Annual review of the 2022–25 policing inspection programme and framework – 2024

Published on: 13 August 2024

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An inspection programme and framework under Schedule 4A to the Police Act 1996

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) independently assesses and reports on the efficiency and effectiveness of police forces to make communities safer.

We ask the questions that we believe the public wish to have answered, and publish our findings, conclusions and recommendations in an accessible form, using our expertise to interpret the evidence. We provide authoritative information to allow the public to compare the performance of their police force against others, and to determine whether performance has improved or deteriorated over time. Our recommendations are designed to bring about improvements in the service provided to the public.

Foreword

In 2022, we moved from an annual to a multi-year approach for our inspection programme. The result was our policing inspection programme and framework commencing April 2022, which covered our plans for inspections between 2022/23 and 2024/25.

We committed to review this programme every year because we expected that some elements would need to change. New and emerging priorities for policing, and Government funding of the inspectorate, affect our capacity and capability to inspect.

In September 2023, we published the first annual review of the programme. This document is the second such annual review. It sets out the inspections we completed from July 2023 up to and including July 2024 and those proposed for the remainder of this programme.

As in previous years, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary also produces an annual ‘State of Policing’ report. This is his assessment of the efficiency and effectiveness of policing in England and Wales. This year’s report was published in July, and is based on the inspections we carried out between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.

Inspectorate capacity

Plans for the remainder of this inspection programme are based on the assumption that we will maintain the number of inspectors of constabulary at current levels.

Next steps

We have reviewed our plans for the remainder of this programme and considered new and emerging priorities. We will continue to do so during 2024/25. In mid-2024, we began developing our policing programme and framework for 2025–2027 and beyond. This will include working with a range of specialists and other stakeholders, such as leaders in policing and other inspectorates. We will also hold our planned public consultation of this programme and framework.

Inspections completed in 2023/24 and planned for 2024/25

We carry out a range of inspections. Our police efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy (PEEL) inspections assess the performance of all 43 police forces in England and Wales. Our national thematic inspections are in-depth examinations of particular policing practices or processes, or of the policing approach to preventing and tackling specific offences. We receive commissions from the Home Secretary and local policing bodies and have a statutory responsibility to carry out inspections of specific national bodies and non-Home Office forces. We also work with other organisations to carry out joint inspections. These inspections allow us to inspect the way the police approach and tackle a particular type of crime or problem as part of a wider assessment of the service provided by all the relevant bodies and organisations. Further details of these different types of inspections can be found in our policing programme and framework.

The inspections we carried out in each of these areas are listed below, with links to the published reports. We have also included a summary of our planned inspections for the remainder of this programme. Some of our inspections are in more than one of these categories (for example, because they are both specialist, force-specific inspections, and commissioned). In these cases, they are listed under both categories, for completeness.

All the inspections we have completed and those we plan to carry out are in line with the inspection framework, methodology, monitoring assurance and insight approaches as set out in the policing programme and framework.

PEEL inspections

Completed inspections

At the beginning of 2023, we started the next cycle of our PEEL programme, which will run throughout the remainder of this policing programme and framework.

These inspections assess how well each force:

  • serves victims of crime;
  • engages with and treats the people it serves;
  • prevents crime and deters antisocial behaviour;
  • responds to the public;
  • investigates crime;
  • protects vulnerable people;
  • manages offenders and suspects;
  • disrupts serious and organised crime;
  • builds, develops and looks after its workforce and encourages an ethical, lawful and inclusive workplace;
  • leads and manages its services to make sure they are efficient, effective and sustainable;
  • vets its officers and staff; and
  • protects the information it holds and tackles potential corruption.

You can see how your police force has performed in the PEEL assessments on our map of England and Wales.

Spotlight reports

Using findings from recent PEEL inspections, and where relevant, thematic inspections in England and Wales, we also produce spotlight reports focusing on specific themes. Since 2022, we have published two spotlight reports on:

In September 2024 we are due to publish a third spotlight report, on the police approach to anti-social behaviour.

The regional approach to serious and organised crime

We also inspect how well police forces tackle serious and organised crime (SOC) in a particular region. Previously, we only inspected and graded how the 43 forces across England and Wales approached SOC. Now we inspect and grade all forces together with the regional organised crime units (ROCUs). This approach improves our understanding of how forces and ROCUs work together to tackle SOC. We schedule our visits so that we can inspect regional forces and their ROCU together and we make judgments against the PEEL assessment framework. We report our findings for each region in individual SOC inspection reports and publish these on our website.

Planned inspections

We will complete the current cycle of our PEEL programme and we will continue to seek feedback on our approach to PEEL to determine any further necessary improvements. We will also continue to inspect the regional approach to SOC.

