PSD Investigations 2020/21 – 2024/25
Date of request: 2 February 2026
Reference: 13929648
Request
Please provide the information for each of the last five completed financial years (or the closest equivalent period for which data is held). Where possible, please provide the information in tabular format (e.g. spreadsheet or CSV).
- Volume of PSD investigations
For each financial year, please provide:
The total number of Professional Standards Department (PSD) investigations opened
The total number of PSD investigations closed
2. Source of investigations – For each financial year, please provide the number of PSD investigations arising from: Public complaints; Internally generated conduct matters
3. Nature of allegation / complaint
For each financial year, please provide a breakdown of PSD investigations by the nature of the allegation or complaint, using the closest available allegation categories recorded by your force.
This may include (where applicable), but is not limited to:
Discreditable conduct
Honesty and integrity
Use of force
Abuse of authority
Discrimination, harassment, or equality-related matters Sexual misconduct Corruption-related matters Other categories used by your force – Please provide category labels as recorded by your force.
4. Standards of Professional Behaviour (where recorded)
Where recorded, for each financial year please provide a breakdown of PSD investigations by the primary alleged breach of the Standards of Professional Behaviour (or equivalent professional standards framework used by your force). If your force does not record alleged breaches of specific standards in a structured format, please confirm this.
5. Outcomes of PSD investigations
For each financial year, please provide the number of PSD investigations concluded with each of the following outcomes (or closest equivalent categories used by your force):
No case to answer
Management action / reflective practice
Misconduct meeting
Gross misconduct hearing
Dismissal
Resignation or retirement while under investigation Referral to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)
6. Investigation duration
For PSD investigations concluded in each financial year, please provide:
The average duration (in days)
The median duration (in days)
Clarifications
This request is for aggregate statistical information only.
I am not seeking personal data, case narratives, or information relating to identifiable individuals or specific investigations.
Response
Please see attached an excel file containing the information requested. Each question has been answered on a separate tab. Due to the way the information is recorded, our response to question 5 is split across four tabs.
Please also note the following regarding the data provided in this response as a whole:
You have asked for data looking at the last 5 fiscal years. This has been provided from 2020-2021 onwards to 2024-2025 as these are the last 5 complete fiscal years as of the date of your request.
Where relevant, the data has been broken down as
1) Recorded in the last 5 fiscal years
2) Recorded and finalised within the last 5 fiscal years. The case could be recorded and finalised in different years, i.e. recorded 2021-2022 and finalised 2023-2024
3) Finalised in the last 5 fiscal years; these could have been recorded at any time.
We have specified in each response which of these applies.
In relation to your request for a breakdown of PSD investigations for complaints and conducts: as you note, conducts are cases that have originated within the force, whilst complaints are against officers or staff from members of the public.
Complaints are further divided into the following investigation types:
- recorded outside of Schedule 3 (Non-Schedule 3);
- recorded formally under Schedule 3 regulations;
- investigated or not investigated.
Again, we have specified in each response which of these applies.
Please note that cases can have multiple allegations associated with them, so the number of allegations will exceed the number of cases. Where you have asked for a breakdown of allegations categories, these have been presented at allegation ‘type’ level.
Further guidance on how complaints and conducts are recorded can be found in IOPC Guidance on capturing data about police complaints.