Dismissed Officers

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Dear College of Policing Limited,

The following link on your website http://www.college.police.uk/What-we-do/... states that "The College of Policing maintains a register of all individuals who have been dismissed from the police service, or who resign or retire while subject to gross misconduct investigation."

What is the name given to this 'register'? ie: Is it the 'Police Disapproved Register' or a separate system?

Yours faithfully,
Andy Trotter

College FOI, College of Policing Limited

Dear Mr Trotter,

 

I write in response to your query through [1]www.whatdotheyknow.com  dated
09 January 2017.

 

The ‘register’ is formally called the “College of Policing Disapproved
Register” but it is most commonly referred to as the “Police Disapproved
Register”.

 

The URL you have provided links to what  the College of Policing publishes
and makes publically accessible via our website. Please note, the College
of Policing can only publish details where Police Forces have indicated
that the officer in question has had their hearing held in public and the
information would therefore be considered already in the public domain.
This register does not contain the personal details of individuals, nor
does it include details about Police staff or special constables or
individuals who have resigned or retired whilst under investigation for
Gross Misconduct, all of whom can also find themselves placed on the
Register we hold by their former employing Force.

 

I hope this information has been helpful and may I take this opportunity
to thank you for your interest in the College of Policing.

 

Kind regards,

 

Melda Squires

 

 

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Dear College FOI,

Thank you for your reply but I am a little confused by your final paragraph?

"The ‘register’ is formally called the “College of Policing Disapproved
Register” but it is most commonly referred to as the “Police Disapproved
Register”." - Thanks

"The URL you have provided links to what the College of Policing publishes and makes publically accessible via our website. Please note, the College of Policing can only publish details where Police Forces have indicated that the officer in question has had their hearing held in public and the information would therefore be considered already in the public domain." - Thanks

"This register does not contain the personal details of individuals" - What information does the register include if not the personal details of the individuals? Or do you mean the web address doesn't include the personal details but the actual register does?

"nor does it include details about Police staff or special constables or individuals who have resigned or retired whilst under investigation for Gross Misconduct" - So the actual 'Disapproved Register' doesn't include these details? Or do you mean the web address doesn't include them?

"all of whom can also find themselves placed on the Register we hold by their former employing Force." - So the register DOES include *details about Police staff or special constables or individuals who have resigned or retired whilst under investigation for Gross Misconduct* if the force they were a member off adds them?

I'm just a little uncertain what information is held on the actual register based on what you have said?

Could you try to clarify please?

Yours sincerely,

Andy Trotter

College FOI, College of Policing Limited

Dear Mr Trotter,

 

Thank you for your email, and apologies for any confusion I caused in my
last email.

 

To clarify, the URL you provided links you to the overarching webpage for
the Disapproved Register and on the side bar there will be a link to the
Disapproved Register for 2015 or 2016.

 

What was meant by "this register does not contain the personal details of
individuals"  is that the register itself does not contain the sensitive
personal details of individuals i.e. name, address etc. It only contains
the date of the hearing, rank of officer, description of misconduct and
the link to the relevant force website. If you look at the registers for
2015 and 2016 this should become clear.

 

In relation to my reference to Police staff, special constables or
individuals who have resigned or retired whilst under investigation. Yes
they will be included on the register but again no personal information
will be included.

 

It is important to note that it is only possible to publish information
where the Force has confirmed that the hearing has been held in public.
The reason for this is that the College of Policing needs to be certain
that it was a public hearing or else could be at odds with a decision made
by the Legally Qualified Chair of the proceedings. Although the vast
majority of Hearings are held in public the Chair does have the authority
to declare the proceedings should be held in private if they are satisfied
there is good reason to do so. Where hearings have not been held in
public, there will be no publicly available record of the information.

 

I hope this clarifies your query, but do let me know if I can help with
anything else.

 

Kind regards,

 

Melda

 

 

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Dear College FOI,

Thanks for the response, I think my confusion stems from the fact I thought the Register was in internal database of some description and not just web pages? I was also under the impression that the register went back further than 2015 (the earliest date shown on the web).

Or

Is there an internal database that includes: date of the hearing, rank of officer, description of misconduct and
the link to the relevant force website? One which goes back earlier than 2015 however only information from 2015 onwards (the date hearings became public) can be publicly displayed on the web?

If, as you state, the only information kept on the register (either on the web or on a private database) is date of the hearing, rank of officer, description of misconduct and the link to the relevant force website, what is the purpose of the register? What function does it serve? How can police forces and other agencies use that database if no personal information is included to allow records to be searched or attributed to an individual?

Surely it would need to include a name and/or collar number so another police force for example can search it to see if a prospective applicant is on it?

Yours sincerely,

Andy Trotter

College FOI, College of Policing Limited

Dear Mr Trotter,

In answer to your questions the Register is an internal database which has been effective from 1/12/13 and holds details of officers, Special Constables and police staff dismissed (or who resign or retire while subject to gross misconduct investigation) from police forces in England & Wales. All Home Office forces provide details of relevant individuals to the College as do British Transport Police, Ministry of Defence Police, Civil Nuclear Constabulary and States of Jersey Police.

Please note, that whilst the register goes back to December 2013, but Public Hearings did not come into being until 2015, hence we only publish information that is publically accessible around this.

The internal database holds various information in respect of each individual including data relating to identification (e.g. full name and date of birth), a description of the relevant misconduct and the outcome of the case (dismissal, resignation etc). The data is not publically available. If Forces want to check whether an individual’s details are on the Register they do this through College staff, they cannot check the Register directly themselves. The information is only available to forces, not any other bodies.

The College publishes data from the Register on an annual basis. Personal data is not disclosed but numbers of individuals on the Register in different categories is published (e.g. numbers of individuals on the Register by force).

Separate from this, on its website the College publishes limited information about officers who are dismissed at public gross misconduct hearings (NB not all dismissals take place at public hearings). Information published is date of dismissal, rank and a brief description of the misconduct. A link is also provided to the relevant force website. Date of dismissal, rank and description of misconduct are taken from information supplied for the Register.

Once the Policing & Crime Act receives Royal Assent the Register will be superseded by the Barred List and Advisory List.

Kind regards,

Melda Squires

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J Roberts left an annotation ()

Police dismissals to be reviewed

Published 17 October 2022

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/polic...

'The Home Office will launch a targeted review of police dismissals to raise standards and confidence in policing across England and Wales.'

......................................................................................

In addition to the 'barred' list there is also the 'advisory' list, which the public cannot access.

Daily Mail (based on an investigation by the Times):

'While the barred list is open to the public to view, and employers to check, the advisory list is not - leaving potential employers potentially unaware of the allegations against the applicant.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

IC-120969-Z6F4 (14 June 2022)

'16. ...The barred list as a whole is not published and it is not otherwise available for the public to view. The public has limited access to the content, based on the searcher being restricted to looking for information about a specific individual, rather than simply perusing all the content; the Commissioner considers this to be a proportionate way of accessing this type of information. The complainant is therefore requesting the disclosure of information which, though available, is not readily accessible.'

https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-tak...

Search the barred list:

https://www.college.police.uk/ethics/bar...