• Read more about Table 18: Nature of allegations finalised under Schedule 3 by how they were handled in 2024/25

The number of allegations logged presented in this table are only those with a category recorded. Therefore they may not match the actual number of allegations logged presented in Table 5.

*The erroneous categorisation in 'Use of police vehicles' is a typographical error only and can be conisdered valid to the category.

• Read more about Glossary

Allegation

This describes what is being complained about. An allegation is made by someone defined as a complainant under the Police Reform Act 2002 (see ‘complainant’). An allegation may be made by one or more complainants about the service they received from a police force. For example, about force-wide crime initiatives, organisation of policing resources, or general policing standards. However, it can also be about the conduct of any person serving with the police. A complaint case may involve more than one allegation. For example, a person may allege that an officer pushed and was rude to them. This would be logged as two separate allegations forming one complaint case. Each allegation is logged against a specific category (a full list of the allegation categories and their definitions can be found in the IOPC’s Guidance on capturing data about police complaints).

Appropriate authority

(Section 29, Police Reform Act 2002)
The organisation responsible for assessing how to deal with a complaint. For example, whether it can be handled locally or reaches the criteria for referral to the IOPC. The appropriate authority may be the chief officer of the police force or the police and crime commissioner for the force. If a complaint investigation finds someone has a case to answer for misconduct, the appropriate authority is responsible for arranging any misconduct proceedings. If you make a complaint, the appropriate authority for your case will contact you.

Complainant

A person who makes a complaint about the conduct of someone serving with the police or about a police force. The law sets out the circumstances that need to exist for someone to make a complaint (see section 5.6 of the IOPC Statutory guidance on the police complaints system).

Complaint

A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction raised by or on behalf of a member of the public to a police force. A complaint does not have to be made in writing and does not have to state explicitly that it is a complaint.

Complaint case

A complaint may involve more than one allegation. The allegation/s may be made by one or more complainants, against one or more persons serving with the police. ‘Complaint case’ refers to all the allegations and complainants connected with a complaint.

Directed investigation

An investigation conducted by the appropriate authority under the direction and control of the IOPC. The IOPC directs the investigation by appointing an investigator and setting out its scope and investigative strategy. The IOPC controls the investigation by reviewing the policy books, confirming the investigation has met the terms of reference and making the decisions at the end of the case.

Independent investigation

An investigation carried out by IOPC staff (Paragraph 19, Schedule 3, Police Reform Act 2002). An independent investigation is often used for the most serious incidents and/or those with the greatest public interest. For example, incidents that cause the greatest level of public concern, have a high potential to impact on communities, or have serious implications for the reputation of the police service.

Local investigation

An investigation carried out by the appropriate authority on its own behalf (Paragraph 16, Schedule 3, Police Reform Act 2002).

Local policing body

The body responsible for all policing in their area. It holds the chief constable and the force to account. This is a collective term for:

• Police and Crime Commissioners
• the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (for the Metropolitan Police Service district)
• the Common Council (for the City of London police area) (Section 101, Police Act 1996)

Reflective practice review process (RPRP)

This focuses on putting an issue right and preventing it from happening again by encouraging those involved to reflect on their actions and learn from them. It is not a disciplinary process or a disciplinary outcome.

Review

Where a complaint has been recorded under Schedule 3 to the Police Reform Act 2002, the complainant has a right to apply for a review of the outcome of the complaint. The review will consider whether the outcome of the handling of the complaint is reasonable and proportionate. It will uphold the review where the relevant review body finds that the outcome of the complaint is not reasonable and proportionate. This applies whether the complaint has been investigated or handled in another way.

