§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many complaints were made against(a) the Metropolitan Police and (b) the police in England and Wales; what is the ratio of the number of complaints to (i) the population of the jurisdiction, (ii) the 590W number of police officers and (iii) the number investigated; how many of these complaints were investigated; how many investigations led to the instigation of disciplinary proceedings against officers; what is the ratio of proceedings instigated to complaints made; how many disciplinary proceedings led to disciplinary action; and what is the ratio between disciplinary action to complaints made for the last year for which figures are available. [19494]
§ Mr. MichaelThe readily available information is given in the following table. This includes details of the number of complaints recorded and completed. Information is not available on the number of complaints where disciplinary proceedings led to disciplinary action. Instead, information has been provided for the number of officers for whom disciplinary proceedings led to disciplinary action together with ratios of officers proceeded against and disciplined to completed complaints.
Police complaints and discipline 1996–97 Metropolitan Police England and Wales Total complaints recorded1 9,122 33,859 Total complaints completed2 9,919 36,731 (i) Ratio complaints recorded to the population 0.0012 0.0007 (ii) Ratio complaints recorded to police officers 0.3372 0.2708 (iii) Number of completed complaints investigated 2,667 10,820 Investigated complaints resulting in disciplinary charges 39 148 Officers charged with disciplinary offence as a result of a complaint 36 141 Officers receiving disciplinary action as a result of a complaint 20 102 Ratio of officers proceeded against to complaints completed 0.0036 0.0038 Ratio of officers disciplined to complaints completed 0.0020 0.0028 1 Complaints recorded in a year are not necessarily completed in that year. 2 Complaints completed in a year could have been recorded in previous years.