Home Secretary Says Police Will Be Automatically Suspended For "Certain Criminal Offences"

Home Secretary James Cleverly has announced that police officers charged with certain criminal offences will be automatically suspended, in response to a damning report investigating the circumstances surrounding the rape and murder of Sarah Everard in 2021.

The Home Secretary gave a statement to the House of Commons to mark the launch of the first part of the Angiolini Inquiry. The report stated that given the multiple warning signs over many years, former Met Police officer Wayne Couzens, who abducted, raped and murdered Everard in 2021, should never have been a police officer.

It made several recommendations, particularly around improving workplace culture within police forces, such as ensuring sufficient and appropriate resources are dedicated to supporting those who make complaints against officers, providing dedicated reporting processes for women in police forces who experience inappropriate behaviour, and examining the conditions of female officers and staff in order to encourage more women to join the police. 

Cleverly announced that police officers charged with certain criminal offences will now receive an automatic suspension, in an effort to demonstrate a zero-tolerance approach to misconduct across forces in the UK. Last year, the government announced that officers would be automatically suspended if they were found to have committed gross misconduct.

Cleverly promised that the government will issue a "prompt" official response to the report, and said that the government was already taking action to address public confidence in the police, including providing funding to the National Police Chief's Council to develop an automated system for flagging intelligence about officers and changing the rules to make it