Judicial review highlights the importance of independent tribunals in misconduct cases

13 December 2022

Discipline lead Dave Hadley.

West Midlands Police Federation has welcomed the findings of a recent judicial review into a disciplinary panel’s decision and said the judgement also highlighted the importance of independent tribunals in misconduct cases.

A High Court judge backed the panel’s original ruling, reiterating that chief constables should not misuse the judicial review process in a bid to overturn outcomes that they had not hoped for.

The case centred around a long-serving officer sergeant who was given a final written warning after the panel found them guilty of misconduct for suggesting during an interview that colleagues had discriminated against a transgender officer and that they had stepped in to challenge their behaviour. 

But the Force felt the sergeant had brought “discredit to the police service” and undermined “public confidence”. It wanted the officer dismissed without notice and sought a judicial review of the panel’s decision at the High Court. The judge, however, backed the original ruling.

West Midlands Police Federation full-time discipline lead Dave Hadley said the case showed how the existing disciplinary system, which was reformed as recently as 2020, provides the necessary balance between protecting the public from people who should not be in the Force and protection for officers accused of misconduct.

He said: “This officer had served for 27 years. There was no evidence to suggest they had any inclination or predilection for being dishonest in a professional capacity - far from it. The panel decided this wasn’t a case where the public needed to be protected from a dishonest officer, this was a matter which in their judgement should be dealt with by a final written warning. 

“The Force didn’t like that so applied for judicial review in a bid to have the officer’s final written warning overturned.”

Dave said the case highlighted the merits of an specialist, independent tribunal deciding on misconduct matters at a time when the role of Legally Qualified Chairs (LQC) is being openly questioned by chief officers. 

He said: “The previous Chief Constable is on the record as saying he had officers working for him that a supermarket would have sacked, he was of the opinion that chiefs should be in full control of all disciplinary outcomes in their Force and sadly that is a view which is shared by many other chiefs.”

He added: “It must always be borne in mind that police officers are part of a group of workers not afforded many of the protections of employment legislation, by virtue of the unique employment status we hold: we are independent officers of the Crown, not employees.

“It is incredibly pleasing that after a stressful two years, the officer is now able to put this whole episode behind them and move on.”

Tim Rogers, secretary of West Midlands Police Federation, added: “While we are clearly conscious of the impact this case has had on the officer involved, we also need to bear in mind that proceedings such as this can cost the public purse approximately £50,000 to £100,000.”