Home Affairs Committee
Tuesday 3rd November 2026
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Karen Bradley
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Karen Bradley
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Peter Prinsley
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Peter Prinsley
Good afternoon. I'm Peter Princely, I'm the MP for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket. You've been before. I remember you came before. So thank you for coming again this afternoon. So my first question is, is really to do with your reflections on your time in office. And the question is, what achievement are you most proud of during your time as Chief Inspector, and in which areas do you feel you might have achieved more?
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Speaker 1
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Speaker 1
Okay. I mean, I'll talk internally and externally and internally. I'm proud of the fact that I've brought together a really exceptional group of people who form the inspectorate. Really good cohesion within the organisation. The organization itself gets the highest people scores across the civil service in the Home Office for satisfaction in what they do and for feeling, you know, for understanding that they're doing a really good job at what they do and making a difference. And I've maintained what I think is a strong, sensible independence in the role. It's important that the Chief Inspector of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue is independent, but that's got to be sensible independence as well.
You don't wanna work against government and others if you don't need to. You need to speak out when necessary. But you need to do what's best for the public. And in order to do that, that means that you need to influence both the fire service and the police service in the right way. And make the job as simple as it possibly can be for them, while maintaining the highest possible standards externally. What am I proud of in relation to the role? I maintain good relationships with the numerous home secretaries that I served with over that period.
I maintain good relationships with both sectors fire and policing, whilst at the same time being probably the most draconian Chief inspector who put more forces and fire services into special measures engaged than ever before. Because I work quite simply, despite being an ex-police officer. Next police chief, I work on behalf of the public and did work on behalf of the public. And that's always been my drive, putting the community first. The reputation of the inspectorate is good, its influence throughout, you know, the reform, the White Paper on reform. I was heavily involved with that, with my organization for the right reasons, because I do believe policing needs to change.
And as well as that, if you look back on the previous state of policing reports, particularly in 2022, when I did my first state of policing report, I was very clear that neighbourhood policing needed to improve dramatically, that the performance of policing was not good enough in any way, shape or form. And I drove both of those very, very strongly from the start with the simple intention of understanding that doing that in the right way would increase the confidence and trust of the community. And at that time, in 2022, when I wrote that report that stated police report for Parliament, it was at its lowest ever level.
It started to improve again, I'm glad to say. On the downside, what what would I have done differently, I think was the question. I think I would have pushed harder with the home secretaries do more mathematics. There's always a question in the inspectorate. It's a very small budget. It's a very small proportion of the overall budget that policing gets too small, in my view. But I would say that. I would have liked to do more thematic inspections during that time. Unfortunately, finance wasn't available to do that. It's important to be able to choose as the chief inspector, what thematics you do, what thematic inspections you do because you are operating.
You are independent of the government. The amount of inspections the government were asking me to do during that time, and I think in total it was 382 inspections done during that time meant there was very little other time to actually do some of the issues that I would have liked to have done. And in 2022 particularly, that would have been about leadership.
You don't wanna work against government and others if you don't need to. You need to speak out when necessary. But you need to do what's best for the public. And in order to do that, that means that you need to influence both the fire service and the police service in the right way. And make the job as simple as it possibly can be for them, while maintaining the highest possible standards externally. What am I proud of in relation to the role? I maintain good relationships with the numerous home secretaries that I served with over that period.
I maintain good relationships with both sectors fire and policing, whilst at the same time being probably the most draconian Chief inspector who put more forces and fire services into special measures engaged than ever before. Because I work quite simply, despite being an ex-police officer. Next police chief, I work on behalf of the public and did work on behalf of the public. And that's always been my drive, putting the community first. The reputation of the inspectorate is good, its influence throughout, you know, the reform, the White Paper on reform. I was heavily involved with that, with my organization for the right reasons, because I do believe policing needs to change.
And as well as that, if you look back on the previous state of policing reports, particularly in 2022, when I did my first state of policing report, I was very clear that neighbourhood policing needed to improve dramatically, that the performance of policing was not good enough in any way, shape or form. And I drove both of those very, very strongly from the start with the simple intention of understanding that doing that in the right way would increase the confidence and trust of the community. And at that time, in 2022, when I wrote that report that stated police report for Parliament, it was at its lowest ever level.
It started to improve again, I'm glad to say. On the downside, what what would I have done differently, I think was the question. I think I would have pushed harder with the home secretaries do more mathematics. There's always a question in the inspectorate. It's a very small budget. It's a very small proportion of the overall budget that policing gets too small, in my view. But I would say that. I would have liked to do more thematic inspections during that time. Unfortunately, finance wasn't available to do that. It's important to be able to choose as the chief inspector, what thematics you do, what thematic inspections you do because you are operating.
You are independent of the government. The amount of inspections the government were asking me to do during that time, and I think in total it was 382 inspections done during that time meant there was very little other time to actually do some of the issues that I would have liked to have done. And in 2022 particularly, that would have been about leadership.
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Speaker 1
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Speaker 1
Be impartial throughout, be fair, be hard on the sector because you're working for the public, not for the police or the fire service. Be brave in the decisions that you make. Keep at the forefront that the community should always come first in everything that you do, and work as part of a cohesive team. Because there's 280 people within the inspectorate, work has passed that cohesive team to actually improve community safety.
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14:15
Speaker 1
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Speaker 1
We measure an awful lot of things right through, you know, not just not just outcomes. I mean, one of the things I did when I took over as Chief Inspector, the inspectorate then was some might say it was very much a tick box organisation. So you'd have if you had a great strategy, you'd get a nice big tick. If you had a great plan, you have a great big tick. As an ex-chief. I know that's pointless because it's what the staff on the ground do in relation to those plans and strategies that matters. So I changed the focus into a very outcome based approach.
So you could only be a good police force or a good fire service if you were doing the right things for the public, not
So you could only be a good police force or a good fire service if you were doing the right things for the public, not