Tuesday 5 October 2021
Home Secretary Priti Patel has launched an inquiry to investigate the issues raised by the conviction of Wayne Couzens.
Statement from the Home Secretary to today's Conservative Party Conference;
The
Home Secretary shares the public’s concern at the appalling circumstances of
the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard as she was walking home through Clapham, and that the abuse of power by
a serving Metropolitan Police officer risks undermining public confidence in
the police. She is determined to do everything in her power to deliver
improvements within policing and across the criminal justice system.
The
inquiry will be made up of two parts. The first part will examine Wayne
Couzens’ previous behaviour and will establish a definitive account of his
conduct leading up to his conviction, as well as any opportunities missed,
drawing on the Independent Office for Police Conduct’s (IOPC) investigations,
once concluded.
The
second part will look at any specific issues raised by the first part of the
inquiry, which could include wider issues across policing – including vetting
practices, professional standards and discipline, and workplace behaviour.
Additionally,
the Home Secretary will write to the independent police inspectorate HMICFRS to
commission a thematic inspection of vetting and counter-corruption procedures
in policing across England and Wales – including forces’ ability to detect and
deal with misogynistic and predatory behaviour. She has asked for initial
findings by the end of 2021, and these will be used to inform the inquiry into
Couzens.
The
inquiry will also draw on the conclusions of current investigations by the IOPC
into various allegations and incidents throughout Couzens’ career.
Given
the need to provide assurance as swiftly as possible, this will be established
as a non-statutory inquiry, but can be converted to a statutory inquiry if
required.
The
Chair and Terms of Reference for the inquiry will be confirmed in due course.
The
Inquiry is as important for the brave, dedicated, and hard-working men and
women in our police service, as it is for the public at large. They rightly
want, and expect, their colleagues in policing across the country to uphold the
same standards and values that they do – and this inquiry therefore seeks to
deliver for them as well as the public.
In
addition, the Prime Minister will launch a Home Secretary-chaired taskforce to
drive cross-government action on tackling violence against women and girls to
help maintain public confidence in policing. It will consider recommendations
from the Inspectorate’s review of the police’s response to Violence Against
Women and Girls, led by Zoe Billingham, as well as the Tackling Violence
Against Women and Girls Strategy, the End-to-End Rape Review, and the
forthcoming Domestic Abuse Strategy.
It
will also look at how the police currently assess risk, threat and harm to the
general public when responding to and investigating non-contact sexual offences
(e.g. flashing), which we know may lead to more serious or repeat offending.
The
new group will report into the Crime and Justice Taskforce chaired by the Prime
Minister. Minister for Crime and Policing, Kit Malthouse, and Maggie Blyth, the
newly appointed top cop for Violence Against Women and Girls, will also attend.
It will meet for the first time in the autumn.
Home
Secretary Priti Patel said:
“Recent
tragic events have exposed unimaginable failures in policing.
“It
is abhorrent that a serving police officer was able to abuse his position of
power, authority and trust to commit such a horrific crime.
“The
public have a right to know what failures enabled his continued employment as a
police officer and an inquiry will give the independent oversight needed to
ensure something like this can never happen again.”
posted by Radio Jackie News Team @ 12:29 pm