Introduction
This report presents figures on complaints about the police in England and Wales for 2025/26. These complaints are made by members of the public about the service they have received from a police force. They are handled under the Police Reform Act 2002, as amended by the Policing and Crime Act 2017.
The Policing and Crime Act 2017 and supporting regulations made significant changes to the police complaints and disciplinary systems. These changes were designed to achieve a simpler, more proportionate and customer-focused complaints system focused on learning and improvement. The changes were implemented on 1 February 2020, with the British Transport Police falling under the new legislation from 4 January 2021.
A police complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction by a member of the public about the service they have received from a police force. Police forces and local policing bodies deal with the majority of complaints themselves. The IOPC sets the standards for complaints handling through its Statutory Guidance 2020.
Statutory Guidance helps local policing bodies and forces achieve high standards in handling complaints about the police. It also helps them to comply with their legal obligations. The IOPC oversees the complaints system and investigates the most serious and sensitive cases. It also carries out reviews of some complaints.
The first stage of complaint handling is for the relevant police force or local policing body to decide how it will handle the complaint. Legislation allows for certain types of complaints to be resolved informally, while allowing more flexibility in the formal handling of complaints. This allows the police to better meet the needs of the complainant and quickly make improvements based on the complaints they handle.
A person can request a review if they are unhappy with the outcome of their complaint or the way in which it was handled. In some instances, this review will be carried out by the IOPC. Other reviews are handled by local policing bodies (Police and Crime Commissioners or mayors).
As set out in previous years, most of the data referred to in this report was recorded on police force IT systems and collected by the IOPC. While data has undergone quality assurance checks, the statistics remain under evaluation until their accuracy, reliability, and their value, is established and verified. Therefore they should be interpreted with some caution as further evaluation is currently taking place. The Office for National Statistics describes experimental statistics as ‘a series of statistics that are in a testing phase and not yet fully developed.’
We have given police forces guidance setting out how we expect them to record the data we collect. Therefore, the consistency of the data we report relies on police forces applying our guidance correctly when they record data.