In 2023–2025, we carried out a PEEL inspection of Northumbria 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.
Find out more about Northumbria Police
More information about the PEEL assessments
Our inspection assessed how good Northumbria Police is in nine areas of policing. We make graded judgments in eight of these nine as follows:
We also inspected how effective a service Northumbria 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.
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 pleased with some aspects of the performance of Northumbria Police in keeping people safe, reducing crime and providing victims with an effective service. I am satisfied with most other aspects of the force’s performance, but there are areas in which it needs to improve.
Northumbria Police is one of the largest police forces in the country and serves a population of almost 1.5 million people. It covers a diverse region of more than 2,000 square miles, which ranges from urban environments to large rural areas. It also includes areas that are among the most deprived in the country. A higher than average proportion (23.3 percent) of neighbourhoods in Northumbria are in the top 10 percent most deprived areas for employment across England and Wales.
In the 2023/24 financial year, the force received funding equivalent to £275 per resident. It receives 17 percent of its funding from council tax precept. This proportion is one of the lowest for forces in England and Wales where the average is 35.6 percent. The rest of the force’s funding comes from government and non-government grants.
The force has slightly higher than average levels of demand for service. In the year ending 31 December 2024, it received 183 emergency calls per 1,000 population. This is at the higher end of the range expected for forces in England and Wales. In the year ending 30 September 2024, the force received 295 non-emergency calls per 1,000 population. This is higher than the average for England and Wales of 226 per 1,000 population.
I am pleased to see that the force has made a distinct improvement in answering 999 emergency calls promptly. In the year ending 31 October 2024, it answered 86.7 percent of its 999 calls within 10 seconds. The force has steadily improved performance on this measure and in November 2024, met the required 90 percent standard for the first time. It has also reduced the time it takes to respond to emergency incidents. The force needs to maintain its focus on improving the service it provides.
The force has seen considerable change since our last PEEL report. It has a new chief officer team and operating model. This new model has increased the number of area commands from three to six, each of which is aligned with a local authority area.
I recognise that during the riots of August 2024, Northumbria Police had to respond to serious and violent disorder. These events required large amounts of resources to be deployed locally, regionally and nationally. At the time of this inspection, investigations relating to this disorder were ongoing, and arrests were still being made.
I am pleased to see that the force continues to treat the public well. The force has a good understanding of disproportionality when using police powers and gathers effective data. This allows it to monitor its use of powers, making sure the public in Northumbria is treated fairly.
The force needs to improve its use of protective orders to better protect victims of domestic abuse. It also needs to follow national guidelines under the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (also known as Clare’s Law) when making disclosures about domestic abuse perpetrators.
The force is effective in retaining new recruits and provides opportunities for officers and staff to develop and make progress. It has a good understanding of barriers to career progression for under-represented groups, and this has led to the introduction of effective development programmes.
The force has recognised the need to replace an ageing IT infrastructure and plans to invest in new systems. This is an ongoing process that is scheduled to be completed in 2026.
There are areas of work where the force could improve the level of service it provides to the public. But I am optimistic that the force’s leadership and management will provide those improvements.
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.
Senior leaders have clear plans and priorities for the force, and operational activity focuses on these. The force is benefiting from a new chief officer team, which understands the requirements and challenges of improving performance.
There is effective workforce planning. The force understands its expected numbers of leavers and joiners, including their roles and responsibilities, and how this relates to performance. And it effectively retains its new recruits.
The force’s leadership has several challenges to contend with, which include an ageing IT infrastructure and high demand through calls for service. Outdated IT systems have hindered the force in recent years, but effective decisions have now been made to replace these.
A new operating model and investment in prevention are providing direction for the force. Roles and functions have been realigned to help manage demand and provide a better service to communities.
The force needs to make sure it fully understands its workforce’s well-being challenges and requirements – particularly the high levels of demand placed on some high-risk investigative functions.
Senior leaders are committed to developing leadership at all levels. Support is in place or available to officers and police staff who are entering leadership roles for the first time. Senior leaders have a good understanding of the barriers to career progression and development experienced by some groups. And the force is taking effective action to help people overcome these barriers. For example, it has a specific development programme for women in its workforce, which is being extended to include other groups – particularly those from under-represented communities.
More detail on Northumbria Police’s leadership is included in the main body of the report.
The reducing crime assessment sets out what Northumbria 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, which make it difficult to draw comparisons over time.
The force has invested in prevention and views it as a priority to reduce crime. It works with a wide range of other organisations on problem-solving, crime prevention and early intervention activity, in particular the diversion of young people away from offending behaviour.
The force has improved its problem-solving capability. It develops plans to find the root causes of repeat problems and addresses issues that help communities and prevent crime.
The area community engagement teams work well with communities to understand and meet their needs. However, more effective local community work is needed to build the public’s trust and confidence and encourage sharing of information to help deter and detect crime.
The force needs to improve the management and oversight of its investigations and make sure investigators have enough capacity to deal with complex and high‑risk cases.
It must also improve the way it uses preventative orders to safeguard victims at the earliest opportunity. This will help it better protect vulnerable people and reduce crime in the future.
The force has increased its use of stop and search powers. Most of the recorded grounds show that it is using this power proportionately and in line with the relevant legislation. The force can demonstrate positive outcome rates for its use that are above the national average. The effective use of stop and search helps the force to reduce crime.
More detail on what Northumbria Police is doing to reduce crime is included in the main body of the report.
This section describes our assessment of the service Northumbria 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:
When the crime had been investigated, no suspect had been identified and the investigation was closed.
Although our victim service assessment is ungraded, it influences graded judgments in the other areas we have inspected.
The force needs to reduce the time it takes to answer emergency calls. In the year ending 31 October 2024, it answered 86.7 percent of its 999 calls within 10 seconds. The force has improved in this area since our last inspection but is still below the 90 percent standard expected of forces nationally.
The force has reduced the number of non-emergency calls where the caller hangs up before a handler answers it. Forces without a switchboard should aim to have an abandonment rate of lower than 10 percent for 101 non-emergency calls. The force told us that at the time of the inspection, it had an abandonment rate of 8 percent for these calls.
Call handlers use a structured process that considers threat, harm, risk and vulnerability. However, they don’t always identify repeat victims, which means that they aren’t always fully aware of a victim’s circumstances when considering what response the force should give. Call handlers are polite and give victims advice on crime prevention and how to preserve evidence.
On some occasions, the force doesn’t respond to calls for service appropriately and doesn’t always respond within set time frames. It doesn’t always inform victims about delays, which means that victims’ expectations aren’t always met. This may cause victims to lose confidence and disengage with the process.
In most cases, the force carries out investigations promptly and completes relevant and proportionate lines of enquiry. It doesn’t always supervise investigations well but regularly updates victims. Victims are more likely to have confidence in a police investigation when they receive regular updates.
The force doesn’t always carry out thorough investigations. A thorough investigation increases the likelihood of perpetrators being named and arrested, providing a positive result for the victim. In most cases, victim personal statements are considered. This gives victims the opportunity to describe how a crime has affected their lives.
When a victim withdraws support for an investigation, the force considers taking the case forward without the victim’s support. This can be an important way of safeguarding the victim and preventing further offences from being committed. The force records whether it 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 (Victims’ Code) requires forces to carry out a needs assessment at an early stage to determine whether victims need additional support. The force usually carries out this assessment and records all requests for additional support.
The force consistently provides a level of service to make sure that it achieves appropriate outcomes for victims of crime. It closes crimes with the appropriate outcome type. It records clear rationale for the outcomes it uses, and this process is effectively supervised. It asks for the victim’s views when deciding which outcome type to assign to a closed investigation but doesn’t always obtain an auditable record of the victim’s wishes. The force informs the victim of what outcome code has been assigned to the investigation.
Northumbria Police is adequate at using police powers and treating people fairly and respectfully.
During our inspection, we found that there were gaps relating to several aspects of how the force monitors and manages stop and search and the use of force.
