IOPC investigation into comments made by Sir Steve House

IOPC investigation finds no indication Sir Stephen House breached standards of professional behaviour

Deputy Commissioner Lynne Owens said:

“In light of the worrying prevalence of offending against women and girls, as well as the horrendous cases involving police officers and the notable findings of the Angiolini Inquiry and Casey Review, we are determined to make our city safer for women and girls. As part of our New Met for London plan, we are transforming the way we investigate rape and sexual offences, and putting victim-survivors at the heart of everything we do.

“I recognise these allegations caused concern among the public and we too took them seriously. As soon as they came to our attention, we made a referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct. We always welcome robust, independent scrutiny and we are grateful to the IOPC for its diligent investigation.

“The IOPC found there was no case to answer for Sir Stephen House to face any disciplinary proceedings and decided there was no indication that Sir Stephen may have breached the police standards of professional behaviour.”

“The meeting at the centre of the allegation has been described as ‘hard hitting’ and was clearly a difficult environment for all those involved in that professional discussion. These conversations, about violence against women and girls, remain enormously important across policing and with all our partners.

“I acknowledge we haven’t always got our response to tackling violence against women and girls right – we are determined to improve and will not be complacent. Over the past year we have seen significant increases in charges for rape and other sexual offences. We have developed an approach to target the most predatory men and we have set out a clear VAWG action plan – with ten key commitments – shaped directly by the feedback we have had from women and girls. But we must and will do even more.”

Background

https://www.met.police.uk/police-forces/metropolitan-police/areas/about-us/about-the-met/vawg-action-plan-summary/overview/

Under this new model of best practice, the Met will:

• Create a specialist rape investigation team, with more officers and police staff investigators dedicated to investigating rape and sexual offences. These officers will receive specialist training and support.
• Ensure investigations are focussed on perpetrator behaviour, with a shift away from the ‘credibility’ of the victim-survivor's account.
• Ensure a victim-centric approach, with improved engagement and communication so that victim-survivors feel heard and involved throughout the whole criminal justice process.
• Work more closely with partners to ensure victim-survivors are supported throughout the whole process and signposted to specialist services such as NHS rape crisis centres and Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVA).
• Collaborate with the CPS and partners to ensure prompt and efficient investigation, securing additional funding for lengthy investigations and improving judicial outcomes.
• Invest £11 million into digital forensics and improve the way officers handle digital evidence from devices such as phones and laptops.
• Continue to reduce the time taken to obtain medical evidence from victim-survivors to help secure earlier outcomes. Since the Met adopted this new approach in March 2023 medical evidence is currently being returned in an average of 1.36 days and 5 hours for urgent cases – up from a previous average of 67 days.
• Continue to work with multi-agency scrutiny panels and others to check police decisions to take no further action and ensure the focus is on the actions of suspected offenders, rather than victim-survivors.