In 2023–2025, we carried out a PEEL inspection of North Wales Police. PEEL stands for police efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy.
We inspected how well the force performed in several areas of policing. Most of these areas were then graded as outstanding, good, adequate, requires improvement or inadequate.
Our inspection assessed how good North Wales Police is in ten areas of policing. We make graded judgments in nine of these ten as follows:
We also inspected how effective a service North Wales Police gives to victims of crime. We don’t make a graded judgment for this area.
We set out our detailed findings about things the force is doing well and where the force should improve in the rest of this report.
We also assess the force’s performance in a range of other areas and we report on these separately. We make graded judgments for some of these areas.
In 2014, we introduced our police efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy (PEEL) inspections, which assess the performance of all 43 police forces in England and Wales. Since then, we have been continuously adapting our approach.
We have moved to a more intelligence-led, continual assessment approach, rather than the annual PEEL inspections we used in previous years. Forces are assessed against the characteristics of good performance, set out in the PEEL Assessment Framework 2023–2025, and we more clearly link our judgments to causes of concern and areas for improvement.
It isn’t possible to make direct comparisons between the grades awarded in this PEEL inspection and those from the previous cycle of PEEL inspections. This is because we have increased our focus on making sure forces are achieving appropriate outcomes for the public, and in some cases we have changed the aspects of policing we inspect.
It is important to recognise that forces in Wales operate in a different context to those in England. Although policing and justice aren’t devolved to Wales, essential services such as healthcare, accommodation, education and social services are. This means that Welsh police and justice activity take place in unique performance and legislative contexts. In Wales, devolved and non-devolved organisations work in partnership to give local people the best possible level of service. Sometimes this means forces in Wales need to comply with both English and Welsh regulatory requirements.
Our reports contain references to, among other things, ‘national’ definitions, priorities, policies, systems, responsibilities and processes.
In some instances, ‘national’ means applying to England or Wales, or England and Wales. In others, it means applying to England, Wales and Scotland, or the whole of the United Kingdom.
I am satisfied with some aspects of the performance of North Wales Police in keeping people safe, reducing crime and providing victims with an effective service, but there are areas in which the force needs to improve.
The force is outstanding at recording crime. But it needs to improve its service to the public in some key areas, such as investigating crimes and protecting vulnerable people.
The force needs to make sure its investigations are effective and consistently supervised. It needs to improve outcomes for victims of crime and make sure they are receiving the level of service they are entitled to. The force also needs to reduce the delays in its digital forensics department as this is affecting the timeliness of investigations.
Overall, we found the force wasn’t considering the breadth and depth of the available data to understand and improve its performance. In particular, the force isn’t doing enough analysis to fully understand its approach to vulnerable people. It needs to improve its approach to Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Honour-Based Violence (DASH) risk assessments and increase officers’ knowledge about recording the voice of the child.
Officers and staff told us they felt supported by the force. But the force does need to make sure important changes are being communicated effectively. If officers and staff don’t understand changes, or the reasons for them, there is a risk they will fail.
The senior leadership team has been working closely with us and has already started to plan how it will address the areas for improvements we have identified. I hope the changes that follow result in improvements that help North Wales Police better meet the public’s needs. I will be monitoring its progress closely.
HM Inspector of Constabulary
Using the College of Policing leadership standards as a framework, in this section we set out the most important findings relating to the force’s leadership at all levels.
The chief officer team at North Wales Police has clear priorities, which are widely communicated throughout the force. The force is also providing thoughtful leadership training and there is succession planning for future leaders. We found that the force had a clear understanding of its leadership requirements and how it needs to develop its workforce to meet them. The force has invested in an inclusive leadership training programme. Line managers support workforce well‑being.
North Wales Police needs to improve elements of its governance and performance management framework as some areas aren’t managed as effectively as they should be. A lack of detailed data makes it difficult for leadership teams across the force to be held to account for their own or their team’s performance.
The force is working hard to improve its culture so it is supportive and inclusive. Leaders understand and value diversity and its benefits to the organisation. They show a belief in inclusive leadership.
The force has developed a campaign to improve standards of behaviour and to encourage reporting of, and action in response to, poor behaviour. The campaign, Know Where The Line Is, features on the force intranet and is included in leadership training. Nearly all officers and staff we spoke to were proud to work for North Wales Police and described working for the force as being part of a family.
The force could better inform its staff and officers about its plans for change and their timescales. This will help the workforce adjust to new ways of working and navigate through change more confidently.
More detail on North Wales Police’s leadership is included in the main body of the report.
The reducing crime assessment sets out what North Wales Police is doing to reduce crime and how effective this action is. This assessment doesn’t include police recorded crime figures. This is because they can be affected by variations and changes in recording policy and practice, making it difficult to draw comparisons over time.
The force handles calls for service from the public effectively and accurately assesses the risk to callers. It has a good understanding of the demand on its control room and response. But the force needs to improve how promptly it answers 999 calls and attends incidents. It needs to make sure that all victims are contacted if attendance is delayed.
The force uses stop and search powers effectively. Most of the recorded grounds for stop and search suggest that officers are using this power in line with legislation.
The force’s neighbourhood policing teams work well with communities to understand and meet the communities’ needs. They are building trust and confidence with the public, and encouraging the public to share information to help deter crime. But the force needs to improve how it records problem-solving and shares it within the organisation.
The force needs to make sure that it consistently provides crime-prevention advice at its first contact with members of the public. This helps them to play their vital role in reducing crime.
The force doesn’t always explore or record the perspective of children when an incident of domestic abuse has been reported. This may reduce the likelihood of the right support being put in place to protect children and the force could miss an opportunity to prevent further crimes.
The force isn’t always achieving acceptable outcomes for victims of crime. Low numbers of crimes are solved following investigations. The force needs to understand this issue and work to achieve better outcomes for victims.
More detail on what North Wales Police is doing to reduce crime is included in the main body of the report.
This section describes our assessment of the service North Wales Police provides to victims. This is from the point of reporting a crime and throughout the investigation. As part of this assessment, we reviewed 100 case files.
When the police close a case of a reported crime, they assign it an ‘outcome type’. This describes the reason for closing it.
We selected 100 cases to review, including at least 20 that the force had closed with the following outcome type:
Outcome 21: When the police decided that further investigation against a named suspect wasn’t in the public interest.
Although our victim service assessment is ungraded, it influences graded judgments in the other areas we have inspected.
The force needs to improve the time it takes to answer emergency calls. It also needs to reduce the number of non-emergency calls where the caller hangs up before a handler answers.
Call handlers don’t always use a structured process to assess threat, harm, risk and vulnerability. And call handlers don’t always identify repeat victims. This means that they aren’t always fully aware of the victim’s circumstances when considering what response the force should give.
Call handlers are polite when dealing with victims of crime. But victims aren’t always given advice on crime prevention and on how to preserve evidence.
On most occasions, the force responds to calls for service appropriately. But sometimes it doesn’t always respond within set timescales. It doesn’t always inform victims of delays, so victims’ expectations aren’t always met. This may cause victims to lose confidence and to disengage with the process.
The force has effective crime-recording processes. It makes sure that all crimes are recorded correctly and promptly.
We set out more details about the force crime recording in the ‘Recording data about crime’ section.
In most cases, the force investigates crimes in a timely way. And it completes relevant and proportionate lines of enquiry. The force doesn’t always supervise investigations well. Nor does it always keep victims updated. In the files we examined, the victim was updated in only 8 out of 21 cases where there was a delay to response, an appointment or the incident was downgraded. Victims are more likely to have confidence in a police investigation when they receive regular updates.
A thorough investigation increases the likelihood of offenders being identified and arrested, providing a positive result for the victim. In most cases, the force took personal statements. These give victims the opportunity to describe how that crime has affected their lives.
