Home Secretary seeks changes to police disciplinary process

POLICE officers are being invited to submit their views on plans to hold disciplinary and appeal hearings in public.

Officers have until Friday 2 January to submit views on proposals which also include greater protection for whistleblowers and introducing independent legal experts to chair disciplinary hearing panels. The Home Secretary is also consulting on plans to allow police and crime commissioners to take charge of police complaints.

The changes follow the review of the police complaints system by former Army officer Major General Clive Chapman.

“Whistleblowers will not be subject to disciplinary action for taking the necessary steps to report a concern and any reprisals against them will be taken seriously,” recommended Mr Chapman.

His plans for public disciplinary hearings would apply to higher-level misconduct cases that could lead to dismissal, not lower-level misconduct cases. Mr Chapman said the change would promote greater consistency and improve transparency and justice.

Legally-qualified experts would replace the senior officers who currently chair the panels of disciplinary hearings, and chief officers in special case hearings. This is in order to “introduce a greater degree of independence into the way police disciplinary hearings are conducted and to ensure judgements are legally sound”, he said.

The disciplinary hearing panels for senior officers will also be given the ability to remove or adjust compensation payments due at the termination of a chief officer’s contract of appointment, if they are subject to a disciplinary finding.

Neil Bowles, chairman of South Yorkshire Police Federation, said:  “How can you have a police and crime commissioner with a political mandate looking at complaints? It is a complete and utter farce. It has got to be an independent body.

“If they hold the chief account they how can they be in charge of discipline? PCCs can be politically influenced and that cannot affect the discipline system. At the end of the day politicians are worse thought of than any other sort of profession. The whole idea of the police complaints system is that it is supposed to build public confidence and therefore it has to be independent.”

Home Secretary Theresa May has launched a public consultation on the recommendations. Mrs May has previously said that the current disciplinary process “lacks transparency, is bureaucratic and lacks independence”.

Steve Evans, Vice Chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said he was “delighted” that the government is considering plans to put legally trained independent experts in charge of misconduct hearings for the police.

“We believe this will ensure greater impartiality in investigations conducted by both the Independent Police Complaints Commission and professional standard departments,” he said.

“We believe this will lead to greater examination of severity assessments and that more officers will be dealt with at the most appropriate level. This was always the essence of the 2008 (2012) Regulations.”

Officers can respond to the consultation online at www.gov.uk or email their response to: [email protected].