Special procedures

Special procedures only apply to investigations of complaints about a member of a police force or a special constable. In the case of any other person, the investigator must adhere to the relevant policies and procedures for investigating allegations of any form of misconduct. Investigators must apply special procedures:

• in a complaint investigation, when there is an indication a person being investigated may have committed a criminal offence or behaved in a manner that would justify disciplinary proceedings
• in all investigations into recordable conduct matters (Paragraph 19A, Schedule 3, Police Reform Act 2002)

Unsatisfactory performance procedure (UPP)

A series of steps used to improve someone’s performance. It is used when a person was unable or failed to perform their role to a satisfactory level but did not breach the Standards of Professional Behaviour.

• Read more about Formal and informal handling of complaints

With informal handling and recording of complaints, when an expression of dissatisfaction is made, it is logged as a complaint.

The force may attempt to resolve the complaint informally - if that can be done to the complainant's satisfaction, the complaint is considered resolved. Available actions at this point are organisational learning, learning from reflection,  a policy or procedure review, a goodwill gesture, an apology, explanation or debrief, some other action, or no further action.

If the complaint is not resolved to the complainant's satisfaction, but they do not still wish to pursue the matter, no further action is taken.

If the complaint is not resolved to the complainant's satisfaction, but they do wish to pursue the matter, the complaint would be recorded.

Once recorded, the complaint becomes subject to formal handling and / or investigation.

The complaint would also have been recorded at the outset, if matters within the complaint meet the appropriate criteria.

Once a complaint is recorded, the force must decide if an investigation is required. If not, the complaint can be handled in a reasonable and proportionate manner, leading to one of the following decisions: that the service provided was acceptable, was not acceptable, or that it is not possible to determine which. Other possible decisions are for no further action, or that the complaint is withdrawn.

After a decision, available actions are the reflective practice review process, unsatisfactory performance proceedings, organisational learning, a policy or procedure review, a goodwill gesture, an apology, explanation or debrief, some other action, or no further action.

Once recorded, a complaint may be referred to the IOPC, who would make a decision on the mode of investigation required: this might be local, directed or independent.

If the investigation is not subject to special procedures, the available decisions and actions are the same as listed above.

If the investigation is subject to special procedures, the available decisions are that there is either a case to answer, or no case to answer.

From this point the available actions are: misconduct proceedings, criminal proceedings, the reflective practice review process, unsatisfactory performance proceedings, organisational learning, learning from reflection, a policy or procedure review, a goodwill gesture, an apology, explanation or debrief, some other action, or no further action.

• Read more about Introduction

This report presents figures on complaints about the police in England and Wales for 2024/25. 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 way their complaint was handled or the outcome. In some instances, this review will be carried out by the IOPC. Other reviews are handled by local policing bodies (Police and Crime Commissioners and Mayors).

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 quality, including their accuracy, reliability, and their value, is established and verified. Therefore they should be treated as experimental to acknowledge that they should be interpreted with some caution and that further development and 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.

Our guidance on how police forces should record data about complaints under the Police Reform Act 2002, as amended by the Policing and Crime Act 2017, is available on our website: www.policeconduct.gov.uk.

• Read more about Table 17: Nature of allegations finalised outside of Schedule 3 in 2024/25

*The erroneous categorisation in 'Use of police vehicles' is a typographical error only and can be conisdered valid to the category.

• Read more about Table 16: Allegations finalised by investigation under Schedule 3 in 2024/25

• Read more about Table 15: Time taken to finalise allegations in 2024/25

Only allegations with valid dates are used in the calculation for the average number of days to finalise allegations. 

• Read more about Table 14: Means by which allegations were finalised in 2024/25

• Read more about Table 13: Rank of those subject to a complaint in 2024/25

The total number of subjects will not match the figures in tables 11 and 12. This is because people subject to more than one complaint in the year may have held different ranks at the time each allegation was logged. In such cases they will be counted more than once (for each rank).

• Read more about Table 12: Ethnicity of those subject to a complaint in 2024/25

Subjects are only counted once in these tables, regardless of how many complaints they have been subject to in the year.

Subjects' demographic data is not recorded on Northumbria Police outside Schedule 3 complaints.