When victims withdraw support for an investigation, the force sometimes considers progressing the case. This can be an important way of safeguarding the victim and preventing further offences from being committed. In most cases. the force also records whether it has considered using orders designed to protect victims, such as a Domestic Violence Protection Notice or Domestic Violence Protection Order.
The Code of Practice for Victims of Crime requires forces to carry out a needs assessment at an early stage to determine whether victims need additional support. The force doesn’t always carry out these assessments or record all requests for additional support.
The force closes crimes with the appropriate outcome type in most cases. It usually records a clear rationale for using a certain outcome and this is effectively supervised. It asks for victims’ views when deciding which outcome type to assign to a closed investigation. But the force isn’t always able to provide an auditable record of victims’ wishes. This is important to help the force understand the reasons why victims no longer support police action. The force usually informs victims of what outcome code has been assigned to the investigation.
North Wales Police is outstanding at recording crime.
The Home Office Counting Rules, which provide the standard for crime recording in England and Wales, have changed since the last time we inspected the force for crime data integrity.
This change mainly relates to the way forces record violent crime. This means we can no longer compare the findings from this audit to those from previous audits.
We estimate that North Wales Police is recording 95.7 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 2.2 percent) of all reported crime (excluding fraud).
We estimate that the force is recording 100.0 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 3.1 percent) of sexual offences.
We estimate that the force is recording 94.9 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 3.9 percent) of violent offences.
The force’s data for victims of crime shows that age and gender are well recorded. However, ethnicity is less well recorded and other protected characteristics aren’t well recorded. This hasn’t changed since we last inspected the force in 2017. The force should be collecting this information to understand the extent to which each protected group is affected by crime and how this differs from those without the protected characteristics. It would inform the force if a different approach is needed for these victims.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to crime data integrity.
The force records rape offences well. In our audit we found that 27 crimes of rape should have been recorded and all 27 crimes were correctly recorded. Rape is one of the most serious crimes a victim can experience. Therefore, it is especially important that crimes are recorded accurately to make sure victims receive the service and support they expect and deserve.
The force records crimes against vulnerable victims well. We examined 50 cases reported to specialist officers. We found 32 crimes should have been recorded and 31 were recorded correctly. The one unrecorded crime was for a breach of a Non‑molestation Order. However, the associated crime of stalking had been correctly recorded.
North Wales Police is adequate at using police powers and treating people fairly and respectfully.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, North Wales Police recorded 4,513 use of force incidents. This is a 62.6 percent increase compared with the previous year. But this is still 5,741 fewer than we estimate should have been recorded based on the number of arrests during this period. This may mean that the force isn’t recording all its use of force incidents.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, 6.8 percent of use of force incidents resulted in the officer being injured, one of the highest rates in England and Wales. This may mean North Wales Police isn’t training officers to use force correctly or providing them with the correct level of protection. The force has introduced an officer safety panel to address this issue, but it isn’t clear what impact this has had in reducing injuries. The force needs to continue to monitor the level of officer injuries and try to reduce them.
Figure 1: Proportion of use of force incidents resulting in officer injury by forces in England and Wales in the year ending 31 March 2023
Source: Police use of force statistics, England and Wales, April 2022 to March 2023 from the Home Office
North Wales Police has improved its understanding of when officers use body‑worn video to record incidents where force is used. In April 2024, it provided us with data that showed the compliance rate for the use of body-worn video when force was used was 63.5 percent. Following our inspection, the force told us that the rolling 12-month compliance rate to August 2024 was 85.7 percent.
During our inspection, supervisors told us that they didn’t always review the body‑worn video due to demand pressures.
In May, the force introduced an electronic form for officers to record the use of both stop and search and use of force powers. Officers can select the justification for use of force from a range of options and manually add additional details. But supervisors told us that they didn’t know officers were able to add text. The force should make sure that all officers and supervisors are made aware of this function.
Officers and supervisors told us that it had become confusing knowing when they should record stop and search and use of force. The force told us that the number of officers using the new electronic system was low, but it planned to phase out the use of paper forms in September. This should provide more clarity for officers and supervisors.
North Wales Police has an independently chaired panel that scrutinises stop and search and use of force. But it only meets quarterly and usually discusses four cases, two stop and search cases, and two use of force cases. This small number of cases and the time between meetings provides an insufficient level of audit. It reduces the force’s opportunities to receive valuable feedback. The cases are also selected by the force rather than the panel.
We found that the panel had a diverse membership. The force is also trying to recruit youth ambassadors to the panel, which will further enhance its diversity. From our observations, panel members were engaged and had received training on their role and police powers. This helps them provide appropriate scrutiny and challenge to the cases they review.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to police powers and treating people fairly and respectfully.
North Wales Police provides mandatory training to its workforce, including effective communication skills, cultural awareness and unconscious bias. This helps officers to better understand their personal biases and to improve their skills in communicating with members of the public. We also found that the force was offering college courses to officers to improve their Welsh language skills. We found that officers valued this.
The force is making sure officers receive stop and search training. This training is provided annually as part of public and personal safety training. Training is reviewed regularly and includes scenarios designed to give officers realistic experience of situations they may have to deal with. Officers are trained in how to use the national decision model.
During our inspection, we reviewed a sample of 223 stop and search records from 1 March 2023 to 29 February 2024. Based on this sample, we estimate that 85.2 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 4.5 percentage points) of all stop and searches carried out by the force during this period had reasonable grounds. This is broadly unchanged compared to the findings from our previous review of records from 1 January to 31 December 2021, when we found 80.9 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 4.1 percentage points) of stop and searches carried out by North Wales Police had reasonable grounds. Of the records we reviewed for stop and searches on people who self-identified as from a minority ethnic background, eight out of ten had reasonable grounds.
The force told us that it reviews stop and search records to make sure the powers are used appropriately and officers are correctly recording reasonable grounds. But we found that this wasn’t always the case. The force told us that it recognises that it needs to do more to assure itself that supervisors are appropriately scrutinising reasonable grounds.
The force uses a dip sampling process to review body-worn video footage to provide an extra level of scrutiny. It told us that it would like to do more qualitative reviews in the future. The force told us that its compliance rate for the use of body-worn video for stop and search has improved from 72.4 percent to 92 percent. Findings from body-worn video footage reviews are fed into the strategic and tactical governance meetings. Feedback is sometimes shared directly with officers.
Our review of body-worn video of stop and search encounters showed officers to be courteous and respectful. But we also found sometimes the justification for the search was poorly communicated to the subject before it began. The force should make sure officers adhere to its consistent and professional methodology. We saw some examples of excellent communication from officers.
In year ending 31 March 2023, North Wales Police officers found the item sought in 24.3 percent of stop and searches carried out. This is within the normal range, compared to other forces across England and Wales.
Many officers we spoke to lacked confidence in carrying out stop and searches, and didn’t feel supported to use it as an investigative tactic.
In some cases, we were told officers deprioritised the use of stop and search because of competing demands on their time. Supervisors we spoke to agreed with these views. The force had already identified this issue through feedback from its frontline officers.
The force can identify where children have been stopped and searched, including those aged 12 and under. But it doesn’t have a consistent safeguarding process for them.
The force told us that in the year ending 31 July 2024, officers stopped and searched 13 children. Two were aged under ten, but no safeguarding referral had been made. Nor had the force made a safeguarding referral for a further 3 children aged between 10 and 12. The force doesn’t have an automatic process to scrutinise searches of children, and senior officers aren’t asking for a review of these searches.
The force told us that it makes safeguarding referrals on a case-by-case basis. While the numbers are small, the force should satisfy itself that all children who are stopped and searched are subject to extra oversight, and that necessary referrals are made. If a safeguarding referral isn’t made, the reasons for the decision should be recorded.
North Wales Police is adequate at prevention and deterrence.
We observed several problem-solving meetings with local partner organisations and saw examples of effective, evidence-based problem-solving activity that had led to notable reductions in crime and antisocial behaviour. But problem-solving wasn’t being recorded consistently across the force.
