Stakeholder feedback survey - 2025

This report summarises the findings from an online survey and in-depth interviews via Teams with stakeholders, conducted by Savanta in 2025. The key findings were:

• 80% of stakeholders have at least a fair amount of knowledge of the IOPC and its role whilst 49% of stakeholders have a favourable opinion of the IOPC.
• 95% of stakeholders think the IOPC is at least somewhat independent of the police but concerns were raised in the interviews around the government and media’s influence on decision-making.
• 56% of stakeholders say the IOPC is proactive in engaging with them, and a similar amount (48%) say the IOPC values its relationship with them.
• While 39% of stakeholders say the IOPC does well at engaging with them, just 20% feel that the IOPC is good at engaging with the general public.
• Over half of stakeholders (56%) say the IOPC does well in sharing learning to improve police practice, and just over two in five (42%) say the IOPC is effective at ensuring the police service learns from complaints.
• Just 30% of stakeholders feel that the IOPC is improving public confidence in policing. and in the interviews, it was suggested that the best way to do this would be to improve its media and social media presence.
• The top three words stakeholders choose to describe the IOPC are ‘slow’, ‘independent’ and ‘professional’. Around one in ten stakeholders say the IOPC does well at completing reviews (10%) and investigations (9%) in a timely manner.