The Inspectorate Explained

Year the Inspectorate was established

1856

Police forces in England and Wales

43

Years of continuous inspection

169

Direct enforcement powers

0

His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services inspects and reports on the efficiency and effectiveness of all 43 police forces in England and Wales, and the fire and rescue services of England. It is a statutory public authority. Inspectors are appointed by the Crown. No minister, PCC or force can direct what its reports contain or what its inspectors conclude.

HMICFRS is sometimes described as a watchdog. That is accurate in the sense that it observes, investigates and reports. It is less accurate if watchdog implies the ability to act. HMICFRS can find, report and recommend. It cannot order. It cannot remove a chief constable. It cannot fine a force. It cannot prevent a force from continuing a policy it has criticised.

The Inspectorate has been in continuous operation for 169 years. The first inspectors were appointed under the County and Borough Police Act 1856 at a time when government was concerned that local forces were of wildly variable quality and public money was being spent on forces that were not worth funding. The modern legislative basis is the Police Act 1996, amended by the 2011 Reform Act, the 2013 Crime and Courts Act and the 2017 Policing and Crime Act. The core duty in section 54 has remained substantially unchanged since 1856. In 2012 Tom Winsor became the first Chief Inspector to come from outside the police service.

From April 2026 the interim Chief Inspector is Michelle Skeer OBE QPM, the first woman to hold the position. She succeeded Sir Andy Cooke, who retired after four years. The Chief Inspector and other Inspectors are appointed by the Crown on the advice of the Home Secretary under Royal Warrant. They are not civil servants, police officers, or fire and rescue staff, and cannot be directed by ministers in their inspection findings. Below the Chief Inspector there are currently four HM Inspectors: Lee Freeman, Kathryn Stone, Roy Wilsher, and Nicola Faulconbridge (Assistant HMI).

HMICFRS's budget is set by the Home Office. In 2020–21 it spent around £24 million, of which approximately 92% went on its workforce. This creates a structural tension, since the inspectorate's budget depends on the government it is supposed to hold accountable, but ministers cannot direct the content of reports.

Police Efficiency, Effectiveness and Legitimacy (PEEL) inspections are the main scheduled programme. Every force is inspected on a rolling cycle. Forces are graded across nine areas, crime data integrity, police powers, preventing and deterring crime, responding to the public, investigating crime, protecting vulnerable people, managing offenders and suspects, building and supporting the workforce, and leadership and force management. Each area receives one of five grades: outstanding, good, adequate, requires improvement, or inadequate.

An area for improvement (AFI) is a finding that performance falls short and needs to improve. A cause of concern is a more serious finding, a significant or critical shortcoming, and always carries specific recommendations with deadlines. When HMICFRS identifies a serious shortcoming that cannot wait for the full report, it can issue an accelerated cause of concern, published separately and immediately. The Suffolk Clare's Law cause of concern published in May 2026, the first ever issued specifically for Clare's Law failure, was an accelerated cause of concern.

All 43 forces are in continuous monitoring through two phases: Scan (the default) and Engage (enhanced). Movement into Engage is decided by the Chief Inspector personally and is published. The Met was moved into Engage in June 2022. Lincolnshire was moved in December 2024 after five causes of concern. West Midlands was moved in November 2023 and removed in September 2024.

HMICFRS can inspect, report, grade, and recommend. It can publish findings without any force being able to suppress them. It can issue causes of concern with deadlines, place forces into enhanced monitoring, and revisit them. Its reports are susceptible to judicial review. But it cannot direct a chief constable to take a specific operational decision. It cannot remove a chief constable. Only the PCC can do that. It cannot fine a force. It cannot prevent a practice it has criticised. It cannot require a force to implement a recommendation by a specific date.

HMICFRS does not investigate individual complaints, that is for the force's professional standards department, the IOPC, or the PCC. It does not assess individual cases. It inspects systems, policies, and practices. Its reports are published online, free and in full, under section 55 of the Police Act 1996. Those findings are primary evidence of systemic failure and can be cited in civil claims, judicial review, parliamentary inquiries, and IOPC complaints.

The Police Reform White Paper proposes a new power of direction for the HM Chief Inspector, allowing HMICFRS to require compliance with its recommendations in specific circumstances rather than relying solely on voluntary cooperation. It also proposes additional obligations on local policing bodies to report on progress against HMICFRS recommendations, and a new tiered performance system chaired by the Chief Inspector. If enacted, these would be the most significant expansion of HMICFRS's powers since 1856.