Officers accused of misconduct, 2021 – 07 April 2025; Officer pay scales

Response

Your questions have been copied again below, in bold. Our responses follow each question.

 

  I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding police officer misconduct. Please could you provide the following information:

[I would like this data for the last four years, including 2025.]

1. The total number of police officers accused of misconduct

 

The data provided in response to this question and throughout our response has been identified via a search for conduct cases finalised between 01 January 2021 and the date of research, 07 April 2025. The table below shows the total number of officers accused of misconduct in this time.

Year	Count of Person ID
2021	53
2022	99
2023	118
2024	213
2025	30
Total

 

2. A breakdown in the gender and ethnicity of the accused officers

 

The table below shows a breakdown of the 513 officers accused of misconduct, by gender and ethnicity. The data field ‘Other’ has been grouped together with ‘Prefer not to say’. This is to avoid identification of individuals, due to the low numbers involved. A separate breakdown of each category has been withheld under Section 40(2) relating to Personal Information.

Count of Sex (Gender)
	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Total
·         [data field blank]	2	3	5	6		16
Female	15	16	19	50	8	108
Male	33	76	87	151	22	369
Other / Prefer not to say	3	4	7	6		20
Total	53	99	118	213	30	513

 

Count of Ethnicity
	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Total
·         [data field blank]	2	3	5	6		16
Asian		1	2	2	1	6
Black		3	1	2		6
Mixed	1	2	3	12		18
Other / Prefer not to say	5	8	12	13		38
White	45	82	95	178	29	429
Grand Total	53	99	118	213	30	513

 

3. A breakdown of the rank of the officer, including their salary bands at the time of the alleged misconduct

The table below shows a breakdown of the ranks of those subjects accused of misconduct. Information for ranks of Superintendent and above have been grouped together and provided for the full timeframe. This to prevent the information from identifying individuals, due to the low numbers involved.

RANK	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	TOTAL
CONSTABLE	48	89	91	168	24	420
SERGEANT	4	5	17	21	3	50
INSPECTOR	0	4	5	16	2	27

 

Superintendent and above: 2021 – 2025: 16

 

Please also find attached documents listing officer pay scales for each rank, covering the years specified in your request.

 

The information withheld in our responses to questions 2 and 3 has been deemed to fall under the following exemption:

 

• Section 40(2) – Personal Information.

Any information to which a request relates is exempt if it constitutes personal data and would contravene any of the data protection principles. Personal data relates to a living individual who can be identified directly from the information, or identifiable indirectly in combination with other available information.

 

This is an absolute exemption if disclosure would breach any of the data protection principles. This means that we cannot be compelled to disclose information in the public interest.

A Freedom of Information disclosure is a disclosure to the world. Therefore, information that is provided can be viewed by any member of the public. Should information be provided from which a living individual could be identified this would constitute a breach of rights provided under the Data Protection Act 2018.

 

Information held on an individual by Avon and Somerset Police is done so lawfully and is used for a policing purpose in line with the principles set out in the UK GDPR. Our privacy policy can be viewed here.

This serves as a partial refusal notice under section 17(1) of the FOI Act.

 

4. A breakdown of the number that proceeded to a misconduct hearing

The cases of 60 subjects proceeded to a hearing. The table below shows this information broken down by year.

Finalised Year	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Total
Hearing	9	13	14	21	3	60

 

5. The outcomes of cases that proceeded to a misconduct hearing

Outcome	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Total
·         [data field blank]	2	2	2	3		9
Dismissal	5	7	8	6		26
Final Written Warning				1		1
No Action	1			2		3
Would Have Been Dismissed	1	4	4	9	3	21
Total	9	13	14	21	3	60

 

6. A breakdown of the type of misconduct alleged, including but not limited to dishonesty, abuse of authority, discrimination, sexual abuse

The 513 officers accused of misconduct were subject to 976 allegations. Please see the requested breakdown of these allegations below:

	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Total
Allegation type
A) Delivery of duties and service	4	23	23	70	7	127
B) Police powers, policies and procedures	17	34	23	35	3	112
C) Handling of or damage to property/premises			1			1
D) Access and/or disclosure of information	14	23	36	37	1	111
E) Use of police vehicles		3	5	14	1	23
F) Discriminatory behaviour	5	3	6	16	2	32
G) Abuse of position/corruption	4	34	18	36	2	94
H) Individual behaviours	18	19	24	63		124
J) Sexual conduct	2	19	14	26	5	66
K) Discreditable conduct	37	60	53	109	24	283
L) Other	1		2			3
Total	102	218	205	406	45	976

 

7. The outcomes of hearings for each type of misconduct

Separate outcomes are recorded for each of the allegation types that the subject is accused of. The 60 subjects that proceeded to a hearing were subject to 148 allegations.

	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Total
Row Labels
A) Delivery of duties and service		1		15		16
–				6		6
Dismissal		1		9		10
B) Police powers, policies and procedures				6		6
Dismissal				4		4
Would Have Been Dismissed				2		2
D) Access and/or disclosure of information	13	3	3			19
–	1		1			2
Dismissal	12	3	2			17
F) Discriminatory behaviour	3	1	1	3		8
Dismissal			1			1
No Action	3					3
Would Have Been Dismissed		1		3		4
G) Abuse of position/corruption	3	5	5	9	2	24
–				1		1
Dismissal	3	5		3		11
Final Written Warning				1		1
Would Have Been Dismissed			5	4	2	11
H) Individual behaviours	1	1		6		8
–				2		2
Dismissal	1	1		3		5
Would Have Been Dismissed				1		1
J) Sexual conduct		9	10	1	1	21
Dismissal		6	10			16
No Action				1		1
Would Have Been Dismissed		3			1	4
K) Discreditable conduct	18	12	8	4	2	44
–	2	5				7
Dismissal	13	6	7	1		27
Would Have Been Dismissed	3	1	1	3	2	10
L) Other			2			2
Dismissal			2			2
Total	38	32	29	44	5	148

 

8. The number of officers who resigned before the proceedings were completed

Of the 513 officers accused of misconduct, a total of 67 officers left the constabulary prior to their conduct case concluding. Below is a breakdown of their recorded leaver reasons by year. You will note that the recorded leaver reason ‘dismissed’ has been used in some cases for individuals who left before the case concluded; ‘dismissed’ was then inputted once the case had concluded.

Leaver Reason	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025	Total
Dismissed	1	9	6	4	2	22
Resignation	4	5	3	13	3	28
Retirement	0	7	2	8	0	17
Total	5	21	11	25	5	67

 

9. The number of officers placed on paid vetting leave while awaiting a misconduct hearing or retrial, and the average duration of this leave

We are not able to confirm whether Avon and Somerset Police holds the information you have requested in this question. On this occasion the cost of determining whether we hold the information would exceed the limit set by the Freedom of Information Act.  As a result, your request is refused under Section 12 of the Act.

 

To establish whether any cases have been recorded that meet the specified criteria, we would need to review our records for all 60 officers whose conduct cases proceeded to a hearing. This would need to be cross referenced with HR records to establish whether any officers were placed on paid vetting leave and identify the duration of any such leave in each case. We estimate this would take more than 18 hours to complete.

 

If a public authority estimates that it would exceed the appropriate limit to confirm whether or not the requested information is held then, under section 12(2) of the Act, it does not have to deal with the substance of the request.

 

At this time the limit is set at £450 or 18 staff hours work. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending 2.5 working days in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting it.

 

This letter represents a Refusal Notice under the Act.

 

We have sought to assist as far as possible by providing the information requested in your remaining questions above.