Making sure that officers are properly trained in stop and search and the use of force is critical to maintaining public confidence that powers are being used legitimately and proportionately.
We found that the force had an inconsistent approach to deploying officers to operational duties while their training was out of date. The force’s policy doesn’t allow officers to be deployed if they haven’t received public and personal safety training within the last 12 months. But we found that there was confusion around this and that some officers were still being deployed despite their training having lapsed.
In addition, the force was unable to specify how out of date the training was for these officers. Closer oversight is required to make sure the force follows its policy.
The force has brought in additional audit and quality assurance processes in relation to stop and search and the use of force, after finding that supervisors weren’t consistently carrying out reviews or observing body-worn video of these encounters.
Some sergeants told us that they weren’t aware there was an expectation to carry out these reviews. Their officers told us that they weren’t aware of what happened to these cases once they had been submitted and that the feedback they received about these encounters was inconsistent.
In some geographical areas, the review and audit function has now been transferred from first-line supervisors to central teams. But the force isn’t always able to review body-worn video relating to the use of force as the footage isn’t always available. This means an effective review isn’t possible.
It is too early to know whether officers are now receiving feedback from the central audit function.
The force also needs to make sure that the themes and trends it identifies from its auditing and data analysis processes are collated more effectively and then used to promote improvements.
The force has one external scrutiny panel, which meets quarterly, as well as separate youth panels. We found that the work of these panels included some good practice.
We found that the main scrutiny panel was reviewing between 12 and 20 cases a year. This isn’t enough to provide the force with sufficient scrutiny and challenge, and it should increase the number of cases it reviews.
The force makes effective use of youth panels for the independent external scrutiny of stop and search.
In our last PEEL report, we commented on the force’s use of a pupil referral unit for feedback. It has now expanded on this to include a further seven youth panels across the force area. This complements the feedback received from the main scrutiny panel, providing the force with a wider range of views and supporting organisational learning and development.
Panel members review records and bod-worn video for stop and search and use of force encounters and provide feedback on how officers dealt with the situation.
The force uses the findings from this external scrutiny to encourage the fair and effective use of police powers. This includes making changes to its training programme to improve communication skills.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to police powers and treating people fairly and respectfully.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, Northumbria Police carried out 8,756 stop and searches. This was a 59.6 percent increase compared to the previous year. It represents 5.9 instances per 1,000 population, which is within the expected range for forces across England and Wales.
All police officers receive initial training in using stop and search powers, which is refreshed through annual personal safety training. Officers feel confident in using these powers, and this is reflected in the increased use. The force has told us that its use of stop and search continues to increase.
During our inspection, we reviewed a sample of 258 stop and search records from 1 August 2023 to 31 July 2024. Based on this sample, we estimate that 87.2 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 4.0 percentage points) of all stop and searches by the force during this period had reasonable grounds recorded. This is broadly unchanged compared with the findings from our previous review of records from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021, when we found 78.2 percent (with a confidence interval of +/- 5.6 percentage points) of stop and searches had reasonable grounds recorded. Of the records we reviewed for stop and searches on people who self-identified as from an ethnic minority background, 30 of 31 had reasonable grounds recorded.
This suggests that Northumbria Police officers are suitably trained and that they use stop and search powers in a fair and appropriate way.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, Northumbria Police had a linked find rate of 25.3 percent. The linked find rate is where an item suspected to be on the person based on the reasonable grounds for the search is found. This is within the expected range for forces in England and Wales.
The force reviews its use of stop and search to understand how fairly its officers use the power. This includes examining if the recorded grounds for the search are reasonable, how often the item looked for is found and the outcome of the search.
The force uses single points of contact (officers who have received specific training) to carry out a secondary quality assurance check on records. This is to make sure the initial reviews carried out by line managers are accurate. The force also has a peer review agreement with three other police forces to provide each other with independent scrutiny and feedback.
At the time of our inspection, a member of the force’s scrutiny panel had recently attended an operation in Sunderland that involved the use of a metal-detecting knife arch at a bus station. This meant that the panel member was able to give feedback in a live-time situation and provide constructive comment to promote improvements. The feedback focused on how the force interacted with neurodiverse people, including how their needs were considered and the effectiveness of signposting to support services.
Police inspectors must each review five body-worn video incidents per month. Based on these reviews, inspectors provide direct feedback to the officers involved through a performance review. But although this layered approach to scrutiny exists, we found it was being applied inconsistently.
The force should consider increasing the number of reviews carried out, both internally and externally, in line with the increase in recorded instances. It would also benefit from bringing together data from these reviews more effectively to support a better understanding of trends and issues across the force area.
The findings of the quality assurance process are discussed during internal governance meetings to review the force’s performance and examine themes from the audit.
Through the effective collation and analysis of data, the force understands how its use of stop and search powers may have a disproportionate effect on the population.
The force scrutinises potential disproportionality through its trust and confidence board, which is chaired by an assistant chief constable. The board discusses trends and emerging issues and takes action to address them. Effective data collection helps the force understand where and when disproportionality may take place and how it affects different groups of people.
When examining disproportionality data for stop and search rates between people from ethnic minority backgrounds and White people, a value of 1 means that there is no disparity. A value of less than 0.8 means there is evidence that on average, a person from an ethnic minority background is less likely than a White person to be stopped and searched. A value higher than 1.25 means there is evidence that on average, a person from an ethnic minority background is more likely than a White person to be stopped and searched.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, based on population data for the force’s area from the 2021 census, a Black person was 2.2 times as likely as a White person to be stopped and searched by the force. An Asian person was 1.4 times as likely as a White person to be stopped and searched and a person with a Mixed ethnic background was 1.1 times as likely. The situation was broadly similar for the year ending 31 March 2023, when the respective figures were 2.1 for Black people, 1.3 for Asian people and 0.9 for people with a Mixed ethnic background.
In comparison, in the year ending 31 March 2024, in England and Wales, a Black or Black British person was on average 3.6 times as likely as a White person to be stopped and searched. The ratio was 1.3 for Asian people and 1.6 for people with a Mixed ethnic background.
The force applies additional scrutiny to the actions of officers who repeatedly use stop and search where the subject is from an ethnic minority background and where there are spikes in disproportionality.
Both the force’s own data and data from our stop and search audit indicate that the force is good at recording the self-defined ethnicity of people subject to a search, with a 98 percent compliance rate. This helps make sure that calculations in relation to disproportionality are accurate.
We also found that of the records we reviewed for stop and searches on people who self-identified as from an ethnic minority background, 30 of 31 had reasonable grounds recorded.
The force has a clear policy in place that requires officers to fill out a child concern notice when they have stopped and searched a person aged 17 years or younger. These forms are then sent to a multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH) to support the sharing of information with other agencies and, if necessary, the beginning of safeguarding activity. In our inspection, we found that the force didn’t carry out any checks to make sure that these forms had been sent or collate data on this. As such, it doesn’t hold any performance data to illustrate relevant themes or trends, nor does it know whether officers are following its policy.
Failure to follow this process could result in opportunities for safeguarding young people, especially those on the verge of being involved in criminal activity, being missed.
The force has continued its mandatory refresher training for officer safety. This includes use of force tactics, communication skills and conflict management. The force has improved its recording of the use of force and has a clear policy on when use of force incidents should be recorded. We can estimate how many use of force incidents there should be by looking at how many arrests a force makes. Each arrest would usually count as a use of force. So, the number of use of force incidents should be at least as high as the number of arrests.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, Northumbria Police recorded 30,692 use of force incidents compared to an expected figure of 27,850. This represents a 19 percent increase on the previous year. The increase likely reflects an improvement in recording practices. People from ethnic minority backgrounds accounted for 7.3 percent of all use of force incidents and represent 7.9 percent of the population in the force’s area.
The force has low levels of injury to both officers and subjects when force is used. This suggests that officers are effectively using approaches that involve low levels of force, such as tactical communication, unarmed skills and restraint techniques.
