Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average time taken from complaint to police misconduct hearing in England and Wales.

The Home Office publishes data on police misconduct annually as part of its statistical series on police misconduct and criminal investigations. In addition, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) publishes data annually on the police complaints system.

Data is collected and published on the total time taken to finalise cases. A case is considered finalised once all resultant actions have concluded, including criminal proceedings, appeals and any associated reviews. The majority of these cases do not result in formal misconduct proceedings.

For cases involving police officers that were finalised in the year ending 31 March 2024, it took on average (median) 111 calendar days to finalise conduct matter cases and 311 calendar days to finalise recordable conduct matters. It took on average 133 working days for complaint cases to be finalised in the same time period. Data on police complaints covers police staff as well as police officers.

Last year, the Home Secretary announced a review into systemic barriers to timeliness in the police misconduct system, which is due to commence in the near future.