Agenda item

Report from the Deputy Mayor outlining performance in the handling of police complaints.

Considered

The report of the Deputy Mayor regarding the management of police complaints in North Yorkshire.

The Chair highlighted that the Panel requested this update report following the outcomes of the recent inspection report on integrity arrangements.  The Panel has also received a number of complaints recently from members of the public regarding the timeliness of response to complaints about the police, both from within the police service and from the dedicated team sitting within the Deputy Mayor’s office (the Policing, Fire and Crime Team).

The Deputy Mayor highlighted the national context and that the increase in police complaints is a problem across the country.  North Yorkshire is one of only two Model 3 areas but a number of other Commissioners are considering this due to concerns about the level of oversight.  The Deputy Mayor commended the Policing, Fire and Crime Team (PFC Team) for their work in bringing down the backlog and highlighted that there have been improvements to the process within Professional Standards at the force, too.

Mark Ayres provided Panel with an overview of the complaints process.  In July 2024, 667 new cases required allocation by the PFC Team with a backlog of approximately 11 months.  As of June 2025, 151 cases required allocation with the oldest complaint dating from March 2025.  Following the HMI inspection earlier this year, the PFC team are now dip sampling what’s in the queue awaiting local resolution to check that nothing is waiting to go to Professional Standards.  No concerns have been identified in this respect since the team has been dip sampling.  There has been an increase in staffing to the PFC Team to help provide resilience.

In response to a Member query, the Deputy Mayor acknowledged that opportunities for wider learning from complaints received about the force had previously been missed and that this is an area of development.  DCC Bisset expanded further that the service has not just wanted to focus on reducing a backlog but on understanding why people are complaining, about whom and what some of those identified behaviours look like.  The police service has developed a data dashboard about the nature of complaints, thematics and which areas/teams they relate to and so on. 

DCC Bisset highlighted that there are currently around 112 complaints sat within Professional Standards (PSD), some of which may be more serious and more difficult to resolve.  It was acknowledged that some of these have taken too long to resolve/finalise and as such there is a dedicated inspector now in place with a small team to help give greater consistency and oversight.  Some of the complaints will be diverted to geographic areas to resolve. 

A Member raised concerns that the latest complaints handling figures for North Yorkshire for the reporting period April 2024 to March 2025 as published by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) indicate that it too the service on average 63 working days to log complaints as compared with a seven-day average nationally.  Furthermore, that it took 56 working days to contact complainants, as compared with nine working days nationally.  The Deputy Mayor highlighted that she has regular meetings with a member of the IOPC’s performance team and requested that the data highlighted by the Panel be shared to enable reflection and a more thorough response.

It was agreed that the Panel would be provided with the proportion of complaints deemed serious enough to be directed to PSD. 

The Deputy Mayor also reiterated that she is happy to meet with parish and town councils where there are concerns about complaints handling.  It was noted that Haxby Town Council had corresponded around a delay in complaints handling and that the Deputy Mayor would follow this up in writing.

The Panel asked the Deputy Mayor about the impact on PSD of delays in initial handling of complaints by the PFC Team.  The Deputy Mayor felt reassured that cases requiring prosecution are being dealt with in a timely way and that there is some learning around complaints, however also acknowledged that quality of response is an area of development generally. 

Resolved

That the Panel:

(a)   notes the report provided;

(b)   receives a further update from the Deputy Mayor regarding the IOPC-reported figures on complaints handling in North Yorkshire; and

(c)   takes a further progress update on complaints handling in six to nine months.