At the time of our inspection, the force had only ten problem-solving plans open, with most in the early stages of development. Some officers in neighbourhood policing teams hadn’t been trained in problem-solving and weren’t using the OSARA model – objective, scanning, analysis, response, assessment – or other recognised model to identify and address issues in their communities. This could limit officers’ effectiveness in tackling problems in their communities.
The officers using problem-solving plans are using different recording and supervision processes. By not recording activity in a consistent manner, the force could struggle to identify, gather and share best practice across teams. This could hinder its ability to make improvements in the future.
The force gives information on people who repeatedly go missing, and their possible locations, to bus and train companies. The companies send alerts to ticket machines to notify drivers and staff. The force told us that since 28 October 2023, one bus company had received over 60 referrals. In one case, a person missing from a mental health suite was quickly found and safely returned. There are plans to widen the project to notify companies about missing people who have dementia.
This has the potential to significantly reduce the risks faced by missing people and speed up their return to a safe environment. North Wales Police has shared the project with other forces.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to prevention and deterrence.
We found the force communicated well with its communities, in person and through social media, both broadcasting information and taking part in two-way discussion. It has developed North Wales Talking, a platform that the public can subscribe to. Subscribers receive information relevant to them. They can also ask police questions.
The force told us the platform had more than 15,500 subscribers, with the majority stating the content shared is relevant to them. The force evaluates its online engagement to identify the themes of most interest. This information is used to tailor future messaging. The force also holds regular events throughout the year, such as mobile police hubs, and attends fares and markets. The Cuppa with a Copper scheme gives people the opportunity to discuss issues with officers informally.
The rural crime team has worked to develop links with communities that can otherwise be isolated. The team told us that it has visited over 1,400 farms. It organises and attends events to build relationships, including visiting young farmer events and animal and food distribution centres, as well as schools and colleges. In addition to these in-person meetings, the force uses a community messaging app to maintain and improve its involvement with this community.
The three officers in the equality, diversity and inclusion team support the neighbourhood, rural crime and local policing teams to co-ordinate work to connect with communities that previously haven’t interacted with the force. The force also has dedicated staff and an officer working in a police and communities trust team. The trust manages the Police Property Act Fund – monies received by the force from the sale of property found or confiscated. Since 1998, it has invested over £1.7 million in its communities. Neighbourhood teams frequently apply to the trust for grants to support community initiatives.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, North Wales Police recorded 16.3 antisocial behaviour incidents per 1,000 population. This is in the normal range for all forces in England and Wales, which on average recorded 17.1 antisocial behaviour incidents per 1,000 population.
The force is using £1 million funding from the Home Office to tackle antisocial behaviour using high-visibility patrols. The force told us that its analysts had identified 28 areas with higher levels of antisocial behaviour, violence, robbery and sexual offences. Patrols are directed to these areas when antisocial behaviour is most prevalent. The force also has dedicated antisocial behaviour officers who support neighbourhood teams to use civil orders and other powers.
In the year ending 31 March 2023, North Wales Police issued 57 antisocial behaviour orders (Criminal Behaviour Orders, Community Protection Notices, civil injunctions and section 34 dispersal orders) in response to 11,246 incidents, giving a ratio of 0.5 percent. This was an increase compared to the previous year. It was also within the normal range expected compared to forces in England and Wales, where the average was 1.2 percent.
The police and communities trust team has worked with Theatr Clwyd to develop an award-winning education programme for young people. It raises awareness of crime and prevents young people from committing crime. It also encourages healthy relationships and good citizenship. The force told us that in 2023, 275 pupils across 10 schools took part in the programme. A similar number are expected to take part in 2024.
We found that the force effectively prioritised activities that aim to reduce harm. Victims of repeat incidents, repeat locations, people repeatedly missing and people at risk of exploitation are discussed at force and district daily tasking meetings.
Positive examples of this approach included the rapid response to a missing 87‑year‑old man with dementia. Specialist units quickly became involved and he was found cold but unhurt, having fallen and become trapped in undergrowth. During one meeting, a stolen motorbike was discussed and then researched further. The result was the force recognised it wasn’t an isolated case and was able to tackle a series of incidents connected to organised crime.
We observed that the force’s daily and monthly meetings generated action by police or other organisations aimed at reducing harm, with leaders giving clear direction on how to tackle an issue. The force has four analysts who produce a monthly document to examine current and emerging issues to support work with partner organisations. In one meeting, the force identified a significant county lines threat. Working with other organisations, it was able to intervene, reducing serious violence incidents and arresting a number of offenders.
The force encourages the public to volunteer through its Citizens in Policing programme, which encompasses special constables, police cadets and police support volunteers. As well as working alongside regular officers and staff, they support, advise and co-ordinate the work of schemes such as Neighbourhood Watch, Farm Watch, Horse Watch and Business Watch.
The force has a special constable management board chaired by a special constable chief officer that reports to the chief officer group. It holds monthly meetings for special constable supervisors where themes and priorities, such as violence against women and girls, are discussed.
The force takes part in Heddlu Bach, the seven-week mini police programme for children from selected schools. The mini police officers prioritise issues that affect their area, such as litter or speeding. Research carried out by Cardiff University shows the programme develops children’s aspirations, resilience, self-esteem and self-worth. The force told us it had worked with 1,920 children through the programme since it started.
The force offers volunteers the same access to training and welfare support as the paid workforce. It holds leadership training on weekends to allow volunteer supervisors access to development opportunities. The force’s approach is that the paid and volunteer workforces are one team. It says this is one of the reasons it has managed to attract more than 300 volunteers.
The force proactively recruits volunteers. It visits a range of workplaces, agencies and companies to attract people with the right skills. For example, the force reached out to potential volunteers with advanced driving skills to improve road safety through its BikeSafe workshops. The force attends community events to encourage special constables and volunteers to join, and recently held a recruitment event at Tesco in Colwyn Bay.
The force has invested significantly in its information processing and data reporting capability with data visualisation system Microsoft Power BI. The system gives officers and staff the ability to access and understand detailed and relevant information. This means neighbourhood teams can identify and respond to current or emerging issues in their area more effectively, without always needing assistance from an analyst. And supervisors can access performance information regarding their teams and individual officers to understand what they have done and what else they might do. Antisocial behaviour officers can use the system to analyse patterns and trends.
However, the system is used inconsistently across the force. Not every officer has been trained to use it and some were unsure what information it could provide. Some personnel avoided using it, especially some longer-serving officers and staff who preferred the older, less able systems. The force needs to consider how it can encourage officers to maximise use of the new system to reduce harm, prevent crime and bring offenders to justice.
We also found some neighbourhood officers were unaware of neighbourhood or force priorities and didn’t know if local or force problem profiles existed. Some weren’t able to describe persistent problems within their area and were unaware if any organised crime groups existed. Several officers were on flexible shift patterns, which meant they missed daily briefings and tasking meetings. Some received later briefings, taskings or instruction from colleagues, but this wasn’t consistent across the force.
Several officers we spoke to were arranging their own activities without knowing the priorities in their areas. Some teams reported good interaction with response teams and other units, but some reported little or no interaction. Some officers said they could often work for weeks without seeing or interacting with other officers or a supervisor. Some neighbourhood officers were unclear about their role. This left them feeling directionless, vulnerable and undervalued.
The force has introduced a new neighbourhood policing performance board to gather the teams’ wide range of activities – for example, interaction with communities, problem-solving and targeting activity. This enhanced scrutiny should lead to increased focus and improved performance.
North Wales Police is adequate at responding to the public.
The force doesn’t routinely provide callers with advice on preventing crime or preserving evidence. This means the force is potentially missing opportunities to help preserve evidence that might improve investigations and outcomes for victims. It is also missing opportunities to prevent further crimes against victims.
In our victim service assessment, handlers gave appropriate advice about preserving evidence in only 19 of the 32 relevant cases we reviewed. We also found that call handlers gave appropriate advice about crime prevention in only 22 of 33 relevant cases.
