By David Young-
A member of a criminal gang who did not declare his membership during an application to join the police force was granted clearance for a police staff firearms licensing role, a review found.
Thankfully, his past was eventually discovered and he was kicked out of the force.
The revelation came as a review found that improvements in vetting but not all forces can demonstrate ‘acceptable progress’.
His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Matt Parr says there have “undoubtedly been improvements” following the inspectorate’s report into vetting, misconduct and misogyny in the police service.
The news follows a published review in October 2022, in which Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) reviewed hundreds of police vetting files and found too many cases where people should not have been allowed to join the police, including officers with criminal records or links to organised crime, including cases where evidence that a prospective officer may present a risk to the public was ignored.
Inspectors found examples of police officers transferring between forces despite a history of concerning intelligence, complaints or misconduct allegations.
HMICFRS said there were incidents which should have been assessed as gross misconduct that were assessed as misconduct only, or not treated as misconduct at all, and concluded that a culture of misogyny, sexism and predatory behaviour towards female police officers and staff and members of the public still exists and is even prevalent in many forces.
Since the promise of a shake up my police commissioner, Marl Rowley, he said not all forces can demonstrate “acceptable progress” on some recommendations in the report published last November by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS).
“While vetting appears to have been tightened, there are still some cases likely to cause concern,” said Mr Parr in a letter to Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Thursday (May 11).
This included the case of an applicant for a police staff firearms licensing role who failed to disclose he was associated with a member of an organised crime group and was granted clearance.
Mr Parr was responding to the Home Secretary’s request for an “urgent update” on the progress police forces in England and Wales have made to address the 43 recommendations and five areas for improvement in the report.
He said they examined the self-assessments that forces provided to the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and considered whether they “accurately reflect the grading each force has given itself”.
“Forces and the NPCC worked quickly to provide these self‑assessments,” he said. “To varying degrees, they offer assurance that the recommendations are being acted upon.
“But some responses weren’t detailed enough, and a few forces appeared to have either downplayed or overstated their progress in some areas.
“In some of these cases, we made inquiries to verify or refute the information in their self‑assessments. This has helped us to establish a more accurate and informed picture of progress.”
The Independent Office for Police Conduct, College of Policing, Home Office and NPCC were also asked to report their progress in meeting the recommendations, said Mr Parr.
He said: “My conclusion is that there have undoubtedly been some improvements since our inspection, but not all forces can demonstrate acceptable progress on some recommendations.”
The NPCC said the “swift and robust action” taken by forces to address the findings found in HMICFRS’ November 2022 report “has led to real progress”.
Improvements
Responding to the review of progress in vetting, misconduct and misogyny in the police service, it said:
“Further improvements have been made since this review in February and we continue working to deliver the changes needed to ensure those who fall below our high standards are stopped from entering policing and anyone serving rooted out and kept out.
“It is only right that police forces are held to account and we thank HMICFRS for its ongoing scrutiny. We will now examine the review’s findings in detail and address the issues raised.”
In response to the findings, Association of Police and Crime Commissioners chair Marc Jones said: “I am grateful for the commitment and speed in which chief constables have acted to address and implement the recommendations put forward by His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary.
“We are encouraged to see that notable improvements have been made in police vetting-decisions. However, we must not become complacent going forwards. Forces must continue to maintain strong processes and standards if we are to rebuild public trust and effectively drive out those who are not fit to wear the uniform.
“At local level, police and crime commissioners continue to hold their chief constables to account for their vetting standards and are closely monitoring the effective implementation of these recommendations.”
In his letter to the Home Secretary, Mr Parr summarised the main findings from the review.
The HMICFRS report made nine vetting-related recommendations to each of the 43 police forces in England and Wales – a total of 387 recommendations.
“Cautiously, we estimate that 73 per cent have been or are likely to be addressed by the deadline,” said Mr Parr.
He added: Three recommendations are likely to be achieved by at least 90 percent of forces. These relate to vetting decision-making, vetting reviews after misconduct proceedings and routine use of the Police National Database to monitor the workforce.
Recommendations
Four recommendations are likely to be achieved by about 70 per cent of forces. These relate to identifying vetting clearance decisions with adverse information within IT systems, quality assurance processes, analysing data to identify any disproportionality and managing changes to individuals’ personal circumstances.
