MP, Labour’s Shadow Home
Secretary, responding to Lady Elish Angiolini’s report
today, said:
"The report from Lady has exposed a catalogue of
appalling failures in the police’s vetting and misconduct
processes, and in the way in which the police investigate
indecent exposure. Wayne Cozens should never have been a police
officer and he should have been sacked long before he eventually
was.
"No one but Couzens is to blame for the terrible crimes he
committed. But the government’s response to the report’s findings
on standards in policing and women’s safety is too weak and too
slow - the lack of urgency is unfathomable.
"There have been warnings about failings in police vetting and
misconduct systems, especially around sexual and domestic abuse
for more than a decade, yet the government has failed to act. The
vetting system is still far, far too weak and action to tackle
indecent exposure is far too limited.
“A Labour government would introduce mandatory national vetting
standards, so no one with a history of domestic abuse or sexual
offending would be allowed to join the police and any officer
facing an investigation for such offences would be automatically
suspended.
“Labour would take up the urgent recommendations from the
Angiolini report on indecent exposure. And we would introduce
specialist rape and sexual offence teams in all forces, bring in
Raneem’s Law on domestic abuse and set up a new perpetrator
programme to target the most dangerous abusers and sex offenders
who pose a risk to women.
"Sarah Everard’s murder should have been a watershed on policing
reform and on the response to violence against women and girls.
Too little has changed. Enough is enough. We need urgent action
on standards and safety."
Ends
Notes:
In government Labour will introduce:
- A new mandatory national police vetting requirement, to stop
the discrepancies between forces in recruitment standards.
- Automatic bans for any potential applicants with a history of
domestic abuse, indecent exposure or sexual assault.
- New leadership training to overhaul culture within the
police.
- 13,000 more neighbourhood officers and PCSOs.
- Specialist rape and sexual assault units in every force and
domestic violence specialist call handlers in every 999 control
room.
- Specialist mandatory training for every officer, including on
bias and violence against women and girls.
- More routes into policing for people from every background,
including direct routes into detective work.
