misconduct and Special Case Hearings Jan 2018-may 2021 (757A/21)
Request
Q1: Between the 1st Jan 2018 and 10th May 2021 how many misconduct and Special Case Hearings has your force held in total? Please break down by calendar year and month
Q2: Between the 1st Jan 2018 and 10th May 2021 how many misconduct hearings has your force held in private which could have been held in public but a decision had been taken by the LQC that it would be held in private
Q3: How many times between the above 2 dates have you invited representations from media and other interested parties before deciding that a hearing should be held in private and what form has that invitation taken? eg email, letter or public notification.? Please provide details of all media outlets that have been advised and how many times the IOPC have been invited to make representations, as to whether a hearing, should be held in private
Response
Please accept our apologies for the amount of time it has taken to source this data.
Please find attached (757A/21 attachment) our response.
1.Between the 1st Jan 2018 and 10th May 2021 how many misconduct and Special Case Hearings has your force held in total? Please break down by calendar year and month.
See attached spreadsheet
2.Between the 1st Jan 2018 and 10th May 2021 how many misconduct hearings has your force held in private which could have been held in public but a decision had been taken by the LQC that it would be held in private
Attached spreadsheet
Please note that all hearing should now be heard in public, however the following exceptions do apply.
I have attached pg 133 -138 of the Home office Guidance which covers Restrictions for Misconduct hearing s Public Notice and Attendance.
3.How many times between the above 2 dates have you invited representations from media and other interested parties before deciding that a hearing should be held in private and what form has that invitation taken? eg email, letter or public notification.? Please provide details of all media outlets that have been advised and how many times the IOPC have been invited to make representations, as to whether a hearing, should be held in private.
Representation from the media regarding a public or private hearing was introduced under the new 2020 regulations (Feb 2020). Therefore commencing from 2020 all hearings as you can see on the spread sheet have been held in public. In 2020 there were a total of 18 hearings 2 in January were private and the other 16 Feb 2020 onwards were all in public.
Therefore, “How many times between the above 2 dates have you invited representations from media and other interested parties before deciding that a hearing should be held in private and what form has that invitation taken?”, the answer is Zero, because there were no private hearings following the introduction of the new 2020 regulations. No media outlets or IPOC have been invited to make representations as to whether a hearing should be held in private, as they have all been public hearings.
For hearings prior to Feb 2020 when the new regulations were introduced the following applies:
West Midlands Police have not directly ‘invited’ the media or IOPC to make representations as to whether a hearing should be held in private (old or new regulations). The IOPC are however, kept up-to-date with the preparation of misconduct proceedings.
Please note that all hearings are public posted on the link below.
Due to social distancing measures (Covid-19), only two members of the media will be allowed to attend the hearing. There will be no access for members of the public.
https://west-midlands.police.uk/future-misconduct-hearings
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