Northumbria Police is good at prevention and deterrence.
The force has created a Trainee Detective Programme activity aimed at diverting young people away from knife crime.
The participants took part in a re-enactment of the circumstances and investigation into the death of a young man through knife crime.
They had access to virtual reality technology, which allowed them to follow two different situations on a simulated night out. The young people also visited real criminal justice locations and took part in a role-play scenario in a police custody suite and a mock trial in a magistrate’s court.
The feedback from participants was very encouraging, suggesting that the programme had made them think differently about the implications and consequences of knife crime.
The force will carry out two further rounds of the programme and assess whether it achieves any further positive results.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to prevention and deterrence.
The force has a clear focus on prevention, evidenced through the introduction of more officers into this area of its work. The force told us that its new operating model had led to an uplift of 134 officers into prevention roles. Prevention is seen as a force priority and has a central strategic lead. Governance is provided through a prevention board, which has produced a clear strategy and delivery plans.
The force has brought together elements of its prevention activity under one umbrella to support a more cohesive approach. The prevention hub is overseen by a chief superintendent. It incorporates the force’s teams for problem-solving, mental health, prevention through education, missing from home and missing investigation as well as its serious violence disruption units and youth justice.
This approach supports improved efficiency, communication and consistency.
The force works effectively with other organisations to help prevent crime, antisocial behaviour and vulnerability. By working with these partners, the force is helping to build safer communities in Northumbria.
Operation Cloak and Operation Redeemer are examples of how the force actively works with other organisations to maintain a safe environment for people involved in the night-time economy. Operation Cloak involves dedicated officers, in uniform and non-uniform, being deployed in busy areas or out on patrol across the city of Newcastle. Officers look for signs that someone may be vulnerable or in need of help and identify people who may be looking to commit offences.
Operation Cloak aims to safeguard people who may be at risk due to their vulnerability through the use of a ‘safe haven’ vehicle. This may include lone people in need of help or stranded people looking to find a safe way home. Partner agencies, such as North East Ambulance Service, can provide support including medical aid or help with securing safe transport or contacting family and friends. Operation Redeemer concerns the identification of potential offenders.
Operation Capio takes a multi-agency approach to targeting motorcycle-related criminality and antisocial behaviour. Supported by £196,000 from the Home Office’s Safer Streets fund, it was created as a direct response to concerns raised by residents.
The operation includes problem-solving, education and diversionary activities. The force also successfully uses enforcement tactics involving drones, stinger devices and its motorcycle team.
The force told us that between the years ending October 2023 and October 2024 it reduced incidents of motorcycle disorder by 14 percent (808 fewer incidents). It also told us that during this same period, public satisfaction on how the police were dealing with this issue increased from 62 percent to 71 percent.
The force has three dedicated community engagement teams, which each cover two specific areas within the force’s boundaries. The teams produce assessments of tensions within communities. These assessments include information that helps senior officers to understand the issues, and the force then records its response to them.
The force’s community engagement teams make effective use of IT to communicate with communities during challenging times. During the violence and disorder that developed following the tragic deaths of three young girls in Southport in 2024, the force saw a sharp rise in hate crimes. To help respond to this, it created a joint engagement group to support communication with the public both physically and online. The group includes community members, representatives and leaders. The force told us that at one online meeting, there were more than 140 community members asking for reassurance, advice and information from force senior leaders. This interaction has developed, and the force now gives information to more than 500 community members through a WhatsApp group. The joint engagement group now involves established online quarterly meetings to address current policing issues or concerns.
The force makes effective use of digital technology to converse with different communities. It does this through Orlo, a social media management platform for the public sector. The programme monitors social media, which helps the force to understand community concerns and identify potential crises early. It also allows non‑English speakers to use their own language to communicate with the police via messaging apps and social media. Orlo translates the messages into English and therefore supports effective, real-time, two-way conversations. This system was effectively used during the disorder incidents in 2024.
However, since no substantial evaluation of this activity is taking place, we found that there was a lack of understanding of which communication methods are most effective with different communities. Among local teams, we found that their work in the community could have been more effective. There was an inconsistent understanding of the demographics of communities, which has led to a lack of focus on working with communities that may be less trusting of the police.
Since our last inspection, the force has taken steps to improve its use of problem‑solving plans. But in some instances, we found inconsistencies in the way these were being used at a local level. In some local plans, the analysis element of the OSARA model lacked detail, and there was a lack of imagination around options other than high-visibility patrols. We also found that the objectives of some problem-solving plans were police led and incorporated little or no community involvement to help shape their purpose.
There are some good examples of local problem-solving plans in place, such as those that aim to obtain closure orders on residential premises seen as focal points for antisocial behaviour and criminal activity.
The force has guidance in place on the appropriate use of the neighbourhood policing team (NPT), including abstraction (how many officers can be diverted from their main duties at a given time). But we found instances where this guidance wasn’t being followed. This included NPT officers being diverted to complete duties away from their given beat areas, such as attending response incidents not classed as emergencies. This can result in NPT officers having to cancel neighbourhood meetings or planned activity, which can in turn reduce public confidence. The force doesn’t monitor when NPT officers are removed from their core functions or for what reason.
Since the year ending March 2022, the force has seen a steady increase in the number of recorded antisocial behaviour incidents. In the year ending 31 March 2024, it recorded 42,094 such incidents.
The force has responded positively to this situation. In the year ending 30 September 2024, it recorded an increase in the use of antisocial behaviour orders compared to the previous year. During the same period, the force recorded 2,133 uses of dispersal powers compared to 1,160 in the year ending 30 September 2023. It also issued 157 Community Protection Notices, 23 Criminal Behaviour Orders and obtained 6 civil injunctions. We found that the force was making effective use of antisocial behaviour legislation to address issues and that personnel had a good understanding of the options available to them.
The force uses focused deterrence as a crime prevention strategy. It is one of several agencies involved in Sunderland Altogether Improving Lives, a focused deterrence project based in Sunderland, which is funded by the Northumbria Violence Reduction Unit. The project targets vulnerable children at risk of becoming involved in serious violence and aims to reduce that risk through interventions and support. At the time of our inspection, the force told us that the project was engaging with twelve children and their families and included intensive support from youth justice workers.
The force told us that the initiative has led to positive outcomes including increased school attendance, fewer reports of going missing, reductions in violent crime and antisocial behaviour and self-reported reductions in drug and alcohol abuse.
In addition, the force works with the region’s two major football foundations at Sunderland and Newcastle to provide the You Only Live Once programme. This provides mentoring and support for young people aged between 10 and 16 years who have been identified as being at risk of knife crime. It is reported that the programme provided 548 support sessions with 66 young people in the 12 months to August 2024. The force told us that a recent independent evaluation found that 49 of these 66 young people had shown a reduction in offending. In total, this equates to 418 offences taking place before the programme was implemented compared to 87 afterwards.
Northumbria Police is adequate at responding to the public.
When assessing calls for service, the force uses the THRIVE risk assessment tool to decide on the level of response. In its service level agreement, the force has published target attendance times of 15 minutes for emergency incidents (20 minutes in rural locations) and 1 hour for priority incidents.
The force is failing to attend priority incidents within its target time of one hour. While attendance time for emergency incidents has noticeably improved, for priority incidents the improvement has been minimal.
In our victim service assessment, we found that in 54 of 71 cases, the force met its published targets. The force told as that in the year to 12 December 2024, 61.1 percent of priority incidents were attended within the target times. In our last PEEL inspection, we found that in the year ending 31 March 2022, the force attended 59 percent of priority incidents within the target times.
We found examples of priority incidents, which can involve vulnerability, that required further action and that weren’t being managed effectively due to a lack of governance and oversight.
We found examples of these incidents being continually superseded by other reported incidents and no resources being dispatched, in some cases for more than 48 hours after the first call was received. In our victim services assessment, we found that there was effective supervision of the deployment of response teams in 8 of 20 cases.
