§ Paul FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether it is standard practice for police authorities to keep the report of investigations into their own officers confidential; and under what circumstances a police authority would publish such a report. [132222]
§ Ms BlearsGenerally, in investigations into criminal allegations involving either a member of the police or a member of the public, it is standard to keep investigation reports confidential. The same applies to investigations into complaints against police officers.
It is for police authorities to decide whether to publish reports of investigations: they might choose to do so if they considered that the public interest in disclosing a report's contents outweighed the public interest in preserving its confidentiality.