Commentary on Sections Independent Police Complaints Commission Section 138: Unsatisfactory performance procedures following investigation of death or serious injury matter
391.Subsection (1) amends paragraph 24C of Schedule 3 to the 2002 Act which relates to a death or serious injury matter where there is no indication that a person serving with the police may have behaved in a manner which would justify the bringing of disciplinary proceedings. New paragraph 24C(3) to (5) provides the IPCC with a power to recommend that a person’s performance is unsatisfactory (as opposed to treated as misconduct) and that the appropriate authority should take recommended action in relation to it where the investigation is in respect of a death or serious injury matter.
392.Subsections (2) to (4) link this power with paragraph 27 of Schedule 3 to the 2002 Act. Paragraph 27 makes provision for the process in accordance with which the IPCC may make a recommendation or a direction to the appropriate authority in relation to disciplinary proceedings in respect of a conduct matter. The effect is that the IPCC may also recommend and direct the appropriate authority to take steps in relation to a person’s unsatisfactory performance in respect of a death or serious injury matter.
393.This section will result in parity in respect of the IPCC’s existing powers to recommend and direct unsatisfactory performance procedures in complaint and conduct matters investigated by the IPCC.