Crime and Policing Minister, Chris Philp, says he expects “rapid action” as the Home Office announces plans to make it easier for chief constables to dismiss rogue police officers.
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00:00 Well, we're determined to make sure that only officers who deserve to wear the uniform and
00:04 carry the badge continue to serve. We were concerned that it was too slow, it was taking
00:08 too long to dismiss officers guilty of misconduct and not all officers that should have been
00:13 dismissed were being. So we're making a series of changes today to give senior officers more
00:18 power in the process. So they'll now chair the misconduct panels. We're going to make
00:22 clear that gross misconduct should always result in dismissal. And we're going to require
00:28 that police officers should pass vetting, not just when they join the force first, but
00:32 they should continue to pass vetting throughout the total of their career. And we think taken
00:37 together, that will ensure the public can have confidence in the people serving in the
00:41 police force. We should of course keep in mind that the vast majority of police officers
00:45 are brave, dedicated and hardworking. We saw just this week, Sergeant Graham Saville of
00:51 the Nottinghamshire Force, giving his life while saving the life of a member of the public
00:56 and he exemplifies the very best of policing, the vast majority of policing, for that small
01:00 minority who are not behaving as they should do. We expect rapid action and that's what
01:06 today's package of changes will deliver. Well I've been in post for just a few months. This
01:10 was raised with me at the beginning of my time in office by Mark Rowley and others and
01:14 we've taken action in making this announcement today to make sure where misconduct occurs
01:20 and is dealt with quickly and firmly. I completely disagree with that characterisation. The misconduct
01:26 panels will have two independent members, one of whom will be legally qualified and
01:31 if a police officer thinks they've been unfairly dismissed, they've got a right of appeal to
01:34 the Police Appeals Tribunal. So I think this package of measures strikes the right balance
01:39 in terms of speed and fairness but critically, making sure only those who should wear the
01:43 uniform and carry the badge do so. Yes I do, Mark Rowley has today publicly welcomed these
01:48 changes, he's agreed with them. They give him and his deputy, Lynne Owens, the powers
01:52 they need to fix some of the historic issues so working together with police, we have delivered
01:58 today and Mark Rowley has welcomed it. Yes I do have confidence in Mark Rowley, I've
02:02 been working quite closely with him. He and his deputy, Lynne Owens, taking decisive action
02:07 so I have full confidence in him, yes. These reforms are extremely robust, for example
02:12 making clear that gross misconduct should automatically lead to dismissal. This will
02:15 make a real difference. But confidence in policing isn't just about fixing misconduct,
02:20 it's also about making sure the police investigate all crimes and that's why we've agreed with
02:24 policing and we announced this week that for every single crime, where there is a reasonable
02:28 line of inquiry, it should be followed. Whether that's CCTV evidence, whether it's stolen
02:33 goods being advertised for sale online, whether it's geo-location data from a car tracker
02:38 or your mobile phone, if it gets stolen, all of those lines of inquiry should be followed
02:42 up and if the public see that happening, that will build confidence in policing. But I should
02:46 also say that according to the Crime Survey of England and Wales, the only reliable source
02:51 of crime data according to the Office for National Statistics, since 2010, overall crime
02:56 has fallen by 54%, violent crime has fallen by 46%, so crime is on a like for like basis.
03:03 Crime is a lot lower today than it was 10 or 15 years ago, but of course there is more
03:08 to do. I'm not familiar with the details of that case, but if there is misconduct in the
03:14 fire service as much as the police, clearly that should result in rapid and very robust
03:17 action. We've asked the Inspectorate to formally look at these issues across the Fire and Rescue
03:24 Service across the whole country. There was a report specifically into the London Fire
03:28 Brigade published a few months ago which uncovered some really serious concerns around misogyny,
03:33 racism and various other problems and that's why I've asked the Inspectorate to look at
03:38 this issue across the whole of the England and Wales Fire Service and I'm expecting fire
03:44 leaders to take action to make sure those kind of practices where they're found are
03:49 rapidly rooted out. There should be zero tolerance for this kind of behaviour and it comes down
03:53 also to local fire station commanders, local watches to call it out when they see it as
03:57 well. Yes, some of the changes were announced just a few days ago, increasing the scope
04:02 of whole life orders, that's an order where the person given it serves the entirety of
04:07 their life in prison with no prospect of early release under any circumstances. So some changes
04:13 have been made in the last few days, which I think, I mean you can look at this, but
04:16 I think changes along those lines have just been announced.