Introduction and Background

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (referred to as IOPC, or Organisation throughout the report)oversees the police complaints system in England and Wales. It makes decisions entirely independently of the police and government. IOPC investigates the most serious matters, including deaths following police contact and sets the standards by which the police should handle complaints.

IOPC has embarked on an extensive ‘Transformation’ programme. Its vision is to become a high performing organisation that delivers a brilliant service to users, partners, stakeholders and communities, putting the service user at the heart of the way the Organisation operates.

IOPC continue to use the Customer Service Excellence (CSE) Standard as a framework to contribute to achieving its priorities. The three-year recertification assessment against the CSE Standard took place in 2023.Due to limited resources in 2024, the format of an annual review, year one (AR1), was not completed, the annual review year two approach was used. As a result, the format of an annual review, year one, was used this year, 2025.