The force needs to improve training to make sure people who take calls are fully aware of their role in preserving evidence and preventing crime. The force should monitor calls to check the effectiveness of the training.
The force doesn’t always attend calls for service in line with its published attendance times. This was an area for improvement during the last inspection and it remains an area for improvement.
In 55 of the 78 cases we examined, the force responded to the incident within the required attendance time. We also found deployments received effective supervision in only 40 of 60 cases we reviewed. This delayed response and a lack of effective supervision can lead to the force missing opportunities to safeguard victims or collect evidence.
The caller wasn’t updated about a delay in 13 of the 21 relevant cases. Failing to update victims can cause the loss of both public confidence and investigative opportunities.
Since our inspection, the force has increased chief officer scrutiny in this area and has personnel responsible for calling victims to notify them of delays.
The force identified that it needed more people to answer both emergency and non-emergency calls from the public during peak seasonal demand. Collaborating with local universities, the force began recruiting police degree students.
Students complete a week-long course before working on the switchboard, supporting call handling performance. Many students return during their holidays and some have joined the force in a variety of other roles.
During the inspection, we spoke to some of the students. They felt supported in the role and enjoyed the opportunity to work in a dynamic environment that allowed them to develop their practical skills. They felt they were making a difference to the communities of North Wales while being helped with their university studies.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force responds to the public.
We found that North Wales Police had robust daily management structures in place for its control room, which is overseen by a chief officer. Daily performance reports examine all aspects of demand going into the control room. Demand and resources are tracked to make sure enough people are on duty to respond to calls.
We were told that call handling teams hadn’t had team briefings since a move to a new shift pattern. Some teams felt reintroducing these could improve communication from senior leaders, particularly the information call handlers receive. The force is planning to introduce screens in the control room that will show live demand and performance information.
In the year ending 30 June 2024, North Wales Police answered 82.2 percent of 999 calls within 10 seconds. This was below the expected standard for forces in England and Wales of 90 percent of 999 calls answered within 10 seconds.
During autumn 2024, the force expected to receive an upgrade to its telephone infrastructure. This should improve its ability to answer 999 calls more quickly. The force should continue in its efforts to improve its call handling performance.
Figure 2: Proportion of 999 calls answered within 10 seconds by forces in England and Wales in the year ending 30 June 2024
Source: 999 call answering times from BT
Note: Call answering time is the time taken for a call to be transferred from BT to a force and then answered by that force
In addition to 999 and 101 calls, members of the public can use a variety of online channels to contact North Wales Police. This includes social media and Single Online Home, a platform that allows the public to report crimes or contact the police at any time.
The force has a digital desk, open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to co-ordinate these channels and respond to the public in Welsh and English. Digital contact is helping the force to have two-way conversations with the public. The force has increased staffing on the desk so that it is better able to respond during times of peak demand.
As part of our victim service assessment, we found that call handlers used a structured triage and risk assessment that considered the needs of the victim/caller in 72 of 88 calls.
The THRIVE (threat, harm, risk, investigation, vulnerability and engagement) risk assessment recorded was an accurate and meaningful reflection of the call in 68 out of 72 cases. We found that call handlers’ initial prioritisation grading of the call was appropriate in 90 of the 97 cases we reviewed.
The force told us that in the year ending 31 July 2024, 18.5 percent of calls to its non‑emergency 101 number were abandoned by callers before they were answered. As set out in the 2020 national contact management strategy principles and guidance, forces with a switchboard should aim to have an abandonment rate lower than 5 percent.
Callers who abandon non-emergency calls may go on to make inappropriate calls to the 999 system. A high number of abandoned calls means a force has a degree of risk that isn’t understood or addressed as the call content is unknown. The force has worked to understand call abandonment in more detail and has seen a reduction month by month.
North Wales Police requires improvement at investigating crime.
The force isn’t always achieving acceptable outcomes for victims of crime. It has low numbers of crimes that are solved following investigations. The force needs to understand the issue and work to achieve better outcomes for victims of crimes.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, North Wales Police recorded 113,752 victim‑based crimes. Of these recorded offences, 10.5 percent were assigned an offences brought to justice outcome. This was within the normal range compared to other forces in England and Wales.
This area for improvement is based on the overall performance of the force in bringing offenders to justice.
Figure 3: Percentage of victim-based crime recorded by North Wales Police and all forces in England and Wales by selected outcome types in the year ending 31 March 2024
| Outcome types | North Wales outcome rate | England and Wales outcome rate |
| 1 – Charged/summonsed | 7.3% | 5.5% |
| 2 & 3 – Caution – youths & adults | 0.3% | 0.7% |
| 8 – Community resolutions | 2.2% | 1.6% |
| 9 – Prosecution not in the public interest (CPS decision) | 0.1% | 0.0% |
| 10 & 21 – Prosecution not in the public interest (police decision) | 1.3% | 0.7% |
| 14 – Evidential difficulties (suspect not identified but the victim declines or is unable to support) | 4.8% | 5.5% |
| 15 – Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports police action) | 14.1% | 12.4% |
| 16 – Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim does not support or withdraws support) | 23.6% | 20.5% |
| 17 – Prosecution time limit expired | 0.2% | 0.2% |
| 18 – Investigation complete – no suspect identified | 31.9% | 42.7% |
| 20 – Action undertaken by another body/agency | 2.5% | 1.4% |
| 22 – Diversionary, educational or intervention activity | 0.5% | 0.3% |
Source: Police recorded crime and outcomes open data tables from the Home Office
Figure 4: Proportion of victim-based crimes assigned a charged/summonsed outcome (outcome 1) by North Wales Police between the year ending 31 March 2015 and the year ending 31 March 2024
Source: Home Office crimes and outcomes data
We found the force is failing to follow some requirements of the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime, also known as the Victims’ Code. The code requires forces to carry out a needs assessment at an early stage to determine whether victims need additional support.
We found that the force didn’t consistently carry out this assessment. And it didn’t always record requests for additional support. We also found that appropriate victim needs assessments were recorded in only 46 of 56 relevant cases. The force only set up a contract with the victim, recommended by the Victims’ Code, in 45 of 64 cases and recorded the reason a victim failed to support an investigation in 22 of 30 cases.
The force should provide enhanced support for victims who are vulnerable or intimidated or persistently targeted, and victims of the most serious crimes. Where a victim was entitled to enhanced support, this was recorded in 21 of 35 relevant cases. This means the force isn’t always identifying what support victims are entitled to.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force investigates crime.
The force has a performance framework for investigating crime, but more can be done to make sure investigators use it at a local level.
After our last inspection, the force disbanded its strategic investigative standards group that reviewed the performance of investigations across the three local policing areas. Each area then ran its own separate investigative standards meeting.
But in April the force reinstated the force-wide meeting, recognising that investigative standards required more consistent governance and greater communication between each area. We attended the new investigative standards meeting and found an overall lack of understanding about crime investigation data. There was limited scrutiny of high-risk or underperforming areas.
In our victim service assessment, we found 66 of 82 cases had been effectively supervised, and 85 of 100 investigations were effective. We found there was an appropriate investigation plan, in line with College of Policing authorised professional practice guidance, in 53 of 63 cases.
We found that all appropriate and proportionate investigative opportunities were taken throughout the investigation in 68 of 82 cases.
During our inspection, we spoke to investigators and reviewed their investigations. We found that supervisory reviews of investigations were inconsistent. Some teams had timely reviews and supervision, others had very little. Appropriate supervision is an important factor in how well forces carry out investigations. When supervision is absent or not good enough, investigations become compromised and the service to victims declines.
The force has clear standards for the supervision of investigations, but these aren’t always adhered to. In a performance meeting we observed, very few detective inspectors had knowledge of the force’s crime management policy or where they could find it.
