Below is a breakdown of our inspection statistics showing how we inspect the organisations we oversee.
Organisations may be inspected by more than one of our teams at multiple visits each year when looking at the use of different investigatory powers. Each visit by one of our teams constitutes one inspection.
In addition, in accordance with section 23 of the Police Act 1996, police forces in England and Wales use some investigatory powers as part of a shared service model under a regional collaboration agreement. In other words, a collection of police forces come together to conduct investigations. These regional collaborations are not public authorities in their own right, but rely instead on the statutory powers of each force. We conduct regional inspections to examine the use of covert powers.
Please note: prior to 2024, regional inspections were counted separately from our other inspection statistics. A quarterly breakdown of our previous inspections and regional inspections can be found on our Archive page.