𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has ordered a crackdown on failing police forces in a bid to rebuild shattered public confidence. Hit squads will be sent into forces that fail to meet tough targets, while a new grading system will allow the public to see how police across the country are performing. Ms Mahmood is also publishing further details of measures to allow her to suspend or sack Chief Constables that aren’t up to the job.

It follows a series of controversies including the row over a ban on Israeli football fans attending a match in Birmingham. The chief constable of West Midlands Police eventually announced his retirement following intense criticism over the police advice that led to the ban. Concerns were raised over police recruitment after Sarah Everard was abducted, raped and murdered by serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, as she walked home in London in 2021.

A review published earlier this month found two serial rapists were among more than 130 Metropolitan Police officers and staff wrongly hired or allowed to keep working as vetting was relaxed in a recruitment drive.

Ms Mahmood said: “It is essential that the people can determine what they expect from their forces.

“I will make police forces accountable to parliament – driving up standards so they fight more crime in their communities.”

The Government has already said it will abolish locally-elected Police and Crime Commissioners. Under new measures announced today, the police will be made accountable to the Home Secretary. Ministers will be handed new powers to intervene directly in failing forces, sending in specialist teams to turn them around so they fight crime more effectively.

If crime solving rates or police response times are poor, the Home Secretary will be able to send in experts from the best performing forces to improve their performance, so they catch more criminals.

The Home Secretary will restore the power to sack failing Chief Constables. New laws will hand Ministers statutory powers to force the retirement, resignation or suspension of Chief Constables if they are poorly performing.

Forces will also be directly accountable to the public, with new targets on 999 response times, victim satisfaction, public trust and confidence. These results will be published and forces graded so communities can compare.

To further reinforce accountability, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire and Rescue Services will gain statutory powers to issue directions when forces fail to act on his recommendations. 

Alongside these force-wide measures, the government will also ensure the highest standards from individual officers. To strengthen safeguards and ensure those unfit for policing are kept out of the profession, the government will introduce laws to impose robust, mandatory vetting standards for all police forces, ensuring the public is protected.

These new standards will enable forces to exclude those with a caution or conviction for violence against women and girls offences from policing.

Stronger requirements on forces to suspend officers who are under investigation for these crimes will also be introduced.

Then on Monday, the Home Secretary is expected to announce the largest reforms to policing since the police service was founded two centuries ago.

In a white paper titled “From local to national: a new model for policing”, Mahmood is expected to outline radical changes.