Two recommendations are likely to be achieved by less than 50 per cent of forces. These relate to the use of risk mitigation and ensuring that all people in designated posts have management vetting.
“To help us assess forces’ efforts to address our recommendations, we examined 300 vetting files that forces handled between December 1, 2022, and January 31, 2023,” said Mr Parr. “Encouragingly, we found notable improvements in vetting decision-making since our thematic inspection. Nevertheless, while forces have become less likely to give clearance to unsuitable applicants, we still found 13 cases of concern.”, including applicants connection with an organised crime group, a history of allegations of domestic abuse against several partners, dishonesty, and others.
Mr Parr said they also included cases where the applicant had a family member who had been imprisoned for drug dealing or serious sexual offences and was now a registered sex offender.
“In all 13 cases, we disagreed with the vetting decisions,” said Mr Parr. “We weren’t satisfied that the forces involved had adequately considered the risks associated with appointing the applicants.
“We were left with substantial questions about the wisdom of appointing them. We informed the forces of our concerns. We have since been made aware that in at least three cases, the force withdrew or suspended the vetting clearance.
“In a further 26 cases, we agreed with the vetting decisions but found that forces hadn’t adequately recorded their rationale for granting clearance.”
HMICFRS also made eight vetting-related recommendations to other bodies.
“We are told that six of them are on track to be addressed by the deadline,” said Mr Parr. The College of Policing expressed reservations about the remaining two.”
He said the first relates to increasing the frequency of vetting renewals.
“The College of Policing suggested that without a significant increase in vetting unit staff nationally, this recommendation would recreate the huge numbers of police personnel with expired vetting that we found in the past.
“The college estimates that 1.2 million hours and an additional 800 vetting staff would be needed to renew existing vetting clearances. Inevitably, increasing the frequency of vetting will increase workloads, but we have been unable to verify the College of Policing’s estimate.”
Mr Parr said the college also “expressed reservations” about meeting the deadline for changing the vetting authorised professional practice.
“We recommended that it should be more prescriptive about what types of roles require management vetting and give better guidance on the vetting of police personnel working with vulnerable people,” he added. “We recognise the complexity of this work and are satisfied the College of Policing and NPCC are working towards addressing the recommendation.
The HMICFRS report made 19 recommendations related to counter-corruption and misconduct to each of the 43 police forces in England and Wales – a total of 817 recommendations.
“With a reasonable degree of confidence, we estimate that at least 90 per cent have been or are likely to be addressed by the deadline,” said Mr Parr.
Eighteen recommendations are likely to be addressed by at least 90 per cent of forces. Two of these recommendations aim to increase forces’ understanding of misogynistic and predatory behaviour. Four seek to improve the collection of corruption intelligence. Eight aim to introduce better processes to manage corruption risks. Four are designed to improve the way that forces assess and investigate allegations of misconduct; and
One recommendation is likely to be addressed by only about 60 per cent of forces. This was for chief constables to review allegations of prejudicial and improper behaviour (PIB) recorded in the previous three years.
“To help us assess forces’ efforts to address our recommendations, we examined 149 recent PIB misconduct files and 80 sexual misconduct intelligence files,” said Mr Parr. “We found that contrary to the update they provided to the NPCC, four forces weren’t routinely using investigation plans to properly manage these cases.
“We found a lack of supervisory oversight in these investigations. Five forces were still not thoroughly investigating PIB.
On a more positive note, we found that appropriate authorities were making better initial assessments of the severity of allegations, supported by sound written rationales. This led to forces identifying more cases of gross misconduct from the outset.
“We also found improvements in the way that forces collected corruption-related intelligence.”
Seven recommendations related to counter-corruption and misconduct were made to other bodies in the report.
Mr Parr said four are likely to be addressed by the deadline. These seek to improve guidance to forces on personal relationships and behaviours in the workplace. The remaining three aim to extend the scope of the law relating to police complaint and misconduct procedures.
“Understandably, these legislative changes will take more time,” said Mr Parr.
In his letter to the Home Secretary, Mr Parr outlined areas that he felt would merit further inspection.
He highlighted Vetting decisions and use of risk mitigation measures, including eviews of vetting status when personal circumstances change or after misconduct proceedings;
Designated post lists and management vetting arrangements, including identifying, understanding and responding to disproportionality in vetting decisions.