To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in implementing each of the recommendations of the report by the Rt Hon. Dame Elish Angiolini DBE QC Report of the Independent Review of Deaths and Serious Incidents in Police Custody, published in January 2017.
Answered on
14 December 2020
Every death in custody is a tragedy, and we are committed to delivering meaningful and lasting change to prevent deaths in custody. Good progress has been made in addressing Dame Elish’s recommendations, with the majority of recommendations now delivered, although there is more to be done.
To prevent deaths in police custody in England and Wales, we have significantly restricted the use of police stations as places of safety, for those experiencing a mental health crisis. The National Police Chiefs' Council are driving progress on national training, including how officers identify health risks of detainees, and the Government is making significant investment in mental health. The Home Office have created an annual statistical publication showing data on police use of force, broken down by ethnicity.
In February 2020, the Government implemented reforms to provide the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) with a power to investigate matters on its own initiative, without the need for a referral from the police. Legislative reforms to the IOPC’s corporate structure and governance, implemented in January 2018, have helped to improve the timeliness of IOPC investigations.
To support families, we have made inquests more sympathetic to their needs, undertaken a review of the provision of legal aid for inquests, and improved the information available immediately after a death in custody.
The Ministerial Board on Deaths in Custody continues to oversee and drive progress on this work. An official government update will be published in early 2021.