IOPC complaint volume · 2024/25
Complaints logged per 1,000 employees
IOPC · 2024/25Complaints per 1,000 employees · the IOPC's own size-adjusted rate
109vs national average of 373
Norfolk is 71% below the national average for complaints logged per 1,000 employees in 2024/25. This rate controls for force size, so it can be compared directly between forces - raw volume cannot.
Allegations per 1,000 employees · Table 5, the finer-grained metric
341vs national average of 660
An allegation is a single specific accusation; a single complaint case can contain several. Norfolk recorded 1,186 allegations across 380 complaint cases (≈3.1 allegations per case), 48% below the national average on the per-1,000 rate.
Genuinely distinct from the case-level rate above: that counts how many people complained; this counts the discrete accusations within those complaints.
- Complaint cases logged
- 380
- Workforce (FTE)
- 3,480
- Share of national total
- 0.4%
Complaint-handling timeliness (Table 3, working days)
- Days to log complaint
- 2vs 7 nat'l
- Days to contact complainant
- 7vs 9 nat'l
National averages: 7 days to log, 9 days to contact. Most forces cluster within 1–10 days on both.
Reasons recorded under Schedule 3 (Table 4, % of 289 cases)
National: 24/40/20/16
- Nature of allegation
Mandatory by type
- 30%
nat'l 24% · 6pp above
- Body decides
Force's own choice
- 40%
nat'l 40% · at
- Complainant wishes
Person asked formally
- 18%
nat'l 20% · 2pp below
- After dissatisfaction
Only after push-back
- 12%
nat'l 16% · 4pp below
This describes process - how each case came to be formally recorded - not severity or outcome. None of these categories is automatically good or bad in isolation.
How allegations were finalised (Table 14, % of finalised allegations)
National: 44/45/11
- Outside Schedule 3
Informal / other means
- 16%
nat'l 44% · 28pp below
- Sched 3, not investigated
Recorded but not investigated
- 73%
nat'l 45% · 28pp above
- Sched 3, investigated
Recorded and investigated
- 11%
nat'l 11% · at
This is a procedural breakdown - how the force resolved its allegations - not a severity or outcome judgement. A high "investigated" share is not automatically better, and a high "outside Schedule 3" share is not automatically worse; both can be appropriate depending on the complaint mix. Distinct from Table 4 above: that asks why a case was formally recorded; this asks how the resulting allegations were ultimately resolved.
What happens when someone challenges the outcome
IOPC reviews · Tables 26 & 27
Independent IOPC review applications and outcomes
When a complainant disagrees with how the force handled their case, they can ask the IOPC to review it independently. The IOPC either runs a paper review or escalates to a full investigation. In either path, the review can find the force's original decision was not reasonable and proportionate - i.e. overturned. Nationally, 29.8% of valid completed reviews are overturned - nearly 1 in 3.
Overall overturn rate · this force
19.2%of 26 valid completed reviews overturned (5 cases) · national avg 29.8%
Reviews NOT escalated (paper review)
2 overturned of 13 valid · 15.4%
Reviews escalated to investigation
3 overturned of 13 valid · 23.1%
Counts: 23 review applications received in 2024/25 · 30.4% escalated to a full investigation.
This is the IOPC's own independent judgement on the quality of this force's complaint-handling decisions - distinct from volume, rate, timeliness, recording reason, or finalisation method. A percentage is shown only when the underlying sample is at least 10 valid completed reviews; below that, we show raw counts and flag the sample as too small.
Source: IOPC, Police complaints statistics for England and Wales 2024/25, Tables 26 & 27 · Financial year 2024/25.
What this is and isn't. This counts complaints logged - not their severity, outcome, or whether they were upheld. A high rate can reflect under-confidence in informal resolution or proactive logging as much as worse behaviour; a low rate can reflect genuinely low complaint volume or under-recording. Treat as one signal, not a verdict.
The IOPC also publishes per-force quarterly bulletins with a "most similar force" comparison. The headline volume, rate and timeliness figures shown here come from the annual report; the fuller per-force bulletins live at the source link below.
Source: IOPC, Police complaints statistics for England and Wales 2024/25 · Financial year 2024/25. Workforce denominator: Home Office Police Workforce, 31 March 2024.