Delay, and in some cases repeated delays, in attendance to incidents can cause frustration to callers and reduce the trust and confidence that communities have in the force. In our victim service assessment, we found that 11 of 19 callers were updated about delays in attendance.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force responds to the public.
In the year ending 31 October 2024, the force answered 86.7 percent of its 999 calls within 10 seconds. This is below the 90 percent standard expected of forces nationally. However, the force steadily improved its performance on this measure over this year, and in November 2024 met the 90 percent standard. The force has made a distinct improvement in this area of work since our last inspection.
Figure 1: Proportion of 999 calls answered within ten seconds by forces in England and Wales in the year ending 31 October 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 the time taken by that force to answer the call.
In the year ending 30 September 2024, in the force’s region there were 295 non‑emergency 101 calls received per 1,000 population compared to the average of 226 per 1,000 population for forces in England and Wales. As set out in National Police Chiefs’ Council 2020 national contact management strategy principles and guidance, forces without a switchboard should aim to have an abandonment rate for these calls of lower than 10 percent. The force told us that at the time of inspection it had an abandonment rate of 8 percent for these calls. The force has a self-imposed target of achieving 5 percent.
Force data shows that 101 calls are usually ended by the caller when the integrated voice recording system suggests alternative ways of contacting the force (such as live chat and other online options).
The force makes effective use of performance data and heat maps to understand levels of demand at different times of day and on different days of the week. It can manage its resources accordingly to meet this demand.
The force holds detailed data that allows it to identify people who make repeated 999 and 101 calls, which often represents inappropriate demand for its services. It then takes a problem-solving approach to understand and address the reasons for these calls. In many cases, the callers have personal problems that can be improved or resolved through support from other agencies. If necessary and appropriate, the force carries out prosecutions to help address the situation.
The force provides a range of options for the public to contact it. As well as the telephone, these include digital channels such as live chat and the Single Online Home platform.
Communications centre staff are competent to work across all the different contact methods. Enquiry desk staff at police stations are trained to the same level as these operators, which means that they can effectively record and risk assess incidents reported in person. We found that were was consistency in the force’s approach to recording incidents, regardless of which reporting method was used.
All methods of communication receive the same robust vulnerability assessments and checks, including a THRIVE triage. There is a clear escalation policy in place for when incidents reported digitally require a more urgent response.
During our inspection, we audited the incidents recorded by call handlers. We used different sample sizes to examine different issues.
In 84 of 84 cases, we found that call handlers acted politely, appropriately and ethically and used clear language without bias.
In our victim service assessment, we found that call handlers used a structured triage approach to assess risk and consider callers’ needs in 82 of 82 cases. This approach was based on the THRIVE model. In 81 of 82 cases, we found that call handlers recorded correct and useful details of what the caller said.
The force deals with many incidents where call handlers determine that someone is vulnerable. In the year ending 30 September 2024, the force identified vulnerable people in 63 incidents per 1,000 population. This is higher than expected compared to the average of 26 per 1,000 population for forces in England and Wales.
In our audit, we found that call handlers checked whether a victim was vulnerable in 75 of 77 cases. When they identified a vulnerable person, they recorded this in 22 of 27 cases. They also checked whether a caller was a repeat victim in 62 of 75 cases.
Where a repeat victim was identified, this was recorded in 14 of 18 cases. The force should look to improve the consistency of checks and recording of necessary information in this area to make sure callers receive the appropriate level of response to incidents.
Managers of response and communications centre teams hold twice-weekly meetings where they examine all domestic abuse incidents where the force hasn’t met its target times for attending incidents. (These are set out in its service level agreement.) From this, the force can identify learning to help it make sure these delays aren’t repeated. This has included setting up a dedicated Microsoft Teams channel to improve real-time communication between the communications centre and area command teams and help them keep track of any potential delays. This has supported more meaningful oversight of incidents.
In 18 of 19 cases, call handlers gave advice about protecting evidence before officers attended an incident. In 38 of 41 cases, call handlers also gave good advice on crime prevention.
We found that attending officers completed risk assessments (for victims and others) in 23 of 23 cases.
The force has introduced a secondary call process to update callers when expected attendance at a reported incident is delayed. It mainly uses this for priority incidents, which it aims to attend within one hour.
Dispatch operators in the force communications centre receive an automated notice after 40 minutes when an incident hasn’t yet been attended. If police can’t attend within the hour, the operator recontacts the caller to let them know that there will be a delay and explain why. Delays usually occur when the force has diverted resources to other emergency incidents that have since been reported.
The operator then carries out a further THRIVE assessment with the caller to determine whether the circumstances and risk level have changed and if the incident’s priority needs to be regraded. If they agree, the caller may be offered alternative options to see an officer, which could include a later diary appointment.
The force has independent domestic violence advisors in its communications centre. This began as a Home Office pilot in March 2022.
These advisors provide emotional and practical support to victims of domestic abuse. They give immediate advice and guidance to call handlers to help reduce the risk posed to people who report incidents. They proactively communicate with victims and offer immediate follow-up support once incidents are reported.
The force also has access to mental health practitioners. They aren’t based in the communications centre but can work alongside response officers and staff attending incidents that relate to mental health to offer immediate help and guidance.
Officers and staff view these practitioners as invaluable, as they can often prevent people with mental health issues being unnecessarily detained in police custody. Instead, they are provided with the right support and guidance, which includes being referred to other services.
Northumbria Police is adequate at investigating crime.
Figure 2: Percentage of victim-based crime recorded by Northumbria Police and all forces in England and Wales by selected outcome types in the year ending 30 June 2024
| Outcome types | Force outcome rate | England and Wales outcome rate |
| 1 – Charged/summonsed | 8.1% | 6.3% |
| 2 and 3 – Caution – youths and adults | 1.1% | 0.7% |
| 8 – Community resolutions | 0.8% | 1.7% |
| 9 – Prosecution not in the public interest (Crown Prosecution Service decision) | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| 10 and 21 – Prosecution not in the public interest (police decision) | 1.0% | 0.8% |
| 14 – Evidential difficulties (suspect not identified but the victim declines or is unable to support) | 2.6% | 5.8% |
| 15 – Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim supports police action) | 12.1% | 13.1% |
| 16 – Evidential difficulties (suspect identified; victim doesn’t support or withdraws support) | 24.4% | 21.3% |
| 17 – Prosecution time limit expired | 0.2% | 0.3% |
| 18 – Investigation complete – no suspect identified | 44.3% | 43.3% |
| 20 – Action undertaken by another body/agency | 1.0% | 1.5% |
| 22 – Diversionary, educational or intervention activity | 0.5% | 0.4% |
Source: Police-recorded crime and outcomes open data tables from the Home Office
Note: Presented data comes from the October 2024 data release and may have been revised since. British Transport Police and the City of London data is excluded from the England and Wales rate. Total police-recorded crime includes all crime (except fraud). For a full commentary and explanation of crime and outcome types, please see the Home Office statistics.
Figure 3: Proportion of victim-based crimes assigned a ‘charged/summonsed’ (outcome 1) outcome by Northumbria Police between the year ending 31 March 2015 and the year ending 30 June 2024
Source: Police-recorded crime and outcomes open data tables from the Home Office
Note: Presented data comes from the October 2024 data release and may have been revised since. Victim-based crimes are defined as all police-recorded crimes where there is a direct victim, such as an individual, an organisation or a corporate body.
Between the year ending 30 June 2023 and the year ending 30 June 2024, the proportion of victim-based crimes assigned outcome 14 (evidential difficulties: suspect not identified but the victim declines or is unable to support) by Northumbria Police decreased from 3.3 percent to 2.6 percent. This figure is lower than expected for forces in England and Wales.
The force doesn’t always achieve acceptable outcomes for victims of crime. The number of victim-based crimes it solves following an investigation is low. While this position is slowly improving, the force needs to understand the issue and work to achieve better outcomes for victims.
