Reviews and appeals
If you are unhappy with the way your complaint was handled, or with the final outcome, you can apply for a review or an appeal.
Whether your application is treated as a review or an appeal depends on the date you made your complaint. This is because from 1 February 2020, new laws took effect replacing the former right of appeal with a new right of review. If your complaint was made on or after 1 February 2020, you have a right of review. If it was made before 1 February 2020, you have a right of appeal.
It is important to understand that the relevant review or appeal body cannot reinvestigate your complaint. It can only assess whether the handling or the final outcome of your complaint was reasonable and proportionate.
Where should I send my application for a review or appeal?
The organisation you complained to should have sent you a letter that tells you whether you have a right of review or appeal. If you have this right, the letter will also tell you which organisation will handle your review or appeal.
It’s important that you send your review or appeal to the correct organisation – sometimes, this is referred to as the relevant review or appeal body. If you are unsure, please contact the organisation that dealt with your complaint.
Please note, you do not need to know whether you are applying for a review or an appeal. Complete our review and appeal form and send it to the organisation you’ve been told to contact. They will use the information you provide to ensure that the correct process is followed.
How long do I have to apply for a review or appeal?
You have 28 days to apply for a review or appeal. The relevant review or appeal body must receive your application within 28 days from the day after the date on the letter explaining the outcome of your complaint. For example, if your letter is dated 1 April, you must make sure the relevant review or appeal body receives your review or appeal by 29 April.
Please note from the date the IOPC receives your application for a review or appeal, it may take up to 48 weeks for Investigations Reviews to be allocated and up to 26 weeks for Other Handing Reviews. This is due to an exceptionally high volume of work received in the last 18 months. We are currently allocating Investigation reviews received in June 2022, and Other Handling reviews received in November 2022. We are working hard to reduce these delays and we will regularly update this page with the current allocation times.
Before you submit a review or appeal, we recommend that you read the information in the drop-down sections below.
Review
You can apply for a review if you are unhappy with the way your complaint was handled, or with the final outcome. The relevant review body will look at whether the handling or the outcome of your complaint was reasonable and proportionate. Reasonable and proportionate means doing what is appropriate in the circumstances, taking into account the facts and the context in which the complaint has been raised, within the framework of legislation and guidance.
Appeals
There are six different types of appeal, which are explained below:
- You can appeal against the police force or other organisation’s investigation into your complaint.
- You can appeal if a complaint was not recorded.
- You can appeal against a decision to disapply.
- You can appeal against the outcome of the local resolution.
- You can appeal against the outcome of a complaint after the decision to disapply.
- You can appeal against the decision to discontinue an investigation.
The sections below explain when you can appeal and include a link to the relevant appeal form. Please note that when we deal with your appeal, we will not investigate your original complaint. We will assess how the police or other organisation dealt with it.
Appeal against an investigation into a complaint made to the police or other organisation
You may be able to appeal if your complaint was dealt with through a local or supervised investigation.
You can appeal if:
- You did not receive enough information to enable you to understand why the police or other organisation came to their decision.
- You disagree with the findings of an investigation into your complaint. You might feel that the right witnesses were not interviewed, or that your complaint was misunderstood, or that the organisation you complained to did not make the right decision based on all the evidence.
- You disagree with the action the police plans to take after investigating your complaint.
- You do not think the police made the right decision about whether an officer you complained about has a case to answer for misconduct, gross misconduct, or whether their performance was unsatisfactory.
- You disagree with the decision not to refer the officer’s conduct to the CPS for a decision about whether to bring criminal charges.
You cannot appeal if your complaint relates to a direction and control issue (this does not apply if your complaint is about a contractor).
Appeal against non-recording of your complaint
You can appeal if:
- The police or local policing body did not to record your complaint. Policing bodies include Police and Crime Commissioners, the Common Council for the City of London, or the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime. There are some occasions when they do not need to record a complaint, but you should be told why. You can find a list of circumstances where complaints do not need to be recorded in our statutory guidance.
- You complained to a force other than the one involved in your complaint. The force that received your complaint did not pass it on to the relevant force.
- The police force or local policing body fails to decide about whether to record your complaint and you do not hear from them within 15 working days.
You cannot appeal if your complaint:
- Was about a direction and control matter and the local policing body took the decision not to record it. However, you can appeal if the decision not to record was taken by the police force.
- Was not recorded because it had been withdrawn.
- Was not recorded because it has been, or is being, dealt with through disciplinary or criminal proceedings.
Appeal against a decision to disapply
You may be able to appeal if the complaints process was stopped before an investigation into your complaint began. This situation happens when the police force involved makes a ‘decision to disapply’.
You can appeal if you think the police should not have decided to disapply.
You cannot appeal if your complaint is about a direction and control issue (this does not apply if your complaint is about a contractor), or if the IOPC gave the police force permission to disapply.
Appeal against the outcome of the local resolution
You may be able to appeal if your complaint was dealt with using the local resolution process.
When the police wrote to you about the outcome of your complaint, they also told you who to appeal to. In many cases, this will be the chief officer of the police force. In other cases, it will be the IOPC.
You can appeal if:
- You think that the outcome of the local resolution of your complaint was not a proper one. This means that, for example, you believe the outcome was not appropriate to the complaint, or the outcome did not reflect the evidence available.
You cannot appeal if your complaint relates to a direction and control issue (this does not apply if your complaint is about a contractor).
Appeal against the outcome of a complaint after the decision to disapply
You may be able to appeal if the process of looking into your complaint stopped before it was investigated. When a force makes a decision to stop dealing with a complaint before investigating it, this is called a ‘decision to disapply’.
You can appeal if:
- You are not happy with the action that was taken after the decision to disapply.
- You are unhappy that no action was taken after the decision to disapply.
- You do not agree with the outcome of your complaint after the decision to disapply.
- You do not think that the outcome of your complaint after the decision to disapply was sufficient. This means, for example, that you believe the outcome was not sufficient for the nature of the complaint, or the outcome did not reflect the evidence available.
You cannot appeal if your complaint relates to a direction and control issue (this does not apply if your complaint is about a contractor).
Appeal against the decision to discontinue an investigation
You may be able to appeal if a police force decides to end the investigation it is carrying out into your complaint.
You can appeal this decision if you do not think the police should have discontinued the investigation.
Please note, you cannot appeal when the complaint relates to a direction and control issue (this does not apply if your complaint is about a contractor), or if the IOPC gave the police force permission to disapply.
When the IOPC or the police force receives your complaint, it will check whether it is the right organisation to handle your complaint. If not, it will forward your review or appeal to the relevant review or appeal body and inform you that it has done so.
The relevant review or appeal body will send you a letter to acknowledge your review or appeal. They will tell you how long it’s likely to take to consider your review or appeal.
The relevant review body will notify the organisation you complained about that you’ve applied for a review or appeal. They will also notify the person complained about and any other interested persons.
The relevant review or appeal body will ask the organisation that you complained about to provide it with any information they have about your complaint and how they dealt with it.
When all of the information has been supplied, the relevant review body will assess your review or appeal and make its decision. You will be told about this decision in writing. You will receive a clear explanation about how this decision has been reached.
Read our frequently asked questions.
Please follow the links below to learn more about the police complaints system:
Statutory guidance – detailed, technical information about how forces should deal with complaints.
If you need information in another language or format, please contact us.