Police standards: Vetting

How are the police vetted?

All police officers and staff must be vetted before being appointed. Each force is responsible for vetting its personnel.

The purpose of vetting is to identify any adverse information about an individual that could pose a risk to national security, public safety or to public confidence in the police. There are two types of vetting:

• police vetting (conducted by the police)
• national security vetting (conducted by UK Security Vetting, in the Cabinet Office)

There are several levels of clearance within each type of vetting. The level of clearance required for each policing role will depend on the level of unsupervised access that person will have to sensitive information, vulnerable people or potential targets of terrorism. Each clearance has separate decision-making criteria.

The College of Policing publishes a Vetting Code of Practice and Vetting Authorised Professional Practice (APP) to encourage consistency and minimum standards across policing in England and Wales. All vetting decisions must be made in line with the national decision model.

What is checked in police vetting?

Vetting processes should consider factors related to an applicant’s honesty, integrity, reliability and overall suitability to work in the police. Vetting units should check:

• employment history
• signs of financial vulnerability such as debts or bankruptcy
• past allegations, cautions, or convictions
• relatives and associates who may pose a risk

They will gather this information through the applicant’s vetting form, reviews of police databases, social media accounts, credit checks, and open-source research. The exact sources used will depend on the level of vetting required. Each case must be decided on its own merits, taking all relevant information into account.

Police forces should also establish processes to continually monitor the vetting clearance of their staff and officers. This includes mandatory full vetting renewals at set intervals (between 7 and 10 years), intermittent vetting reviews if someone’s circumstances change and annual integrity reviews.

How can vetting be improved?

The murder of Sarah Everard by Wayne Couzens in 2021 raised serious questions about the effectiveness of police vetting. Couzens was a serving police officer with the Metropolitan Police (the Met) who maintained vetting clearance for many years, despite evidence of financial instability and a history of alleged sexual offending.

In the aftermath of Sarah Everard’s murder, the government commissioned an inspection into police vetting and established an inquiry into Couzens’ offending (the Angiolini Inquiry). The Met commissioned Baroness Casey to review its standard of behaviour and professional culture. Each resulted in reports that found significant faults with police vetting processes.

The police have taken some actions to try to improve vetting processes, through screening programmes, conducting additional checks on existing officers and reviewing vetting and hiring practices. The College of Policing updated its APP guidance in December 2024, taking into account the recommendations of the reports referred to above.

In May 2025, Parliament approved the Police (Vetting) Regulations 2025, which created a new statutory route to dismiss officers who fail to hold vetting clearance. In January 2026, the government committed in its police reform white paper to introduce further legislation that would place national vetting standards on a statutory footing.

How else are police standards maintained?

The standards of professional behaviour for the police set out how police officers must behave when they are both on and off duty. Legislation provides a system for the public to complain about the police and for misconduct issues to be handled. These are explained on the Library webpage Police standards.