Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what protections are currently in place for police whistle-blowers reporting misconduct within their own force.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Police officers and staff have protections under ‘whistleblowing’ law, meaning they are protected from being unfairly dismissed or from suffering any detriment due to having made a protected disclosure. The Police (Conduct) Regulations 2020 expressly reflect this.
Further, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which is a prescribed body to whom police whistleblowers can make protected disclosures, runs a dedicated reporting line for police officers and staff.
The College of Policing’s Code of Practice for Ethical Policing puts a duty on Chief Officers to facilitate and protect whistleblowers. Many police forces provide a confidential, internal reporting system to encourage reporting of concerns.
Part 2 of the Angiolini Inquiry is considering a range of cultural issues in policing, including whistleblowing processes, and the Government will consider any recommendations it makes carefully.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of trends in the level of public confidence in police handling of complaints; and whether she plans to strengthen accountability mechanisms to improve that trust.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is committed to strengthening the public’s confidence in the police. This includes ensuring that when officers fall seriously short of the high standards expected of them, they are swiftly identified and robustly dealt with.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) has a statutory duty to secure and maintain public confidence in the police complaints system, and as part of this role carries out regular surveys on public confidence. This data is published on the IOPC’s website: www.policeconduct.gov.uk/our-work/research-and-statistics/public-confidence. The most recent survey (2024/25) showed that the majority of the public say that they would complain if unhappy about an officer’s behaviour towards them. The percentage of respondents reporting they feel confident that police deal fairly with complaints is increasing; from 36% last year to 41% this year.
The Government is taking action to improve public confidence. This includes introducing measures via the Crime and Policing Bill to put the victims’ right to review on a statutory footing for complainants who want to challenge a decision by the IOPC not to refer a case to the Crown Prosecution Service, and committing to an independent review into timeliness in the police misconduct system looking at what changes can be made to improve timeliness and effectiveness.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions her Department has had with the Metropolitan Police Service on the level of its compliance with its statutory obligations (a) under the Data Protection Act 2018 and (b) with GDPR in relation to Subject Access Requests from members of the public.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
Compliance with data protection obligations, including the handling of Subject Access Requests (SARs), is the responsibility of individual police forces. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) produces guidance for organisations on how to comply with data protection law.
The Data (Use and Access) Act received Royal Assent in June 2025 and includes some changes to data protection obligations while maintaining high standards of protection for personal data.