This release contains information on the number of police complaints, conduct matters and recordable conduct matters received by the 43 territorial police forces in England and Wales in the year ending 31 March 2021. Definitions of key terms used in this publication can be found in chapter 7.

Data in this release cover only those complaints and conduct matters that were deemed serious enough to require investigation and were also finalised in the year ending 31 March 2021. Data are provided for both police officers (including special constables) and staff.

This is the first release of the Police misconduct, England and Wales publication series. The data referred to in this report are obtained from Centurion, a tool for the recording and processing of professional standards data within police forces. While data have undergone quality assurance checks, as with all administrative datasets used for the production of statistics, there are known limitations and quality issues to consider. Data in this report are a reflection of cases as recorded on the Centurion system, and users should bear in mind the limitations highlighted throughout this report when interpreting the data.