Expectations for police custody
Consultation on a revised draft of expectations for inspecting police custody.
HM Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) have been leading a review of the expectations for police custody over the last year. The expectations set out the assessment criteria, or indicators, for our joint inspections of police custody and also ‘what we expect to see’ in those areas during the inspection. The revised draft draws on over 6 years of experience of police custody inspections conducted jointly by HMIP and HMIC and is informed by the findings of the thematic inspection of the welfare of vulnerable people in police custody, published by HMIC in March 2015.
In particular we have:
- extended the scope of the custody inspections to the first point of contact i.e. pre-arrest
- included expectations of diversion from custody for children and vulnerable adults wherever possible
- strengthened the focus on vulnerability and risk throughout
- incorporated expectations flowing from the public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010
Our consultation questions reflect these changes.