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Live · Home Office and Ministry of Justice · announced 30 July 2026

An end-to-end review of the police accountability system is under way

The review is chaired by Dame Lynne Owens and Jason Beer KC. It will examine the timeliness, efficiency and effectiveness of the systems for holding police to account in England and Wales, and the interaction between those systems and the criminal, civil and coronial justice systems. The chairs report to the Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor within six months.

No route for public or complainant evidence has been published. The terms of reference state that the methodology, including how feedback from victims, complainants, the wider public, officers and system leaders will be gathered, is still to be agreed.

Victim Not Suspect submitted written evidence to the review on 1 August 2026, sent to the Home Office pending publication of a formal route for evidence.

Today's national picture · official sources

The accountability gap, in numbers.

Drawn from HMICFRS inspection grades, IOPC review outcomes and our own audit of every force's published super-complaint response, the official record of how forces are policed and how complaints against them are handled.

See the full picture
Under HMICFRS escalation

16

of 44 forces with ≥1 open cause of concern

Reviewed complaints overturned

29.8%

nearly 1 in 3 · 601 of 2,015 IOPC reviews, 2024/25

PEEL pillar grades
14red24amb0grn

worst pillar per force, of 44

Sourced super-complaint responses

44

of 44 forces · VNS audit, original sourcing

HMICFRS performance levels, first national assignment

assigned 16 July 2026

Level 1, default

29

of 43 forces · default position, not a clean bill of health

Level 2, enhanced support

13

of 43 forces

Level 3, targeted intervention

1

Lincolnshire Police, the only force at this level

Level 4, special measures

0

of 43 forces

All 43 territorial forces in England and Wales were assigned a level for the first time on 16 July 2026 under the Policing Performance System, which replaced the previous Scan and Engage arrangements. Levels are reviewed three times a year. British Transport Police is not a territorial force and is not assigned a level.

Nearly 1 in 3 IOPC-reviewed complaint decisions were found not reasonable or proportionate.
Source: IOPC 2024/25 annual review outcomes

Five forces under most active scrutiny

  1. Lincolnshire Police

    PEEL Inadequate, 4 causes of concern · IOPC 530 per 1,000 staff · super-complaint attachment only

  2. Nottinghamshire Police

    PEEL Inadequate, 3 causes of concern · IOPC 417 per 1,000 staff · super-complaint response sourced

  3. Metropolitan Police Service

    PEEL Inadequate, 2 causes of concern · IOPC 247 per 1,000 staff · super-complaint response sourced

  4. Devon & Cornwall Police

    PEEL Inadequate, 2 causes of concern · IOPC 198 per 1,000 staff · super-complaint response sourced

  5. West Midlands Police

    PEEL Inadequate, 2 causes of concern · IOPC 330 per 1,000 staff · super-complaint attachment only

Full dashboard sorts all 44 forces by any column.

See all 44 →

Benchmarks373 IOPC complaints per 1,000 staff9.8 stalking offences per 1,000 populationEngland & Wales averages, so individual force figures elsewhere on the site can be read in contextSnapshot refreshed 21/08/2026, 15:07:28

SourcesHMICFRS PEEL (official inspection grades) · IOPC 2024/25 annual review outcomes · VNS audit of force-published super-complaint responses · misconduct999.com (third-party aggregator, used for hearing counts shown on per-force pages).

Across the site

Where to look