If a victim doesn’t want to support a prosecution, but there is evidence of a crime, police and prosecutors can consider whether to bring the case to court. This is an evidence-led prosecution.
We found officers had a good awareness and knowledge of evidence-led prosecutions and a culture of wanting to secure a positive outcome for a victim if they withdrew from the process.
Officers and staff told us of successful prosecutions where victims of domestic violence had been too frightened to provide a witness statement or go to court. We found that personnel pursued evidence-led prosecutions whenever possible to safeguard victims and reduce crime. We also saw examples of evidence-led prosecutions in force and daily tasking meetings, and throughout focus groups with personnel. In our victim service assessment, we found that police considered progressing, or tried to progress the case, without the support of the victim in 10 of 16 relevant cases.
We found that investigators didn’t routinely receive an effective service from digital forensic services. The length of time taken for devices, such as phones and computers, to be analysed led to delays to investigations. Officers we spoke to felt that they were letting victims down due to these delays. And they told us that forensic services regularly extended the agreed completion dates. Similarly, agreed time frames for examining electronic devices were consistently missed.
The force told us there were a significant number of computers awaiting examination by its hi-tech crime unit. Laptops in high-risk cases should be examined within four weeks, but there at the time of our inspection there was a seven-month delay. In medium-risk cases, devices should be examined between 4 and 8 weeks, but at the time of our inspection there was an 11-month delay.
Investigators in the online child abuse protection team (OCAIT) also told us that processing time for analysing digital evidence in the safeguarding children online team, which is responsible for medium-risk cases, was between eight and ten months.
Senior leaders have allocated funding to outsource cases to make sure devices are examined more quickly. There are processes in place to escalate high-priority investigations and this happens when required. Digital examination backlogs are monitored at the force’s investigative standards meeting, which is held quarterly and chaired by the force’s head of crime.
The force has maintained its strong detective capability and capacity. As of 31 March 2024, all 263 posts were filled by detectives qualified to professionalising investigations programme (PIP) level 2 to carry out complex and serious crime investigations. This puts the force in a good position in terms of maintaining its investigative capability and capacity.
The detective resilience group helps the force to understand how many of its officers are PIP 2-accredited, identify vacancies and plan for retirements and leavers. This helps the force understand what it needs to do to make sure the posts remain filled.
North Wales Police requires improvement at protecting vulnerable people.
Officers attending a domestic abuse incident must complete a Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Honour-Based Violence (DASH) risk assessment. If a victim declines to answer their questions, the officer should record their professional view of any risk that might be posed.
We reviewed 246 domestic abuse-related incidents and found that in 146 (59 percent) the subject was recorded as refusing to complete the assessment, or there was no DASH score.
A further review of body-worn video footage in 15 cases indicated that in some instances DASH questions weren’t asked. In nearly all the cases the officers hadn’t recorded their professional view of the risk. If officers don’t complete a DASH assessment or record their professional judgement, it makes it difficult to fully understand immediate or cumulative risk and provide appropriate safeguarding measures.
We found that some officers and supervisors were unclear whether some domestic abuse incidents, for example a verbal argument, required a DASH assessment.
All domestic abuse-related incidents are further reviewed by staff and officers in a central referral unit. They told us that around 50 percent of incidents have missing or incomplete information. This team has a high level of skill and experience supporting members to use their professional judgment. But this can be hampered by a lack of information from DASH assessments, especially if there is no previous history of the people involved in police systems.
We immediately shared our findings with the force. It promptly provided plans to improve processes, training and oversight of its response to domestic abuse incidents. This includes further training for all frontline officers. The force should continue to address these issues and monitor progress. This will make sure it puts in place the right level of safeguarding and support to protect victims. We will be re-visiting the force to review progress in this area.
The force has a strategy to support vulnerable people and a governance structure to oversee it. But we found it was often unclear how they guided operational priorities and improved performance. Some force action plans we reviewed seemed very detailed, but didn’t appear to be active, living documents guiding operational activity.
For example, the action plan on violence against women and girls appeared to be very detailed. It had over 250 identified actions, but only 20 appeared to have key performance indicators allocated to them. The last update against an action appears to have been completed in September 2023.
The force’s vulnerability action plan had 67 actions listed, but none had been updated since October 2023. The domestic abuse policy appeared to have been last reviewed in May 2019 and referred to an out-of-date version of the All-Wales Safeguarding Procedures.
At the strategic and operational meetings overseeing services for vulnerable people that we observed, the force didn’t have detailed performance data in some key areas. These included the number of domestic abuse incidents where the family had previously been discussed at multi-agency risk assessment conferences (MARACs), how often officers adequately considered the voice of the child and DASH risk assessment completion rates.
When data was used, it didn’t always prompt activity to address potential issues. For example, briefing slides used in vulnerability performance meetings from February 2024 to April 2024 showed that officers appeared to not identify cumulative risk in repeat domestic abuse cases. But there was no discussion as to how to address this.
Numbers of MARAC cases were presented, but there was no discussion about what the figures meant. There was no detail of repeat domestic abuse cases, nor other measures to see if MARAC was effective.
Leaders of teams protecting vulnerable people told us that they weren’t routinely using performance data. Some stated the performance information they received from the force didn’t help them understand their areas and that all leaders needed to do more to hold their teams to account for their performance.
Without detailed performance data and discussion, the force is unable to recognise areas of success or prioritise areas for improvement.
We note that the force has made some key changes in personnel and governance, alongside planned developments in its Microsoft Power BI reporting tools. It is in an ideal position to take action to improve in this area.
The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS), also known as Clare’s Law, gives people the right to ask police if their partner has previous abusive or violent offending. People requesting information should be seen within 10 days, and any disclosure of previous offending should be made within 28 days.
We found that the force didn’t hold data on how often it met the ten-day time frame. We were told it could take up to 21 days before the DVDS team has capacity to assess some requests for information and a further 21 days before a decision is made to disclose. The disclosure has to be allocated to an officer, which adds further delay. As of 17 July 2024, the force had 80 requests for information waiting for a decision, with the oldest dating back to May 2024.
Disclosures should be made by police, but the force had passed some to children’s social care teams to make. It couldn’t provide details of how many disclosures it had passed to social care in the previous 12 months, how many disclosures had been made and what the result had been. This is a risk. Vulnerable victims may not be empowered with the information they need to decide whether to stay in a potentially abusive relationship.
These findings have been reported back to the force and processes have been put in place to improve the management of DVDS requests. The force should continue to monitor this area of risk.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force protects vulnerable people.
If an officer attends a domestic abuse-related incident where a child is present or known to live, they should make sure that the child is properly safeguarded. Officers should record the child’s details and comment on the child’s lived experience, known as the voice of the child. This record should include the incidents the child is exposed to, their living conditions and any other observations that will make sure they can be safeguarded and, where appropriate, referred to agencies such as social care.
We found examples of domestic abuse incidents where children were present but their details were missing or incomplete. In one case a couple had four children, but only details of one child were recorded.
In another example, a neighbour had reported a domestic abuse incident and hearing a child screaming. Police attended the property, but the couple refused to allow officers in. So the officers didn’t see the child and no details were recorded to allow effective safeguarding.
Staff and officers in specialist central referral units stated that updates on children’s lived experience were often missing or of low quality. The force doesn’t consistently monitor the quality of referrals to child protection units. This limits its ability to understand if some need improving. There is no formal process to make sure poor‑quality referrals prompt extra training for officers. We also spoke to officers who had a poor understanding of the voice of the child. The force didn’t have a formal process whereby referrals of poor quality could be returned to officers and supervisors to help with learning.
The force has been made aware of these concerns. It has put governance in place to make sure children are being safeguarded effectively. The force has already started to roll out training to improve officers’ understanding and recording of children’s experience.
Investigators in child protection and serious sexual offences teams told us that a lack of staff, officers and supervisors resulted in unmanageable workloads. Some officers and supervisors reported high levels of work-related stress.
