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IPCC chair named

01 November 2002

Home secretary David Blunkett has named Nick Hardwick, presently chief executive of the British Refugee Council, as the first chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). The IPCC will replace the widely derided Police Complaints Authority in April 2004 and Hardwick will have responsibility for overseeing the setting up of the body.
The government has consistently ignored recommendations and criticism from groups such as the United Friends and Family Campaign and Inquest for a new body with its own permanent staff and an active commitment to recruiting from ethnic communities and outside the policing profession.
In remarkable piece of "spin" the Home Office press release insists that the IPCC "will be independent of the Government and police". The press release continues:
The IPCC will deliver an open and transparent system to increase public confidence and give reassurance that complaints will be investigated fairly and effectively. Providing an independent complaints system to deal with the small number of complaints against the police will demonstrate the integrity of the police service as a whole.
The claims echo those made at the launch of the PCA. Then many commentators observed that the only new aspect of the PCA was the word "independent" inserted in a different type-face on its headed notepaper - now the word has been officially incorporated into the new title.
The United Friends and Family Campaign, have made a detailed critique the new IPCC, (see Statewatch vol. 11, no 2). They conclude that the new body:
can hardly be considered any more "independent" than the Police Complaints Authority and the proposed changes appear to be largely cosmetic.
"Complaints against the police: framework for a new system. A response to the government's proposals" United Family and Friends Campaign (February) 2001; Home Office press release 12.12.02