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Section 60 & the super-complaint

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22 March 2024 / Neil Parpworth
Issue: 8064 / Categories: Features , Criminal , Public
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Neil Parpworth reviews the results of an investigation into police use of suspicionless stop & search
  • Designated bodies can make super-complaints about policing issues, prompting an investigation.
  • Considers the recommendations made following an investigation into the use of s 60 suspicionless stop and search powers, in response to a super-complaint by the Criminal Justice Alliance.

Under s 29A(1) of the Police Reform Act 2002 (as inserted by s 25 of the Policing and Crime Act 2017), a designated body is empowered to make a super-complaint to His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) that ‘a feature, or combination of features, of policing in England and Wales by one or more than one police force is, or appears to be, significantly harming the interests of the public’. For the purposes of s 29A, a ‘designated body’ is a body designated as such in regulations made by the Secretary of State (see s 29B(1)).

Who can make a super-complaint?

The criteria for making/revoking designations in the present context are

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