In the year ending 30 June 2024, Northumbria Police recorded 119,987 victim‑based crimes. Of these recorded offences, 10.8 percent were assigned an ‘offences brought to justice’ outcome. This is within the normal range for forces across England and Wales. The force told us that this outcome rate increased to 12.5 percent for the period from November 2023 to November 2024.
In our victim service assessment, we found that the force wasn’t always finalising crimes with the correct outcome. In the cases we examined, 77 of 87 crimes were finalised with the correct outcome.
The force scrutinises its performance against outcomes through the monthly meetings of its strategic performance board, chaired by the deputy chief constable.
We found that some of the force’s investigations weren’t supervised effectively. This means that investigations weren’t always completed thoroughly, and the force didn’t take some investigative opportunities. The supervision of investigations is inconsistent.
In our victim service assessment, we found that 39 of 52 investigations had an investigation plan and that all appropriate investigative opportunities were taken in 75 of 94 cases. There was effective supervision throughout an investigation in 59 of 82 cases.
Where investigation plans were recorded, they were followed in 38 of 39 cases. We found that in general, supervisors didn’t give effective advice or guidance through documented plans or reviews of investigations.
The force should do more to make sure line managers consistently provide meaningful direction to investigations. This will make sure it carries out thorough investigations and takes all investigative opportunities.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force investigates crime.
The force has an investigation governance structure in place that covers strategic, tactical and operational levels.
The force has an investigations and criminal justice governance board. This holds a monthly meeting chaired by either the head of crime, the head of criminal justice or the head of safeguarding. The meeting is attended by different operational area representatives from across the force, including detective chief inspectors from area commands. The meeting examines data relating to the quality of investigations, raising investigation standards, detection rates, capacity and capability of investigative personnel and levels of future resources.
The force takes part in hate crime and domestic abuse scrutiny panels with the Crown Prosecution Service. The panels meet regularly and review crimes that have been closed with an outcome of no further action. The aims are to assess decision-making, find any missed lines of enquiry, raise investigative standards and pursue any missed opportunities.
The Northumbria hate crime board, which involves the force as well as other agencies, collates information and themes from these panels and reviews feedback from victims. This board then produces and manages a multi-agency joint action plan to promote improvement.
In our inspection fieldwork, we examined investigators’ workloads. We found that these were mostly manageable, with some notable exceptions. Rape investigation and safeguarding teams have some of the highest workloads, which involve demanding and complicated investigations. A shortage of qualified detectives in these teams, alongside vacancies in existing posts, worsens this situation. The level of demand makes it difficult to carry out thorough investigations and support victim contact effectively.
The force needs to address this situation as it is having a negative effect on the success of investigations and on workforce well-being. Some personnel told us they were waiting to move out of safeguarding teams, having secured posts in other teams, and that these moves were being delayed.
Sickness absence throughout safeguarding teams is higher than average for the force. The force told us that as at 30 June 2024, sickness absence in safeguarding was 5.14 percent. This was above both the average rate for the rest of the investigation portfolio (3.63 percent) and the force-wide average of 3.77 percent.
Although the force has plans for the recruitment and retention of more investigative officers, it told us that as at 30 November 2024, the safeguarding team had 21 investigator vacancies. This is seen as an organisational risk. Volume crime teams have significantly fewer vacancies to fill.
As at 31 March 2024, the force had 639 accredited PIP 2 investigators compared to the 712 that it says it needs. This represents a shortfall of 73 but at the time of our inspection, the force had 69 officers in investigative training. The force told us that it has effective resourcing plans in place to make sure that it achieves the required number of qualified investigators. But it needs to put particular emphasis on filling the vacancies within safeguarding investigations at the earliest opportunity.
The force has improved its performance in processing submissions of digital devices to the forensic unit for examination, but there are still delays.
The force acknowledges that there is growing pressure on digital forensic services due to increased statutory accreditation requirements for staff and rising demand. It has a strategy in place to tackle high demand within the digital forensic unit. This includes recruiting more staff, training frontline officers and restructuring the department.
The force has implemented a digital forensic improvement plan, which includes a proposed increase in staff numbers in the unit. Approval to recruit more staff was granted in June 2024. The new team members are expected to be trained and effective within 12 months.
In addition, at the time of our inspection, the force told us that it was training 133 frontline officers to work in digital forensic kiosks. It has 13 Cellebrite kiosks across its area, where digital devices can be examined without having to be sent to the digital forensic unit. Once trained, the officers then become single points of contact for their area with the intention of providing advice and guidance to colleagues and reducing demand on the unit even further. The force believes this initiative will support substantial reductions in turnaround times and the existing backlog of examinations.
The Victims’ Code focuses on victims’ rights and sets out the minimum standard that organisations must provide to victims of crime. It aims to make sure that victims are treated well and receive appropriate support, information and guidance.
The force carries out extensive internal auditing to understand victims’ experiences of investigations and assess whether they have received appropriate updates. Data from its victim survey indicates that in the 12 months to October 2024, only 62 percent of victims were informed of the outcome of their case, and only 61 percent were offered support. As part of this survey, 75 percent of victims stated that they had received contact details of the officer dealing with their incident.
According to the force’s data from victims of volume crime for the same period, 74 percent of victims were satisfied with the actions the force took, and 64 percent were satisfied with the follow-up contact made by officers. The force should aim to improve this position to increase victim satisfaction as well as public trust and confidence in the police.
We found that while the force was closely monitoring compliance with the Victims’ Code in terms of victim contact, officers told us that they weren’t providing victims with updates as effectively as they should. They told us that this was generally due to the negative consequences of shift patterns and heavy workloads.
As part of our victim service assessment, we found that victims were consulted before the outcome was finalised in 44 of 44 cases. The victims’ views were considered in 42 of 43 cases.
An auditable record of the victims’ views was recorded in 17 of 21 cases. This represents an improvement compared to our previous inspection. Victims were informed of the outcome in 80 of 80 cases, with clear rationale recorded for the outcome in 82 of 87 cases.
At the start of an investigation, the force should complete a victim needs assessment to decide if a victim needs any extra support. We found that the force recorded when victims needed more support in 85 of 90 cases. Relevant referrals to other organisations were recorded in 35 of 36 cases, and victim personal statements were considered in 5 of 6 cases. An appropriate level of service was provided to victims in 86 of 98 cases.
Northumbria Police is adequate at protecting vulnerable people.
The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, also known as Clare’s Law, allows the police to disclose information to a victim or potential victim of domestic abuse. It makes sure that police forces share information appropriately and promptly with domestic abuse victims (or potential victims) about their partner’s (or ex-partner’s) previous abusive offending.
The scheme has national guidelines that forces should follow when making disclosures. In our inspection we found that the force wasn’t following these.
The guidance says that the primary required method of making a disclosure is face-to-face. If this isn’t possible then alternatives, such as video calling, can be used. As a third option, a telephone meeting may be used on a case‑by‑case basis. But the force told us that it used the telephone for nearly all the disclosures it made.
The force also needs to improve how it monitors and tracks authorised disclosures, particularly those made by teams outside the multi-agency safeguarding hub process. We found examples of unnecessary delays in making disclosures, with no automated process in place to check whether they had happened. Instead, the disclosures are tracked manually using spreadsheets and email reminders.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, Northumbria Police made 825 right-to-ask disclosures and 375 right-to-know disclosures.
The force acknowledges that it is working outside national guidelines. At the time of our inspection, it was running a pilot exercise in one of its areas using video calling.
In the year ending 30 September 2024, Northumbria Police recorded the highest number of domestic abuse-related incidents across forces in England and Wales. It recorded 52,316 incidents, which equates to 35.3 domestic abuse-related incidents per 1,000 population.
In the year ending 30 September 2024, the force recorded 23,153 repeated domestic abuse-related incidents, equating to 15.6 per 1,000 population. This is higher than expected compared to other forces across England and Wales.
