How all 43 police forces in England and Wales are graded, 2026

6 of the 43 forces are rated good for leadership. None is outstanding.

The context

Across all 43 forces, 6 are rated good for leadership, none is rated outstanding, and 18 are rated requires improvement or inadequate. HMICFRS identified police leadership and management as a critical finding of its 2023-25 inspections.

The Police Leadership Commission, established by the College of Policing, concluded that the current promotion process is broken. It sets out, for the first time, an agreed national definition of good police leadership, and recommends rebuilding promotion around demonstrated leadership rather than exam recall. Recruitment at the top is stretched: three quarters of chief constables left the service between April 2020 and November 2023.

Under the newer 2025-27 framework the pattern holds. Of the first 8 forces assessed, 2 are rated good for leadership.

A February 2026 Police Foundation paper argues these grades reflect a deeper problem than individual leaders: policing has no authorised way to set and defend limits on what it will do, so strain is absorbed informally at the frontline rather than governed from the centre. Neither the current leadership review nor the proposed force mergers would close that gap on their own.

2 of the 43 forces are rated good for investigating crime, and none is outstanding. Under the new framework, none is rated better than adequate.

The context

Across all 43 forces, 2 are rated good for investigating crime, none is rated outstanding, and 23 are rated requires improvement or inadequate. Under the 2025-27 framework, none of the first 8 forces assessed is rated better than adequate, and two are rated inadequate.

In a dedicated inspection published on 27 March 2025, HMICFRS found systemic failures in how crime is investigated: cases allocated to officers without the right skills, excessive workloads, and reasonable lines of enquiry left unfollowed. As of March 2024, more than a third of officers had under five years' service.

4 of the 43 forces are rated good or better for protecting vulnerable people. 26 are rated requires improvement or inadequate.

The context

Across all 43 forces, 4 are rated good or better for protecting vulnerable people and 26 are rated requires improvement or inadequate.

Grades for protecting vulnerable people declined in 21 of the 43 forces between the 2021/22 and 2023-25 inspection rounds. Ten forces were routinely outside the statutory 28 day timescale for Clare's Law disclosures, and victim needs assessments were often missing from crime records or lacked detail.

11 of the 43 forces are rated inadequate in at least one core area.

The context

11 of the 43 forces are rated inadequate, the lowest grade the inspectorate awards, in at least one of the seven areas assessed across every force. A twelfth, Hertfordshire, is rated inadequate for crime data recording, which only the older framework assessed separately.

The picture is not uniform. Preventing and deterring crime is the strongest area: 26 of the 43 forces are rated good or outstanding, and HMICFRS named neighbourhood policing one of the best performing areas of the 2023-25 round. Estimated crime, excluding fraud and computer misuse, has fallen by around 16% since 2020.