New Vetting Code of Practice must not undermine conduct processes

24 July 2023

Fair and transparent police conduct procedures must not be undermined by a revised Vetting Code of Practice, West Midlands Police Federation’s discipline lead has warned.

Dave Hadley said he was “extremely concerned” by some changes to existing processes and warned forces were being given “two bites of the cherry” to dismiss officers accused of misconduct.

Dave said no one in policing opposed measures which stopped unsuitable candidates joining the service and agreed that efforts to boost public trust and confidence in policing were needed in the wake of some high-profile scandals involving serving officers.

But he insisted that the safeguards designed to protect police officers, whose status as constables gives them far fewer employment rights than most workers, had to be maintained.

Dave said: “For the system to operate effectively all stakeholders must have confidence in its innate ability to deal with those accused of misconduct fairly and proportionately. 

“Fairness, transparency and openness must permeate proceedings to foster confidence in it.”

He warned some of the provisions contained in the new code of practice for vetting issued by the College of Policing and laid before the Parliament last week had given chief constables the power to circumvent established misconduct procedures and sack officers. 

He said this created a situation which amounted to an administrative decision maker being given the unilateral ability to dismiss officers by overruling the findings of a quasi-judicial misconduct tribunal. 

And he added that members subjected to this new route of dismissal would be denied the right to a truly independent appeals process.

“How much confidence in the system will this approach engender?” said Dave.

“I’m sure many officers will feel that appeals would simply be a ‘going through the motions exercise’ with forces effectively marking their own homework. 

“Even if that is not the case, it’s the optics that matter here. There is a clear public interest in open, transparent police disciplinary procedures, yet the decision to end the career of an officer in these circumstances is anything but.

“Officers are entitled to expect fair and equitable treatment when they are accused of wrong-doing.

“In my view, this change encourages two bites of the same cherry: It sidesteps regulatory safeguards and undermines the disciplinary process. 

“How is it reasonable for an officer to lose their job in these circumstances?”

Police Federation national conduct and performance co-lead Melanie Warnes, said: “We support stringent vetting of officers to identify and remove undesirable individuals from the police service.

“However, this does not mean existing Police Conduct Regulations, which have been established following a democratic process, should be outrightly undermined and the authority of independent Legally Qualified Chairs bypassed.”

Conduct and performance co-lead Phil Jones said: “Police officers must have confidence that they have the right to fair and transparent disciplinary processes to ensure individual bias does not govern or influence decisions which have serious consequences on an individual’s career and wellbeing.

“We have requested and await the College of Policing to share the Equality Impact Assessment to ensure no group of officers are unjustifiably disadvantaged by the revised code.”