In Parliament today I voiced my support for the Police Federation’s ‘Time Limits’ campaign in Parliament.

There is currently no cap on how long an allegation or complaint against a police officer can be investigated. The Police Federation have highlighted that a significant number of misconduct cases take years to come to conclusion, with a knock-on the prospects, mental health and wellbeing of those involved. In response, the Federation is calling for a time limit for disciplinary proceedings against officers of 12 months from the date of the allegations being made.

Speaking in Home Office Questions today, I said “Even under the new Home Office system only around 80% of police conduct investigations are resolved within 12 months. The remaining cases linger on far longer with a detrimental effect on those involved. Does the minister agree with the Police Federation that we need action to fix the system now, not as the minister has said allowing it to ‘bed in’, as no one benefits from these drawn-out investigations?”

In response, Policing Minister Kit Malthouse said that the government aimed to shorten investigation time as ‘much as we possibly can’ but stated that the ‘quality and thoroughness’ of an investigation would come before ‘hitting an arbitrary deadline’.