Merseyside Promotion Board Preparation
If you’re preparing for a Sergeant, Inspector or Chief Inspector board at Merseyside, your panel already knows your force’s inspection picture. Here’s what that means for you, and how State6 builds it into your preparation.
PEEL report
7 July 2026
2025-27 PEEL assessment
Grades
9 areas
Causes of concern
None
in the latest PEEL report
Merseyside HMICFRS snapshot
What the inspectors found
Merseyside Police was assessed in 2025 as part of the PEEL 2025-27 inspection cycle. The force performed outstandingly in prevention and deterrence, and well in several areas including leadership, workforce diversity, and use of powers, but requires improvement in investigating c…
PEEL grades
- Investigating crimeRequires improvement
- CustodyAdequate
- Managing fraudAdequate
- Responding to publicAdequate
- Protecting vulnerableAdequate
- WorkforceGood
- LeadershipGood
- Police powersGood
- Preventing crimeOutstanding
Areas for improvement
- The force needs to consistently record the justification for the use of force.
- The force should improve its response to priority calls so that victims receive an appropriate service.
- The force should keep the caller informed and regularly review and record risk when there are delays in attending incidents.
- The force doesn't consistently achieve appropriate outcomes for victims.
- The force needs to improve the effectiveness of its investigations.
- The force should make sure it provides support to vulnerable victims.
Show the other 6 areas for improvementHide the extra areas for improvement
- The force needs to improve the support it gives its trainee investigators.
- The force should improve how it records crimes committed against vulnerable victims.
- The force should make sure it has an effective response to, and oversight of, missing person reports.
- The force needs to consistently identify fraud-related calls and respond appropriately.
- The force needs to improve its communication practices with staff and officers to make sure custody processes are safe, effective and efficient.
- The force needs to make sure it provides consistent and effective healthcare for detainees and maintains appropriate oversight.
12 areas were identified in the full inspection. Inside State6, each is mapped to the CVF competencies it affects, so you know exactly what to evidence.
Source: Merseyside’s inspection reports on the HMICFRS website.
In their own words
What Merseyside says it is focused on
The inspection picture above is what HMICFRS found. These are the priorities Merseyside and its commissioner have set for themselves, and the people on your panel work to them every day.
Police and Crime Plan 2025 to 2029
Set by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside. Stated aim: Safer, Stronger Merseyside.
- Fighting Crime and ASBSerious and organised crime, serious violence, anti-social behaviour, neighbourhood policing and retail crime.
- Supporting VictimsViolence against women and girls, the commissioner's victim care service, hate crime and community cohesion, and child exploitation.
- Preventing HarmRoad safety, early intervention, support for vulnerable people, and women in the criminal justice system.
Use these to choose which of your examples to tell, not as phrases to recite. An answer about a team problem lands harder when the panel can see it serves something the force has already said matters.
Priority names are the publishers’ own headings. The summaries are ours. Checked against the published documents on 20 September 2026.
What this means for your board
Merseyside is graded Requires improvement for investigating crime. Its Police and Crime Plan 2025 to 2029 leads with the priority “Fighting Crime and ASB”. Your panel knows both without looking it up, and an example that speaks to either is one they will recognise.
A promotion board at Merseyside isn’t only assessing whether you can lead a team. It’s assessing whether you understand the force you’re asking to lead in, and where your leadership fits its priorities. Officers who connect their examples to what Merseyside is actually focused on stand out. Officers who stay inside their own team don’t.
You don’t do this by quoting the inspection report. You do it by letting your force’s priorities shape the decisions in your answers. If you want the full method, read our guide on what HMICFRS grades mean for your promotion board, or compare every force’s PEEL grades side by side.
How State6 prepares you for Merseyside
You don’t have to research any of this yourself. Merseyside’s real HMICFRS picture is built into State6. The Question Bank shapes practice questions around it, and every AI Board Review weaves your force’s context into the feedback on your answers. You’re preparing for the board you’ll actually sit, at the force you’ll actually sit it in.
You can also sit a full voiced AI mock board calibrated to Merseyside’s inspection picture, answering out loud while the panel listens, probes and scores you against the CVF 2024.
Calibrated to your target rank, too. See what panels look for at sergeant, inspector and chief inspector level.
Prefer to start free? Our free promotion board question bank gives you real questions for every CVF area at sergeant, inspector and chief inspector level, free to download as you prepare for your Merseyside board.
Prepare for your Merseyside board
Practice questions, AI board reviews and your force’s inspection picture, all in one place. Try it free first: one AI Board Review, ten practice questions, fifteen coaching rounds and one spoken mock board question, no card needed.
State6 is an independent preparation platform and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Merseyside, the College of Policing or HMICFRS. Inspection findings are summarised from the publicly available HMICFRS PEEL reports.
HMICFRS inspection data: Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.