Our CEO Chief Constable Andy Marsh responds to the Angiolini Inquiry report findings
Angiolini Inquiry report published
Published on
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4 mins read
The horrific murder of Sarah Everard by a monstrous individual who served as a police officer is one of the darkest episodes in British policing. My thoughts remain with Sarah’s family and friends and nothing I can say or do will reverse the dreadful crimes committed. I also extend my full apology to the other women who have been abused by this man.
I am under no illusion that there is more to do and we are committed to real and lasting improvements. The report does acknowledge we have made progress in tackling abuse of power for sexual purpose by police officers, violence against women and girls related misconduct and the wider vetting processes. But much more is required.
Indecent exposure is a serious crime which has significant impact on victims. Last year we made it clear that policing will follow all reasonable lines of inquiry. This covers every crime but is particularly relevant to crimes like indecent exposure. Our guidance to officers makes clear the importance of following up any leads which could help us catch the offender. This includes taking a detailed statement, checking if there is CCTV available and looking for forensics. Our new evidence-based approach to sexual offences has a relentless focus on the perpetrator. The College of Policing will ensure all officers are properly trained, skilled and equipped to protect women and girls.
It is clear from today’s report that there were serious failures in how his police vetting was carried out. Last year the College of Policing updated our vetting Code of Practice supporting forces to identify and eliminate unacceptable behaviour before they enter policing and when they are in service. Vetting should be a continuous process and any individual who falls short of our standards should not be wearing our uniform.
We are consulting on some of the toughest standards in the history of policing. These reforms will do more than ever to stop the wrong people entering the service, monitor them closely when in the job, dismiss those who break our trust and ban them from ever returning.
We will support police forces to redouble their efforts to ensure vetting is done to the highest standards as set by the College of Policing. Nevertheless this stringent new approach to vetting will mean nothing unless applied consistently across policing. This is why we are implementing a new approach to accredit force vetting units that will require them to pass annual assessments.
Vetting will only ever be one part of the jigsaw and we must redouble our efforts to improve police culture.
The failings identified today are indefensible. I will continue to work with the Inquiry as it moves towards part two and I, with colleagues across all of policing, am determined to do everything possible to prevent anything like this ever happening again.
College of Policing CEO, Chief Constable Andy Marsh
Our work to improve standards
2021
- March – Republished training, guidance and research, so that police forces could ensure their officers are up to date when responding to incidents of male violence against women. See Policing for the protection of women.
- November – Published new guidelines to provide a framework to ensure vulnerable people receive appropriate help during interactions with the police. See Identifying vulnerability - new guidelines to support police.
- December – Published violence against women and girls (VAWG) national framework for delivery.
- December – Published VAWG toolkit (guidance for police to protect women and girls from misogyny and bring criminals to justice with a list of misogynistic behaviours and the offences under which they could be prosecuted. Includes information on civil orders to prevent reoffending.)
2022
- March – Evidence showed that some forms of violence against women and girls are so commonplace that many women and girls don’t even think they are worth reporting. We published evidence-based strategies and tactics for police to tackle violence against women and girls in public spaces.
- April – Released an episode of the Inside Policing podcast, titled What makes a good cop? and featuring discussion on ethical policing and professional standards.
- May – Published evidence for police forces to expose the barriers faced by policing to improve rape investigations.
- May – Published evidence-based guidance for officers so that they can be effective supervisors, including the right behaviours they need to display.
- June – Published joint response, with His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) and Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), to Centre for Women’s Justice super-complaint on police-perpetrated domestic abuse.
- June – Published response to HMICFRS report into violence against women and girls HMICFRS violence against women and girls progress report.
- July – Published effective current practice to support police to use non-molestation orders to protect victims of abuse.
- August – Released updated guidance on outcomes in police misconduct proceedings, which included tougher sanctions for officers who damage confidence in the police and a new section on violence against women and girls.
- October – Hosted national VAWG conference.
- October – Published misconduct learnings report.
- November – New domestic abuse risk assessment (DARA) supports police to spot the signs of coercive control and better protect victims of domestic abuse.
2023
- January – Together with the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) we released a national police response to the Hillsborough Families Report. This included all forces signing up to a charter agreeing to acknowledge when mistakes have been made and not seek to defend the indefensible.
- February – Consulted on a new Code of Practice for Vetting.
- March – Published our response to the Casey Review into the Metropolitan Police Service's culture and standards.
- March – Published performance and outcomes insights report.
- May – Published strategic threat and risk assessment (NPCC/Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme (VKPP)).
- May – Hosted national culture and conduct conference.
- July – As part of Operation Soteria, released a new national operating model setting out an approach to rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO) investigations that is victim-centred, suspect-focused and context-led.
- July – Published a new Code of Practice for Police Vetting.
- July – Released an episode of the Inside Policing podcast, titled Coercive control.
- August – Using COM-B behavioural science to inform our action plan for addressing sexism and misogyny. See Tackling sexism and misogyny in policing.
- August – Our new investigations guidelines instructs police to follow all reasonable lines of enquiry when investigating an offence and explains what the public can expect from police when they report a crime.
- September – Released new training to help police understand the psychology of sex offenders and how they manipulate victims to support investigations into rape and serious sexual offences.
- November – Latest barred list data released.
2024
- January – Published a new Code of Ethics for policing.
- January – Introduced a new system so that forces can have better access to the College of Policing barred list, which bans officers from re-joining the police.
- March – Public consultation on police vetting closes and work starts to bring in robust new standards.