Some officers felt they weren’t offering the quality of service they would wish to. And some supervisors felt they weren’t able to supervise teams effectively due to competing demands. We were told that not all officers were fully trained to carry out child protection investigations, which meant accredited officers had larger, more complex caseloads.
The force has responded to these findings. It plans to increase the number of officers in its child protection teams. The force is also reviewing its response to serious sexual offences under its current optimisation programme, evaluating demand, efficiency and workforce models. The force should continue to review the demands on these specialist teams to make sure workload and well-being are being considered.
The force collects feedback from victims to improve its service. It carries out lived experience surveys of victims of domestic abuse and hate crimes. Results for the year ending March 2024 indicate that around 79.8 percent of people were satisfied with the domestic abuse response they received.
For many reasons, not all victims of domestic abuse support a police prosecution. The police and crime commissioner recently hosted a workshop to review these victims’ experience of the criminal justice process and consider why they disengage with it.
Independent domestic abuse advisers and independent sexual violence advisers update the force on concerns from victims, and the force collects feedback from the domestic abuse survivors group. Findings are discussed by senior officers in various meetings and, as a result, the force is developing a domestic abuse attrition action plan.
The force has invested in a dedicated, full-time member of staff to improve its response to stalking and increase frontline officers’ awareness and knowledge. Additional Stalking Protection Order briefings have been given to specialist domestic abuse officers. They will review stalking incidents and support officers in obtaining a Stalking Protection Order where required.
The force also reports that the number of Domestic Violence Protection Orders (DVPOs) it has applied for and had granted has increased notably compared with the previous year.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, North Wales Police applied for 383 DVPOs at court, which equated to 5.5 applications per 10,000 population. This represented a rise in DVPO applications given the force applied for 165 DVPOs at court in the previous year ending 31 March 2023, which equated to 2.4 applications per 10,000 population.
Figure 5: Domestic Violence Protection Orders applied for per 10,000 population, across forces in England and Wales in the year ending 31 March 2024
Source: Data collection and analysis from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services
The force also reports a high number of breaches of DVPOs in comparison with the England and Wales national average.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, North Wales Police recorded 91 DVPO breaches, which equated to 1.3 breaches per 10,000 population. This was higher than expected compared to other forces across England and Wales.
Figure 6: Domestic Violence Protection Orders breached per 10,000 population, across forces in England and Wales in the year ending 31 March 2024
Source: Data collection and analysis from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services
This demonstrates the force is monitoring offenders and order breaches are recorded. It makes sure that the force can act on breaches. It also helps the force understand how effective DVPOs are in regulating offenders’ behaviour. It demonstrates the force’s commitment to crime recording standards that we observed in our crime data integrity assessment.
We observed daily meetings where offender targeting was discussed and response officers were assigned to supporting the monitoring of preventative orders. This helps protect vulnerable people.
The force holds both weekly and monthly multi-agency risk assessment conferences (MARACs) where information about high-risk domestic abuse cases is shared between police, probation, health, child protection and housing services across each of the local authority areas. Each MARAC is chaired by a police officer of detective sergeant or detective inspector rank. The force has eight MARAC chairs, but only one has received formal MARAC training. However, all the chairs are qualified investigators with experience and knowledge of protecting vulnerable people.
We observed several meetings. All chairs understood their role and had the necessary skills to carry it out. Police attendees appeared knowledgeable in the cases and made sure risk was understood and reduced where possible. But the effectiveness of some meetings was hampered by the non-attendance of key partner agencies. The MARAC steering group should review how to make sure other organisations take part in what should be a multi-agency response.
The force holds monthly adult domestic abuse perpetrator tasking meetings across its three force areas. The meetings bring together police and a wide range of partner agencies, and include a forensic psychologist. They aim to improve criminal justice outcomes and reduce offending by repeat domestic abuse offenders or high‑risk suspects.
In a meeting we observed, the chair facilitated detailed discussions with partner agencies to identify triggers for offending, such as substance misuse, poor mental health and housing issues. The adult domestic abuse perpetrator tasking meeting’s focus on the offender complements the MARAC meeting, which concentrates on the victim.
North Wales Police is adequate at managing offenders and suspects.
Bail is used by police to protect vulnerable people by imposing conditions on suspects and offenders. For example, bail conditions could restrict suspects from contacting victims or going to specified locations. This helps to prevent further crimes being committed and to safeguard vulnerable people. Pre-charge bail is initially set for three months. Police can authorise extensions for up to nine months. Court approval is required to extend pre-charge bail beyond nine months.
The force’s data isn’t detailed enough to be able to see if bail is effectively managed. It lacks information on how many suspects and offenders fall into different bail periods. The force was unable to show how it monitored suspects approaching the nine-month limit. It couldn’t show us how many suspects’ and offenders’ bail, and the associated conditions, had lapsed without a further risk assessment.
We found that the force didn’t examine bail in either local or force-level performance meetings. A lack of detailed performance data also makes it difficult to assess if offences are being investigated efficiently.
The force has put together a business case to recruit personnel to make sure bail is more robustly managed.
The force doesn’t consistently use bail as a safeguarding measure. We found that some suspects under investigation for indecent images of children offences weren’t subject to bail conditions. This means suspects released under investigation weren’t prevented from having contact with children.
It is appropriate for investigators and supervisors to consider each case on its merits. But the force must make sure that every opportunity to safeguard children is taken. This should include the application of bail conditions where suspects present a risk to children and vulnerable people.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force manages offenders and suspects.
The force has good arrangements to manage suspects and offenders. In our victim service assessment, we found that the force made an arrest in an appropriate timeframe in 18 of 21 cases.
Higher-risk suspects who are likely to commit further harm are discussed at force and area meetings, and operational officers are assigned to locating and arresting them.
We found an inconsistent approach to scheduling visits to people on the Violent and Sex Offender Register. This meant that the force wasn’t able to accurately see what visits were due that month or had been carried out the previous month. This makes it difficult to monitor performance. Since our inspection, the force has addressed this issue and is now scheduling visits at the end of each month to improve performance monitoring.
We also saw evidence of lone officers carrying out visits. The force wasn’t aware how widespread this practice was and it didn’t measure how often it happened. This means the force isn’t aware of the risk to officers’ safety, the risk they might be groomed or the visit’s effectiveness. Force policy allows lone-officer visits providing a strict procedure is followed. We didn’t see the policy being followed. The force has addressed this since our inspection.
All registered sex offenders are flagged on the force’s crime and incident recording system, Niche. But we were told there are no flags on the command-and-control system. Even if there are flags, they are either not used or poorly understood. This means that the force relies on officers requesting checks to identify lower-risk offenders who may be with vulnerable people, rather than the officers being automatically notified.
We found the management of sexual offenders and violent offenders (MOSOVO) and OCAIT teams were passionate about their work. Risk management plans are generally well written and are structured in line with best practice.
We found that the MOSOVO teams were well staffed and an additional detective sergeant post had been recently introduced. Operational detective sergeants were managing about 400 registered sex offenders and 8 force personnel each. Inspectors felt these caseloads were manageable but increasing.
The force told us there were around 54 offenders allocated to each offender manager. There is an imbalance between force areas with the ratio of offenders to managers being lower in the west than the other two areas. This is due to the large geographical area in the west of the force. The force can reallocate resources across the areas if required. It should continue to monitor caseloads and make sure the allocation supports efficient working practices and workforce well-being.
At the time of our inspection, the OCAIT team had 2 vacancies, with 1 post having been vacant for 14 months. However, each team member had about ten cases on average, which is manageable.
The force told us that enforcement action in nearly all cases was taken within Kent internet risk assessment tool time frames. But we also found the time frame didn’t start until an intelligence package was ready to be allocated to an investigator. If there is a delay in the start of intelligence gathering and its allocation to an officer, victims may remain at risk of harm for longer than the data suggests.
