit our data section

You can see the Review’s terms of reference here.

Please note: In July 2017 HMIC took on responsibility for fire & rescue service inspections and was renamed HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS). Inspections carried out before July 2017 may continue to refer to HMIC.