Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of public order training and capability across police forces in England and Wales.

Following the disorder in the summer of 2024, the then Home Secretary commissioned His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services to undertake an inspection into the police response. The outcome of their inspection was published in May 2025 and said that the National Police Coordination Centre and the National Police Chiefs’ Council should have a clear, live, resourcing and mobilisation picture so that the policing response to public disorder is timely, coordinated, and proportionate.

The summer of 2025 also featured significant nationwide protest activity focused on a variety of issues, including the Israel Palestine conflict but also anti-migrant and counter anti-migrant protests. During this disorder, policing stood up a national coordination model, with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and National Police Coordination Centre fulfilling a national command and mobilisation function, despite the absence of a formal statutory role. This is the role that the Home Office intends to build on by establishing a Senior National Coordinator role for public order policing and by enhancing the National Police Coordination Centre.

The Government’s White Paper From Local to National: a new model for policing sets out our plans to ensure policing is more effective in responding to instances of widespread disorder and better coordinated across forces.

The use of police resources and the provision of training within police forces is a matter for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners, who are operationally independent of government.

The College of Policing is responsible for providing guidance and operational advice for frontline policing. The College of Policing produces the Public Order Public Safety authorised Professional Practice. Alongside this, the Protest Operational Advice Document is published jointly by the College of Policing and the National Police Chiefs’ Council.