The OCAIT team has a dedicated intelligence officer who reviews each case. If the officer is absent, there is no one to progress cases other than the detective sergeant, who will have competing demands. In April, the force told us there was a backlog of 28 cases awaiting intelligence development and the oldest case was dated October 2023. The force didn’t know what level of risk was in the delayed cases. At the time of our inspection in July, the backlog had reduced by one case. The force told us that it has now trained another intelligence officer to address the backlogs.
North Wales Police is good at building, supporting and protecting the workforce.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force builds, supports and protects the workforce.
The force is committed to improving its workplace culture and commissioned an external company to carry out an independent audit. In response to the findings, the force created a culture board and a culture and inclusion task and finish group. The chief constable and the chief officer team speak openly about their commitment to addressing workforce concerns. All senior leaders have taken responsibility for programmes of work arising from the audit.
The force also developed its Know Where The Line Is campaign to improve behavioural standards and to encourage reporting of, and action in response to, poor behaviour. This features in the force intranet page and is included in leadership training.
Following the campaign’s introduction, the number of internal reports the force received doubled. This suggests people have more confidence reporting poor behaviour. This effort to improve standards was apparent during our inspection, with many officers reporting a noticeable, positive change in their trust and confidence in the force. Staff, officers and supervisors reported feeling comfortable reporting and challenging inappropriate behaviour.
The force has several initiatives supporting underrepresented groups. These include:
The force also has several initiatives supporting personnel who identify as a woman, including:
The force’s specialist firearms department, which works with Cheshire Constabulary, has carried out several equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives to encourage underrepresented groups to join the department. These include open days and information sessions, as well as mentorship for people who fail initial firearms course and adjustments to maternity policy. As a result, the force told us, its firearms department had the highest proportion of officers identifying as a woman nationally.
For the year ending 31 March 2024, the force had the second highest number of police officers that identified as being a woman across England and Wales, with 41 percent compared to 35.2 percent nationally.
The proportion of new officers who identified as being a woman in the same year was 46.9 percent, compared to an England and Wales average of 42.5 percent.
The proportion of promoted officers who identify as being a woman has also increased. For the year ending 31 March 2023, they accounted for 25 percent of promotions, increasing to 42.3 percent for year ending March 2024.
The force carries out surveys to understand the issues affecting its personnel, such as finances, culture, carer responsibilities and menopause. Staff and officer consultation forums and networks report having a good relationship with chief officers, who listen to concerns and adapt workforce well-being plans in response to feedback.
The force has a dedicated welfare support team with three engagement and welfare officers, one based in each geographical area. This team is well regarded by the workforce, with many officers speaking positively about the support and services they had received.
The welfare team offers monthly individual and team support where needed. This includes face-to-face meetings and drop-in sessions. For example, the serious sexual offences team has received additional targeted support. The force also developed a one-day resilience workshop for officers and staff in its digital forensic unit.
The force produces a monthly well-being letter, providing information about planned activities, ranging from counselling to financial advice, mindfulness and blood pressure and cholesterol checks.
The force has post-incident management procedures following serious or critical incidents that make sure those involved receive an immediate offer of well-being support. It has specially trained managers to help co-ordinate critical incident debriefs.
The force has identified roles that carry high risks to well-being, which was last reviewed in February 2024. The force follows College of Policing guidelines on occupational health support to personnel in these roles.
In addition, the force sends out an annual questionnaire to all its workforce, not just those in high-risk roles, to assess their psychological health. This allows the force to identify themes, and also offers personnel an opportunity to discuss their well-being and seek further support. However, up to 50 percent of the workforce aren’t completing it. Some personnel told us they were too busy to complete the questionnaire, some lacked confidence in the process and some were unclear about its purpose. The force is reviewing how to increase workforce confidence and participation in the process.
The force reported that it had one of the lowest attrition rates for student officers in England and Wales. For the year ending 31 March 2024, the force attrition rate was 5.1 percent compared to an England and Wales average of 6.2 percent.
The force has a dedicated HR officer who analyses retention and attrition rates. A retention initiative known as Say and Stay was introduced in March 2024. If an officer shows signs of wanting to leave, it prompts a ‘say-and-stay’ conversation with their line manager and HR.
The initiative is still in an early stage, but appears to be successful. The force told us that 80 percent of officers who had a say-and-stay interview had been retained. However, we also found that several student officers we spoke to were unaware of the scheme.
The force carries out surveys at three key stages to help it understand the experience of student officers. These surveys allow the force to respond through changes in procedure, extension of tutorship, and access to mentors and other support. The force showed a good understanding of this data and reasons for attrition. It has identified a higher number of leavers at 18 months into probation. Workload and work-life balance are the main reasons officers want to leave. If this is the case, the force tries to identify alternative posts, such as police community support officer or support staff roles.
As of 31 March 2024, the average time from referral to an appointment with the force occupational health unit (OHU) was 39 days. To provide a better service, the force has implemented a triage system to prioritise referrals based on need. OHU staff review and triage both self-referrals and those made by line managers. As a result, the counselling waiting list has reduced from six to two months. Referrals for physiotherapy are also triaged, with less urgent cases signposted to external support, such as through the NHS or online.
The force has provided additional resources for an extra two or three clinics a week. It has recruited an additional nurse, but it is finding it difficult to recruit to its head of medical service vacancy.
We are reassured by the steps taken to improve access to the OHU. Despite the waiting times, most people we spoke to who had received OHU services told us they were very good.
North Wales Police’s leadership and management requires improvement.
The force is working hard to improve its culture. It is also providing thoughtful leadership training and succession planning for future leaders. But it needs to make sure its performance framework goes beyond simple metrics.
We found that supervisors and managers lacked detailed knowledge of the demands on their teams, and weren’t being held to account for this lack of insight into performance. This means that leaders throughout the organisation don’t have a clear understanding of what is expected of them, so cannot act upon those expectations.
We also found evidence of teams working across multiple locations or instances of lone working without regular supervision. Some response officers had high workloads and some detectives comparatively low workloads. This could suggest a lack of understanding of capacity and capability at local and therefore force leadership level.
The force should improve its direction of local leadership through a clear performance framework and more robust performance management.
The force should make sure it is effective at managing demand and can show it has the right resources, processes and plans in place to meet current demand.
It has a geographical operating model that uses workforce and seasonal plans with a desired service level to try to make sure it has people in place to meet demand.
The different teams that deal with crime demand don’t have enough resources. There is a mix of capability and capacity within these teams, and we saw evidence that sometimes the force is using inexperienced officers to investigate complex crime for which they aren’t trained.
North Wales Police has the lowest use of overtime in England and Wales when compared to other forces. But it should review how overtime is being used to manage demand in different areas. We saw evidence that text messages were regularly sent to personnel on rest days to cover shifts where teams have dropped below their desired service level.
Achieving desired service levels in some areas is creating problems in others. One example is the minimum requirement that three sergeants supervise response policing. There is also a specific requirement for the number of sergeants in custody suites.
These requirements mean neighbourhood sergeants are moved from their duties to provide cover and won’t be able to provide sufficient support and leadership to their neighbourhood policing teams. Or they will be offered overtime on rest days to fill vacant shifts in custody.
During our inspection, we spoke to neighbourhood officers who hadn’t seen their supervisor for over seven days as they were covering custody sergeant duties. This made some officers feel unsupported and isolated.
The force should review its operating model and the skills of its workforce to make sure the right number of people, with the right skills, are dealing with the right work.
The force needs to prioritise investment in technology that will make its systems and processes more efficient and effective.
It should make sure its plans to replace and upgrade its aging ICT infrastructure are appropriately funded. The force should also make sure that it prioritises the systems that have the greatest impact on its ability to make full use of data and digital processes to reduce sources of internal demand.
The force isn’t making the most of the technology it has due to the limitations caused by its ICT systems. The manual and time-consuming processes it uses need to be replaced with automated systems. This would allow the force to produce and present quality data more efficiently. For example, force resources are managed by a combination of a system called Optimum, an Excel spreadsheet and paper records. There are several single points of failure in this antiquated process that could stop the system working. The force needs to make it more effective and efficient.