Despite this, the force is a low user of Domestic Violence Protection Orders, which are designed to protect victims. In the year ending 30 September 2024, it used Domestic Violence Protection Orders for 1.12 percent of recorded domestic abuse-related crime.
In the year ending 30 September 2024, the force recorded 4,415 stalking offences, which equates to 3.0 per 1,000 population. This is higher than the average rate across all forces in England and Wales of 2.2 stalking offences per 1,000 population. In the same period, the force used one interim Stalking Protection Order.
Protective measures can be a powerful tool to help keep vulnerable victims safe. Failure to apply for them where appropriate denies victims this opportunity and could put them at risk of harm.
The force acknowledges that it needs to do more to support the effective use of protective orders. It has recently introduced a new post of ‘orders sergeant’. This position should improve governance, performance management and central oversight in relation to obtaining orders.
The force has a public insight manager, who leads a team of four analysts and six telephone interviewers. This team carries out surveys with victims of crime to understand their experience with the force.
The team designs the surveys, collects responses and analyses the data it receives. The force uses these insights to support organisational learning through a range of performance boards and the victim satisfaction working group.
The team carries out a survey each month with 50 victims of domestic abuse and prioritises repeat victims. It also carries out surveys with victims of hate crime, antisocial behaviour, stalking and rape.
The data gathered is clear and detailed. It helps the force understand issues and trends that may affect the quality of service provided to victims.
We saw examples of where the force has changed its training and processes to provide a better level of service because of feedback from victims.
The force is looking to expand the capacity of the team and increase its survey options. It has recently started to carry out SMS surveys with victims who use the non-emergency 101 telephone number.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force protects vulnerable people.
The force has adopted the National Police Chiefs’ Council ‘National Policing Prevention Strategy’ and has clear internal strategies and policies in place to protect vulnerable people. These are accompanied by delivery plans to provide scrutiny and assurance relating to the College of Policing’s 13 strands of vulnerability. The force’s protecting vulnerable people board, which is chaired by an assistant chief constable, oversees this work. All strands of vulnerability have named leads, with clearly defined reporting structures and a performance framework.
However, many of these strategies are new and need to be developed and established. For example, the force’s violence against women and girls strategy sets out 207 behaviours to be achieved. We found that 23 of these hadn’t been started and 22 were categorised by the force as emerging. Of the rest, 105 were categorised as embedding and 57 as maturing. Delivery plans lacked defined time frames that set out when these behaviours will be achieved.
The force’s risk assessment process incorporates Operation Encompass, a nationally recognised set of professional standards to make sure police officers tell schools about domestic abuse incidents which children may have witnessed. The force has extended this approach to include children who aren’t yet of school age. This means professionals who work with these children can provide support or intervention as needed at the earliest possible opportunity.
Multi-agency risk assessment conference (MARAC) processes within the force area are effective. They bring together different agencies to share intelligence and to jointly provide support and solutions aimed at reducing risk.
Based on guidance from the charity SafeLives, the force exceeds the recommended number of cases to be discussed at MARAC conferences. In the year ending 30 September 2024, the force discussed 3,072 MARAC cases, which is above the 2,440 recommended by SafeLives based on the local population size. However, staff involved in the process told us that they were meeting demand through regular weekly meetings. We found that all cases referred to MARAC were being heard within a week, with no backlogs or delays. MARAC meetings are well attended by the various partner organisations, including social services, housing providers, health services and the Probation Service, which all took part in discussing the cases.
We found that the force didn’t track actions assigned at regular MARAC meetings or the more urgent strategy meetings that take place following referrals for children or young people. This could create risks for the force. Agencies are relied upon to complete their assigned actions, and there are no checks to make sure that this has happened. The force should make sure that actions assigned to all agencies involved in the process are tracked. This will help create a clear audit trail. It could highlight actions that haven’t been completed and which may affect the successful safeguarding of victims.
MASHs allow organisations with responsibility for the safety of vulnerable people to work together. A range of organisations work closely together as part of six MASH units across Northumbria (one in each area command). Information relating to both adults and children is shared effectively, with some service providers working from the same locations.
A domestic abuse, stalking, harassment and honour-based violence (DASH) risk assessment is a tool used to show the level of risk posed to a victim of domestic abuse and to refer them to appropriate agencies.
Part of our victim service assessment inspection examined how well the force makes necessary referrals to partner agencies for victims of domestic abuse. We found that the force’s staff carried out appropriate DASH risk assessments for victims and others in 23 of 23 cases. We found that the force’s officers were completing the DASH referral forms face-to-face as required and that staff in MASHs were reviewing the forms quickly and effectively. This makes sure that statutory partners and third-sector organisations can be quickly informed if they need to provide any support to vulnerable victims.
However, staff in MASH units told us that the quality of information included in DASH referral submissions could be inconsistent. They said that officers completing the forms needed more “professional curiosity” to identify children connected to the people involved, engage with those present at incidents and consistently record the voice of the child. Errors or a lack of detail on forms don’t generally delay the progress of a referral. But they do create unnecessary demand on MASH staff, who must correct the forms to provide the right information to partner agencies.
Operation Aegis is a force initiative to address high-frequency domestic abuse incidents that present a medium or low risk to the victim. It works with victims or offenders who have recorded five incidents or more of domestic abuse over a consecutive three-month period. It aims to prevent domestic abuse taking place and offers diversionary activity and working with partner agencies to address the issues involved.
The force told us that between 1 July 2024 to 30 September 2024, there was a 72.9 percent reduction in incidents and a 64.9 percent reduction in crimes for the cohort in question. An independent external provider has evaluated the operation, highlighting its benefits.
To improve the service provided to victims, the force works with the Crown Prosecution Service through no further action scrutiny panels. The force and Crown Prosecution Service staff meet to discuss cases of domestic abuse or stalking and harassment that have been closed with an outcome of no further action and therefore haven’t progressed to court. The panels examine cases to determine the reasons for this outcome and identify learning.
The force’s charge rate for domestic abuse offences is 10 percent. This is higher than the national average for forces throughout England and Wales, which is 7.2 percent.
The force uses ‘guardian tool’, which is technology designed to support victims of suspected cyber stalking and harassment by showing if malicious stalking software (spyware) is being used to track people via their digital devices. Officers scan victims’ devices to find out whether any spyware is installed. If no malicious software is found, the force can highlight further investigative opportunities and provide reassurance to victims.
This technology will support future investigations and prosecutions relating to both domestic abuse, stalking and harassment, as it provides evidential leads that can help police find perpetrators.
The force also uses ‘cyber volunteers’ who carry out open-source research on victims’ online and social media profiles to discover how accessible they are. Based on this, the volunteers can then provide advice on achieving cyber safety.
Northumbria Police is adequate at managing offenders and suspects.
Officers take digital triage equipment with them when carrying out enforcement action, such as executing search warrants or making arrests. They use this equipment effectively to triage devices found at the scene and prevent items being seized unnecessarily.
Digital triage officers then carry out further examination of devices that have been seized. This is to make sure that there is a need to keep a device and send it for more intrusive examination by the digital forensic unit. Digital triage officers also offer support and services to other departments to make sure that expert knowledge is shared and further reduce demand on the unit.
Reducing the numbers of items seized in this way means that fewer devices need further examination by the digital forensic unit. This reduces the demand on the unit and the associated costs. It supports the unit to work more effectively by allocating resources to devices that require its attention.
The force has two distinct categories for people suspected of committing crimes: ‘wanted’ and ‘a suspect attached to a crime’. Wanted persons are circulated on the Police National Computer, having met the required criteria. However, suspects attached to a crime have yet to be circulated on the Police National Computer. As at 5 June 2024, the force had circulated 1,379 wanted persons. Of those, 221 had been shown as wanted for more than 36 months.
