State of Policing: The Annual Assessment of Policing in England and Wales 2015

Published on: 24 February 2016

Publication types: Annual reports

Police Forces: All local forces in England and Wales, British Transport Police, Civil Nuclear Constabulary, National Crime Agency, Police Service of Northern Ireland and Royal Military Police

Summary

This is Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary’s report to the Secretary of State under section 54(4A) of the Police Act 1996. As required by that section, it contains his assessment of the efficiency and effectiveness of policing in England and Wales in respect of the inspection year 2015.

This reporting period has seen the first complete cycle of PEEL (police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy) inspections, which consider the effectiveness and efficiency of police forces, and assess the legitimacy of how they discharge their obligations (that is, how they behave and treat people). These inspections provide a comprehensive analysis of the way in which each police force in England and Wales has performed, and will continue to do so on an annual basis.

This report is in three parts.

Part 1

This section gives a wide-ranging overview of the state of policing in England and Wales, which builds on our inspection programme and takes into account the results of the previous two years’ annual assessments. The themes are applicable to the police service as a whole, and to every police force in England and Wales.

Part 2

This section provides an overview of the findings from all the inspections we have conducted this year:

Our PEEL inspections.
A substantial programme of specialist inspections.
Those which we have conducted with other criminal justice inspectorates.
Inspections of the National Crime Agency, other national police forces and some of the forces which police the British Overseas Territories.