Assessment finds Avon & Somerset Police 'must improve performance'
They were deemed to require improvement in multiple areas of the force.
Last updated 6th Feb 2025
A review into Avon & Somerset Police by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) says the force 'must improve its performance in some areas, including in how it responds to the public and protects vulnerable people.'
They graded Avon and Somerset Constabulary’s performance across eight areas of policing and found the constabulary was ‘good’ in two areas, ‘adequate’ in one area and ‘requires improvement’ in five areas.
Some of the issues are, as the Inspector Michelle Skeer says, 'identical to those we identified in the last inspection.'
The force says they're 'open and willing to learn' from the report.
Here are the key findings from the assessment:
Grades:
Police powers and treating the public fairly and respectfully - GOOD
Preventing and deterring crime and antisocial behaviour, and reducing vulnerability - GOOD
Building, supporting, and protecting the workforce - ADEQUATE
Responding to the public - REQUIRES IMPROVEMENT
In the year ending 31st July 2024, the constabulary answered 79.5% of its 999 calls within 10 seconds.
This is lower than the expected standard of forces in England and Wales, which is to answer at least 90% of 999 calls within 10 seconds.
In the year ending 31st August 2024, the constabulary told the Inspector that callers abandoned 23.9% of calls to its non-emergency 101 facility before staff answered the calls.
However, guidelines say forces with a switchboard should aim to have an abandonment rate of less than 5%.
Investigating crime - REQUIRES IMPROVEMENT
They found supervisors in specialist rape investigation teams and the criminal investigation department were themselves managing between 80 and 170 unallocated crimes, some of which had been unallocated for a number of months.
The constabulary doesn’t always record the outcomes of crimes correctly- they only assigned the correct crime classification outcome in 59 out of 91 relevant cases.
Although victims were consulted in 59 of 70 cases, their views were only taken into account in 31 of 48 relevant cases.
The constabulary informed them of the outcome in 61 of 73 relevant cases.
In the year ending 31st March 2024, Avon and Somerset Constabulary recorded 127,384 victim-based crimes.
Of these recorded offences, 8.4% were assigned ‘offences brought to justice’ outcomes- which is within the normal range compared to other forces in England and Wales.
But the percentage of cases where they achieved a satisfactory outcome for the victim was low.
Protecting vulnerable people - REQUIRES IMPROVEMENT
They found cases where key information was missing.
Some BRAG cases- which is where they identify the safeguarding/vulnerability needs for victims were missing DASH (domestic abuse, stalking, harassment, and honour-based violence) forms where they were required.
They added that when they found that when information was missing, safeguarding officers didn’t make enough effort to get it.
Meanwhile, supervisors carrying out initial reviews of referrals did so inconsistently and with limited training and experience.
The constabulary doesn’t make full use of the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS, also known as Clare’s Law).
The scheme allows the police to inform a victim or potential victim of domestic abuse about their partner’s previous abusive or violent offending, under the ‘right to know’ and ‘right to ask’ processes.
Managing offenders and suspects - REQUIRES IMPROVEMENT
During the inspection, it was found that officers and supervisors generally understood how to manage offenders and suspects and they generally understood the requirements of the new bail legislation under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
But there was little oversight of wanted people at a constabulary-wide level or of the risks that these people posed to the public.
The way in which wanted people were prioritised for arrest was unclear and sometimes occurred before cases were at the most suitable stage for an arrest.
They also found examples of people wanted for offences involving violence who had been wanted for some months with no apparent action being taken.
In May 2024, the constabulary told the Inspector that it had backlogs of 311 registered sex offender home visits and 129 active risk management system assessments.
Home visits and risk assessments are carried out to accurately assess the risks posed by registered sex offenders.
Since that time, the constabulary has taken steps to reduce the backlogs.
Despite this, by 2025, the constabulary told us that the backlogs were now 271 overdue visits and 231 overdue active risk management system assessments.
The constabulary has two teams dealing with the investigations into images of online child abuse; one of these was understaffed.
The other team had accommodation that wasn’t suitable for the sensitive nature of the work it does.
They report these things were contributing to delays and backlogs and that officers felt overworked.
Leadership and force management - REQUIRES IMPROVEMENT
The way some performance data for their teams was presented was too complicated and not sufficiently linked to strategic aims.
Leadership team members throughout the constabulary aren’t being held to account for their own or their team’s performance, as the data needed to identify opportunities to improve is lacking.
Their senior leaders are dedicated to providing a service to the communities of Avon and Somerset and the constabulary is working hard to improve its culture.
But they report that too often there is a breakdown in communication between senior leaders and the officers and staff.
Staff say strategic decisions, organisational change programmes, and some operational decisions aren’t always explained well enough.
Some say they often find answers are difficult to locate or unclear.
Inspector's comments:
His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary Michelle Skeer said: “I am satisfied with some aspects of the performance of Avon and Somerset Constabulary, but there are areas in which the constabulary needs to improve.
"And some of the areas for improvement are identical to those we identified in the last inspection.
“The way the constabulary treats the public and manages its use of powers such as stop and search remains positive.
"So does the way the constabulary prevents and deters crime, and how it communicates with the public.
"We saw progress in the constabulary’s approach to problem-solving and its provision of bespoke training for neighbourhood policing teams.
“However, the constabulary needs to make sure it properly allocates, plans and supervises investigations, so that victims get the service they deserve.
"It also needs to make sure that crime investigations are given the correct outcome when they are finalised.
"And more investigations result in offenders being brought to justice.
“We also found that the leadership and governance of the constabulary could be improved in terms of its overall management structure and operating model, its use of data, and how its leaders communicate and work with their workforce.
“I look forward to seeing how the constabulary brings about positive change in these areas. I will be closely monitoring this in the months ahead.”
Avon & Somerset Police's response:
Assistant Chief Constable Will White said: “We welcome this report, the commentary from inspectors that we’re open and willing to learn and especially their praise for the way we engage with and treat the public.
"This is the keystone of the British model of policing by consent and is at the core of all areas of our work.
“We’ve made significant and sustained progress since the Inspectors came in, which they’ve recognised.
"We’re now in the top 10 forces nationally in answering 999 calls and we’ve brought down the call abandonment rate.
"We’ve got clear plans and increased resources dedicated to tackling the workflow in areas including the Internet Child Abuse Team and Claire’s Law applications.
"We’re thinking innovatively to find ways to manage rising demand through the use of technology and artificial intelligence, and we’re making sure officers’ time is spent tackling the crimes which impact on the public the most.
"This includes reducing the amount of time spent on non-crime demand and where other agencies would be best placed to respond.”
This is how they said they'd improve in the areas grades as REQUIRES IMPROVEMENT:
Responding to the public
- We’ve improved our processes and addressed recruitment and retention issues for call handlers following COVID.
- We’ve deploying police officers in the control room to provide experience and knowledge to young-in-service call-handling staff.
Investigating crime
- We’re accurately recording more offences.
- We’re using technology such as video-calls to speed up our response to the public and progress our enquiries more quickly.
- We’re trying to free up officers by reducing the 75 per cent of officers’ time spent dealing with non-crime demand.
- We’re working with partner agencies to try to ensure people get the right help from the right services.
Protecting vulnerable people
- We have increased our training on vulnerability and have reviewed our supervision process.
- We continue to receive feedback from victims and use this to enhance our service for vulnerable people.
Managing offenders
- We’ve arranged training for more officers in this specialist area.
Leadership and force management
- We’re changing our structure to bring decision-making and accountability closer to the communities we serve.
- We’re investing in our workforce with training opportunities for all officers and staff.