We found that the force’s management, understanding and data relating to suspects attached to a crime wasn’t as clear as for wanted persons. The force can’t draw on accurate information to inform senior leaders about how many suspects attached to a crime there are and how long they have been at large. The force’s data and understanding relating to the numbers of these suspects is unclear and confusing.
Individual line managers are trying to manage the position locally through numerous Excel spreadsheets. But the force doesn’t have an overall understanding of the situation.
We found examples of some suspects attached to a crime being ‘outstanding’ for more than 12 months. There is limited understanding of the risk level associated with these suspects, and little action is being taken to locate or trace them. This means the force has a high number of suspects yet to be arrested and isn’t managing the potential risk of this.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force manages offenders and suspects.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, there were 2,007 registered sex offenders in the force’s area. The force has a management of sexual offenders and violent offenders team that covers all registered sex offenders living within its area.
We found that the team had strong leadership, with effective governance and a good understanding of the risks involved in managing sex offenders. The team is well resourced and is now managed centrally. This has helped the force improve its operations and performance.
We initially found that the ratio of supervisors to offender managers and offenders was inconsistent, which meant that some supervisors had unmanageably high numbers to oversee. The force has responded well to the feedback we gave about this issue and has reduced supervisors’ workloads to a manageable level. It offers good well‑being provision for members of the team and works in line with the College of Policing’s authorised professional practice.
During our inspection, we audited ten offender records. We found that all of these were of good quality and consistently followed a logical structure with well-evidenced conclusions. This shows that the force provides effective training to the officers who produce these records.
The force carries out unannounced visits to registered sex offenders. It makes sure that more than one person goes on each visit to make the most of the opportunity to gather intelligence.
At the time of our inspection, the force had cleared its backlog of risk assessments for these visits and was managing offender visits well. The force should make sure it has processes in place to effectively highlight any future potential backlogs so it can address these at an early stage.
The force’s paedophile online investigation team investigates online referrals to the force about online child abuse. This team investigates all referrals and takes enforcement action against offenders, such as making arrests or executing search warrants. The team uses child protection system software to find people viewing and sharing indecent images of children online and checks this weekly.
We found that there were good performance and governance structures in place at a force and local level.
We found that the paedophile online investigation team generally worked within the Kent internet risk assessment tool’s time frames for taking enforcement action. This tool is used to assess the level of risk posed by a suspect who possesses and views indecent images of children on the internet.
However, we also found that for lower-risk enforcement activity given to local area teams to progress, there was inconsistency in meeting the required time frames. We found examples of some areas not doing this. The force should make sure that local management procedures are robust enough to meet the requirements. This should include making sure that intelligence checks are carried out again when time frames are missed.
In our inspection we found that the force was inconsistent in carrying out bail checks for suspected offenders. The force has responded positively to our feedback. It plans to address this issue by using NPTs to help carry out these checks.
Staff and officers have access to a variety of relevant technical equipment as well as a dedicated digital triage team and digital media advisors. They also consider and make effective use of preventative orders against offenders, such as Sexual Harm Protection Orders and Sexual Risk Orders.
A Sexual Risk Order is made by the courts and imposes restrictions on a person’s behaviour to protect the public from risk of sexual harm. A Sexual Harm Prevention Order prohibits an individual from doing anything described in the order. In the year ending 31 March 2024, the force issued 178 Sexual Harm Prevention Orders and 24 Sexual Risk Orders.
The paedophile online investigation team works with children’s services to safeguard children that it identifies during investigations. The force effectively takes early opportunities to work with children’s social care to safeguard children and share information. Staff and officers recognise that safeguarding takes priority over the investigation.
The force set up a bail management team after recognising a need to improve its management, performance and understanding of the use of police bail. The team includes an inspector, a sergeant and three members of support staff.
The force makes effective use of bail conditions as a safeguarding measure. The bail team carries out a daily review of people who have been released from police custody in the previous 24 hours to make sure all opportunities for applying safeguarding bail conditions have been taken.
The force has recognised the need to monitor people on police bail at important points. The team monitors all bail and released under investigation cases in accordance with the time frames set out in legislation at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months.
The force has well-written and clear procedures for bail management, along with performance measures to support the effective management of bail.
In addition, the bail management team monitors compliance for people brought in as voluntary attendees. For these people, the team makes sure the force carries out risk assessments, obtains biometric information (fingerprints and DNA) when appropriate and reports data on voluntary attendance for the Home Office’s annual data return.
Northumbria Police is adequate at building, supporting and protecting the workforce.
The force has clear strategies and delivery plans in place to address well‑being issues. But many of these are relatively new and yet to be established so require further development.
The force needs to better monitor its position against the Blue Light Wellbeing Framework. If it can make progress in meeting the framework’s standards, this should lead to better well-being support for the workforce. The workforce’s knowledge and understanding of local well-being measures is inconsistent.
Staff and officers told us they see some well-being support as positive but would like to see the force further addressing the basics of well-being. They described the force as dealing with the symptoms of stress and workplace challenges rather than the causes.
Some members of the workforce told us that the force didn’t cater for everyday well-being needs. They reported working for entire shifts without receiving any form of break. When they were offered a break, they had to use this to complete paperwork. Some line managers told us that they didn’t feel empowered to manage well-being effectively due to the pressures of demand for service.
Demand on some specialist investigation teams is excessive. This is worsened by vacancies, which are increasing workloads for personnel in post. Force data shows that sickness levels in these teams are higher than the force average.
The force carries out an internal workforce survey that receives high return rates throughout the organisation. In the most recent survey in November 2024, personnel highlighted well-being concerns. The force has plans in place to respond to these findings. It should make sure these effectively address the concerns raised.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to how well the force builds, supports and protects the workforce.
Staff and officers informed us that the force’s measures to promote well-being include free health checks, blood pressure checks and flu vaccinations. Other examples include support for people who experience a bereavement, a cancer support group and a menopause-friendly uniform for personnel.
Most appointments made with the force’s occupational health provider are within the service level agreement. The force meets regularly with the provider to review performance. Health checks and discussions are also part of an individual’s professional development review process with line managers, which helps identify potential issues as early as possible.
The force makes effective use of what are known as pause points for high-risk roles. This allows officers and staff to be removed temporarily from their core role if that role is affecting their well-being. Officers and staff are offered alternative work for the duration of the pause point. This allows them to improve their well-being without taking sickness leave.
The force provides other support for personnel in high-risk roles by employing two trauma therapists for mandatory psychological assessments. But these aren’t always carried out. The force told us it had determined that 847 people required a mandatory 12-month psychological assessment. Of these, 248 appointments were overdue. Of these people, 65 had future booked appointments, leaving a shortfall of 183. The force needs to make sure there is better understanding about these interventions and that they take place more promptly.
Operation Hampshire is a nationwide strategy that includes processes and guidance to help police forces understand and respond more effectively to assaults on police officers and staff. The force has adopted this approach, which is overseen by a senior officer (chief superintendent). But it would benefit from introducing a formal feedback process to improve its support for people that need it.
The force has a trauma risk management process in place. Officers and staff view this option as valuable. We found that they understood the process and saw the benefit of the support being provided. The force monitors this process to understand how it is used. It told us that between 1 January and 20 June 2024, 474 personnel were referred to the process.
Student officers receive support from dedicated police tutors during their probationary period. The tutors receive additional well-being training to provide this support. The process is supported by a professional development unit based in each division, headed by a sergeant. These units make sure that student officers have the right welfare support in place.
Students told us that they generally felt supported and valued by line managers. They said that the force asks them what support they need through surveys, interviews and focus groups. This feedback has led to the force providing measures such as dyslexia assessments for students. The force told us it now has 40 officers and staff who are trained assessors.
However, we found that some sergeants lacked knowledge and understanding of the requirements of students joining the force. They were unaware that protected learning time should be provided for new officers. This lack of understanding has resulted in some student officers taking work home with them to complete in their own time. We found that some student officers were struggling to balance work and university requirements, which was affecting their ability to work effectively.