The force has a good process for understanding what products it needs and the order in which they should be delivered, but we found they could be introduced more effectively. For example, the force introduced Pronto, a product designed to improve efficiency. It allows officers to upload electronic forms on to force systems. We found that dual processes were present, with some officers submitting paper records and others submitting electronic forms. They told us they weren’t sufficiently trained and didn’t understand the system.
The force should address inefficiencies in its systems and processes through modernisation and upgrades so that the workforce can be more productive. This will help it to meet current and future demands.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to leadership and management.
The force has a clear strategic direction. It includes its communities in elements of its decision-making and hosts community forums. It recognises the need to be more inclusive by extending its use of Welsh language.
The force has recently introduced new governance boards. These will give the force more insight into its daily activity and future planning. We saw its force management statement used effectively in this planning. The force is producing data and is developing its use of data visualisation platform Microsoft Power BI, but more work is required to provide a clear performance framework that holds its leaders at all levels to account.
The force has leadership programmes in place to support its staff and officers. Frontline leadership programmes include both acting and temporary ranks, so that all staff and officers in leadership positions can access the training.
At the time of our inspection, the force had run 23 leadership workshops, attended by 288 police officers, staff and special constables. This constitutes 75 percent of the eligible personnel, with the rest expected to complete the programme by early 2025. The force has also held 2 weekend leadership courses for 29 volunteer supervisors. Feedback from supervisory officers who had attended the course was overwhelmingly positive.
We found that the force had effective resource management meetings and access to skills information. It has succession planning for key positions in place. The force is developing business skills in its managers and is making changes to promotion processes to make sure its future senior leaders have a wider range of skills.
Some staff and officers reported that there was a lack of senior officer visibility, with some reporting rarely seeing anyone above inspector rank. Some personnel felt they weren’t provided with information to understand strategic decisions and there was no process to check individual’s level of understanding or compliance with the changes made.
The force has carefully considered ICT, fleet and estate strategies. But we found that the estate needed improving. The force’s ICT investment has been poor. It has old systems that don’t work together, creating waste and extra work. The force’s use of robotics or automation is limited. The force should improve its approach to technology.
In the financial year ending 31 March 2024, the force received a total of £212.9 million in funding, which was £308,000 per 1,000 population. The force is funded at a normal rate when compared to other forces across all forces in England and Wales.
In the financial year ending 31 March 2024, North Wales Police received 47.1 percent of its total funding from the council tax precept. This was higher than expected compared to other forces in England and Wales.
Figure 7: Proportion of funding from council tax precept in the year ending 31 March 2024
Source: Data collection and analysis from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services
The force shows effective financial management of the funds it has available to provide efficient police services. There is a clear link to force plans and priorities, which is reflected in the police and crime commissioner’s plans.
The force has a good level of total usable reserves of £48.4 million. Total projected general reserves will be £6.1 million by March 2024. The general reserves are projected to remain a prudent £6.9 million by the end of the medium-term period.
We found that the force carefully considers how it collaborates with neighbouring police forces and other organisations. It has a firearms alliance with Cheshire Constabulary to help make sure appropriate resources are available to meet the requirements of the armed policing strategic threat and risk assessment. It is also part of the All Wales Oleo HR system, which all four Welsh forces share.
The force chairs a productivity and efficiency meeting that is held every eight weeks and includes representatives from all four Welsh forces. The purpose of the meeting is to examine ways to collaborate so that resources and assets can be used more effectively. We observed one of these meetings, which discussed potential collaboration in detail, with a focus on benefits realisation. It examined opportunities to increase efficiency by co-ordinating programmes of work or evaluating practices, such as the impact of Right Care, Right Person. A standing agenda item gives all forces a platform to share good practice.
We also found examples of the force collaborating effectively with other organisations. For example, it has worked with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board to gain sexual assault referral centre initial accreditation. We found the force focused on tracking benefits realisation in this collaboration, as it does with its collaborations with other forces. It has produced a new reporting format for tracking key performance data.
At the time of our inspection, the force had recently reviewed its collaboration arrangements. It commissioned an external company to assess a number of randomly chosen collaborations. The feedback the force received from this assessment was positive. But it also acted on a suggestion to improve its approach by sharing details of all collaborated functions with the wider workforce.
Data in this report comes from a range of sources, including:
For any charts and tables included in this report, we have listed the data source underneath.
We collect data from police forces twice a year. We agreed the design and schedule of this data collection with forces and other interested parties, including the Home Office.
Our analysts check and evaluate the collected data. We contact the force if we have any initial queries. Following this, we carry out an in-depth data review and make further contact with the force if needed. This process gives forces several opportunities to quality assure and validate the information they shared to make sure it is accurate.
We then share our analysis with the force by uploading the data to online dashboards. As they can review own and other forces’ data in context, forces can identify any notable differences or other inconsistencies.
This report presents the results from a PEEL inspection of one of the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales. British Transport Police is outside the scope of this report.
Any aggregated totals for England and Wales exclude data from the British Transport Police, which means that the totals will differ from those published by the Home Office. If any other police forces didn’t supply data and aren’t included in the total figures, we will mention this.
We use data that has been collected outside our PEEL inspection to support our fieldwork.
This report contains the latest data available before the start of our inspection and the data that the force gave us during our inspection. If more recent data becomes available after our inspection fieldwork and shows that the force’s performance has changed, we will comment on this.
In this report, we sometimes present information as rates per 1,000 population in each police force area. This allows our data to be comparable across all forces. Where population data is used in our calculations, we use the latest mid-year population estimates from the Office for National Statistics.
In this report, we have included bar charts with dotted red lines to show where a force is significantly different from the average for forces in England and Wales.
The dotted lines on the bar charts show one standard deviation above and below the unweighted average of all forces. Standard deviation summarises the difference between each individual value and the average and can be used to identify extreme or rare values.
Forces that are more than one standard deviation above or below the average are considered significantly different. These forces are outside the red dotted lines on our bar charts and we have highlighted them in either a dark blue (forces above average) or light blue (forces below average) colour. Typically, 32 percent of forces will be above or below these lines for any given measure.
We survey the police workforce throughout England and Wales to understand their experiences at work. The survey is an opportunity for the whole workforce to share their views with us. It is a valuable source of information as it isn’t possible to speak to everyone in a force during our inspection.
However, the responses we receive come from a non-statistical, voluntary sample within the workforce. The number of responses also varies between forces. This means that the results may be not representative of the workforce population.
We treat the results with caution and don’t use them to assess police forces. Instead, we use the results to establish themes that should be explored further during our inspection fieldwork. The results can also be used to give more evidence and validate information from other sources.
We carry out a victim service assessment for all forces as part of our inspection programme.
We assess the service that a force provides to victims. This is from the point of reporting a crime and throughout an investigation.
We also evaluate how forces record crimes. We assess every force on its crime recording practices at least once every three years.
Details of the technical methodology for the victim service assessment.
We carry out a stop and search audit for all forces as part of our inspection programme.
Our stop and search audits allow us to evaluate how well forces use their stop and search powers. We review how many stop and searches a force carried out under section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 or section 23 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. We analyse:
North Wales PEEL assessment 2023–2025
You can find more about North Wales Police on our dedicated force page.
A large and diverse geographic area, mainly rural with an extensive coastline which attracts tourists resulting in extra demand on public services.
North Wales is economically and culturally diverse; a third of the population is bilingual. Strategic road networks link the area to the North West of England and the Port at Holyhead to the Republic of Ireland.
Find out more about HMICFRS’s work and other inspection areas.
Find out how well other forces have performed during their PEEL assessment.
You can view the recommendations for all forces made by HMICFRS on our Progress against recommendations page. This shows how much progress has been made on these recommendations.