Specialist inspections and investigations

Completed thematic inspections

Planned thematic inspections

We currently intend to carry out or complete inspections of the following thematic areas during the remainder of this programme:

  • activism and impartiality
  • prosecution team case building
  • rape investigation standards phase one
  • organised immigration crime
  • crime investigations
  • leadership and culture
  • firearms licensing
  • out of court disposals and young witness protocol (criminal justice joint inspection).

Some elements of this inspection activity may be included in the PEEL inspection programme. Others are also included in the ‘Criminal Justice Joint Inspection Business Plan 2023–25’.

These plans depend on our funding and capacity and on any new priorities for policing.

We have reviewed our priorities for thematic inspections

We have reviewed the thematic inspections included in the policing programme and framework commencing April 2022 when developing our plans for the remainder of this programme.

We have taken into account the inspections completed to date and new work that has arisen due to commissions (further details included below) and assessed our plans against our capacity and funding to prioritise those areas of most concern. As a result, we are deferring the following inspections that were previously included in the programme:

We also no longer plan to carry out standalone thematic inspections on child protection and police engagement with women and girls. Instead, we will continue to inspect aspects of these through PEEL and other thematic or rolling programmes as set out below.

Completed force-specific specialist inspections

Completed inspections of police custody suites

Planned force-specific specialist inspections

Continuing the inspection of counter-corruption and vetting arrangements carried out to date, we are also starting a new integrity rolling programme. In this programme, we will inspect professional standards, vetting and counter-corruption arrangements in police forces in England and Wales. And we will continue our rolling programme of custody suite inspections.

Completed super-complaint investigations and related publications

Planned investigations for super-complaints

We are currently working on investigations resulting from super-complaints submitted by the Criminal Justice Alliance (on use of stop and search) and the Suzy Lamplugh Trust (on the police response to cases of stalking).

We expect to receive further super-complaints during the period covered by this programme. We will continue to work with the College of Policing and the Independent Office for Police Conduct to manage future investigations. We are also working with the Ministry of Defence to plan future investigations that may occur from super-complaints within military service policing.

We will work with the Home Office to make sure that enough funding is made available to allow us to complete these investigations.

Completed inspections of national bodies and non-Home Office forces

We have also completed an inspection of the British Virgin Islands criminal justice system, commissioned by the Governor of the British Virgin Islands and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in consultation with the Premier. We will publish our findings in two volumes. In volume one, we identified immediate areas for improvement in the nine bodies we inspected. And, in volume two, we will provide a more detailed assessment and suggest a long-term plan for sustainable change.

Planned inspections of national bodies and non-Home Office forces

Subject to further discussion with the organisations concerned, we intend to carry out or complete inspections of the following organisations:

  • HM Revenue & Customs
  • the National Crime Agency
  • the British Transport Police
  • the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority
  • the Police Service of Northern Ireland
  • police forces in British Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories.

Vulnerability and child protection inspections

National child protection inspections in England and Wales

Completed inspections

We have continued to inspect and re-inspect forces to assess the experiences of children who come into contact with the police and to check that the results have been in their best interests.

Planned inspections

We have completed our current round of inspecting all 43 forces as part of this programme and are taking the opportunity to review our approach. We plan to increase the number of inspections each year and we will change our approach to re‑inspection.

Joint targeted area inspections in England

Completed inspections
Planned inspections

We will continue this programme of inspections.

Joint inspection of child protection arrangements in Wales

Completed inspections

We have continued to work with the Care Inspectorate Wales, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales and Estyn (the education and training inspectorate for Wales).

We have completed the following inspections:

Planned inspections

We will continue to participate in this inspection programme as led by Care Inspectorate Wales.

Violence against women and girls

Planned inspections

We will continue to inspect the police’s approach to tackling and preventing crimes that disproportionately affect women and girls as part of several of our inspections. Our child protection inspections will continue to assess the experiences of girls who are victims of abuse and exploitation. And our PEEL inspections will continue to assess how forces deal with all vulnerability and crimes that may affect both women and girls. In addition, we will be completing phase one of a Home Secretary commission on Operation Soteria. This is the joint policing and Crown Prosecution Service programme of work to improve the end-to-end prosecution of rape cases.

We will continue to monitor progress against recommendations from our previous thematic inspections for example the police approach to tackling harassment and stalking, and honour-based abuse, forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

Home Secretary and other commissions

Completed Home Secretary commissions

Planned Home Secretary commissions

We will continue our work on the commissions examining activism and impartiality in policing, the police approach to organised immigration crime and Operation Soteria.

Completed Police and Crime Commissioner and mayoral commissions

Planned Police and Crime Commissioner and mayoral commissions

We will continue our work on the commission from the Greater Manchester Police and Crime Commissioner on the police approach to tackling child sexual exploitation.

We anticipate that the Home Secretary, the Mayor of London, other mayors and police and crime commissioners will commission further inspections over the period covered by this programme. We will carry out all Home Secretary commissions and consider all other commissions through the usual process.

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Annual review of the 2022–25 policing inspection programme and framework – 2024

Last updated: 15 October 2024