Despite this, the force maintains one of the best retention rates in the country for new recruits. As at 31 March 2024, 10.3 percent of student officers with two years’ service or less left the force through resignation. This is the second lowest figure nationally.
The force offers some support for police officers and staff from under-represented groups to develop and progress. Up until now, this has mainly focused on female officers. The force carried out research to understand why female officers were less successful than their male colleagues in achieving promotion. This found barriers to development and promotion. As a result, the force set up a development programme, ‘Ignite your potential’, to help female officers progress within the organisation. The programme was designed to support career development and not specifically to help people pass the promotion process.
The force expected that about 50 people would take up this offer, but more than 120 signed up. Given the success of the programme, the force now intends to widen it to include people from other under-represented groups.
The force would benefit from carrying out a self-assessment to better understand barriers to progression for all under-represented groups. Following this, it should produce an action plan to make sure it monitors its progress.
Northumbria Police’s leadership and management is adequate.
The force isn’t making the most of technology because of its outdated IT systems. This is hindering its effectiveness. The force told us that it is investing in technology and has plans in place to upgrade its record management system. This upgrade is needed before some other improvements can take place, but it isn’t due to be completed until 2026. The force needs to consider what technology it can introduce during this time to improve its efficiency.
The force is using some digital tools, such as automated data dashboards, to provide management information. It also uses finance software to automatically process invoices for goods and services. But we found that a number of manual and time-consuming processes were still in place. Some of these could be automated and aren’t reliant on having a new record management system. The force needs to prioritise its plans to replace or upgrade the systems and processes that most affect its ability to be efficient and productive. For example, the workforce database doesn’t communicate well with other systems, which makes data collection difficult and time-consuming.
The force also needs to improve the capability of its mobile devices. At the time of our inspection, most operational personnel were issued with laptops that have full access to the force’s systems, processes and data. But we found that some operational personnel were issued with mobile devices that have only limited access to these systems. As a result, they must go to a police station to complete some tasks. Addressing the limitations of this technology will improve the productivity and efficiency of staff and officers while they are working in their communities.
The force uses priority-based budgeting to help manage its finances. This approach systematically reviews each of the force’s operational areas to help distribute resources where they are most needed. The process involves annual assessments where budget holders review the demand they face and assess their ability to meet this. This helps identify where savings can be made for reinvestment in other priority areas.
To support this process and make sure budget holders have the skills needed to manage their budgets well, the force has developed financial awareness training for its senior leaders. This provides important knowledge about the funding given to the force, how it is distributed throughout the organisation and how everyone can positively contribute by managing their budgets more effectively. The training consists of standalone masterclasses and forms part of level three leadership training for senior leaders. It provides the force with a robust finance performance structure that includes detailed reporting to the office of the police and crime commissioner through the joint independent audit committee.
The force also has effective governance processes in place to oversee its spending. High-quality data helps it understand its assets, resources and operations. Overall, we found that the force’s approach to managing its finances was effective and allowed for investment where required to make sure it is capable of operating within its budgets.
In this section we set out our main findings that relate to leadership and management.
The force has developed new strategic plans that consider the Northumbria police and crime commissioner’s police and crime plan. These clearly communicate the force’s objectives and priorities to the workforce. We saw copies of them prominently displayed during our inspection. The force has also reviewed is governance structures and performance management framework, which are clearly aligned with its strategic objectives.
The force produces high-quality performance data. This provides senior leaders with the information they need to manage daily operations and make informed decisions. The force also provides detailed management information through a range of data dashboards. This makes sure leaders have the information they need to oversee performance effectively and make improvements.
The force makes effective use of its force management statement. This is produced through a self-assessment process that reviews current demand, highlights risks and predicts future challenges. The document is prepared and submitted annually and allows the force to develop its strategic operational plans. This helps it to respond to changes in demand and meet future needs so it can provide services more effectively.
The force communicates effectively with its workforce in a variety of ways. For example, it has held events with officers and staff across the force to make sure they understand its purpose. The events involve explaining the force’s strategy and setting expectations. Members of the workforce told us that chief officers were very visible and regularly visited different stations to speak with them, providing updates and answering questions. We were told that these frequent interactions and the recognition of good work was creating a positive work environment.
The force has a clear focus on leadership to create the right culture and improve performance through a well-led and motivated workforce. This includes a comprehensive leadership development programme. The programme has been designed to meet the needs of different leadership levels and is divided into three distinct tiers. At the time of our inspection, we found that 43 percent of first-line leaders eligible to receive training had completed it. The force told us that its current plans predict that all leaders will have been trained by September 2025. The force must make sure it has the capacity to fulfil these plans. This will make sure that all leaders have the skills and abilities they need to carry out their roles effectively. The programme should include leaders who are in temporary posts and those working towards promotion into leadership positions.
The force understands its demand and makes effective use of available data to make sure it has the capacity it needs in the right places. This helps the force to meet its current and future needs. The force has reviewed its operating model and in 2024, implemented a number of changes. This included increasing the number of policing areas from three to six. This has allowed for a greater focus on local needs and supports work with other organisations. The force was able to show that these changes have led to improvements in performance and are helping it to meet its strategic priorities.
The force also understands sources of internal demand and is reducing these through continual improvement. For example, it has recently invested in new financial management software that can receive and process invoices for goods and services automatically. By removing this manual work, the force’s finance teams have saved administrative time equivalent to the work of about three full-time members of staff. This allows them to focus on other priority work and helps the force to be more efficient.
There are effective systems in place that make sure crimes are allocated to personnel and units with the right skills. But the force’s crime allocation policy is unclear about how often investigations should be supervised after the first review. This has led to inconsistent decisions on when crimes should be reviewed. The force should review its crime allocation policy to make sure it gives guidance to supervisors and sets clear expectations. This is important to make sure investigations are progressing and to provide officers and staff with advice and support when needed.
The force has an effective approach to financial management. Forecasts in its medium-term financial strategy are based on realistic assumptions about future funding and current spending levels. The force uses a priority-based budgeting model to oversee and manage its budgets. It uses this process effectively to find areas where costs can be reduced to help balance budgets and to make investments in other priority areas.
In the year ending 31 March 2024, Northumbria Police received £407 million in funding. In line with other forces in England and Wales, it received a combination of core grant funding from central government and local revenue raised through council tax precept. In the year ending 31 March 2024, council tax precept contributed £70 million (17.1 percent) to the force’s total budget. This is lower than the typical proportion of council tax precept for forces in England and Wales.
Figure 4: Percentage of total funding that comes from council tax precept in the year ending 31 March 2024 for forces in England and Wales
Source: Data collection and analysis from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services
In 2024/25, the force benefited from a £13 rise in the precept for a band D property. It has used this funding to set up a motorcycle unit to tackle antisocial behaviour and hire 30 new investigators. Despite this increase in funding, the force still expects a budget gap of £1.5 million in 2024/25. However, it is confident in its ability to provide a balanced budget in future years and plans to use its reserves to cover predicted budget gaps.
Reserves fall into two categories: a general reserve and earmarked reserves held for specific purposes such as capital investment. The force plans to keep a general reserve of £10.8 million to cover its risks. This is approximately 2.7 percent of the force’s net revenue budget, and we consider it to be an adequate amount. The force has an ambitious four-year capital programme and at the time of our inspection, was planning to invest £30 million during 2024/25. This capital programme will be used to fund its digital transformation programme, replace its vehicle fleet and maintain and construct police buildings. The force is sensibly managing its reserves. It has a total of £41 million available, including the general reserve and those reserves that are earmarked for future investment.
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:
Northumbria PEEL assessment 2023–2025
You can find more about Northumbria Police on our dedicated force page.
Northumbria Police aims to deliver an outstanding service, working with communities and partners to keep people safe and fight crime by focusing on prevention and being there when the public need us.
There is continued investment in how the Force responds to the public and a strong commitment to a collaborative neighbourhood approach to identify issues and solve problems.
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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.
