The Independent Police Complaints Commission (Complaints and Misconduct) (Contractors) Regulations 2015

Response to recommendation

82.—(1) A person to whom a recommendation under regulation 81 is made must provide to the Commission a response in writing stating—

(a) what action the person has taken or proposes to take in response to the recommendation, or

(b) why the person has not taken, or does not propose to take, any action in response.

(2) The person must provide the response to the Commission before the end of the period of 56 days beginning with the day on which the recommendation was made, unless paragraph (3) applies.

(3) The Commission may extend the period of 56 days following an application received before the end of the period; and if the Commission grants an extension, the person must provide the response before the end of the extended period.

(4) But if proceedings for judicial review of the Commission’s decision to make a recommendation are started during the period allowed by paragraph (2) or (3), that period is extended by however many days the proceedings are in progress.

(5) On receiving a response, the Commission must, within the period of 21 days beginning with the day on which the Commission received it—

(a) publish the response, and

(b) send a copy of it to any person who was sent a copy of the recommendation under regulation 81(7)(b),

unless the person giving the response has made representations under paragraph (6).

(6) The person giving the response may, at the time of providing it to the Commission, make representations to the Commission asserting that the requirements of publication and disclosure under paragraph (5) should not apply to the response, or to particular parts of it.

(7) On receiving such representations, the Commission may decide—

(a) that the response should not be published, or that only parts of it should be published;

(b) that the response should not be disclosed, or that only parts of the response should be disclosed.

(8) Where, following a decision on representations, the Commission decides to publish or disclose a response (in whole or in part), it must do so only after the person giving the response has been informed of the Commission’s decision, and—

(a) in a case where the Commission has decided to accept all of the representations, it must do so within the period of 21 days beginning with the day on which it received the response;

(b) in a case where the Commission has decided to reject any of the representations, it must do so—

(i) within the period of 21 days beginning with the day on which the person was informed of the Commission’s decision on the representations, but

(ii) not before the end of the period of 7 days beginning with that day.

(9) But if proceedings for judicial review of the Commission’s decision to reject a representation are started during the period of 7 days referred to in paragraph (8)(b)(ii)—

(a) the Commission must not publish or disclose the response while the proceedings are in progress;

(b) if the court upholds the Commission’s decision to reject a representation, the Commission must publish and disclose the response (in whole or in part, as appropriate) before the end of the period of 7 days beginning with the day on which the proceedings are no longer in progress.

(10) Where a local policing body or a chief officer makes a response under this paragraph, the body or officer must, at the time the Commission publishes the response, also publish the response (to the same extent as published by the Commission) and the recommendation under regulation 81.

(11) For the purposes of this paragraph—

(a) “disclosing” a response means sending a copy of it as mentioned in paragraph (5)(b);

(b) the period during which judicial review proceedings are in progress includes any day on which an appeal is in progress or may be brought.